Western Digital doesn't support 64bit OS

Astral Abyss

2[H]4U
Joined
Jun 15, 2004
Messages
3,064
I really expect more from a technology company like Western Digital that has been making hard drives and related equipment for decades. They need to hire some people that actually know what they're doing.

When recently attempting to submit an RMA for my Raptor X hard drive, I found that the website tells me my drive is out of warrany even though I've only owned it about 1.5 years. I purchased mine retail back in April 07, and it came with a 5 year warranty. After submitting an email to them and waiting a week (they claim 1 day turnaround) explaining that I was having problems installing Vista 64 Ultimate due to disk errors and that even running the drive slaved as a non-bootable drive it generated tons of errors during disc transfers. I mentioned that the website is telling me my drive is out of warranty. I then simply asked if I need to send in a copy of my receipt or is it just a database error that they can correct? (I gave them the drive serial number)

For reference, my WD 6400AAKS drive performs the same tasks flawlessly.



This is the response I receive:

"Thank you for contacting Western Digital Customer Service and Support.

I'm sorry but we don't support our drives on any 64-bit OS so it could be a compatibility problem with the drive and your computer. We RMA drives for like units so you may have the same problem. Can you provide me with the proof of purchase so that I can attempt to update the drive. Our web team is working on the online store page to find out what is causing the problem so that they can resolve it.

Sincerely,
(name removed)
Western Digital Service and Support
http://support.wdc.com"


Wow. I guess all you folks running a 64 bit OS are taking your chances. :rolleyes: Come on WD. Why did I have to wait a week to get a lame ass response like this?

Anyhow, I just had to share that because I found it very hilarious and sad at the same time. From his response, I don't have much hope for him to "attempt to update the drive".

I just sent a reply with my receipt attached, so maybe I'll actually get to RMA my drive someday. Maybe in a week or so. (or sooner if they fire this guy)


Edit: by the way, I realize that WD DOES support 64 bit OS. I was just making fun of the idiotic response I received from their phone/e-mail monkey.
 
That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen, seriously.

Hard drives themselves have nothing to do with the OS on the machine. The issue sounds like: a) it's a defective drive, simple, or b) it's an issue with the SATA controller on the mobo or the drivers for that controller. And as we all have come to understand...

"It's the drivers... it's always the damned drivers..."

I hope you get the situation resolved, but as for WD and that email, it's ridiculous.
 
I seriously lol'ed hard. How stupid can the guy be? I've lost a lot of respect for WD. But there's no way in hell that you won't be able to get a replacement.
 
I know Koslov, I'm not really worried. I just was so floored by the response I had to post it.

It's definately not the drivers Joe. It has the same problems running in IDE compatibility mode, AHCI, or RAID on both my Abit IP35 Pro (Intel) and EVGA 650i (Nvidia).

When I originally upgraded to the Abit board I assumed the problems would go away, but they just got worse. When I decided to upgrade to Vista Ultimate 64-bit I realized the drive was shot when I just kept getting BSOD during the install and numerous failures to even detect the drive.
 
Well, my RAID0 array with WD6400AAKS's on Vista Ultimate x64 seem to disagree with you right now. :)
 
Based on the second post, the drive is defective, period. Did you run the diagnostic utility on it at some point? That would/will confirm it.
 
Did you run their diagnostic tool? You need to run that and submit the diagnostic results to WD. In a way, they are right, they really dont support OS's 32-bit 64-bit or otherwise, they only support their hardware.

I've dealt with a lot of hardware manufacturers. My advise; Never introduce any info about anything except whether their hardware passes their basic diagnostic tests or not. If it does then it's not their problem; if it doesn't, they need to replace it. If you start talking about errors in OS's then they are just going to focus on that issue and say that's not their issue to support.
 
WD windows diagnostic tool runs in Vista 64, but it does not support WD drives in raid because it can not detect logical partitions.
 
I wonder if the tech was thinking of their Data Lifeguard Tools app. Last I looked, it wasn't Windows 64-bit O/S compatible.
 
I wonder if the tech was thinking of their Data Lifeguard Tools app. Last I looked, it wasn't Windows 64-bit O/S compatible.

You might be right. He may have been referring to their application, but that's not the way it sounds, especially when he's referring to me having the same problems with a replacement if I continued to use Vista 64. I did mention in my email to him that I couldn't even get Vista installed due to errors.


I still need to run the Data Lifeguard program. I'll just use the DOS version and test it out. It'll fail. I have no doubt. Right before I removed it from my system I was downloading the Olympics video files overnight from NBC and when I checked on the status in the morning I had literally over 100 disk errors in my Event Viewer. I'm honestly surprised it didn't BSOD Windows. I could just scroll down the page and see error after error. Healthy drives, like my 640GB WD, don't do this, and in fact I haven't had any errors since I disconnected the Raptor and connected the 640.
 
What did you guys expect, some of their drives dont support or work with some higher end controllers. I have lost a lot of respect for western digital, but they do still make some good drives.
 
Back
Top