True the drives MSattler referenced were older Seagates with 5-yr warranties; but no recent drive (except Enterprise class units) has this kind of warranty.

 

... and if you follow this sub-thread back to its origin, you will see that it relates back to MSattler's RMAs of a set of drives nearing the end of their five year warranty.

 

I wasn't questioning replacement of newer drives, although I would think twice about an RMA of my two year old EARS drives - I would probably prefer to replace them with EARX or Red (if I can obtain them here) drives.  I have a 1TB EADS sitting on the shelf, which failed during its warranty.  Part of my reluctance may stem from the fact that I have to ship my drives internationally, from Philippines to Singapore, in order to claim a warranty replacement.

I've RMA'd a 2TB WD and got a 3TB in return.

I've RMA'd a couple of WD drives, and one Samsung.  I have to admit the older SATA 120g and 320g drives I've have for years ago are still going strong (I use them for my apps drive, in a USB enclosure for timeshifting TV etc).  They don't like being attached under AHCI mode, and make a god awful noise to let you know they aren't happy!

 

I RMA'd a Samsung 1Tb drive because of noise just after seagate bought them out.  It would make a squealing noise, but all the drive tests came back ok.  They replaced it without an issue, so it doesn't necessarily have to have bad sectors.  I ran that through a pre-clear before send it back to ensure my data was removed (well as best as I can).

 

I've had a few WD drives die that were in USB enclosures.  I actually thought it was the USB interface, not the drive, but upon opening it the drive wouldn't even spin up or register on the PC.  They went in the bin but because of that experience I don't buy WD green drives.

 

So far my Samsung 2Tb drives have been reliable, and have served their purpose (only had 1 year warranty) and prices are returned to normal, so if need be I could easily upgrade to a better drive now.

I've RMA'd a 2TB WD and got a 3TB in return.

That just happened to me as well. I replaced a 2tb red with a 3 tb red. I guess it was worth the hassle to rma it.

I've RMA'd a 2TB WD and got a 3TB in return.

 

Why do you think WD did that? Really old drive or something you told them?

 

That just happened to me as well. I replaced a 2tb red with a 3 tb red. I guess it was worth the hassle to rma it.

 

Very interesting.    Since they generally replace RMA'd drives with refurbished units, I wonder if this means the 2TB Reds are so reliable they don't have any refurbished drives;  or that they have so many refurbished 3TB reds they're just sending them out to get rid of them (not good news, since I have a LOT of 3TB Reds !!);  or perhaps they were just in a generous mood when they replaced your drive 

 

... of course it's also disturbing that you've already had a Red unit fail !!  (Other than infant mortality, these are supposed to be VERY reliable drives)

... of course it's also disturbing that you've already had a Red unit fail !!  (Other than infant mortality, these are supposed to be VERY reliable drives)

There are only 2 types of hard drives. Those that have already failed, and those that will fail at some point in the future. If hard drives didn't fail, unRaid wouldn't exist in its current state, as a simple JBOD setup can provide exactly the same specs without wasting the space on a parity drive. Tom's livelyhood depends on drives failing.

 

That just happened to me as well. I replaced a 2tb red with a 3 tb red. I guess it was worth the hassle to rma it.

 

Very interesting.    Since they generally replace RMA'd drives with refurbished units, I wonder if this means the 2TB Reds are so reliable they don't have any refurbished drives;  or that they have so many refurbished 3TB reds they're just sending them out to get rid of them (not good news, since I have a LOT of 3TB Reds !!);  or perhaps they were just in a generous mood when they replaced your drive 

 

... of course it's also disturbing that you've already had a Red unit fail !!  (Other than infant mortality, these are supposed to be VERY reliable drives)

I had that happen to me on two occasions with WD Green drives.  I believe they send you what they have on hand at the time they send it.  If they don't have any refurbs available they send out new.  If they don't have any in your original size they send bigger.  All I can say is that it only happens when you CAN'T use what they send.  I was on unRAID 4.7 when then replaced my 2TB drives with 3TB drives.

I bought 6 of the WD 2TB Reds and one failed preclear and SMART test right out of the gate. Nothing special with the RMA. I did have to make the replacement 3TB the parity drive since it's the largest in my setup. It was a pretty painless process though.

I bought 6 of the WD 2TB Reds and one failed preclear and SMART test right out of the gate. Nothing special with the RMA. I did have to make the replacement 3TB the parity drive since it's the largest in my setup. It was a pretty painless process though.

 

Worked out well, since you got the larger drive;  but just out of curiosity, why didn't you return the drive to the vendor for a replacement?    [i think most vendors have the same 30-day period Newegg does for replacing any defective units]

 

Somewhat similar story happened to me. 4 years ago or so I RMAd a 640 GB Blue as it was making a weird noise. They sent me back a 1TB Black.

Sounds like WD is pretty good about giving back a larger capacity drive if you RMA it.

I bought 6 of the WD 2TB Reds and one failed preclear and SMART test right out of the gate. Nothing special with the RMA. I did have to make the replacement 3TB the parity drive since it's the largest in my setup. It was a pretty painless process though.

 

Worked out well, since you got the larger drive;  but just out of curiosity, why didn't you return the drive to the vendor for a replacement?    [i think most vendors have the same 30-day period Newegg does for replacing any defective units]

 

To be honest I kind of forgot about that. The RMA process with WD is pretty painless and they offered the cross shipping.