MyPassport failed Drive Tests, but passes them now?!

Hello! I have a WD MyPassport 1TB USB 3.0 drive.

Recently, when I updated my WD Tools, I did a “Quick Drive Test” with “WD Drive Utilities” 1.0.6.3 and sure enough, it failed the test after just a second or two. It also failed the “Complete Drive Test” after only a second. It passed the SMART Status though.

I also did a “Short DST” (Drive Self-test) with Seagate SeaTools, which the drive also failed.

So I let Windows 7 do a CHKDSK, and sure enough it found some bad sectors and told me about one video file that was corrupted (which I then restored from a backup).

Then I copied all of my files off the drive in preparation for getting it replaced. And then I did a “Drive Erase” with “WD Drive Utilites”, which only reformatted the drive and took just a few seconds. (I expected this to be a real erase (zero overwrite) by the way, but it wasn’t.) So in order for my data to be unretrievable, I did a single-pass random overwrite with a tool called “Disk Wipe”.

Then, just ready to walk out the door to the store I bought it from, I thought I would do one last “Quick Drive Test” with “WD Drive Utilities”. And this time, it took a few minutes instead of just one second - and it passed!

I’ve heard of overwrites kind of “fixing” bad sectors before (though it didn’t work with a previous drive for some unimportant data, where I would have liked it to work in order to prolong its lifespan a little bit.)

You would think that is good news, but I can’t really trust this drive with my important files now after it failed before. But I fear since it doesn’t fail the tests anymore, that I won’t be eligible for a warranty replacement anymore.

Does anyone have any suggestions what to do with this drive now? Put all my data back on it and go on as if nothing ever happened? Or still try to get it replaced at the store?

Unfortunately, since I live in Switzerland which is not part of the EU, there’s no WD Advanced RMA program available, where you get the replacement before you ship the original drive. So to reduce downtime, I thought I would just go to the store I bought it from. Or should I rather send it to WD themselves?

Thanks for any help!

parabel,

There are times when testing will provide different results based on overall drive health and structure at the moment it is tested, so it is normal to obtain different (And usually more positive) results when conducting a test on a recently-cleaned disk drive.

If disk integrity is a concern, then by all means rest assured Western Digital will stand behind the warranty and will replace the device if needed, as explained in the following link:

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/8/

Thanks for your reply!

Yes, I can’t trust this drive anymore. I’m glad to hear this about WD’s warranty policy.

And it does seem that there’s still something detectably wrong with the drive. Even though WD Drive Utilities reports a “pass” on all its tests and SeaTools also “passes” the drive with the Short DST, the “Short Generic Test” from SeaTools is still reporting a “fail”. (And the Long Generic Test is still running at the moment.)

Tomorrow, I’ll take it to the store I bought it from and see what they say - I think they’ll replace it without hassle. And otherwise I’ll send it directly to WD.

I got a replacement at the store without any problems! :slight_smile:

Now on to the next adventure - trying to make it work with my USB 3.0 ExpressCard! Didn’t work with my old drive and doesn’t work with the new one I just got it replaced with. I might soon open a new topic about it… :wink:

Go to the site of the card maker and see if they have anyupdates for it

Joe