5 TB WD Easystore External Hard Drive cable trouble

[ProJiJi]

So I used GAhere's link in Post#20 and this sure is a DPK! (Digital Page Kangaroo)

Western Digital ("WD") values your business and always attempts to provide you the very best of service.

No limited warranty is provided by WD unless your Western Digital or WD brand HDD Product ("Product") was purchased from an authorized distributor or authorized reseller. Distributors may sell Products to resellers who then sell Products to end users. Please see below for warranty information or obtaining service. No warranty service is provided unless the Product is returned to an authorized return center in the region (warranty regions are identified as Canada, U.S.A., Latin America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, India and Thailand) where the Product was first shipped by WD, which may have regional specific warranty implications.

Next I experience baby DPKs when I go here:

https://www.easystore.co/en-us

I suppose that "en-us" is because I'm in Japan, BUT this is so weird:

UCX Win Customer Hearts With Every Shopping Moment
UCX (Unified Customer Experience) enable brands to connect with customers wherever they shop, engage, or redeem rewards, creating a unified shopping journey that drives customer loyalty.

Any organization that is using that vocabulary "unified" is reminding me of my active duty days and learning to be unified as a military unit.

A customer is an individual and not to be viewed as one of many and needing to be unified as that takes the personal touch smack out of the equation with your own vocabulary usage!

As for unifying my heart with another customer's heart; forget it. Mine's in its 8th decade of work and I sure bet no 20/30-year-old customer wants unification with mine.

I could write a good 15-minute comedy routine using just that which I copied above from that company's page. That is horrid vocabulary usage!

There's much better phrasing that could be used to get across the idea that no matter where you live (within our sales territory over the planet) we treat all customers with equal respect. If you treat every consumer problem in a "unified" way; or even give out that impression - - - well, that is simply a disaster with language.

Anyway, I was sort of wondering just what we have here.

There are clearly a number of routes that can be taken to solve this problem, but maybe a wait of a few more days is okay, yes? From here in Japan I'd start with a trade representative from Canada. There must be somebody here that does that job, even if it is not her/his primary function in whatever entity that person may be working in.

And I am more than a bit surprised at Western Digital's phrasing of that warranty stuff. Golden rule in PR and even when related to a warranty notification of any kind: DO NOT start with "No"!!

Some reason I think I know Western Digital has been around a few years, as I recall having some sort of business with them way back. Until now my gut feeling was they were reliable, without digging into files to find out who runs that organization these days.

This is a mighty interesting thread.

[ozymango]

I will have another online chat with Best Buy Canada tomorrow and see how that goes. I will tell them I will never buy another Hard Drive ever from them again unless they make this right.

Hi again, Tom, sorry you seem to keep getting the short end of the stick lately from so-called "customer service." One thing I'll offer that has worked for me in dealing with recalcitrant "customer service" personnel -- stay on the line (or chat) and very importantly, be REALLY pleasant, but be REALLY persistent, and chances are if you refuse to stop talking (and are still being very nice all the time), what'll happen is, you'll get transferred to somebody else, because the person you're talking to is low down on the food chain (so to speak) and after a certain amount of time they'll "give up" and move you on to somebody else.

This is a good thing! Because if you can keep your cool but don't give up (at least in my experience), you'll keep getting transferred to different people -- and it's worth it, because your call/chat is being "escalated." And about the fifth or sixth person you get transferred to, will finally be a person who has some decision-making ability -- and this is finally the person who can actually help you! Yeah it's a bit of a pain but it really and truly works -- you need to get transferred at least three or four people before you'll get to the person who will finally say -- and they will say -- "Okay, what can we do to resolve your issue?" and then they'll tell you how to get your drive replaced.

This really works! I'm not kidding! I've used this method to get refunds and discounts and all sorts of helpful stuff, IF you stay patient and good-humored and just refuse to take NO for an answer. You seem to have gotten the nice part down, now you just need to be so persistent they'll refund your money just to get you to hang up!

EDIT: You'll know you're getting close when the person who picks up opens with "Hi, this is [Bob/Mary] and I'm sorry to hear of your problem, what can I do for you?" What is really the best sign is when they pick up the phone and there's no background music, it sounds like they're sitting behind a desk in a warehouse, they have this sort of flat voice because they're used to talking business and cutting right to the point, and they'll say, "This is Bob (or Mary), what can I do for you?" like they've been saying it all their life -- and you're in, this person can help!

[ProJiJi]

That's good advice, ozymango. Key is that you are being creative with that approach. And that being super polite is a big factor. "Good afternoon" --- "Sir" --- "Ma'am" --- and such is an immediate feeling at the other end of "I like this customer." But being creative is an important method. Politely creative. And, yes, wear them down like that.

I did find out that a not so good trick is to ask too quickly for the supervisor. Even if it might be a government situation. Even there, allowing a few lower ranks to have a go at the situation is better. Eventually a supervisor will get into the mix.

With my age factor kicking in over the last few years I have had to rely on Amazon deliveries of some items that can be heavy in a "normal" shopping run. And as we have a rather complex housing arrangement at this location the delivery folks sometimes get the proper placement of the product wrong. I've actually had Amazon give me back a shipment's money - 'product cost' - even if I can go find where the delivery gal/guy placed the box. I even postulated that it was wrong of the person on the support line to do that and they stated it was all within company guidelines. Can't say as I am sure, but it might be partly due to my being naturally in a polite mode in that sort of situation. No need to get angry at an employee in over their head, as is the case many times.

Now government folks I deal with sometimes, I might be a tad less on the polite side, but never lose my cool.

What I have noticed a lot is that really weird robot trying to communicate with a human. I remain polite with what language I type, but it is so weird and irritating. And I have yet to try any type of voice communication with a robot program. In fact, it took me a bit of work to figure out how to get an Amazon employee on the line after a few weird robot interchange of language, in both Japanese and English.

As for how this is all being handled in the North American or EU or UK areas of the planet, I can only learn from threads on the Net, like this.

I'm still trying to digest that "You opened the box." thing.

Oh yes, and for you younger folks, the ultimate "Get their attention." trick is use snail mail. That service still exists and for really bad troubles, it works great. Just be sure to get about the third rank down from the top and spend the extra money for 'Sign For" delivery, which I forget the English vocabulary for.

As for this situation, I sure hope that Mr. Saurus gets a proper response from one of those entities he's dealing with in his troubles. This thread alone is a PR 'not-good' thing for those entities.

I'm working on a way to connect a "Can of worms." with "You opened the box." And that "You opened the box." response connected with a bad food situation could really get funny. --- "Sorry, you engaged the product with your nose by smelling it was bad, so all bets are off."

[GAhere]

So I used GAhere's link in Post#20 and this sure is a DPK! (Digital Page Kangaroo)

Western Digital ("WD") values your business and always attempts to provide you the very best of service.

No limited warranty is provided by WD unless your Western Digital or WD brand HDD Product ("Product") was purchased from an authorized distributor or authorized reseller. Distributors may sell Products to resellers who then sell Products to end users. Please see below for warranty information or obtaining service. No warranty service is provided unless the Product is returned to an authorized return center in the region (warranty regions are identified as Canada, U.S.A., Latin America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, India and Thailand) where the Product was first shipped by WD, which may have regional specific warranty implications.

Until now my gut feeling was they were reliable, without digging into files to find out who runs that organization these days.

This is a mighty interesting thread.

In the past WD had a RMA process page on their website.

On that RMA process page, you enter/select the model, enter the serial number, they will request you download and run diagnostics software to test the drive, since you can't plug it in you can't run diagnostics but there was a section that you could mention diagnostics won't run..

If serial number is in warranty, they typically give several options..

1 send drive to them, they will verify non working and return a new or refurb drive back

2 request replacement upfront, you spot them money upfront to cover the cost of replacement, once they get the drive, they verify and if they decide it is a out of box defect they refund your upfront money..

Now granted, this has been my experience from 10 or more yrs ago which was one of the last drives I had replaced and times certainly have changed so the process may be a lot different now days due to crummy scammers.

I have used a lot of WD internal drives along with Seagate, Hitachi and a few others.. Have a love/hate thing with Seagate, got burnt on a bunch of bad 1.5 TB drives with bad firmware when they first came out.. First round dropped like flies, but fortunately I was using them in a server with a RAID 5 drive setup plus a hot spare that the controller card could automatically swap and rebuild the array without my intervention.. RMA'd six of those drives over a couple of yrs times.. They replaced the 1.5 TB drives with refurb 2 TB drives..

Things have gotten even tighter now days as Crucial/Micron are now in the process of shutting down ALL consumer retail SSD and Memory operations to focus strictly on industrial/business SSD/memory sales for AI servers..

Makes for less players in the consumer/retail market space..

[ProJiJi]

I keep a fair bit of data on all sorts of consumer affairs issues, if they somehow get on my radar. I had an amazing experience with a ceramic heater that I am going to take directly to a safety office run by the central government after it warms up a bit more. I got the heater back to safe working configuration to get me through winter, but what I found was quite a surprise. I have another issue of something that came up from a purchase I made from a supposedly reputable hardware company and that also requires a high level government intervention. Likely, I'll take that merchandise for that meeting when I deal with that heater thing.

BUT --- I seem to have data and some of my own perception that quality, as of late, has been at a lower level in many products here in Japan. I haven't had time to go full speed forward on research of data by the professionals, but I may do so later this year.

AND --- I have been getting a sense that in recent years quality control has been slipping a bit (or more) in other nations, where they have modest to good data on information like that. Again, I haven't had time to really dig for such information.

This case, though, with Mr. Saurus, sure isn't a good sign for a couple commercial entities over there in your area of the planet. Kind of hard to figure out what the heck is going on. For starters, Mr. Saurus here seems to be on the level, so if any of those companies wanted to claim all this information is false, they could be digging a deeper hole for themselves. It only takes one leak to a legacy media tech editor to possibly get some extra attention to bad stuff happening and then . . .

[Tom Saurus]

I had a productive online chat with Best Buy Canada today. There is an option if the Geek Squad agrees with my me in a telephone conversation to get a shipping label sent to me to return the hard drive for a full refund. Hopefully I end up with someone kind that will agree and then they send me a return shipping label and give me a full refund. The Lady in the chat was quite sympathetic and perhaps there is real hope that it can be addressed. She also sent me the WD contact number but as I explained to them that once the drive is returned they can see the issue and I wouldn't be surprised they can't get WD to send them a replacement on their end. She wrote they would send me a full transcript and I wrote down the Case ID and the number for the Geek Squad.

I think I was so sweet I gave the Lady diabitis and she wrote she understood why I raised this issue and hopefully the Geek Squad will agree that the cable won't go in the slot and OK things to go forward.

[Tom Saurus]

I talked to a guy at the Best Buy Canada Geek Squad and he understood my problem and said it is most likely a defect in the hard drive. He transferred me to a Lady but told me to tell her that I had already talked to The Geek Squad. So I talked to the Lady and she sent me an email with a return shipping label. So I just have to get a bubble envelop at the local Post Office and tape the label to that. Then it is either take it to a drop off spot or see if Purolator will come to our Property and pick it up which would be better for me as we are not going up to Town until the 9th of April, 2026. The nearest drop off spot is a half hour's drive away so hopefully Purolator will come at pick it up. It is to go from where I live in Ontario all the way out to British Columbia. I have a tracking number for the package and I better write up a document describing the problem with the hard drive and put it in the envelope.

So hopefully it all works out and I get a full refund or credit. It feels good to get closer to getting this resolved. Thank you everyone for your guidance and I said at least one prayer and I bother God even with smaller things in life.

[Tom Saurus]

Some good news as far as the hard drive being sent back. I was able to arrange with Purolator Canada to come to our home to pick up the package and it is going to cost me nothing as the return label that I printed out from Best Buy covers the cost. I bought a bubble envelope at the local Post Office and the Post Mistress she taped the printed label onto the package. So on Tuesday it is scheduled to be picked up. I am hoping I end up with a credit or full refund.

Thank you all for the encouragement in my first Contact with Best Buy Canada it seemed that I had little chance of getting this worked out. I read the advice given here at perseveared and was as sweet as I could be and thankfully I ran across some people at Best Buy Canada that have been quite kind and understanding.

[ozymango]

[QUOTE=Tom Saurus;2794653|Thank you all for the encouragement in my first Contact with Best Buy Canada it seemed that I had little chance of getting this worked out. I read the advice given here at perseveared and was as sweet as I could be and thankfully I ran across some people at Best Buy Canada that have been quite kind and understanding.[/QUOTE]

Glad to hear the good news, Tom! Crossing my fingers for you! And please let us know if/when this story has a truly happy ending!

[Tom Saurus]

Purolator picked the parcel up at our home and it is on ts way to Best Buy the tracking says it may even get there today. So hopefully it all works out well.

[Subtitles]

That is good news.
I hope that you will get a full refund and not a replacement.
Once you have the money in your account, you can order a hard drive from Amazon. They usually have a better customer service especially when it comes to refund claims.

[Tom Saurus]

According to the tracking on the parcel Best Buy Canada got it yesterday. I haven't got an email yet so I don't know what they are going to do. I don't know how the refund would go; maybe they would credit the money back to my credit card or whether they will just send a replacement. Maybe I should do a chat with them today because we have the Easter Holidays coming up so they might not be able to address the issue until next Tuesday.

[Tom Saurus]

Some good news I got an email alert from the Credit Card Company I have a card with and Best Buy Canada refunded me $192.09 I went and signed into my Credit Card Account and indeed the credit is indeed there. I am really happy they made it right. I am going to stay away from getting WD drives and I will probably get a 2 TB Seagate Hard Drive. Thank you everyone for your advice and support. I was pretty much resigned to taking the loss and giving up and thankfully this has worked out well after all. They did the credit on Thursday, April 2nd, 2026.

[jagabo]

WD and Seagate drives appear to be the most reliable overall. I wouldn't avoid WD just because of one bad drive.

Backblaze runs lots of consumer grade drives in a cloud storage environment. They publish failure rates every year:

https://www.tech2geek.net/backblaze-hard-drive-reliability-report-2025-the-most-reliab...al-world-data/

That doesn't directly correspond to your usage scenario but it's one of the few reliability reports that exist.

I would be more concerned about making sure the drive you get isn't SMR (shingled magnetic recording):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shingled_magnetic_recording

[Tom Saurus]

WD and Seagate drives appear to be the most reliable overall. I wouldn't avoid WD just because of one bad drive.

Backblaze runs lots of consumer grade drives in a cloud storage environment. They publish failure rates every year:

https://www.tech2geek.net/backblaze-hard-drive-reliability-report-2025-the-most-reliab...al-world-data/

That doesn't directly correspond to your usage scenario but it's one of the few reliability reports that exist.

I would be more concerned about making sure the drive you get isn't SMR (shingled magnetic recording):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shingled_magnetic_recording

Thanks for your input. A friend I have here at VideoHelp wrote me about perhaps switching things up from my usual routine and getting an enclosure and ending up with something better.

[Tom Saurus]

I was going to order a 4 TB Seagate Hard Drive from Best Buy Canada but had to cancel the order because my Credit Card Company wanted me to get a verification code via text and since we have a land line that wouldn't work and that was the only option to verify. I suppose I have to join the twentieth century and switch to a cell phone soon. So I went to Amazon Canada and order pretty much the same hard drive for ten dollars less.

I felt I should reward Best Buy Canada for stepping up and giving me a full refund. But it doesn't seem to be meant to be. I better contact the CC Company and change the verification message to email or voice code. Probably 99.99 percent of people use mobile phones these days. We have been heavy duty thinking of switching to a cellphone and dropping the land line. But on the other hand my Mom is going to have to practice with my Sister's cell phone to see if she can figure out how to make calls and to receive calls. As far as myself if I put a cellphone to my ear I can't hear it well enough to make much out unless I activate speaker phone than I can hear it. I haven't that figured out because as a certified tightwad I can hear a nickle drop a mile away. But maybe my hearing is going a bit as I find that a lot of times when watching Music Award Shows I am having to put subtitles on as to me it seems the instruments playing is louder than the people who are singing. I better stop writing this post as it is turning into Tom Saurus the mini-series.

[abolibibelot]

@ “jagabo”

WD and Seagate drives appear to be the most reliable overall. I wouldn't avoid WD just because of one bad drive.

When I was regularly visiting a forum dedicated to HDD issues (and storage devices in general), the overwhelming consensus among professionals was that Seagate drives should be avoided like plague. I've had issues with Seagate drives, but they were no longer under warranty. I've had issues with Western Digital drives and could verify that their RMA process was flawless (although they would usually send refusbished units, which can be less reliable than brand new ones on average). Once I purchased two used drives which were dead on arrival, the seller became unresponsive when I complained (they had visible signs of damage which I couldn't have spotted on the pictures as they were still sealed), yet I could get them both replaced by providing only the serial number, no proof of purchase was requested (albeit, as mentioned, I got two refusbished drives – one is still working flawlessly and running daily, the other has developed a few bad sectors, since those seem to be located in a specific area, within a large video file, I moved that video file to a specific subfolder with a name that says “file containing bad sectors”, so that I don't try to touch it accidentally in the future, and use it sparingly; it has remained stable for years).
As for Seagate, I don't know if their RMA process is as good.
And as I mentioned before, Toshiba's warranty used to be non-existent in Europe – I don't know if that's still the case.

Drives that come in enclosures are usually not eligible for a direct replacement by the actual HDD's manufacturer, it's way more fuzzy, and I wouldn't buy one for that reason, among others. Years ago when I was using enclosures (connected through USB or preferably eSATA which was much faster than USB 2.0), I would buy enclosures separately, from reputable brands (Icy Box, Cooler Master, Enermax...), and use them with internal HDDs, switching them as needed.
Now I prefer to use hot-swap bays, which I find more reliable. Back in 2016 I went into a lot of trouble to find a computer case that had 1) an eSATA port 2) a few hot-swap bays. Found only two at a reasonable cost: the In Win Buc and the Xigmatek Pantheon; purchased the latter (used – the seller was a bit reluctant to ship it, as it's quite huge, but the odds of selling it at all must have been quite low, as such large cases were becoming out of trend, and the features I was after are not exactly among the most popular). Turned out that I never used eSATA enclosures ever again (those I had started malfunctioning soon afterwards and I didn't bother replacing them).

I made a post on that topic on Doom9 a few years ago, which may be of interest here. The relevant bit:

Also, I've become a bit wary of docking stations and external HDD enclosures, because their power supply is usually fragile which can potentially harm the connected drives in the long run (those devices are very sensitive to even minor electrical instabilities {*}). I used to use them but now do so only sparingly since I installed a hot-swap cage right inside the computer case (plugged through a UPS for added safety). Most of those are quite expensive (60 to 120€ – about the price of a decent full size computer case !), but after searching far and wide I found the Xigmatek 3-in-3 SATA HDD hot-swap cage, which was just under 30€ and is excellent overall. It's a less compact design than some other models (there are “4-in-3” design, meaning 4 3.5" HDD bays in 3 5.25" bays, or even “5-in-3” designs), but it's better for air flow, it has a 12cm fan (some similar sized and much more expensive models only have a 8cm fan), the trays are in plastic but sturdy enough and they can host 2.5" HDDs (they need to be screwed down, less convenient than a docking station for those smaller drives ; screws are not needed for 3.5" drives). The only slightly awkward element is the front door, which opens from top to bottom, it's less convenient than a door opening from one side and can be prone to accidentally breaking the hinge if one is not careful (at least it does have a front door). Other than that it's just what I was looking for. Too bad it's apparently no longer produced. I put it inside a Xigmatek Pantheon case, which I chose mainly for its two integrated hot-swap HDD bays accessible from the front pannel (a very rare feature at its mid-range price point, and a very rare feature period, last time I checked only a handful of high-end models had some), with a 12cm fan blowing right beside them, and the possibility to access an additional 4 HDD bays (without a dedicated SATA slot so it's not as convenient) from the front of the case.
If this video doesn't sell everyone on the virtues of internal HDD cages, nothing will !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA9AKLOVOKk

@ “Tom Saurus”

I better contact the CC Company and change the verification message to email or voice code. Probably 99.99 percent of people use mobile phones these days. We have been heavy duty thinking of switching to a cellphone and dropping the land line. But on the other hand my Mom is going to have to practice with my Sister's cell phone to see if she can figure out how to make calls and to receive calls. As far as myself if I put a cellphone to my ear I can't hear it well enough to make much out unless I activate speaker phone than I can hear it. I haven't that figured out because as a certified tightwad I can hear a nickle drop a mile away. But maybe my hearing is going a bit as I find that a lot of times when watching Music Award Shows I am having to put subtitles on as to me it seems the instruments playing is louder than the people who are singing. I better stop writing this post as it is turning into Tom Saurus the mini-series.

Gee, and I thought that I was living like a caveman! I did finally, very reluctantly, get a basic cell phone in 2018 (it had become mandatory to use a specific car sharing service), then a so-called “smart” dark monolith a few years later (albeit a ~2016 model, which must be considered seriously outdated by now, but I don't plan to get a newer one anytime soon). Actually I had had one quite early on, in 1998, during my first college year, when I was living in a tiny lousy single room which didn't even have a landline; but then I got increasingly appalled, both by the underhanded commercial practices that were typical at the time, and by the way it was quickly changing people's interactions and behaviors on a large scale. French essayist and radio host Alain Finkielkraut summed it up quite well when asked about his well known aversion to modern technology in a television interview:
“– [PL] Why do you refuse technology in this society of transparency?
– [AF] You know, you can't refuse technology.
– [PL] No, but no mobile phone, no Internet...
– [AF] Well, the mobile phone... I'll tell you what. The mobile phone provides a lot of services. This is why its presence, the presence of this nomadic object, is irreversible. But at the same time, the mobile phone has done absolutely irreparable damage. The streets have changed, the way people cross paths is no longer the same. It feels like the streets are inhabited by psychotics who talk to themselves, very loudly, all the time. [...] What I don't like, if you will, about current technology, is that it is paradoxically a kind of return to nature, and a challenging of all the mediations which make life a little more human.” (in television show Des mots de minuit, hosted by Philippe Lefait, 22 October 2009)

Jesse Ventura proclaimed that he would make it his “life's mission” to never own a cell phone – sh*t, that video is now “private”... see attachment.

[Tom Saurus]

The 4 TB Seagate Hard Drive I ordered from Amazon showed up today. I have been able to get the cable into the hard drive and tested it on my Mini PC. Everything seems to be terrific so far. Thankfully the bicycle ride home with it seems to have done no damage. I thought it would come via Firefly courier like my other recent orders from Amazon. There was a parcel card in the mail box at the Post Office.

[The_Doman]

Good to read all is solved now.

Possible informative topic if you have to decide between using exFAT or NTFS on your external drive:
Management of > 4TB HDDs (exFAT,NTFS and GPT)

[Subtitles]

The 4 TB Seagate Hard Drive I ordered from Amazon showed up today. I have been able to get the cable into the hard drive and tested it on my Mini PC. Everything seems to be terrific so far. Thankfully the bicycle ride home with it seems to have done no damage. I thought it would come via Firefly courier like my other recent orders from Amazon. There was a parcel card in the mail box at the Post Office.

What is the Seagate 4TB hard drive model that you received?

[Tom Saurus]

The 4 TB Seagate Hard Drive I ordered from Amazon showed up today. I have been able to get the cable into the hard drive and tested it on my Mini PC. Everything seems to be terrific so far. Thankfully the bicycle ride home with it seems to have done no damage. I thought it would come via Firefly courier like my other recent orders from Amazon. There was a parcel card in the mail box at the Post Office.

What is the Seagate 4TB hard drive model that you received?

The writing was so small on the underside of the drive I couldn't make it out. So I signed into my Amazon Canada account and the hard drive is a STGX4000400. It says it has one year rescue insurance included. That might be handy if I was to get sucked into the Bermuda Triangle or The Twilight Zone; but I suppose I need to get a mobile phone to call them as they may not have landlines in those areas.