In the last 2 weeks:

3 hotswap bays have died or started throwing errors

3 hard drives have died or started throwing errors

2 SAS cables started throwing CRC errors

 

The hotswap bays and SAS cables Norco replaced at no expense to me.

 

The drives were less than 2 months old and had 2 years of warranty (EZRX Green models). Now they have 3 months because WD new warranty policy only gives you 3 months of warranty after you RMA, regardless of when you bought it. I know this was not the case previously, i've RMA'd half a dozen drives to them over the last few years and those drives still have warranty to this day. Not happy at all about this and it makes me want to avoid WD drives now. See post 5.

 

I have a hard time believing this is bad luck. I won't be surprised when more failures happen. The server is connected to the same UPS and wall outlet as my primary server (which has been error for for months). Both servers use Corsair AX850 PSUs, which are quality PSUs. I am still debating getting it replaced after this because it's honestly the only thing I think that could cause this.

 

Any ideas?

I think you are on the right track. Just because a PSU is new and has good specs doesn't mean it's not faulty. Not saying it is for sure bad, but it certainly is sounding suspicious.

 

Can you post a link to the WD warranty policy change?

Yeah this WD warranty policy is being talked about all over the internet. It is really unfair.

It means I will relagate drives to off line backups when they start to go bad.  Then no more than 3 months before waranty runs out I will send them back in.  Maybe 10-20 at a time.  The only ones that go back immediately are the DOA and that will be to retailer not WD.

I just emailed WD about the new warranty policy and here is what they said:

We apologize for the inconvenience, please keep in mind that The replacement drive we ship on Advanced RMAs carries a 90-day warranty.  Only after we've received the defective drive back and checked it into our system do we extend the warranty of your replacement to continue for the duration of your original hard drive’s warranty.  Also, if your original drive had a warranty less than 90 days, your replacement drive would have a new 90-day warranty.

 

It seems like it's only 90 days until they receive the faulty drive. So I *hope* he is right and my warranty will be extended in a few days. I will wait and see if anymore failures happen, if I get another failure I will RMA the PSU.

AHHHH! Normal then.  Sorry I already knew that - didn't realize that was what you meant before you got your response from them.  I don't use advanced RMA's so I've never had to worry about that.  I just buy another drive if I am out of replacements and use the RMA'd drive as a future replacement drive.