Western Digital Shady

[Corpsecrank]

I just thought I would mention this because I thought it was kind of strange.

About 2 weeks ago I bought a new Western Digital Caviar Blue 500Gb HDD with 16Mb cache. The drive failed the other day. I needed to recover all of my music from the drive. Because the drive would power up and read but would not hold a partition properly I was able to recover all of my files.

Now this is where things get weird. I ran the recovery tool Easeus Data Recovery Wizard Pro. By the way best 70 bucks you will ever spend it works fantastic.

When the scan finished and I was looking at my files I noticed something that was out of place. I bought the drive new not a refurb or any of that crap this is supposed to be a new drive. The problem is that the recovery wizard found a whole bunch of office documents among other things on the drive. When I bought the drive I installed it partitioned and formatted and then pushed all my music onto the drive.

I never put any office docs or other crap on that drive just music files.

So what's the deal? Did western digital cut corners and put used platters in the drive and slap a new tag on it? I would not be happy with that if it were the case and I doubt many other people would be.

Any of you remember all the trouble various computer companies have gotten into for using parts that were not factory new in the PCs they sold? Would this not fit under that same type of thing? You are basically lying to customers if you put a used platter in a hard drive and say that it is a factory new drive.

I plan to buy another new drive and before anything is moved to the drive run the recovery tool on it and see what comes up.

 

[Guy Scharf]

Have you confirmed that the files are actually office documents by trying to open them with office programs? Or did the recovery software just name some files as office documents? I've seen recovery software misidentify file types.

 

[Antman]

For discussional purposes only:

The retailer could have re-packaged a returned item. There are businesses that provide this service to retailers, or the retailer could have done it themselves.

Your software could embed false positives.

The mfgr is guilty as charged.

Poor file management.

 

[SquonkSC]

I just thought I would mention this because I thought it was kind of strange.

About 2 weeks ago I bought a new Western Digital Caviar Blue 500Gb HDD with 16Mb cache. The drive failed the other day. I needed to recover all of my music from the drive. Because the drive would power up and read but would not hold a partition properly I was able to recover all of my files.

Now this is where things get weird. I ran the recovery tool Easeus Data Recovery Wizard Pro. By the way best 70 bucks you will ever spend it works fantastic.

When the scan finished and I was looking at my files I noticed something that was out of place. I bought the drive new not a refurb or any of that crap this is supposed to be a new drive. The problem is that the recovery wizard found a whole bunch of office documents among other things on the drive. When I bought the drive I installed it partitioned and formatted and then pushed all my music onto the drive.

I never put any office docs or other crap on that drive just music files.

So what's the deal? Did western digital cut corners and put used platters in the drive and slap a new tag on it? I would not be happy with that if it were the case and I doubt many other people would be.

Any of you remember all the trouble various computer companies have gotten into for using parts that were not factory new in the PCs they sold? Would this not fit under that same type of thing? You are basically lying to customers if you put a used platter in a hard drive and say that it is a factory new drive.

I plan to buy another new drive and before anything is moved to the drive run the recovery tool on it and see what comes up.

Hi Corpsecrank,

Last year I got one of my clients on the phone and he was furious.

He also had a problem with a WD disk and he also used a recovery tool to get his files back and he too found a bunch of files that were definitely not his.

He accused me of selling him a refurbished disk, and I had to move heaven and earth to convince him I had nothing to do with it.
To show my good will, I gave him a new one for free and gave him his money back.

Of course I went to my supplier and they were just as shocked as I was.
After some angry calls from them to their suppliers and some phonecalls from them to their suppliers and so on, and so on.....

Bottom line. We never found out who did this, everybody pointed the finger at the other one.

If I were you I would find out when those office files where created, and to see if there is more signature info in them.
And then go back to your supplier to demand a new one.

Good luck

 

[TGSoldier]

Ok. Seems like you did get a refurbished disk. Ok. So?

Imho, run a low level formatting tool on it and you're as good as new.

Look mom! new disk

Also.. Try the low level format, see if that fixes your problem.

 

[SquonkSC]

Ok. Seems like you did get a refurbished disk. Ok. So?

Imho, run a low level formatting tool on it and you're as good as new.

Look mom! new disk

Also.. Try the low level format, see if that fixes your problem.

I can see what you're saying.
A refurbished disk might even be better than a mass produced new one.
But it's a matter of principle.

Second hand stuff should not be sold as new.
It's immoral not to mention illegal.

Greetz

 

[Corpsecrank]

Yeah after playing some more I am thinking the disk was new and someone used it for a short time and returned it.

It is a new drive not a refurb it was still factory sealed and does not have any refurb markings. I wish I had checked the sides of the drive to see if there were any tool marks from a previous installation or something. It would have been a dead giveaway that it was a returned unit.

I suspect this given the facts surrounding the experience.

1. The drive was simply dropping it's partition randomly but actually works
2. The recovery found quite a few old partitions and files ranging in integrity of varying types.

I would be willing to bet because the drive reads and writes fine and will hold a partition for more than a couple hours that it was returned tested found to be working and repacked for sale again.

If that is indeed the case I would have to contact western digital and fight about it and try to get some kind of return for a new drive set up through them.

The drive came from newegg though and I bought it from a local shop that ordered from them to get it.

I think I will continue with this and see what western digital can do for me. I will post back once I talk to some people and see what can or will be done.

 

[Antman]

The drive came from newegg though and I bought it from a local shop that ordered from them to get it..

You seriously need to find a new shop.