I had my decased external drive replaced under warranty

[lingyi]

I can't find the thread where I said I'd post a follow up on my RMA, but as a big proponent of removing external hard drives from their cases (cheap USB interface and power supply prone to early failure), I just had my 8TB WD MyBook (edit: easystore, not MyBook) drive replaced under warranty. It was using it as a bare drive and it failed after a few months of use. I put it back in the case and sent it in for replacement (drive only). I received my replacement with a new power supply and USB 3.0 cable.

It's a white label WD Red NAS drive like the one I sent. I've decased, formatted and run CrystalDiskInfo and using putting into rotation as a primary drive for the rest of the warranty period after which I'll which it to use a backup/archive.

I vaguely recall I've had another decased drive replaced under warranty before, but wasn't sure. I've read that since the warranty is actually on the drive itself, even if the drive only was sent in, the warranty would be honored. I don't know if this applies (the case doesn't have a Warranty Void if Removed sticker, but this article (an many others) states that "Warranty Void if Removed" stickers are illegal, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/04/11/those-stickers-warning-th...=.4aca11d17315.

That said, I suspect WD could make a claim that decasing the drive wasn't the intended use and somehow connecting it directly to a SATA and power connection caused the failure, but at least in my case I got my replacement drive.