For many years I have bought WD external drives. There are very few vendors in the computer and computer peripheral industry who do not offer free tech support for their product for a year (some for maybe 6 mos.) and, right now, none that I know of (save Western Digital) which offer tech support for ONLY 30 DAYS! That’s ludicrous! To make matters worse, the quality of their drives has slipped significantly. Over the last 4 years I’ve bought 5 drives from them - all have failed. The first one lasted 3 yrs, the second lasted almost 3 years. The third lasted only a year and the last two - a 2TB drive and a 4TB drive have failed in less than 6 months. (The 4TB drive has failed in 2 months.) They’re putting junk inside the box and giving no decent tech support as well. I’m not throwing my money their way any longer. What happened to this company? Previously I used Western Digital for over 12+ years with GREAT results! Now this… And I’m not alone…I’m seeing and hearing complaints all the time. Like I said, this used to be one of the most reliable drives on the market - I always recommended them. What a shame!!
Unfortunately, I think I’m in the same boat.
2TB drive owned less than 6 months is giving me problems now…I’m unable to write any new files to the disk without getting delayed write fail or some other type of error. Copying files off the drive results in data error cyclic redundancy check. Guess I’ll try the data lifeguard ultilities, but I have a sinking feeling I know what the answer will be. I realize that no hard drive will last indefinitely, but six months of use before failure is frustrating to say the least. I’m seriously reconsidering buying any more WD drives.
FWIW, I have owned many smaller capacity WD drives which have performed flawlessly for years…
I completely agree. The company must be using the cheapest compnonents found in the galaxy. FOr teh moment their internal drives seem OK, but their external drives are utter rubbish.
I think its onlu us old computer users who can really see how the standards have dropped massively.
Its all abot flashy websites and marketing with this company now.
How sad. I imagine their manegement trips to China or taiwan looking for the cheapest bargains no quality contol conerns. Just a case of how cheap you can you make them for us. I reckpn their paying about 10 quid per drive including case.
im actually sitting here watching a backup with a transfer rate of around 200kb per second. The last time I saw that was on an Atari 1040 in 1985
I need to back up around 600gb. At this rate it would take me abouut two weeks 24 hours per day.
However if I just drag a file across without using the back up software its average speed so this means their back up software must be doing something badky wrong.
Ive been at this drive all day trying everything in the proverbial book. Firewire, ESATA (doesnt work) USB 1 and USB 2 arethe same slow speed. Theres something seriously wroing with these external drives.
We just released a new version of SmatWare. You can try that if you want to use a backup software. I’ve seen it work much faster.
Sadly, ive had my 1TB only a week and now it doesn’t work… You have an update whoopee…Do you have a fix for the fact that it doesn’t do anything? Or a place where I can download the FULL smartware not just an update? Or maybe restore all my data that is most likely gone as the blue bars on the front show nothing now? ive tried it on 3 computers and none register that its plugged in…So what you updated the crappy software you started with, is it even more crappy now? Can you answer even one of these questions honestly?..didnt think so.
Or perhaps spell your own products name correctly…what is smatware? I thought it was smartware…and you’ve seen it work much faster than what… 2 slugs racing in a maze of salt? Seriously, I work at a walmart in the electronics department and all we carry is WD crapware, if you don’t get this ■■■■ fixed not only will I be telling my customers not to buy this ■■■■ I will pull it off my shelves completely as well as submitting formal complaints to corporate explaining in full length why we should not carry this brand anymore.
