Do Western Digital Passport for Mac Drives have a history of failure?

[LincolnsiPod]

I got a USB 3.0 Passport for Mac (500GB) for my folks to backup to using Time Machine. It backed up regularly for about 2 months with no issue. Then one day Time Machine fails to make a backup. I couldn't read or see the drive in Finder, so I used Disk Utility to Verify Disk and Repair Disk as necessary. I had to boot into the Recovery HD in order to run it successfully though. Once I did, Time Machine was able to read and backup the drive again.

Until the next day, when it fails once again, and I have to start the process of verifying/repairing the disk. It's been doing this crap 3 days in a row now.

I would have figured that if the drive was truly defective I wouldn't have been able to to repair the disk and get Time Machine to backup to it again at all.

Are there other solutions I can try? My next step is to re-format the disk and start from scratch again, only this time remove the partition WD reserve for its proprietary software and really wipe this drive clean, but it feels like I may be missing something obvious here. Assuming the drive is in fact not defective.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Try running Verify Disk to see how Disk Utility gauges the health of the drive in general.

 

[LincolnsiPod]

Try running Verify Disk to see how Disk Utility gauges the health of the drive in general.

I do, and the results are erratic. Sometimes it fails, sometimes it passes just fine. I usually have to go through several cycles of verifying and repairing the disk before Time Machine can use it again. I thought maybe it was due to being connected to a USB hub, but it doesn't explain why it suddenly goes haywire after 60+ days with no issue.

 

[MDJCM]

You know what, they might make decent hardware, but I hate the crap CRAP forced software they used to load these drives with. Dunno if they still do, but it was a nightmare.

So go Seagate, Buffalo or Toshiba for portable drives, no BS, no software, just use it.

As for failure rate, never ever ever trust any drive with data, always copy data across multiple drives and dont worry about failure rates as theres just no guarantees.

 

[thedeske]

As for failure rate, never ever ever trust any drive with data, always copy data across multiple drives and dont worry about failure rates as theres just no guarantees.

Agree - It's not WD, or Seagate, or whatever. There will be bad drives in any run of products.

There will also be people who get good ones from WD (or other) that never have problems and assume it's the company attached to quality.

Not So & and I'll add that dummies get a drive with a cheap cable or connection problem and never realize it's the stupid connection.

Just a thought

 

[LincolnsiPod]

Yes, failing everything else I'm going to reformat and re-partition to remove WD's software if possible, just to ensure that's not a factor in reading the drive.

 

[Sun Baked]

Go to

http://www.volitans-software.com

Download Smart Utility

see if the drive is failing or failed, and what is wrong with the drive if anything.

 

[Nermal]

Not So & and I'll add that dummies get a drive with a cheap cable or connection problem and never realize it's the stupid connection.

I had no end of trouble with a Seagate USB drive, but eventually I pulled the actual drive out and connected it internally and have had no problems since. It seems that USB connections can be flaky...

 

[LincolnsiPod]

Go to

http://www.volitans-software.com

Download Smart Utility

see if the drive is failing or failed, and what is wrong with the drive if anything.

Thanks, I currently have it bookmarked while monitoring the drive for the next few days (I've since connected it to my MacBook and used the disk utility there.)

I had no end of trouble with a Seagate USB drive, but eventually I pulled the actual drive out and connected it internally and have had no problems since. It seems that USB connections can be flaky...

I've noticed that as well, especially when they're connected to a hub, (even a powered one that "theoretically" should be parsing enough juice for the drive to function).

 

[MDJCM]

Yes, failing everything else I'm going to reformat and re-partition to remove WD's software if possible, just to ensure that's not a factor in reading the drive.

Sometimes that isnt enough, that's how stupid WD is and how much I hate them. They used to build in hard-coded software that was impossible to remove.

Not sure if they still do

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Go to

http://www.volitans-software.com

Download Smart Utility

see if the drive is failing or failed, and what is wrong with the drive if anything.

Deliverer of bad news!

it reports my 1TB internal is failing :-/