Failed drive after only 6 months

Last night I received a message from the Sharespace that it was running in degraded mode.  After checking the WDC support site, I find that I must replace one of the drives.  Is this a normal occurance?  6 months on a drive?

The instructions stated that the drive would show up as not allocated, but the screen said all drives were being used.  I decided to REBOOT the system and then it came up with Drive 1 as unallocated.  I assume that is how you get the unit to identify the bad drive.  The status on the drive is GOOD.  Should I try to shutdown the unit and restart to have it use that drive or is this drive actually bad and need replacing?

When I go to the support site, it asks for the serial number.  When I give the serial number of the Sharespace, it states I only have one replacement.  Should I have entered the serial number for the drive?  If so, does that mean I have to shut down the unit and remove the drive to get the serial number?  Is there any utility that has the serial numbers of the drives so I can keep the Sharespace running.  I am concerned about removing the drve to get the serial number and then replacing it while I wait for the replacement drive.  Can I run the unit with only three drives installed?

I haven’t been able to get clear instructions on the proper way to handle this and support will not talk to me with me paying $$  since the unit is more than 30 days hold.

Anyone have experience in this area and can offer some advice?

It’s far from normal for a drive to last only 6 months, however it is not unheard of. That is why the device has RAID, so when a drive does fail you can replace it without losing data. The whole process is pretty quick. Determine which drive has failed, and send it to WD as an RMA. If you are in the US you can do an Advanced Replacement which means you can have your replacement drive in just a few days, even before sending your original back. WD’s warranty services are some of the best I’ve ever used, and while not perfect, are designed with the customer in mind (in my opinion).

When you do the RMA please make sure to use the internal drives serial number. I made that mistake with a My Book World (2) drive back in the day and received an entire new unit instead of just the hard drive that failed.

You should be able to run the drive with no problem with only 3 drives, but make sure to back up any data on the drive ASAP. If something should go wrong (it’s unlikely I know, but i’ve seen it happen) while you are down a drive you could lose everything.

Have you figured out how to diagnose the failed drive.  I am in the same boat.  The support is terrible.

Just run Data Lifeguard Diagnostics on it… if it fails the test replace it. If it doesn’t fail, provide more details (make a new thread, don’t latch on to someone elses :slight_smile: ) and let us know whats going on- we are pretty good at helping people out.