View Full Version : raptor fails in under 6 hours.
Just picked up a 74 gig raptor. Installed windows on it and very quickly the drive went bad. Hundreds of bad block errors in the event viewer and fails the western digital data life guard tests in under 10 seconds.
Gees I thought these drives were suppose to be good!
After calling western digital they'll only send a refurbished drive as a replacement. Dispite me only getting the drive yesterday. Personally i don't think it's fair to send a refurb as a replacement for a drive that arrived damaged. They say this is the policy.
/end rant
Anyone else have problems with a raptor? I bought the drive thinking that it would be very reliable. Guess they don't make em as good as they used to.
wow thats pretty lame I never heard of a HD company sending refurbs for replacment especially when its 1 day old.
I honestly dont think the raptors are worth it, I got a smoking deal on mine and I dont think its worth more than $100 for the 74gb raptor.
ya. I'm seriously not impressed. I even asked to talk with a manager and they guy was like a brick wall. Wouldn't bend.... I guess most companies send reburbs, ask next time you rma a failed drive.... prolly tell ya it's a reburbed unit.
Xtreme Barton
12-10-05, 07:47 PM
where did you buy it ?
also sometimes it just happens.. some people get a crappy piece of hardware and thats just it.. doesnt mean the whole company sucks or if you were to buy another one it would result in the same outcome..
im sure calling WD you would get that reply. im not so sure since you said you got it yesterday that the store would do this to you. if the store is the one that is also telling you that you will receive a refurb than tell them you want a refund in the amount of a refurbed drives price. or simply you want a complete refund and they can keep it.
i would be more concerned on store/WD policy than i would be on the qaulity of WD as a whole. that drive sucks, yes.. but WD does not ..
Who is sending the refurb ? Western or the retailer ? If it was bought yesterday the retailer should just ship a new drive . .
Western digital is sending the refurb.
I bought the drive at NCIX.com
I'll call them tomorrow and see what they can do for me. I tired today but they be tooo busy to answer the phone it seems.
flamerail
12-10-05, 07:57 PM
hard core western ****ty quality right there
Xtreme Barton
12-10-05, 08:04 PM
hard core western ****ty quality right there
flamer -ail
are you aware that all companies have defects .. does that make them bad quality too ?
oh wait you must have had bad luck too and now you had a flash back ..
i have owned WD too. i have had bad drives too. but my replacements have been 100% ok.
same goes for maxtor, seagate, samsung, and hitachi
ponder this... some people go there whole life without getting bad hardware.. some have even never had hardware fail years after they have it ..
now thats crazy !!
all companies have defects but at least when one of my maxtors crapped out they sent me a bran spanking new one :p
Xtreme Barton
12-10-05, 08:16 PM
all companies have defects but at least when one of my maxtors crapped out they sent me a bran spanking new one :p
thats great ..
i also seem to think there are misconceptions about refurbed drives..let alone refurbed anything..
well bottum line is the dude bought a NEW item and it dies so why should he get something less than new for his replacement.
refurbs may or may not be ok but they are certainly not what he paid for buying a new raptor.
Xtreme Barton
12-10-05, 08:23 PM
thata why he needs to take it up with the store he bought it from..
chances are in the end they will send in the "bad" drive and re-stock the replacement as new...
you would be surprised how much "new" stuff is refurbed...
thats the way the cookie crumbles
mmmmmm cookies
well I think WD should give him a new one :p
RangerXLT8
12-10-05, 08:31 PM
I wish I would have seen this thread earlier, when my36gb Raptor crapped out on me, I went on WD webpage and did a Advance Replacement RMA. Just left my CC info for security reason, they sent me a new one NextDay, and I had a month to get the bad drive back to them. Didn't have to talk to anyone on the phone, it was handled over the net.
Xtreme Barton
12-10-05, 08:36 PM
mmmmmm cookies
well I think WD should give him a new one :p
as do i kinda ...
as long as he gets a 100% working/performing drive than it should be ok right ??
First off 90% of electronic component failures happen in the 1st 24 hours under normal use.
Secondly I would prefer a refurbished product under most scenarios. A brand new drive typically has not been inspected for quality and has no run time to establish initial defects. A refurbished product has been tested(sometimes extensively) by a human being that has ensured that product is ok for resale.
But I susupect this is mostly a pyschological thing based on emotion and has little bearing on fact when it comes to wanting a new product since that is what you believed you were recieving. I know I am "guilty" of this as well. I am not trying to bash on the OP, merely provoke a different point of view.
tom10167
12-11-05, 11:53 AM
I own refurbished stuff, you don't even know it's a refurb. Something stupid probably happened like the plug snapped off.
Of course you aren't going to be impressed by a defective drive. When you get your working drive in, let us know.
RJARRRPCGP
12-11-05, 12:35 PM
Did you also run Memtest86 just to be sure you're not getting HDD corruption?
RJARRRPCGP,
Yes, I was thinking the samething. I ran memtest for about an hour with no errors. I also updated the sata drivers to the most recent without any change in the problem. I can run prime 95 stable as well.
I ran the western digital life guard tests and it fails quickly under light test mode. I also downloaded HD tune, which shows smart errors and corrupted blocks on the drive in test mode. This with the event viewer logs "bad blocks detected" seem to point to the drive. I suppose it could the the Sata controler. This is a brand new build, so i don't have any history of the controler running other drives. Anyway, I'll get the RMA drive in next week and see what happens. I'm 95% sure the drive is bad.
Travis Dawes: I agree with that you are saying. The reconditioned drive will probably be just as good as a new unit. As you point out, the drive will have been tested more extensively. I was just a bit annoyed that a tore down my p4 rig which was running 100% to install this brand new system and it turns out the drive is defective. So basically I have this lovely 170 opty limping along with this defective drive. Amusingly, if I don't write much data to the drive, I can still surf the net.
stereo555
12-11-05, 01:58 PM
If it was bought yesterday the retailer should just ship a new drive . .
I agree ... rma the drive to NCIX and get a brand new one . For the price of Raptors and it failing in that short period of time ; I'd settle for nothing less than a brand new replacement . Also see if they will do a cross ship too save time on your part (probably will result in a another CC charge till the bad drive is recieved) .
I agree ... rma the drive to NCIX and get a brand new one . For the price of Raptors and it failing in that short period of time ; I'd settle for nothing less than a brand new replacement . Also see if they will do a cross ship too save time on your part (probably will result in a another CC charge till the bad drive is recieved) .
Update: NCIX sent me another new drive yesterday. They sent it air mail and it arrived at work this morning. The new drive seems 100% perfect. No more errors and bad blocks. Ncix even picked up the cost of shipping the drive back to them as the drive was what they consider DOA. Props to Ncix on this one.
I've also got another drive coming in from western digital (the refurb). I'll be sending that one back as is.
I'm happy. The new drive seems pretty quick!
RangerXLT8
12-13-05, 09:42 PM
First off 90% of electronic component failures happen in the 1st 24 hours under normal use.
Secondly I would prefer a refurbished product under most scenarios. A brand new drive typically has not been inspected for quality and has no run time to establish initial defects. A refurbished product has been tested(sometimes extensively) by a human being that has ensured that product is ok for resale.
But I susupect this is mostly a pyschological thing based on emotion and has little bearing on fact when it comes to wanting a new product since that is what you believed you were recieving. I know I am "guilty" of this as well. I am not trying to bash on the OP, merely provoke a different point of view.
Second and third paragrah make perfect sense. I have a refurb maxtor drive in my other pc and it appears to be brand new, and I know it's gonna work because it's been tested. I actually ordered a second one(brand new from newegg) to run it in RAID 0.
Actually, hard drives now are many times better than they used to be. Hard drives are one of the few things where just using better materials doesn't make them good. However, there will still be DOAs. I think considering it was a Raptor you bought, WD should replace it with a new one.
Update: NCIX sent me another new drive yesterday. They sent it air mail and it arrived at work this morning. The new drive seems 100% perfect. No more errors and bad blocks. Ncix even picked up the cost of shipping the drive back to them as the drive was what they consider DOA. Props to Ncix on this one.
I've also got another drive coming in from western digital (the refurb). I'll be sending that one back as is.
I'm happy. The new drive seems pretty quick!
I new the retailer would handle a replacement..Usually if it is within 30 days they will take care of it . .
Silversinksam
12-14-05, 07:19 AM
as do i kinda ...
as long as he gets a 100% working/performing drive than it should be ok right ??
My personal opinion is as long as whatever drive they send has the 5 year warranty I don't see the great harm, I know that WD tells you that you will recieve a refurb, when in fact they usually tell you this and send you a new one. This is what I have experienced myself and seen for many others.
Update: NCIX sent me another new drive yesterday. They sent it air mail and it arrived at work this morning. The new drive seems 100% perfect. No more errors and bad blocks. Ncix even picked up the cost of shipping the drive back to them as the drive was what they consider DOA. Props to Ncix on this one.
I've also got another drive coming in from western digital (the refurb). I'll be sending that one back as is.
I'm happy. The new drive seems pretty quick!
I was going to ask you for your name and RMA number and contact them myself for you, glad NCIX took care of you. WD is a good company and I would have done my best to get you a new one. (I wouldnt be surprised if the drive WD send you is brand new, let us know what they send you)
That’s a very generous offer Silversinksam. Thank you. I’m glad NCIX came up to
Bat and sent another drive.
I’ll post again when the drive from western digital arrives to confirm if it is new or a refurb.
Regards
tom10167
12-14-05, 01:57 PM
So how do you like it now?
My personal opinion is as long as whatever drive they send has the 5 year warranty I don't see the great harm, I know that WD tells you that you will recieve a refurb, when in fact they usually tell you this and send you a new one. This is what I have experienced myself and seen for many others.
I was going to ask you for your name and RMA number and contact them myself for you, glad NCIX took care of you. WD is a good company and I would have done my best to get you a new one. (I wouldnt be surprised if the drive WD send you is brand new, let us know what they send you)
They usually like to say "replacement" drive. A replacement drive could be new or refurb, so it works.
So how do you like it now?
The raptor is pretty quick. At first I was running it without the nforce4 drivers...but i think it's a bit quicker with the drivers installed.
It is a fair bit more noisy than my 200 gig wd drive. I'll have to fire up some halflife and see how it does loading levels and what not.
:)
3DFlyer
12-16-05, 12:46 AM
On the refurb deal, you are MUCH better off with a refurb on a HDD than new one. If I had to count the number of bad drives I had to send back, when I was building systems it would number in the hundreds. I build one companies systems up and those systems had 4 drives a piece.
Wanna know what happened to most of them? They took a bang and bent the read/write head. It happens all the time.
I'll still take a refurb anyday. Like was stated in a preious post, they check them. I guess it depends on if you want a tested drive, or want to roll the dice. A tested drive is better than new one, because it's tested and new.
Saying that, I wouldn't want a refurbed CPU, because it's not an electro/mechnaical device. If there are any mechanics, it's best checked by a human being.
BTW, over the years, I have found WD drives to be the most reliable and highest performing drives to date. I've had seagates, Fujitsu's, Maxtor's, and IBM's, and all of those had a higher failure rate than the WD drives. The IBM's had the worst initial failure rate, and the Seagates hyad the highest overall return rate.
Personally if I buy NEW and get it home to find it DOA I want another NEW DRIVE.
Refurb my back side..With many of you suggesting the same people who made the defective drive are now going to test and refurb one for me in place of it sounds like an episode of Abbot and Costello .
Bought new,,Give me new..Reading some replies in this thread makes me think why any of us would ever consider buying a new hard drive. And thats just silly . .
On the refurb deal, you are MUCH better off with a refurb on a HDD than new one. If I had to count the number of bad drives I had to send back, when I was building systems it would number in the hundreds. I build one companies systems up and those systems had 4 drives a piece.
Wanna know what happened to most of them? They took a bang and bent the read/write head. It happens all the time.
I'll still take a refurb anyday. Like was stated in a preious post, they check them. I guess it depends on if you want a tested drive, or want to roll the dice. A tested drive is better than new one, because it's tested and new.
Saying that, I wouldn't want a refurbed CPU, because it's not an electro/mechnaical device. If there are any mechanics, it's best checked by a human being.
BTW, over the years, I have found WD drives to be the most reliable and highest performing drives to date. I've had seagates, Fujitsu's, Maxtor's, and IBM's, and all of those had a higher failure rate than the WD drives. The IBM's had the worst initial failure rate, and the Seagates hyad the highest overall return rate.
Damage is generally caused by the heads jumping up and hitting back down on the platters, making scratches and dents in the material. But honestly, most drives now can take 300-400 G's of force while off, that's one hell of a bump! IBM's load/unload can take even more. Laptop drives are near the 1000G mark. 5 years ago, having lots of drives fail due to bumps and jarrs would have been believable.
New drives are tested as well. Well they have to low level format the drive at the factory (no matter what a program is called, you CAN NOT low level format a modern drive. Low level format means to rewrite the sectors themselves, impossible to do with software on drives now, not to mention pointless).
Zeroing a drive is not low level formatting it.
I just don't understand how hundreds of items can fail when the product has a <1% failure rate. Unless you were buying tens of thousands of drives, or dropping the drives from 5 feet up to concrete, I don't get it. Hard drives are more reliable than any circuit board.
Anyhow, not trying to argue, just saying the failure rate VS your hundreds of failed drives doesn't add up. If you did buy 10,000 drives over the years, 50-100 failed drives would be about bang on with the product's failure rate. Considering the space between platter/head is 5000 times smaller than a human hair, i'de say that is a very commendable failure rate.
Personally if I buy NEW and get it home to find it DOA I want another NEW DRIVE.
Refurb my back side..With many of you suggesting the same people who made the defective drive are now going to test and refurb one for me in place of it sounds like an episode of Abbot and Costello .
Bought new,,Give me new..Reading some replies in this thread makes me think why any of us would ever consider buying a new hard drive. And thats just silly . .
Agreed, the precision of mechanical machines putting drives together cannot be matched by humans. And to say new drives are not tested is silly as well. DOA drives are almost always due to shipping damage.
New drives are tested, but not all of them. Infact very few are tested individually. The stereotypical new product test is he manufacturer pulls a HDD every 1000-10000 units and tests it. If it passes, its results speak for that entire batch. If that HDD is found to have a problem, then they start looking at the whole batch.
New drives are tested, but not all of them. Infact very few are tested individually. The stereotypical new product test is he manufacturer pulls a HDD every 1000-10000 units and tests it. If it passes, its results speak for that entire batch. If that HDD is found to have a problem, then they start looking at the whole batch.
Which is what happens in almost any mass produced product. However like I said before, the drives are low level formatted at the factory. Obviously a drive with a head or platter defect will not be able to be low level formatted and would fail. In any case if a drive fails, almost all failures will be DOA, very soon, or way past the useful life of the drive. The so-called "bathtub" graph of failure. High initial failure, very, very, very low failure after the "newness" is gone, then after 4-6 years of ordinary use, failures increase again. That's just what the numbers say.
Goshawk
12-18-05, 01:08 PM
well bottum line is the dude bought a NEW item and it dies so why should he get something less than new for his replacement.
refurbs may or may not be ok but they are certainly not what he paid for buying a new raptor.
Personally, I'd rather get a refurb than a brand new one, the refurb just receives another batch of tests and is verified working before it's sent.
99% of companies out there are going to send refurbs as replacements. Asus for instance, will always send an RMA replacement board, which are just about always refurbished & tested units. I've had just as many problems with new stuff as i have with refurbs.
I don't think it's right in this case though. I'd try and buy locally from now on if you can for stuff like that. My local shop just swaps things like this out if it comes up bad, and tests it right on the spot.
~ Gos
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