I recently received a 3TB WD Red drive (WD30EFRX-68EUZN0) as a warranty replacement from Western Digital. The returns process was without issue however today I noticed something rather worrying…
As you can observe on this video the drive makes rather worrying noise when either vertical or upside down. I am assuming this is not normal and, more to the point, not at all desirable?
The drive appears to work without issue (data wise and no SMART errors) and is indeed silent when flat faced down but I can’t help but feel concerned about these noises.
Anyone seen this before? Should I stop beating about the bush and kick-start the RMA process again?
Following further testing I can confirm that the drive does NOT actually work when in the vertical position. The noise increases significantly and several SMART errors have been observed (I have uploaded the SMARTCTL output here).
This replacement is clearly faulty and so I raised a support ticket to discuss another replacement. Needless to say the original positivity felt by the swift replacement of the original has now somewhat diminished! I regarded a single failure as bad luck, but two is making me thinking it is more than that now…
In parallel with my forum post I raised a support ticket and their initial response has been:
Im really sorry to hear about that new replacement has generated some SMART errors.
I would recommend you to install drive with the right side, try not to
install it on edge or upside down, as this may affect work of the drive.
Needless to say this is very disappointing. Aside from the fact that my machine (HP N36L Microserver) only has vertical drive bays they appear to have rather underplayed the seriousness of what is clearly a physically defective drive.
I have responded to the case with a view to exploring the RMA route again but as I am already out of pocket having had to pay for the original failed drive to be returned (10% of the drive’s value) I may be better off cutting my losses and buy a new drive from another manufacturer rather than keep paying out for defective units.
It is shame that the positive feelings felt from the ease of which the original failed unit was dealt with have all but evaporated now.
