When can you RMA a HDD?

[.Alan.]

I've found that my 1TB WD green is developing the click of death.:(
At the moment it seems to be functioning apart from slow operation/periods of no responsiveness.

So do I have to wait for the drive to fail completely or what:confused:

[wonderlust]

have you runany diagnostics from WD's website?

I would do that first :)

[.Alan.]

WD's lifeguard is useless, I get cable errors on all my drives. I changed cables, does nothing.:rolleyes:

I tried Seagates software, it works at least.

I've had fails and passes on Short DST Long DST and Short generic tests and a pass on the long generic. (only ran this once as it took 5hrs.)

I also ran the drive through HD Tune, check out those access times:eek:

http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/9708/hddpass3.th.jpg (http://img688.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hddpass3.jpg)http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/5650/hddpass.th.jpg (http://img688.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hddpass.jpg)

[wonderlust]

access times could be windows dropping the drive into PIO mode.

Have you tried something like spinrite on it?

[.Alan.]

Spinrite $89. I have taken all my data off the drive.

I've just noticed the hard drive clearout thread so it might be easier just to pick up something new.

[wonderlust]

i am sure you can find a "demo" of spinrite :D

[Will]

whoooaaaa 111ms :p WOW!

[malkie0831]

I've found that my 1TB WD green is developing the click of death.:(
At the moment it seems to be functioning apart from slow operation/periods of no responsiveness.

So do I have to wait for the drive to fail completely or what:confused:
If the drive is that slow I'd RMA it. If they don't find a fault the worst will be they charge you for the return postage.

I RMA'd a Sammy last year and the replacement came back so quick they can't have tested it. The bad drive had a SMART error, but it was very intermittent. It was replaced without question.

[HecklerUK]

I've RMA'd drives back to the manufacturer after a couple of years and had them replaced FOC. The last one (can't remember if it was Seagate or WD) had a 5yr warranty and went back after less than 18 months... got a new drive, but it took me 3 months to replace the 250GB of stuff I lost... whilst waiting for the replacement, I bought and installed a larger capacity drive anyway, then sold the replacement on.

With the price of drives these days... it's often cheaper to buy a drive than enough blank discs to store stuff on. :)

[Methanoid]

If its noisy U can RMA it.. just be sure it does have some fault. And be prepared to NOT get a new one back. Most mfrs send back recon units of same age or with that same balance of warranty remaining ;)

[Gibbo]

Hi there

Does WD still operate their advanced replacement online service? If so just go onto their site and RMA it, from memory their warranty service is excellent and very quick.

[Methanoid]

Samsung's is operated by a company on their behalf and you pay to return the faulty drive - not that impressed but I guess its my first Sammy to fail out of about 12 I've had :(