WD 5TB Reds...gone.


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So, I had two 5TB Reds in my unRAID box.  One gave up the ghost a little while ago, probably around Christmas.  It sat on a shelf along with two 4TB Blues that failed within a few weeks of them being new.  Because of life, I never got them returned to WD until 7th April.

 

So, 7th April I booked the RMA for 2xWD40EZRZ and 1xWD50EFRX.

 

On the 13th April I got a box from WD, with the replacement drives.  Opened the box to find they'd shipped 3x4TB WD40EZRZ.  Not a fair exchange guys!  Sent you 13TB of drives, got 12TB in return!

 

14th April I logged a support case with WD, asking why they'd replaced a 5TB Red with a 4TB Blue.

 

20th April a guy rang me to see what was going on and to make sure they had the story straight.  He said he'd get back to me.

 

26th April I got an email confirming what we'd discussed on the phone.  6 days...

 

Around the 5th of May I got a phone call from the same guy at WD.  He said they'd sent the 4TB Blue to replace the 5TB Red "because it was a superior drive".  I told him he must be having a laugh, how was a 4TB Blue better than a 5TB Red.  He agreed that was a retarded suggestion (his words, not mine).  He said that they no longer had any stock of 5TB Reds and wouldn't be getting any more.  He would have to get back to me with an alternative drive, or I could keep the 4TB Blue.  I said I'd see what they offered.

 

12th May, I got an email saying they would ship me a 5TB Purple if I was happy with that.  I agreed that was fine.

 

 

I'll update this when I get the replacement drive.  

 

But, the interesting thing is that WD in Europe no longer have, nor will be getting any refurb 5TB Reds.  I looked online and I don't see anywhere selling new 5TB Reds either.  Out of the 2 I had, 2 failed.  Other Reds (3TB, 4TB, 8TB), some older and some younger than the 5TB units, are all running perfectly.  Is there a problem with the 5TB Red?   Interesting situation.

 

Typically in the past, when I've RMA'ed a drive to WD they've either sent a brand new drive, a refurb of the same drive, or on a few occasions a better drive (I received a 1TB RE to replace a knackered 1TB Black).

 

Wonder what they're playing at?

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Anecdotally funny, but not statistically significant, I seem to see a pattern of odd TB drives having issues. First the wave of bad 3TB seagates, now 5TB WD's.

 

The human brain is interesting, it wants to find patterns in everything, even if the resulting conclusion is false. I obviously have developed a distaste for odd TB HDD's, as all my drives are either 2 or 4TB. My gut tells me to skip 6 and go straight to 8, it also says skip 10TB for some reason. :)

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18 hours ago, ashman70 said:

That's really odd, usually they send you the next available drive up from the size you sent them, not down. So if you sent them a 5TB and they didn't have any 5TB replacements they should of sent you the next available 6TB drive, not a 4TB.

Indeed, that's how it's worked in the past.  Same with Seagate.  This is a very odd situation indeed.

 

Coincidentally, I've found WD's refurb drives to be much better than the new ones.  

 

The 4x new 4TB Blues I got were all very noisy and vibrated really badly.  All 4 of them.  The two replacement units are totally silent, and run much cooler.  Same with a 5TB Red I RMA'ed about a year ago, the original drive, a retail boxed 5TB Red I got the same time as this one I'm having the RMA issues with, also vibrated more than I'd like.  The refurb is also totally silent.

 

I have two really noisy 6TB Greens, I'm thinking I might return those and see if I get quiet ones in return.  The 6TB Greens vibrate so badly, when they're running I can hear them humming in my neighbour's house.  Really.

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