The stand-alone HD’s are like insurance policies - you should have one and you hope you never have to use it. You find out if you have a good insurance company when you put in a claim. So too with the external HD. You find out how well it really works after you’ve re-formatted your HD and need to put all the stuff back. If 4 years go by before you actually call upon the external HD to repopulate your computer and it doesn’t work - You’re screw… ! AND your warranty has expired.
It seems to me that a warranty should extend for 1 or 2 years (whatever is currently being offered) OR until a successful restoration has been performed - which ever comes second. The technology exists to track the usage of the drive, why not incorporate it into the backup HD? I also think it would make a great selling point.
Well besides the moral and ethical issues with what your suggesting (invasion of privacy, usage of such information to track customer trends, etc.) that puts all the responsibility on WD and not the owner of the drive. A hard drive generally will not last more than 3-5 years even if taken care of perfectly, never damaged etc. – thats the same with ALL hard drives no matter who makes them. While some will last longer (I have one thats over 15 years old and still fires up) and some will last less time (Ive had them die in a few months) the warrantys only purpose is to ensure that if it does fail in the earlier part of that timeframe you can get the physical drive replaced.
You should always keep multiple backups of your data- it’s not WDs job to make sure your data is safe- its your job. Just like it’s not Fords job to drive your car, they simply build the means for you to do it yourself.
