Installed two WD Red 3T drives in a Synology DS213 NAS, everything ran fine for about a week, then Drive 2 crashed, diagnostics could not repair, recommended replacement. Good news is that WD handled the advance replacement in a very expeditious manner. Machinery fails; it’s what happens to make it good that tells you what kind of company you’re dealing with. So far, I’m impressed with WD.
Glad to hear that you are satisfied with the RMA service. Our goal is to provide world class customer service, and part of that goal in this situation would be to replace your drive, and investigate the cause relating to the product’s defect.
Same here, the RED drive fail 2 month after a fresh install on a DS213 synology NAS. Seems that the QC of the RED product is not good enough.
Can I use the lifeguard software to check on the drive for the RED product?
I bought 4 REDs and one failed after 2 weeks with next to no activity. Amazon could only offer a refund so I came direct to WD.
I’ve been impressed in general, but am concerned that they feel a 4 MONTH warranty on the replacement is appropriate (according to the product registration page), instead of the original product’s 3 year term or even a simple 1 year warranty.
3 year warranty. Failed after 2 weeks. 4 months on the replacement. More than a week of which is lost because it starts on ship date, not receipt date.
I’m not sure that complies with EU/UK consumer protection legislation, and it certainly doesn’t boost my confidence when WD themselves show so little faith in this product. I’ve submitted an email request for confirmation but at this point I’m much less impressed now than I was a week ago.
…and now I’m embarrassed because the automated case confirmation email has a link which says the original term will be applied once the failed drive is returned.
Apologies, WD - but as I did spend some time trying to find an answer to this, I would suggest putting it somewhere obvious in big letters when opening an RMA case 
I can’t seem to find a way to close/reply/edit the support case I filed either.
Yes, DLG is also compatible with the WD Red.
Well, to wrap up from my OP, the replacement drive arrived today, a “recertified” unit. All I care about is that it runs right, and so far the initialization / parity check is going OK. The only thing that’s been a bit wrong so far is having to pay to send a drive back that only lasted a week. I suppose it wouldn’t be so bad if it had lasted a year or two. Oh, well.
The Synology NAS repaired / parity checked the new HD overnight, and the management software says all’s well. Overall, a good experience, except for the abovementioned having to pay $15 for insured shipping to return the week-old failed drive, and the delay of shipping information (a UPS tracking number never did appear in the RMA info). Luckily, we were home when the drive was delivered.
Well, although the management software says the NAS is working properly, the new drive failed the SMART test…or I should say it passes the short test but fails the long one. What to do?
rico567 wrote:
Well, although the management software says the NAS is working properly, the new drive failed the SMART test…or I should say it passes the short test but fails the long one. What to do?
Please check your private messages.
A ‘recertified’ unit? Second hand hardware for replacing a $120+ drive? That is not good service. I filed an RMA for a defective 3TB RED drive recentely. I hope WD is not sending me a 2sc hand drive as a replacement.
I’m writing this post to (hopefully) conclude the story. After the recertified drive failed the extended S.M.A.R.T., WD support got back to me right away, and within a few days had shipped out a replacement drive that someone there had personally put in a machine and checked. I received it day before yesterday, and it initialized and passed the S.M.A.R.T. just fine.
It would be nice if all products work 100% of the time, but we know that’s not the case. The real test is how the manufacturer / vendor handles the matter when they don’t. In this case, I have no complaints about WD support, I give them an “A,” and have every intention of considering other WD products when I buy.
