WD My Book Essential stopped working... big surprise!

I’m not writing to expect an apology or really a solution to my problem. I have already read consistent general apology template responses that many others who have the same problem have received. So I know that an apology at this point doesn’t really mean anything, nor do the so-called “solutions” to the problem. I bought a 2TB My Book Essential not even two weeks ago and it has already stopped working. I noticed that this forum has lots of people who all have faced the same problem. So what I’m getting from this is that WD released a very unreliable product and probably still makes enough money from it to be able to send out a lot of defective merchandise. The only person I’m mad at is myself for not previously doing the research to find that these inferior products have a history of breaking. Like many of the other people who have went through this trouble, there went all my music and videos and many other files, of which it will take me months to replace and remedy. I have used all the software and disk management products necessary to attempt to recover the files, but to no avail. I was told that the drive was essentially dead and I would need to pay a software recovery company (suggested by WD on their website, of course) to get the files back. That’s exactly what I wanted to do. Buy a brand new hard drive, have it break in under 14 days and pay other people to get my files back. That sounds like great business actually.

With the fact that you have a FAQ topic at the top of this forum on the issue of the hard drive, you should seriously stop selling these lemons. It’s a sad thing that this company lacks integrity by allowing a product that won’t even work for a fortnight out into the market. For those who are fortunate to have a drive without any issue, I envy you. As for myself, I will not make the mistake of purchasing a WD product in the future as it’s caused enough trouble already.  So thanks for nothing.

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Glad you where able to express your concern and to let other people know about your bad experience. 

Your story will help other people realize the importance of having a backup.  None of the brands out there can guarantee that the drive will never fail. Don’t think ( correct me if I’m wrong) that this is the first electronic device that you ever owned that failed. 

Hope you are able to get those files back and in the future please keep backups to avoid this type of problems.

I agree with you 100%. It’s funny because I keep seeing responses from folks saying “you should always backup your files.” Implying it’s my fault. I spent a couple hundred dollars on mine, FOR USE AS A BACKUP, since WD said it was a BACKUP. I, too, did not expect the backup to need a backup within two months of purchase. These are lemmons and I will never buy another product with WD stamped on it. I know electronics have issues and we cannot prevent it, but when you consistently have the same problem over and over, well, that spells RECALL. I have seen where WD has had several recalls on earlier product for similar problems as ours. I would prefer for them to step up to the plate and actually start providing the recovery at no expense to the consumer. I work in public safety and do not make enough money to continue to purchase technology and extra equipment. This comes as a big blow when my wife is trying to start a business and we cannot even provide our own customers with a product because it’s locked up on faulty equipment. The ironic thing is, I know it’s not our fault. I have actually put my eyes on control boards on these drives, the contacts and electrical components look burned. That can’t be healthy. This was on some units directly out of the box. Maybe the technicians should check the assembly line for some excessive irons. Or better yet, have a technician answer the phone instead of someoneout in a call center with a checklist. USB cords are not always going to be the answer nor will sending it back for the same defective model serve as a remedy for all of these people’s lost perosnal files. I am beginning to think that WD gets subsidies from these recovery companies since that is the only solution they offer. And yes, if I knew a couple months ago what I know now, I would have never laid eyes on this product.

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We got MyBook Essential for a backup for our computer. It worked, for a year, then it totally stopped working! My computer doesn’t even knows it is there. No data.  Took it to computer experts, and they told me that they could not get any data from the drive. 2 GB of data, totally lost!

Like everybody else in the Community I’m up the river without a paddle!

Greg

Who did you take the drive to to get the contents out?  I’ve also got a lemon, and i’m really hoping someone can get the 4 years of pictures and videos off…like someone said, this was my BACKUP drive, i didn’t think i needed a backup for my backup! :frowning:

Well, as previously mentioned in another post, apparently I’m an ■■■■■ for not knowing about encryptions and I lack intelligance. The bottom line here is, there only a couple models of drives that WD puts out, so i hear, that carry encryption. Once your unit goes kaput, your mind goes kaput. Regarldess of how or waht your try, you cannot have your life or information about your life back. I like to think of WD as thieves. I would like to have them charged with theft by deception or theft of property. They continue to put these units out on the shelf, knowing they have problems. Problems ranging from bad soldering to faulty boards, but yet, we keep getting our information taken from us. The other funny thing is, this is a Caviar Green drive. The same drive is sold as a hard drive to be installed in your desktop, yet, there is no encryption on it. It is the same model number and everything, it just lacks the USB board and the cheap plastic housing. So, I’m not the one who is ignorant, I’m not the one selling these things. I wish you luck and hope you have not lost too many memories. I’m down about 13,000.

Sadly you learned one copy is not a backup, if you lost your backup you should still have the original files. The encryption is handled by a circuit board where the USB port is, this allows password protection.

Joe