Western Digital Caught Bait-and-Switching Customers With Slow SSDs

Discussion in 'hardware' started by stapp, Aug 25, 2021.

  1. stapp

    stapp Global Moderator

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    https://www.extremetech.com/computi...t-bait-and-switching-customers-with-slow-ssds
     
  2. Bill_Bright

    Bill_Bright Registered Member

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    Well, that's not bait and switch - but changing the product without changing the model numbers (or at least revision or SKU number) does seem to be a pretty ******* thing to do.
     
  3. EASTER

    EASTER Registered Member

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    Funny if not timely something like this shows up today. I was just scouting around these same WD budget hard drives only yesterday and something at the last minute where you say what the heck, let's get one of these, made me do an about face. Of course shopping budget drives in a Walmart is never been an ideal choice. Couldn't resist seeing what they had in those and other products. Very skimpy to say the least.

    Is why I choose either online direct from manufacture or reliable computer shop specializing in many competing brands
     
  4. xxJackxx

    xxJackxx Registered Member

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    WD SSDs have always been slow. I would never buy one from them when there are always better options for a similar price.
     
  5. Rasheed187

    Rasheed187 Registered Member

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    I wonder if most people even care about this stuff? In my desktop I'm using a Toshiba SSD and in my laptop I'm using one from WD, but I don't see any major difference. I do sometimes believe that my laptop is a bit slower, but it's probably because of Win Defender and Win 10 has got way more background services (svchost.exe) running in the background.
     
  6. EASTER

    EASTER Registered Member

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    It is hardly of concern for user's not with a WD. But its obvious those with WD would have concern. Units on this end are Seagate and Toshiba plus 1 Crucial SSD and 1 WD SSD.
     
  7. xxJackxx

    xxJackxx Registered Member

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    I doubt a lot of people would notice a difference they would relate to the actual cause. Most of the memory manufacturers make better SSDs than the hard drive manufacturers do. Any I buy moving forward will get careful research of the specs and reviews.
     
  8. plat

    plat Registered Member

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    Thanks, stapp, this made me think about my next SSD, the brand and model. Even so, the Samsung 980 Pro (which was more than double the cost of the WD blue) had a terrible write degradation after only 3 weeks of use. Fortunately, later on, Samsung issued two firmware updates, the last of which brought the writes up a bit but not to original speeds. So even that one's off my list now.

    You def. notice the downgrade in performance but it arises after a few weeks, not immediately. :thumbd: This was a very bad thing for Crucial and Western Digital to do. They have lost a customer because I now have no trust.
     
  9. Nebulus

    Nebulus Registered Member

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  10. Adric

    Adric Registered Member

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    When one starts, the rest chime in. IIRC. the same happened with CMR vs SMR HDDs. Try finding a 2TB 2.5 CMR drive nowadays. It's all about money which I can understand, but it's the shady tactics that bother me.
     
    Last edited: Aug 30, 2021
  11. plat

    plat Registered Member

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    Probably exploiting the tendancy for someone to not mess with any drive once it's established on the system. Like I said, this flaw is oftentimes not manifested until weeks after it's initially installed. :thumbd: And even then, you're prob. going to attribute it to something else like a corrupted OS before you look to the drive itself.

    People trust these brands, it's very shameful.
     
  12. Rasheed187

    Rasheed187 Registered Member

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    Yes this is what I meant, it's probably only a big deal for people who really need the speed, but in day to day usage you are not going to notice it, so probably that's why they think they can get away with this. Perhaps in the future I will also do a little bit of more research when it comes to SSD speed.
     
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