External hard drives: I have 3 external hard drives. One Seagate which is working perfectly. One G TECH 4t which is a copy as well as a second G TECH for off site back up . Both of the...

sdorfman

I have 3 external hard drives. One Seagate which is working perfectly. One G TECH 4t which is a copy as well as a second G TECH for off site back up . Both of the G Techs have stopped working as they do not connect up to my Mac book. They are 1 to 2 years old. I have been trying to contact Western Digital to find out what to do re repair,warranty etc. They never respond to my emails or my chats. Total run around
Nor will they answer my telephone calls. Does anyone have any experience with them. Any advice. I am not super tech savvy
Thanks
Shelly D

Sidwalkastronomy Loc: New Jersey Shore

I emailed WD about my 2 6T external drives with different power supplies and heard back in a week, during holidays

Orphoto Loc: Oregon

When 1st external develops any problems, immediately arrange a replacement and then worry about fixing it. Maintaining the backup system fully is more important than any single component.

tcthome Loc: NJ

Do they even show up in your file directory?

tramsey Loc: Texas

I bought two WD each was 1 trb. they both went out less than a year after I bought them and about a month apart. I contacted customer service several times and each time they grew progressively more rude and argumentative, including calling me a liar. I got a hold of my attorney and he wrote a letter which cost me fifty bucks and got my money back telling me that it was all a misunderstanding yuda, yuda, yuda. I don't know how they are now and I'm not willing to find out.

tenny52 Loc: San Francisco

tramsey wrote:

I bought two WD each was 1 trb. they both went out less than a year after I bought them and about a month apart. I contacted customer service several times and each time they grew progressively more rude and argumentative, including calling me a liar. I got a hold of my attorney and he wrote a letter which cost me fifty bucks and got my money back telling me that it was all a misunderstanding yuda, yuda, yuda. I don't know how they are now and I'm not willing to find out.

I had two older bulking 1T hard drives that went bad for no reasons before I ever used much of them, from then on I only buy the SSDs which don't ever have any problem

Mr. SONY Loc: LI, NY

tenny52 wrote:

I had two older bulking 1T hard drives that went bad for no reasons before I ever used much of them, from then on I only buy the SSDs which don't ever have any problem

Don't open and read.
https://www.wepc.com/tips/ssd-reliability/

If you're using only one drive for backup you could be in for a big surprise.
And not a good surprise.
Yes SSD drive have been know to 'brick'.
Then what are you going to do?
There is safety in numbers, not being single.

GLSmith Loc: Tampa, Fl

try taking the 2 external drives and simply connect them to a different MAC...or even a PC as MAC uses ExFat file structure which can be seen/read by Windows...Are these devices seen by the PC, can you access the files...& then do a test...transfer a file from the PC to one of drives...If it works...It is not your external drives....As solid as MACs are they do have issues

warrenvon Loc: Ellicott City, MD

GLSmith wrote:

try taking the 2 external drives and simply connect them to a different MAC...or even a PC as MAC uses ExFat file structure which can be seen/read by Windows...Are these devices seen by the PC, can you access the files...& then do a test...transfer a file from the PC to one of drives...If it works...It is not your external drives....As solid as MACs are they do have issues

Not entirely applicable as EXFAT disk file structure is one of severl file formats that can be used for MAC disk drives. It is NOT the default setting for formatting HDDs. So her HDDs are most likely not viewable on a PC.

If you don't have access to another MAC but live near to an Apple store, you might take them to an Apple store and have them try to read them. This might work by visiting a Best Buy store and going to their technical service desk for help.

BobPeterson Loc: Massachusetts

sdorfman wrote:

I have 3 external hard drives. One Seagate which i... (show quote)

I had a similar issue with G-Tech 4TB drive. Turned out when I originally started using it I selected it to be encrypted. After Mac updated the encryption link was gone and it didn't ask for the pass word either. I could see it in Disk Utility but it wouldn't mount. I brought it to another Macbook that still was running the older version and a request to enter the password popped up. After entering it all files were accessible. I copied the files off to another drive and reformatted it.

farwest Loc: Utah

tenny52 wrote:

I had two older bulking 1T hard drives that went bad for no reasons before I ever used much of them, from then on I only buy the SSDs which don't ever have any problem

Well that is great for you but I just had an SSD fail without warning. I have no idea what happened it just over a year old. I have 5 G-Tech 4tb HD's not a issue yet.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Didn't Hitachi take over Western Digital? How's your Japanese?

I never rely on warranties. Like insurance companies, manufacturers will find a way to ignore your problem. I can't remember ever making use of a warranty.

Hereford Loc: Palm Coast, FL

jerryc41 wrote:

Didn't Hitachi take over Western Digital? How's your Japanese?

I never rely on warranties. Like insurance companies, manufacturers will find a way to ignore your problem. I can't remember ever making use of a warranty.

I'm like you on warrantees. I have never in all my years ever made good on an automobile warrantee, and never on an electronic one either. I received a bad new Roku recently and tried to get my money back, but could not do so. Nobody to talk to personally, and when e-mailed the problem, they only referred me to their policies which were un-acceptable for a satisfactory solution. Many of these companies successfully hide in the background to dodge warrantee claims. It is part of our new impersonal world.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Hereford wrote:

I'm like you on warrantees. I have never in all m... (show quote)

All that fine print exists for a reason.

photoman43

It could be the cable you are using or a lack of power. Try using a different cable; then a different port. If you are using a HUB, try and bypass it and connect the drive directly to your computer.

If you are using power adapter, try a different one. It could be the power adapter.

That is why someone posted "do you see a drive letter". If you do that rules out some of the possible problems, but not all.