Complaint / Review
Western Digital
The WD "promise" - their hard drives built to break, guaranteed

I really loved my external 160 GB USB hard drive for the first 5 months and then... It's internal power supply went bad. Wouldn't power up with any kind of WD power cord, no matter what from any outlet.

I called them, and after their sub-room-temperature-IQ "technician" said nothing but "Um, duh don no wud to tell ya" to the bad power supply, here were was their catch-22 NON-solution.

1. They would NOT advise me on how to extract the hard drive out of the casing myself (no external screws) to get my data. If I wanted the data THEIR only solution was a $400 minimum recovery firm, which wasn't in my town, when their crap ass drive was only $140 to begin with. But if I did this it voids the warranty, no replacement given for their DEFECTIVE drive.

2. If I wanted to lose the data (nope), they would ship me a replacement drive.

Well, my data is MUCH MORE important than their fricking worthless hardware, which they REFUSE to make easy to access so you can save your data. So, I happily took it to a Micro Center store (where I bought the damn thing to begin with) and they happily extracted the drive, which I then had to put in an external USB hard drive enclosure and got the data fine.

So, let me summarize WD's non-value proposition for consumers:

1. They sell you a crappy drive they say is reliable in their marketing for the obvious purpose of backing up your data.

2. The drive predictably craps out because of poor shoddy foreign sweatshop labor workmanship and you are screwed, and if you don't have a brain or a spine and want your data, you pay $400 to recover data from a $140 drive.

3. If you have a brain and a spine, it costs you $60 to get your data back at your local pc repair center, and no replacement drive because they can't wait to get their jollies voiding your warranty, just because they can.

Their "promise" on their website is basically empty, because their POLICY is they don't cover data, just hardware, but as my situation proves, they don't cover the hardware either.

So, here's my recommendation. Don't ever buy WD, and if you buy anyone else's external USB drive, make sure it has screws so you can open it and get the drive easily.