Last November 2008 I purchased a My Book Studio to compliment my then recent switch to a Mac. Decided on getting the Studio version for its Firewire (FW) 800 connection. After weeks of using the drive, I notice that my console (Mac’s error and process log) always reported errors on this drive regarding its spotlight index, and always required a rebuild. I tried excluding it from the spotlight indexing, but that didn’t do anything, it will still index it and regularly give out errors. When I turn my Mac on or restart it with the drive connected, start up will take as long as 15 minutes to get me to the log in part. I tried formatting the drive and this somehow solved the start up problem. Then around January I was having problems with accessing files in it, finder window can see the folders and file names but I can’t access it, in fact trying to access any of the file will freeze the computer, until I disconnect the drive by unplugging it from the FW port. Of course disconnecting this way will always yield an error that drive was not properly ejected. I tried reformatting again, which would only give me a few days of trouble free use but problems would comeback, I tried using all 3 possible connections, FW800, FW400 and USB and problem is still persistent. After a problem occurs, it will be very difficult to try mounting it again, I need to rest the drive for at least 5 minutes, unplugged, before the computer will recognize the drive again. Then around February I got an error stating the my external drive has a problem and will only be granted a read only access to back up my file.
So I returned the unit for repair at the store I bought it from, Mobil 1 in Park Square last Feb 7 and to my understanding they will forward my drive to the distributor. After 2 weeks, I got a call that my drive is now ready for pick up, so I hurried to the store to pick it up. Upon checking the box, 1 cable, the fw 800 to fw 400, was missing and worst the service report that was attached to the box which basically just said:
Disc scanned, no error found, status OK, re-formatted drive.
After 2 weeks, this is all they did. Since a cable was missing they didn’t want to release the drive and will return it again to the distributor. I asked them to have distributor to run a more thorough test or at least try using it far longer than just a surface scan so that the problem can arise.
Since the problem is usually temporarily solved by reformatting, how can I show the supplier or service center that there is something wrong with the unit? I have a feeling they will keep insisting that there is no problem with my unit. I didn’t buy the drive as a temporary storage that would make it OK to reformat every few days.
As I write this, now over a month since I sent the drive for repair, I still don’t have the drive with me and got only a single call from the distributor telling me they will look into the problem. Now that this has happened and I started telling aquaintances about it, is the only time I realized I wasn’t alone. Many of my aquaintance, mostly Mac users also have similar problems with their Western Digital (of all models from portable to desktop external), that like mine can be remedied by re-formatting the drive, so this is not a practical drive to use if you need to format and erase all the contents on a fairly regular basis. So just like oil and water in a bottle, if you shake it hard enough they will look like they have joined together but give it some time and they will seperate again.
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Update: March 13, 2009
They finally decided to replace the drive, I am now in the process of re-populating it with my files. So far so good, but just like before the first few weeks upon purchase was error free, will update in a month.
