Third Take

My hard drive that crashed – a Western Digital Caviar SE – did so under warranty. I am in the process of trying to get it replaced by Western Digital. I created an “Advance Replacement” RMA on December 31. It is now two weeks later, and they still haven’t shipped a replacement drive. Their website says only that my order is “delayed.” I can’t get a human on the phone.

It is bad enough that I lost some work because a hard drive failed just over 2 years after I bought it. I had recent backups, so the loss isn’t that big – but it’s still annoying. But with this slow service, my studio has been out of commission for 2 weeks, with no ETA for the new drive.

I remember when Western Digital drives used to last a decade. I still have a 120 MB (yes, Megabyte) WD drive that works. But it’s not looking good for their new drives, or their customer service.

Anyone have good luck with another HDD manufacturer? I’m thinking about just buying another (non WD) drive at retail so I can get back to work.

Update: After several emails with customer support and getting escalated to a supervisor, WD finally made it right. They’re shipping me a replacement drive right away, that is actually a little better than the one that broke. Thanks, Western Digital.

Update 1/22: They finally shipped me a drive yesterday, 22 days after submitting my RMA.