Why is the failure rate for WD My Passport so high?
I have owned a WD My Passport 5 TB for 2 years, and I already changed it 3 times because it dies.
I use it to make backups once every 3 months, and that’s it. I barely use it at all.
The first one died just after I copied the first backup onto it.
The worst part is that it dies without any warnings - it says that files were copied, but when you try to read them, some of them are damaged.
Before I started using a WD drive, I didn’t even know that HDDs are unreliable because I never had any issues in the past. As a result, I lost some data on the WD drive.
You can check the latest Amazon reviews, and the last hundreds reviews state the same problem.
I already ordered a similar drive from another brand because this one is a joke.
The support is a joke, too - they ask for about 15% unrefundable fee and block the drive amount on my credit card to send me a replacement upfront. Or they can do it for free, but I have to be without a drive for several weeks. Where should I keep the data during this time?
My question is whether this is a particular model issue, a company issue, or a whole industry issue nowadays.
These days the track widths are much smaller, which means that the heads are a lot smaller. The large number of platters means that they need to be a lot thinner. Also, I see reports of piezo-transducer failures in the pro data recovery forums.
To be fair, Seagate’s 2.5” drives (eg Rosewood) also have relatively high failure rates. Many of these drives are SMR models which have even higher track densities.
I understand, but the technology should be more reliable after such a long period of time producing them.
The thing I don’t understand is why they sell those HDDs if they die every year, even without much use. My only guess is that only a small number of users bother returning them and opening a warranty case, so they can still make a profit even if they know users may lose critical data.
It’s not just WD. Portable drives like the WD My Passport are small, USB powered, and packed with high density platters, so they’re more sensitive to minor bumps, weak USB power, or unsafe unplugging. Also, 5TB in a tiny enclosure pushes the limits of 2.5 inch HDD tech. Most brands build them the same way now. The real fix is using two backup drives or adding cloud backup so one failure doesn’t cost you data.
It’s frustrating to have a WD My Passport 5TB fail multiple times, but this isn’t necessarily a problem specific to Western Digital. Portable drives like the WD My Passport rely on small, USB-powered 2.5-inch hard drives that are more sensitive to power instability, minor shocks, and the higher data density used to reach 5TB capacity. When something goes wrong, it can result in sudden failure or file corruption without clear warning signs. Negative reviews online tend to concentrate complaints because satisfied users rarely post feedback. Overall, this reflects a broader consumer HDD issue rather than a single-model defect. The real risk comes from depending on one external drive as the only backup—if that single copy fails, the data is lost, no matter which brand you choose.
