Western Digital Hard Drives=Click of Death

[aswedc]

Yup I've had three Western Digital drives do it - they all will eventually but luckily its usually a couple years first...

 

[LikeLinus]

I purchased an 80GB WD HD. After 3-4 months it started clicking and died a few days later. I sent it back to WD for a return.

I received my return and it worked just fine. 3-4 months later IT started click. Same dead, died, i sent it back.

Right now i've got (2) 80GB HD's in my server. We'll see how long they last. I backup every 2 weeks or so from these things cause i don't really trust them. :/

 

[manko]

I got 2 identical WD 60Gb 5,400rpm drives from one of the Hot Deals. I put the first one in, and after a few days it started making a horrible clicking noise. I tired to find a reasonable explantion for the next few days, then I just returned it for a refund (they didn't have any in-stock for an exchange).

Anyway, I put they second drive in the same system and I've never heard a clicking noise or had a problem in over 8 months. So my conclusion is that the clicking is NOT normal, because my current drive does not do it. I would back up and RMA/return the drive asap.

 

[Derango]

My 6 month old 100GB non SE doesn't do this. It works great.

 

[Tanked]

I would go with Seagate at this point.

I have a Seagate Barracuda IV, about one month old, and it's great. Absolutely silent and decent performance, but more importantly, Seagate has a very good track record for hard drive reliability.

 

[Paulson]

I've had 2 western digitals die on me, but never due to the click of death...

1 got really slow and would barely boot... the replacement works really awesome... 🙂

# 2 didn't even have any problems, I just ran a extended diagnostic test, and it was deemed a code... looked at their site and the code = rma time... so I was able to back up everything necessary on there...

That is why I still buy western digitals... their drives work awesomely (when they do work) and I really can't say that much bad about them...

 

[Z24]

I just had a 30GB western digital drive die. Started off, random clicking with pauses in the system... then constant clicking and unable to access data / system lock.

:|

 

[JellyBaby]

It seems IDE drives aren't exactly the pinnacle of reliability these days. In fact, of the two WD drives I've purchased this year (both work fine, btw), neither appear to be covered under WD's 3-year warranty. I know it's an OEM thing but I've had OEM IBM drives that were covered under warranty.

IDE units are inexpensive but I wouldn't mind see premium, high-reliability IDE drives as an option...if such a thing can be produced.

 

[jdurg]

When I had my Dell computer, I had a 20 GB Western Digital hard drive in there. (I think Dell uses WD drives.) Anyway, about two years after owning my computer, I started to notice the occassional clicking. Over the next few weeks, the clicking started getting louder and more frequent. Then, one day, it just started clicking like crazy and it locked up my system. When I rebooted my computer, I got the nasty message that nobody likes to see....... "Can't find Operating System." 🙁 I panicked, called up Dell and they said that they'd send me a replacement. They just needed my credit card number so that they could cross ship my new drive. (Since during my call to Dell, I was able to get my system up and running.) But the clicking just kept getting worse and worse. Finally, the replacement arrived and I used Drive Copy to make an exact copy of the data on my dying hard drive. After making the copy, I tried to run scandisk on the dying drive and it could never complete. There were literally thousands upon thousands of bad sectors. Apparantly the clicking was the drive head banging against the platters of the hard drive. After that one experience, I'll never use a WD hard drive again. (That and the fact that I've read about a LOT of problems with WD drives and the "click of death.")

In my new system, I have a 40 GB, 7200 rpm Seagate Barracuda IV and I love it. It is fairly fast, and dead silent. Plus, I have not read nearly as many click-of-death stories about Seagate as I have about WD.

 

[compudog]

I have been building and servicing PC's for the past four years. I have RMA'd more WD drives than any others. Here's a breakdown;

Western Digital RMA'd --- 15+
IBM RMA'd --- 4
Fujitsu --- 2
Maxtor --- 2
Seagate --- 0

Now, I am running a 15 GB Western Digital in my main machine and have been since March of 99 with NO problems at all. I will no longer buy WD drives. I have been having good luck with Maxtor and Seagate. I've not had bad problems with IBM's, it just there have been so many problems with them that I'll steer clear.

One customer zapped his PC by fiddling with the power supply. His 10 GB IBM and practically everything else in the case got a taste of pure 110VAC! Anyway, I rebuilt his PC. I ordered him a new WD 20 GB. When the drive arrived I put everything together and started the process. The drive worked for about two weeks, bad sectors, clicking etc. I took his PC back, gave him a loaner, and RMA'd the drive. They shipped me a 'refurbished' drive. The first drive had a 3 year warranty, the replacement had a 1 year warranty. The replacement drive didn't work at all. I couldn't even get the WD utility to see the drive to perform the diags. I RMA'd that drive, put in a Maxtor (Quantum) and haven't heard from him since. I still have the last replacement drive from WD in my wife's comp and it works fine. Go figure????

 

[billyjak]

So it goes to show, IBM isin't the only one with problems.
I was reading NFS4's post about the whinning spinning noise on his JB and he wasen't the only one.
I have the 12000 JB and mine works fine. Also 2- 30 gig IBM's 1 qnd a half years old, still purring.