Any issues with Western Digital External Drives 2020 or later ???

[Frank-0-Video]

Greetings ....

UPDATE ... Feb 8th 2026 at 6:48pm US EST ... For almost certain, I have a defective or near-dead drive. It either does or does not start up when plugging in to any usb port. All data has been successfully -- and thankfully -- re-located to another drive. At some point, I'll wipe and re-format the drive to see what happens, but I concede that its lifetime may be over.

Original Post ...............

I currently use Western Digital "My Passport" external drives in capacities of two (2), four (4) and five (5) terabytes. By turn, they all serve a Windows-11 computer.

The 2-tb drives were purchased in 2021, 2023 and 2024. The 4-tb drive dates from 2023, and the 5-tb drive dates from 2025. All drives employ a usb-3.0 cable connection to any desktop or laptop computer. I can't say if any of these are regular or "ultra". Most likely they are all regular.

What I believe is the oldest 2-tb drive dates from 2021. Within the last few days, it has begun to act oddly, sometimes going offline. A jiggle of the cable will sometimes get the drive back up.

I've tested the drive with various connections, including the use of usb cables from the other 2-tb drives. The same occasional problem still occurs.

Right now I've got the suspect drive 2-tb up, running, in a stationary position, and currently I am copying off all data to the 5 tb drive. My plan is to invest in a newer drive and re-locate all data to it.

If any one has info about the typical lifetime of Western Digital external drives made 2020 and after, as well as any known issues with these drive, please let me know. Your reply may include suggestions on how to extend existing drive life and usage.

If anyone has recommendations for alternatives to the Western Digital brand externals, you may reply with those as well.

Thanx-A-Lotte, Frank-0-Video

[Subtitles]

I have been using WD My Passport 4TB and 5TB over the last several years without any problem but never the 2TB size.
I have recently purchased the 6TB as well without any problem.
It is a good thing that you are transferring all the data from the 2TB to the larger one. After complete transfer and validation that the data is not corrupted, I suggest to format the 2TB and check it's behavior. Hopefully the problem will go away.
How many drives are connected to the computer at the same time? I found out that it is best to connect not more than 2 drives at the same time.
Connecting too many causes the computer to take a very long time to go from shutdown to active. Sometimes it doesn't therefore I keep only 2 drives connected only.
There is a remote possibility that the 2TB drive is not getting enough power from the computer.

[Frank-0-Video]

It is a good thing that you are transferring all the data from the 2TB to the larger one.

Advice - I found out that it is best to connect not more than 2 drives at the same time. Connecting too many causes the computer to take a very long time to go from shutdown to active. Sometimes it doesn't therefore I keep only 2 drives connected only.

There is a remote possibility that the 2TB drive is not getting enough power from the computer.

Thank You -- I'll keep the "No More Than Two" suggestion in mind.

One more thing -- You say you've used the 4 and 5 TB drives "for several years". Could you perhaps say almost surely how many years ??

UPDATE ... SEE ORIGINAL STARTING POST ABOVE RE STATUS OF DEFECTIVE DRIVE

[GAhere]

I buy empty USB to hard drive cases and then install a drive of my own choice into those cases.

The reason why?

I had experienced a major external drive failure from a well known good trusted manufacturer, lost every bit of the 1 TB of backup data files that were on it. The drive was never left on or connected, files copied to it then safely disconnected..

One day when needing to add some new backup files it was no longer readable..

I was fortunate that I didn't have a server crash and still had the server system data available, that would have been a catastrophic result in loss of production time for the company I was working for..

I have always suspected that even well known manufacturers/brands of external USB drives may be using subpar quality drives in those cases ever since..

[ozymango]

Well I have stacks of drives collected over the years, and my WD drives tend to have the fewest issues -- but really there are so many variables and most drives are really good these days, but of course whatever drive make/model you've got that contains your most critical data, that's the one that's gonna go first.

And one thing I've learned over the years that I can't disagree with -- you need 3 copies of any files you really really REALLY cannot afford to lose. You've got your working copy, and then two backups (at least), and one backup should be off-site (or at least in your garage in case your house burns down). Now I agree that sounds like overkill, and with cloud copies these days I suppose I'd count that as an "off-site" copy, maybe ... but I've been in situations where I had to recover the last possible backup and whew, it worked. And these days hard drives (spinner and SSD) are relatively cheap, compared to what it would cost to replace those critical files, so I prefer to err on the side of caution.

Again, I've had really good luck with WD drives -- but I've also had WD drives fail, so no matter what drive you prefer, backup backup backup!