western digital rma?

[mrweirdo]

Well as the topic leads to I have a client with a WD 120GB Sata drive that is about to die. There was a power surge and imediately aftewords it started making this clicking sound and would start aka click of death. So my question is how good is WD about sending a replacement drive via advanced replacement? How quickly can i expect to get it from them once its shipped. The sooner the beter otherwise we might have to buy a new drive eather locally if posible or from newegg to be able to save data, progs, and xp install on the drive via norton ghost. Anyone here have any experience with sending in the drive? I will be using the drive diag program later on this afternoon to get the serial code and error code so I can give it to WD.

 

[WobbleWobble]

They were very good when my Raptor was failing. They sent me a new drive first, then I used that box and sent it back to them (I had to pay shipping that way though). It was pretty quick, within a few days. I forget how fast exactly.

 

[mgob]

WD has always been good to me for this sort of thing tho it rarely happens

 

[WackyDan]

Originally posted by: mgob
WD has always been good to me for this sort of thing tho it rarely happens

Yup.... Just give them a credit card number - ensures they can bill you if you don't send the "bad" drive back.

 

[Arcanedeath]

I've had good luck w/ the advance rma w/ WD as long as they recive the bad drive back no problems.

 

[birdpup]

Shut down the failing system or remove the failing drive so it does not continue to spin and suffer further damage. This way, shipping speed is not a factor.

If this is not an option due to operational requirements, then your client will undoubtedly find it worthwhile to obtain a replacement drive from a nearby store at their earliest opportunity.

 

[mrweirdo]

Originally posted by: birdpup
Shut down the failing system or remove the failing drive so it does not continue to spin and suffer further damage. This way, shipping speed is not a factor.

Yup allready told them t o do that only reason time is still somewhat of a factors is because there is now a shortage on usable computers.

Well well see how it goes still might wind up just geting a new drive then sending this one and geting it replaced to use in anouther system a fileserver with the same drive as a raid setup for redunacy along with tape backups

 

[mrweirdo]

well went to get started with testing the drive with the diag software and its aparently allready dead. All it will do constantly is click back and for and it keeps the system from booting when the drive is hooked up. So its looks like the data on the drive may be lost. I was hopefully to get a backup of at least some of the data on the drive that hasnt allready been backed up but now that doesnt seem posible.

 

[birdpup]

In this situation, the freezer trick may work.

[*]Hard Drive Freezer Technique
This technique is useful due to thermal contraction of mechanical parts

1. Place drive in an anti-static bag
2. Put drive in freezer for at least one hour
3. Remove drive from freezer
4. Quickly install in system
5. Attempt data recovery

 

[mrweirdo]

Originally posted by: birdpup
In this situation, the freezer trick may work.

[*]Hard Drive Freezer Technique
This technique is useful due to thermal contraction of mechanical parts

1. Place drive in an anti-static bag
2. Put drive in freezer for at least one hour
3. Remove drive from freezer
4. Quickly install in system
5. Attempt data recovery

good stuff actualy.I just hapened to think of hearing about that before I saw this when I was installing the new drive today and gave it a try and low and behold it worked! The drive lasted long enough to copy all the files over

 

[hemiram]

This might be a good time to pick up a UPS. I lost many a drive before I finally got my first one. Only Maxtors after that...

 

[mrweirdo]

Yup that power surge must of killed it. I just hope it didn?t damage the rest of the comp or other similar comps in the building. Everything seems fine but who knows something could fail later on down the road. They definitely need UPSes especially since the recently renovated building is located in a downtown area with older wiring where possible surges might be frequent so we be getting ones for all the systems shortly. I'm considering even getting one here at home for my main comp at least even though we rarely have any power outages or surges where I live. The last time was about 3years ago due to someone attempting suicide by driving a car into a transformer and didn?t work anyways just got them a totaled vehicle, arrest, and large bill assumedly lol. That was interesting watching all that after going out to see why there was this loud noise nearby and instant loss of power with resulting emergency vehicle sirens a few minutes later :laugh: