Independent profile — not affiliated with Western Digital

Western Digital

Western Digital Corporation (Nasdaq: WDC, San Jose, California) makes WD and G-DRIVE hard drives; its flash business was separated as Sandisk Corporation on February 21, 2025. This page covers warranty and RMA steps, the BBB and Trustpilot displays as of October 14, 2026, the company's May 2023 security-incident statement, and court cases including the WD Red SMR settlement, the My Book Live dismissal and the pending SanDisk portable SSD class action.

COMPLAINTS28
VERIFIED PHONE(855) 799-5529
LAST CHECKED2026-10-14
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CONSUMER ALLEGATION

Complaints & Reviews on USAComplaints

USAComplaints currently maintains 28 historical complaints about Western Digital, published between 2002 and 2013. No approved complaints have been published on this site during the last three years. For a current reputation snapshot, see the independent sources below.

EDITORIAL

Complaint Themes

Rebate offers disputed or denied (keyword match, 28 posts about Western Digital itself, 2002 to 2013)Warranty, RMA or replacement disputed (keyword match)Drive failed or described as defective (keyword match)Customer support unresponsive or unhelpful (keyword match)Data loss or data recovery cost (keyword match)

Each tag reflects a complaint's single primary theme (not every angle it raised), and complaints outside any problem theme — a positive report, or one later retracted by its author — aren't tagged. Counts may total less than the full complaint count above.

EXTERNAL SOURCE

Independent Sources

Shown for context — not merged with USAComplaints' own numbers.

BBB: 22 reviews, 162 complaints
Trustpilot: 334 reviews,
VERIFIED

Contacts

VERIFIED

Locations

TypeAddress
Headquarters5601 Great Oaks Parkway San Jose CA 95119
EDITORIAL

Western Digital complaints: warranty, RMA, returns and Sandisk products (checked October 14, 2026)

This page is about Western Digital Corporation (Nasdaq: WDC) of San Jose, California, which sells WD and G-DRIVE hard disk drives and describes itself in its 10-K as a company built on hard disk drive technology. The company's flash business, including the SanDisk brand, was separated on February 21, 2025 as Sandisk Corporation, a separate company. Complaints about SanDisk-branded cards, USB sticks and SSDs are therefore not treated here as complaints about the HDD maker; this page covers the HDD business and, in the litigation section, the cases that still name Western Digital entities over products that were sold before the separation.

Hard drive failed under warranty. The company's warranty text says the warranty term starts on the purchase date on the receipt from an authorized distributor or authorized reseller, and that proof of purchase is required. Its Americas table (support-en.wd.com, Answer ID 2, updated June 22, 2026) shows terms that vary by model family, for example 5-year for WD Black and WD Red Pro, 3-year for WD Red Plus 3.5-inch, and 2-year (component drive) or 3-year (retail kit) for several WD Blue families. The table also says the term 'depends on country where the product was purchased'. The same table lists My Passport, My Book and WD Elements drives by model-number prefix with terms of 1, 2, 3 or 5 years, so check your model number against it. Check coverage with the serial number at the warranty-status page, then request an RMA through the Support Portal. WD's support site packing instructions (Answer 23, updated June 4, 2026) say to write the RMA number on the outside of the box, that the RMA number is valid for 30 days from the date it was issued, to use WD-approved packaging and a traceable carrier, and that third-party cases, cables, brackets, manuals and disks are not returned. WD's store packaging-instructions page (westerndigital.com) instead says to print the RMA barcode and affix it to the box and to remove all accessories before shipment, and gives no validity period.

Data. The warranty text on WD's site says the customer is responsible for backing up data and for data loss 'howsoever caused', and the data recovery page says recovery is offered through third-party partners and that Western Digital makes no warranty about their services. WD's data recovery page also says that using data recovery services will not void the warranty if the provider gives written verification, on its letterhead, that it performed the work. Ask any recovery provider about price before sending a drive.

Bought from the WD store. WD's Return Policy says products purchased online directly from Western Digital can be returned within 30 days from the date of shipment, in as-new condition; a Return Number is valid for 10 days. In most cases an order cannot be cancelled once it is processed for shipment. Online Store Support is listed at (855) 799-5529, Monday to Friday 8am-5pm PST.

Sandisk products. WD's support page sends SanDisk, WD Flash and SSD questions to Sandisk's own support page (shop.sandisk.com/support.html).

If the company does not resolve it. Options include a complaint to the BBB, the FTC (reportfraud.ftc.gov) or your state attorney general (for example the California Attorney General's consumer protection page at oag.ca.gov/consumers). The BBB figures and the company's own policy terms are in the sections below.

EDITORIAL

Regulator matters

FTC, 2012 (competition, not consumer protection). The FTC's page for 'In the Matter of Western Digital Corporation' (File 1110122, Docket C-4350, enforcement type Part 2 Consents) says the FTC required Western Digital to sell assets used to make and sell desktop hard disk drives to Toshiba Corporation as part of a settlement of charges that its proposed acquisition of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies would likely have harmed competition in desktop hard disk drives. The page lists the Decision and Order and a modified final order of May 9, 2013. This matter concerned a merger, not product marketing or service to consumers.

No FTC or state attorney general consumer-protection action naming Western Digital over its drives or cloud products was identified in the sources checked on October 14, 2026 (the FTC cases database entry above and web searches); that is a statement about the sources checked, not a statement that none exists.

EDITORIAL

Who Western Digital is, and the 2025 Sandisk separation

Registrant. The 10-K for the fiscal year ended July 3, 2026 names the registrant Western Digital Corporation and says that 'Western Digital was founded in 1970' and is an S&P 500 company headquartered in San Jose, California (company statements). SEC records show a Delaware corporation at 5601 Great Oaks Parkway, San Jose. The company's websites are offered by Western Digital Technologies, Inc. and/or its affiliates, according to its Terms of Use; the 10-K describes Western Digital Technologies, Inc. as a wholly-owned subsidiary.

Business today. The 10-K describes a business built on hard disk drive technology for cloud data centers, client (PC) and consumer markets, sold under the Western Digital and WD brands. The WD site lists consumer HDDs, My Passport and G-DRIVE external drives, and WD Red and WD Blue internal drives; the support site's product-security page lists firmware bulletins for My Cloud, My Cloud Home and related products.

Sandisk separation. According to the 10-K, on February 21, 2025 the company completed the separation of its Flash business through a pro rata distribution of 80.1% of the outstanding shares of Sandisk Corporation to Western Digital stockholders, in February 2026 it used 5.8 million shares of Sandisk common stock in a tax-free exchange to retire its bridge loan and Term Loan A-3, and in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2026 it completed two equity-for-equity exchanges that used its remaining 1.7 million Sandisk shares to acquire 4.8 million shares of Western Digital common stock; as of July 3, 2026 the company states it no longer held any shares of Sandisk common stock. Sandisk Corporation is a separate company from Western Digital. Because SanDisk-branded products were sold by the Western Digital group until the separation, some court cases over them still name Western Digital entities (see the litigation section); the SanDisk SSD case lists Western Digital Corporation and Western Digital Technologies, Inc. among the defendants, including in defendants' July 2, 2026 opposition on the docket.

Why this page treats WD and SanDisk differently. Archive complaints in which the offender is named 'SanDisk' (posted 2006 to 2012, about rebates, cards and SSDs) are not linked to this profile: they concern SanDisk-branded products, and Sandisk is a separate company today.

EDITORIAL

Complaint record as displayed on third-party sites and in our archive

BBB (as displayed on 2026-10-14). The BBB profile for Western Digital Corporation, San Jose (headquarters) shows 'NOT BBB Accredited', a BBB Rating of D-, '162 total complaints in the last 3 years' and '69 complaints filed in the last 12 months'; the reviews tab shows an average of 22 customer reviews at 1.23 out of 5. BBB lists the reason for the rating as 'Failure to respond to 30 complaint(s) filed against business'. BBB notes that the complaint text displayed might not represent all complaints filed. Raw BBB page data lists the file as opened on 2015-06-11, business start 1970-04-23 and incorporation 2001-04-05. A separate BBB listing for 'Western Digital' in Fremont, CA exists and is not used here. Several complaint texts visible on the profile concern disputed warranty claims and replacement delays; these are consumers' allegations.

Trustpilot (as displayed on 2026-10-14). The Trustpilot page for 'WD' (www.wdc.com) is an unclaimed profile with 334 reviews and a TrustScore shown as 1.2. Trustpilot says it does not fact-check reviews.

Company statement on data security. On May 5, 2023 Western Digital said it had identified on March 26, 2023 a network security incident in which an unauthorized third party gained access to a number of its systems; that My Cloud service was restored as of April 13, 2023; and that an unauthorized party obtained a copy of a database used for its online store containing customer names, billing and shipping addresses, email addresses and telephone numbers, plus hashed and salted passwords and partial credit card numbers in encrypted format. The company said it would communicate directly with impacted customers.

Our archive. This site's archive has 34 approved complaints linked to Western Digital: 28 name Western Digital (or its RMA department or backup software) as the subject, and 6 name Western Digital together with a retailer (Fry's, OfficeMax, CompUSA, Newegg) and are linked as non-primary. They were posted between December 2002 and June 2013; none is more recent, so they describe the rebate programs, warranty handling and products of that period, not current practices. Counted by keyword among the 28 primary posts (a post can appear in more than one count): 19 mention a rebate, 10 mention warranty, RMA or replacement, 10 describe a drive that failed or was defective, 7 mention support or customer service, and 4 mention data or data recovery. These counts are archive posts only and are not combined with the BBB or Trustpilot figures.

EDITORIAL

Court cases naming Western Digital

Consumer class actions with a recorded outcome or status are listed in the case table. In short: Malone v. Western Digital (WD Red NAS drives with SMR technology) ended with a court-approved class settlement in December 2021; Riordan v. Western Digital (My Book Live devices remotely reset in June 2021) was dismissed in November 2024 after the parties reported they had agreed terms to resolve the dispute; In re SanDisk SSDs Litigation (portable SSD data loss; defendants include SanDisk LLC, SanDisk Manufacturing Americas, Western Digital Corporation and Western Digital Technologies, Inc.) is pending, with two state classes certified in May 2026; and Safier v. Western Digital (2005 to 2006, hard drive capacity advertising) was terminated on the docket on June 15, 2006 after a March 17, 2006 order preliminarily approving a class settlement and a July 6, 2006 order awarding fees and costs; the final approval order itself was not reviewed.

Positions. The joint motion for dismissal in Riordan, filed by both sides (Document 81), states that My Book Live and My Book Live Duo were discontinued, decade-old devices that Western Digital had not supported since 2015, that Western Digital promptly informed the public of the June 2021 attack, and that it offered affected users access to a trade-in program and a data recovery service. These are statements in a filing the parties made together, not findings of the court. In the SanDisk SSD litigation the defendants opposed class certification, and the court's order quotes a company statement that it had resolved the firmware issue. Plaintiffs' allegations in all of these cases are allegations.

Patent and commercial litigation. The 10-K's legal-proceedings note (Note 16, fiscal 2026) describes patent cases brought by SPEX Technologies and MRT (a global settlement of $130 million in April 2025 for the MRT matters) and says other matters are not expected to be material. These are not consumer cases and are not summarized further here.

EDITORIAL

Is Western Digital Legitimate?

Western Digital Corporation is an SEC-registered public company (Nasdaq: WDC) with its headquarters at 5601 Great Oaks Parkway, San Jose, California, a 10-K filed August 14, 2026 for its fiscal year ended July 3, 2026, and its own warranty, returns and support channels. The BBB profile for its headquarters shows a D- rating and is not accredited, and Trustpilot shows an unclaimed profile with a 1.2 TrustScore; those are third-party displays dated October 14, 2026 and are described in the complaint-record section. Court records show consumer class actions that ended in a settlement or dismissal, and one that is pending, as described above. WD's warranty text says no limited warranty is provided unless the product was purchased from an authorized distributor or authorized reseller, so where a drive was bought matters for coverage.

PUBLIC RECORD

Court & Public Records

CaseAuthorityDatesTypeOutcomeSource
Malone v. Western Digital Corporation
Docket 5:20-cv-03584		U.S. District Court, N.D. California
SettledSettled

The CourtListener docket shows a Final Order Approving Class Action Settlement (Document 71) and a Judgment (Document 72), both signed December 22, 2021, after a December 22, 2021 hearing on the motion for final approval; an order of April 7, 2022 approving attorneys' fees, costs and incentive awards (Document 78); and an order of October 10, 2023 granting an unopposed motion for cy pres distribution of residual settlement funds (Document 80). The case was consolidated with Raaymakers v. Western Digital by order of July 27, 2020. Class counsel's website describes the case as a class action by purchasers of WD Red hard drives alleged to be unsuitable for RAID and NAS use because they use Shingled Magnetic Recording, and a settlement 'valued at over $5.7 million' under which Western Digital agreed to prominently disclose that WD Red drives use SMR. TopClassActions.com, a settlement news site, describes a $2.7 million settlement covering WD20EFAX, WD30EFAX, WD40EFAX and WD60EFAX drives with a claim deadline of November 27, 2021; that cash-fund figure is reported separately from class counsel's 'valued at over $5.7 million' figure and the two are not added together. The claim period has closed. The order text itself was not reproduced here.

Source
Riordan v. Western Digital Corporation
Docket 5:21-cv-06074-EJD		U.S. District Court, N.D. California
DismissedDismissed

Plaintiffs sued on behalf of a putative class over My Book Live and My Book Live Duo devices that were remotely reset in June 2021. By order of June 5, 2024 (Document 67) the court granted Western Digital's motion to dismiss claims 1, 3 and 4 of the second amended complaint without leave to amend and Western Digital answered on June 20, 2024. The parties' joint motion (Document 81, granted November 7, 2024) says they engaged in settlement negotiations and agreed upon terms to resolve the dispute, and asks the court to dismiss the individual claims with prejudice and the putative class claims without prejudice; no class had been certified. The terms were not in the filing reviewed.

Source
In re SanDisk SSDs Litigation
Docket 3:23-cv-04152-RFL		U.S. District Court, N.D. CaliforniaFiledFiled — no final outcome recorded

Consolidated class action over the 4TB Western Digital My Passport Portable SSD, the 4TB SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD and the 1TB, 2TB and 4TB SanDisk Extreme Pro Portable SSD (together the 'Impacted Drives' in the court's order; other capacities and models are not within that definition). Defendants named on the docket include SanDisk LLC, SanDisk Manufacturing Americas, Western Digital Corporation and Western Digital Technologies, Inc. By order signed May 5, 2026 and entered May 6, 2026 (Document 236) the court certified a California class (purchasers residing in California since 2020) on UCL, CLRA and FAL claims to the extent based on alleged deceptive omissions and on implied warranty, fraud by omission and unjust enrichment claims, and a Florida class on FDUTPA claims to the extent based on alleged deceptive omissions; certification was otherwise denied. By order of July 13, 2026 (Document 250) the court denied a renewed motion to certify an injunctive-relief class. By order of August 3, 2026 (Document 252) the schedule was extended, with a bench trial date of January 3, 2028. The order records that defendants conceded there may have been 69,173 Impacted Drives in the United States and quotes a company statement that it had resolved the issue with a firmware update. Per the order of August 3, 2026, plaintiffs' merits expert reports are due November 3, 2026, the parties' joint letter naming a mediator and mediation date is due January 20, 2027, and the deadline to refer the case to private ADR is April 21, 2027. The order of May 5, 2026 records that stop-ship was approved for only the 4TB Extreme and Extreme Pro SSDs on February 17, 2023 and that no further stop ships or recalls were issued. No settlement or claim process is shown on the docket as of October 14, 2026. The case is pending.

Source
Safier v. Western Digital Corporation
Docket 3:05-cv-03353		U.S. District Court, N.D. California
SettledSettled

The preliminary-approval order of March 17, 2006 (Document 31) describes a settlement class of purchasers of aftermarket Western Digital hard disk drives from March 22, 2001 to February 15, 2006 and recites the plaintiff's allegation that the defendant computes 1 GB as 1,000,000,000 bytes while operating systems compute it differently, pleaded as false advertising, unfair business practices, breach of contract, fraud and CLRA violations; the settlement terms include a packaging statement that '1 gigabyte (GB) = 1 billion bytes'. The CourtListener docket lists the case as terminated June 15, 2006 and an order awarding fees and costs on July 6, 2006; the final approval order was not among the archived entries reviewed.

Source
CONSUMER ALLEGATION

Related Complaints

Names this company in a role other than the primary subject — not necessarily current or complete.

VERIFIED

Company Relationships

  • Affiliated with: Sandisk Corporation
EDITORIAL

Frequently Asked Questions

Is SanDisk still part of Western Digital?

Sandisk Corporation has been a separate company since February 21, 2025. The 10-K says Western Digital completed the separation of its Flash business on February 21, 2025 through a pro rata distribution of 80.1% of the outstanding shares of Sandisk Corporation to its stockholders. WD's support page directs SanDisk, WD Flash and SSD support questions to Sandisk's own support page.

How long is the Western Digital warranty?

It varies by product and country. WD's Americas warranty table (updated June 22, 2026) lists, for example, 5-year terms for WD Black and WD Red Pro, 3-year for WD Red Plus 3.5-inch and 2-year or 3-year terms for WD Blue depending on model family and whether it is a component drive or a retail kit. The company's warranty text says the term starts on the purchase date on a receipt from an authorized distributor or reseller.

How do I start a Western Digital RMA?

WD's Warranty Services page says to log into its Support Portal to create a warranty replacement (RMA). WD's support-site packing instructions (Answer 23, updated June 4, 2026) say to write the RMA number on the outside of the box in bold letters, that the RMA number is valid for 30 days from the date it was issued, and to use WD-approved packaging and a traceable carrier. WD's store packaging-instructions page says instead to print the RMA barcode and affix it to the box and to remove all accessories before shipment, and states no validity period; follow the instructions in your own RMA email.

Does the warranty cover recovering my files?

The warranty text on WD's site says the customer is responsible for backing up data and for data loss however caused, and WD's data recovery page says recovery is performed by third-party partners and that Western Digital makes no warranty about their services. The page also says a provider that gives written verification on its letterhead does not void the drive's warranty.

Can I return a drive bought on the WD store?

WD's Return Policy says products bought online directly from Western Digital can be returned within 30 days from the date of shipment, in as-new condition with packaging and accessories, and that a Return Number is valid for 10 days. Items bought from an authorized reseller must be returned to that reseller under its terms.

What was the WD Red SMR class action?

Malone v. Western Digital Corporation (N.D. Cal., 5:20-cv-03584) was a class action filed May 29, 2020 over WD Red NAS drives. The docket shows a Final Order Approving Class Action Settlement and a judgment on December 22, 2021, a fee award order on April 7, 2022 and an order of October 10, 2023 on distribution of residual funds. Class counsel's page describes the settlement as valued at over $5.7 million and says Western Digital agreed to disclose that WD Red drives use SMR technology.

What happened to My Book Live devices in June 2021?

In a June 24, 2021 statement quoted in the plaintiffs' amended complaint, Western Digital said some My Book Live and My Book Live Duo devices were being compromised through a remote command execution vulnerability and that in some cases attackers triggered a factory reset that appears to erase all data. The related class action, Riordan v. Western Digital, was dismissed by court order on November 7, 2024 on the parties' joint motion; individual claims were dismissed with prejudice and putative class claims without prejudice.

What is the SanDisk Extreme SSD lawsuit?

In re SanDisk SSDs Litigation (N.D. Cal., 3:23-cv-04152-RFL) concerns portable SSDs that plaintiffs say lost data. The defendants are SanDisk LLC, SanDisk Manufacturing Americas, Western Digital Corporation and Western Digital Technologies, Inc. By an order signed May 5, 2026 (entered May 6, 2026) the court certified a California class and a Florida class for certain claims; on July 13, 2026 it denied a renewed motion to certify an injunctive-relief class; the case remains pending.

Was Western Digital's online store hacked in 2023?

Western Digital said in a May 5, 2023 press release that it identified a network security incident on March 26, 2023 and that an unauthorized party obtained a copy of a database used for its online store, containing names, billing and shipping addresses, email addresses and telephone numbers, plus hashed and salted passwords and partial credit card numbers in encrypted format.