One of my Western Digital G-Drive's died. Now the marathon with WD begins

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62

They did not ask.
I did not say.

When I had a Seagate drive fail, they offered free data recovery (part of the warranty).
In that case, they asked me to give them any helpful information.

So I gave them the naming convention of the file names, as well as the file sizes.

They recovered my plots, put them on an additional drive, and sent me both a replacement for my failed drive + the additional drive with my recovered plots, and told me to keep both drives.

It was smooth and easy.

Western Digitalā€™s warranty process simply sucks.
And I use the term ā€œprocessā€ loosely, because I am not sure that Western Digital actually has a working process, or their process is designed to frustrate enough customers into submission, and never send out the replacement drive.

63

The drive that failed is a replacement for a drive that failed.

The original drive was ordered back in March or April of 2021.
When it failed, I went through hell with Western Digital, but they eventually sent me a replacement (took two months).

Now that replacement has failed.

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64

As a crypto becomes more mainstream, like ETH, the POW mining and GPUs didnā€™t happen overnight. GPU companies didnā€™t change warranties retroactively. Moving forward you bet they did. It did happen and is a ā€œthingā€. When people here start reporting enterprise grade hard drives failing on a regular basis from farming Chia? If it was a newbie, okay. Move on. If itā€™s an OG, and have been farming on the drives for 12+ months and are seeing Exos drives fail (as one example), that should be a red flag. I would be more than happy if there was a 0% chance that Chia farming stresses drives in an unusual manner. A server workload I recon is not a Chia farming 1 to 1 equal equation. Maybe it is. This is outside of my pay grade.

Sorry, not trying to sidetrack your thread. I know from another warranty thread, support had mentioned something about Chia farming issues, and there was great debate about that statement from I believe Seagate support. I donā€™t think anyone here should be dismissive on this subject unless you have technical knowledge of hard drives and ā€œnormalā€ workloads. Of course all drives fail at some point. This could be an emerging story. Maybe not. Maybe so.

65

It used to be that Seagate drives were shit quality. I am still not sure whether they improved or rather WD followed the trend (for sure they destroyed IBM/Hitachi drives quality). Also, crap batches of HDs are more common than you think. That is the main reason to not use drives from the same batch for your RAID setups (and this is recommended for ages) and may be the main reason for what we see with those drives.

Also, comparing GPU mining to chia farming (excluding plotting) is a false analogy. GPU mining puts real stress on those cards, where chia barely touches the stepper motor, while keeping the spinner in ideal state (not going below idle, not requiring mechanical stresses involved with that).

Another fact that you are missing is that those enterprise drives are usually running just for a couple of years or so, and for many big consumers (e.g., AWS, Google, ā€¦), they have deals that those drives come with zero warranty, as they are tossed around that 1 or 2 years of usage partly as a preventive maintenance, partly of getting more modern / reliable drives each time.

66

Iā€™ve read what people have posted on the these forums as Iā€™m sure all of us have. I have always held the same belief that Chia farming is a light workload for drives. However, when someone here starts saying ā€œdropping like fliesā€, I suppose thatā€™s worth some pause. I donā€™t know the technical aspects of Chia farming vs. normal use. I think the GPU example Iā€™m using, is that itā€™s not ā€œnormalā€ use. As with farming Chia, consumers are not making use of their drive 24/7 like Chia farming does. If nobody has facts, like delved into what Chia farming is actually doing then itā€™s just conjecture. Sure, logic says it shouldnā€™t shorten drive lifespan. But we are early adopters. Chia farming is a ā€œnewā€ process. I just question whether light work load is an assumption vs. an analysis by experts in the field. Iā€™m basing my concerns on anecdotal evidence at this point. Most things start with a trickle of course. So are we dealing with theories (conjecture) on the Chia farming workload or is this based on a true expert analysis? To the expert it might be laughable. It wonā€™t be overly laughable when people start posting about equipment failure. Some already have. A bad batch of drives? Iā€™m sure this type of discussion is easy to dismiss. As an investor, Iā€™m looking for facts rather than taking somebodyā€™s word for it that Chia farming is a 0% factor in hard drive failure.

67

Thatā€™s where we differ. I try to not hold any beliefs. I also try to not repeat some anecdotes and use them as the main fact to support the elaborate logic on the top of that.

So, you won boss. Have it your way.

68

Itā€™s a big can of worms actually. Buy used? No warranty. ROI vs. drive failure/cost of replacement. Not even including cost of power. Drive failure is THE entire crux of the POW model here. If a hard drive cannot farm Chia for years before failure then I call it a crisis. Nobody from what I gather, has put to paper why a Chia farming workload 24/7 differs from a typical usage scenario of a home user. A home user would largely barely touch a hard drive by comparison. So most warranties are given or have been given on that basis. If a new use case for the hard drives emerges (farming Chia) then just maybe, the drive manufactures are going to make changes to their warranty policies. The onus here is on Chia. Point blank. This is a major, major discussion point. Maybe not by many people yet, but it should be. By no means for me is Chia signed, sealed and delivered. The hard drives obviously need to last beyond the ROI point. I will be happy to read a true technical analysis of the Chia farming workload vs. typical home use or a server use. Conjecture is not fact. I have my packaging and bubble wrap in storage for a reason. As an investor, I donā€™t think itā€™s asking too much to get an official technical briefing on this matter from experts in the storage field.

Edit: If anyone wants to list their credentials and level of expertise, go ahead. Lots of people know everything about everything on the internet. How many show credentials to back up the information/views? I would think any industry expert would have no issue with stating those credentials openly. I canā€™t see how it would be an ego thing where their attitude is like, why should I have to tell anyone about my credentials. They should be forthcoming if they are any sort of professional.
Edit 2: And if people think that warranty replacements will be an ongoing revolving door as a solution? The manufactures arenā€™t dumb. If they start seeing a trend (like say, ETH GPU mining) then perhaps policies are adjusted. In other words, I personally wouldnā€™t be banking on a generous warranty policy. Someone said here they are happy the drives die fast so they can get warranty. Oh really? Awfully short sighted. Gravy trains never last.

69

I would hope that folks keep their hard disks in a cool place or add extra fans.

70

Ambassador to France.

Also, I slept in a Holiday Inn Express.

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71

Paper giants. All I see are paper giants. How sad.

72

Today, 07/12/2022, Western Digital sent me e-mail.
This time, it came form the ā€œhgst.comā€ domain.

The subject of the e-mail reads:

Age warning for RMA: xxxxxxxx

The body of the e-mail message reads:

Return material authorization (RMA) notification

IMPORTANT:
This note has been generated by a service machine.  If you need to respond
to this e-mail, please respond to:  support_usa@hgst.com

Dear xxxxx:

This is an automatic reminder.

HGST would have expected to have received your product. If you think we should have received your drive already then please contact the technical support center and provide your shipping information

Your RMA number is - #xxxxxxxx
For product:
Part number - #0F38459
Serial number - #xxxxxxxx

You must write your RMA number at least 3 times on the outside of your package when returning to HGST. Please label your box as follows:

So here I am, after all of the drama, with WD e-mailing me that they have not received the failed drive that I returned, that they signed for, that Charles and Eric acknowledged is in their hands, that they promised to give me priority, that they were supposed to have shipped by yesterday, that they now have promised to ship by Monday of next week, andā€¦

ā€¦they send me e-mail stating that they have not received it.

And they included a shipping label that is identical to the label that they originally sent me that I used to ship the drive with.

The label has the RMA number, and their latest e-mail message claims they have not received the drive for that RMA number.

I wrote the RMA number on every side of the box.
I printed out a copy of their original e-mail message that contains the shipping label, and I taped that printout to the drive that was inside the box.

But they are telling me that they do not have it, when they do have it.

Or maybe it did arrive, and they lost it. Perhaps that is why I am having delays?
Perhaps they know they have it, because they signed for it, verified by UPS, and they are spinning their wheels trying to figure out what to do? And they make the customer suffer while they figure things out.

So I will be calling when they open, and doing the Tango with them, again.
Undoubtedly they will tell me what they think I want to hear, such as they have escalated my case, and the team is giving it top priority, and they will apologize for the e-mail stating they they have not received it, etc.

What they will not tell me is that the replacement drive has shipped, and ā€œHere is your tracking numberā€.

Just when you think that they canā€™t screw things up any more, they surpass your expectations.
You canā€™t make this stuff up.

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73

Just prior to my intention to call Western Digital, to find out why their last e-mail message, from their ā€œhgst.comā€ domain read that they never received my failed drive, they e-mailed me the following, from their ā€œcusthelp.comā€ domain:

Dear xxxxx xxxxxxxx ,

Thank you for contacting G-Technology, a Western Digital brand Customer Service and Support.  My name is Eric M.
 
It is my pleasure assisting your case and here is the case number for future references: xxxxxx-xxxxxx

This is a follow up email to inform you that we have shipped the replacement drive under the UPS Tracking Number 1Zxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

We greatly appreciate your time and patience.

If you have any further questions, please reply to this email and we will be happy to assist you further.

Sincerely,
Eric M.
G-Technology, a Western Digital brand Service and Support

I checked UPSā€™s on-line tracking service, and it shows:

07/11/2022
4:19 P.M.	On the Way
Gardena, CA, United States

So yesterday, 07/11/2022, when the e-mail from ā€œhgst.comā€ informed me that they never received my failed drive, they had already shipped my replacement drive.

I am pleasantly surprised that my drive is on the way, from California to New Jersey.
It will probably take a week for me to confirm that they 1) sent the right drive, and 2) that it works.

While I am waiting for UPS to make the delivery, WD will probably send me another e-mail reminder that they have not received my failed drive.

I hope that my next update will be that the drive arrived and that all is well. But my organizational skills are no match for WDā€™s wrecking skills. If there is a way for them to still inject pain, they are undoubtedly prepared to play their turmoil card.

74

I would send them a 1TB disk with 18TB written on it and see what they didā€¦

75

When I got from the tracking number, it had the same city, but a wrong address. I emailed back about it, but they didnā€™t bother to respond. Finally, when based on the UPS info it was claimed as delivered, and RMA was closed, I had to restart the RMA process.

76

You were expecting both the city and the address to be accurate?
I suppose anything is possible.

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77

So as not to disappoint, Western Digital has outdone themselves with yet another e-mail message (07/13/2022) to add to the stew of confusion.

It reads:

RMA Received
RMA #xxxxxxxxxx

Hi xxxxx,
This is confirmation we have received and processed your RMA product(s) on July 12, 2022. We will notify you by email once your replacement product(s) are ready for delivery.

Yesterday they e-mailed me that my replacement drive has shipped.
They gave me a UPS tracking number. I checked that tracking number, and UPS has the package.

Today they e-mail me (from wdc.com domain ā€“ yet another domain) that they processed my RMA (the one that I could not check on-line, and phone support personnel could not find), and their e-mail message states: ā€œWe will notify you by email once your replacement product(s) are ready for delivery.ā€

So the wheels of chaos continue to turn over at Western Digital.
With a little luck, they will ship me another drive. I think I earned another drive for the aggravation that they put me through.

78

My replacement G-Drive arrived today (07/14/2022).

It powers on, and thatā€™s it.
I tried it on two different computers, and the drive does not show up.

I checked ā€œDisk Managementā€, as an administrator, to see if the drive is listed (it is possible for the drive to show up as ā€œoff lineā€). No dice.

So Western Digital sends a customer a replacement drive for a failed drive, and Western Digital does not check that the replacement drive works.

So it is back to another round of phone calls with Western Digital, another trip to the post office, another $24 out of my pocket to ship them their DOA drive, and another few weeks to hopefully take receipt of yet another replacement drive that actually works.

79

Did you try other software that might see the disk (Acronis)??

80

I called Western Digital, and spoke to Roger.
He asked me for the driveā€™s serial number.

He determined that the drive was formatted for a Mac.

But Windows Disk Management did not show the drive.

But now that I knew that the drive was Mac formatted, I ran ā€œMini Tool Partition Wizardā€, and it showed the drive.

I deleted all 3 of the partitions, leaving me with 100% unallocated space.
I then formatted that space as NTFS, and the drive is working properly.

I asked Roger why did Western Digital ship me a Mac formatted drive, when they knew (from my previous contacts with them) that I was using Windows.

Roger said that all G-Drives were Mac formatted, by default.
I told Roger that I own 12 of these drives, and they all arrived as NTFS formatted. In fact, the first time that I had two drive failures, both replacements showed up as NTFS formatted.

Roger said that those must have been older generation drives, and he was correct.
He said that all new G-Drives are Mac formatted.

Thank goodness I do not have to ship the drive back to them and start this whole ordeal over again.

81

I hope youā€™re adding up the time/money invested in the replacement and counting that against the original purchase price. Itā€™s hard to believe that such a farce is possible. Appreciate you sharing this to help others, even if itā€™s at your own expense (no pun intended). An epic (failure) of sorts. Is this called a battle of attrition? Edit: looks like the end of this epic tale. Sad in a way, but happy for you. I donā€™t think they could have made it any more painful for you. Cherry of course is getting a Mac formatted drive. Caution: Geniuses at work.

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