5 TB WD Easystore External Hard Drive cable trouble

This is the first WD drive I have bought in years and with the Seagate hard drives it has always been easy to plug this USB cable into the drive itself. With this I can't get the cable to go in the slot. I think I will beg Best Buy Canada to let me return it.

I chatted with them and at first they didn't want to do anything as I opened the box. I explained how can you tell if anything is wrong with a hard drive if you don't take it out of the box. I feel awful paying all this money and I will never buy a WD hard drive again. I hope they have a remedy they said they would send an email.

I have many WD MyPassport drives and the cable never gave me any trouble.
I have has issues with Seagate drives and I will never buy anything from this company ever for free.

I am glad that you have good experiences with WD. I gave it another go and still the cable will not go into the drive itself. The computer end works fine but that is of no use. Perhaps it is the drive itself instead of the cable. I am sad about it but I may have to accept the loss.

The cable on WD My Passport has two parts I just insert the cable into the drive port according to the length and it clicks into place without any problem.
Can you please upload an image of the cable end and the drive port?
I am not familiar with your drive maybe it uses a different cable to WD My Passport but I doubt that.

The drive port is recessed and maybe off to the side a little bit too much. Here is the drive and in the customer picture mine differs as it looks more recessed at the drive port and off a bit so the high speed cable won't connect in. So it is the hard drive not the cable. It sure would be nice if they would just take it back and even if they refunded 75 percent of the cost I think that would be alright.

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/wd-easystore-5tb-usb-3-2-portable-external-hard-d...black/19407243

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBPKu6OIF7U

The cable looks like a female to plug into a male drive port the different then in that video. It is very weird this drive I have.

Thanks for your response. Yes it looks a lot like that but it is not that close to the surface it is back in and offset a bit from the look of things. As soon as I tried it the first time the cable just wouldn't go in. I think is a flaw in the manufacturing.

Thankfully I have found some room on one of my 2 TB Seagate Hard Drives so I can stave off getting a new hard drive right away. I have a heating oil fill up coming in April and that is going to definitely lighten my wallet so it will be nice to put off getting another hard drive for maybe a month or two.

Best Buy is suppose to get back to me within 3 to 5 business days. Hopefully being a loyal customer all these years counts for something.

Originally Posted by Tom Saurus

Yes it looks a lot like that but it is not that close to the surface it is back in and offset a bit from the look of things. As soon as I tried it the first time the cable just wouldn't go in.

Post a pic of your port. It shold be like this


[Attachment 91627 - Click to enlarge]

Thank you all I will take a picture soon. I am just a bit tuckered out and I am going to relax a while but I will definitely get that done and uploaded to demostrate what the problem is.

Originally Posted by ProWo

Originally Posted by Tom Saurus

Yes it looks a lot like that but it is not that close to the surface it is back in and offset a bit from the look of things. As soon as I tried it the first time the cable just wouldn't go in.

Post a pic of your port. It shold be like this


[Attachment 91627 - Click to enlarge]

^^^THIS^^^

And that connector is very easily damaged, even the one in the picture above looks like the metal shielding has been bent, should look more a "V" in the middle..

Rather than buying something preassembled with drive inside, you can buy a empty USB drive enclosure and them buy a better quality drive. It is well known that the quality of the drives that are put into the preassemble units is a bit on the not so prime quality..

Here is an example which fits 2.5" laptop drives and the enclosure is only $10 US..

https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Tool-free-Enclosure-Optimized-EC-UASP/dp/B00OJ3UJ2S/ref...60&sr=8-4&th=1

That external drive case uses a USB 3 "A" to "A" cable which as a far more robust connector than what the WD external drive uses..

Right now a INTERNAL 5 tb 2.5 inch drive is running about $190 US..

Meanwhile a external WD 5TB drive is running $160 US..

That is a pretty good price difference between the two, guess what suffers?

Quality of the drive..

[Attachment 91641 - Click to enlarge]
[Attachment 91642 - Click to enlarge]
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Here are the pictures but they are terrible but the best I could do with my Sister's tablet.

Originally Posted by Tom Saurus

Here are the pictures but they are terrible but the best I could do with my Sister's tablet.

Use a smartphone.

Originally Posted by ProWo

Originally Posted by Tom Saurus

Here are the pictures but they are terrible but the best I could do with my Sister's tablet.

Use a smartphone.

I will give that a try. Thank you I am not the brightest bulb.

The one pix with the cable end is clear enough to see that the cable end that plugs into the drive is a Micro-B USB 3.0 connector.

Cable end that plugs into the drive looks like this..


[Attachment 91645 - Click to enlarge]


The other end of the cable can be USB A 3.0 or USB C 3.0. The ends are not interchangeable, only the Micro-B end will plug into the drive and that plug will only fit ONE way.

It is claimed that a USB C 3.0 cable could plug into the USB B 3.0 side of the drive and the drive will work, I would not guarantee that is true or that it won't result in a 100% broken drive socket..

Micro-B unlike USB C is KEYED, it only fits one way.

USB C is not keyed and connector can be flipped..

The Micro-B and USB "C" based USB connectors are extremely fragile, very easily broken/damaged, handle with care.

Originally Posted by Tom Saurus

I chatted with them and at first they didn't want to do anything as I opened the box. I explained how can you tell if anything is wrong with a hard drive if you don't take it out of the box. I feel awful paying all this money and I will never buy a WD hard drive again. I hope they have a remedy they said they would send an email.

I always buy from Amazon. They have 30 days return policy with no hassle.
Sometimes they even pay refund without the need to return the items when the shipment cost is too high to make returning not worthwhile.

My guess is you have an open box item. Someone bought it, removed the drive, stuck some old, probably bad, drive in the case, and returned it. Best Buy just looked in the box, saw a drive, put it back on the shelf, and sold it to you as a new drive.

Originally Posted by Tom Saurus

[Attachment 91646 - Click to enlarge]
[Attachment 91647 - Click to enlarge]
[Attachment 91648 - Click to enlarge]
[Attachment 91649 - Click to enlarge]

These are not much better but the best I seem to be able to do. I took them with my Sister's Samsung Phone.

The end to be connected to seems to be recessed farther than it should be and it is seems a bit skewed so it can't line up with the cable end.

Yes, you have a USB-B 3.0 connector.

Yes, it is off centered.

Yes, it is either a manufacturing defect OR damaged by attempting to plug connector in upside down.

You have several options.

1 Go back to Best buy and see if they are willing to replace the drive with the same drive as defective. Yes, if you did have data on it it will be lost, if you never got it working then no data loss. They should have offered to replace the drive immediately the first time as a measure good faith, but sadly due to folks abusing returns and stores getting scammed many often will not offer that option up front anymore.

2 If return/replacement is not an option at all at Best Buy, then try the WD warranty return process as defective out of the box.

You can find WD warranty info https://www.westerndigital.com/support/store/warranty-policy

3 If WD will not replace, then you have nothing to lose by cracking open the case and see if there is a way to align the connector with the opening or grinding the opening open enough to allow the connector to pass into the case..

There also is a chance that Best Buy was passing used/damaged returns by resealing the box but that may be difficult to prove. Many manufacturers to try to prevent this from happening by placing self adhesive seals on the opening flaps, but those seals often can be defeated by the use of a hair dryer or heat gun.

In the future, you are better off buying computer stuff from better retailers with better return processes.. Hard to beat Amazon for returns of defective products although with Amazon, be very aware of faked products and vendors that may not be willing to use Amazon rules and return procedures.

Originally Posted by Subtitles

Originally Posted by Tom Saurus

I chatted with them and at first they didn't want to do anything as I opened the box. I explained how can you tell if anything is wrong with a hard drive if you don't take it out of the box. I feel awful paying all this money and I will never buy a WD hard drive again. I hope they have a remedy they said they would send an email.

I always buy from Amazon. They have 30 days return policy with no hassle.
Sometimes they even pay refund without the need to return the items when the shipment cost is too high to make returning not worthwhile.

I will see how this turns out and I am not very hopeful that they will give me a replacement drive. They seem to want people to return items to a store. It would cost me over a hundred bucks to get a ride to the nearest big City with a Best Buy store so it just isn't worth it.

I think I definitely will start buying my hard drives from Amazon Canada and I will stick with Seagate no matter what from now and probably the 2 TB hard drives as that will be all I can afford for awhile anyway.

I sure hope they make it right. I have never returned anything to Best Buy or Amazon Canada. I have been a good customer to both Companies. Thanks everyone for your advice.

Originally Posted by jagabo

My guess is you have an open box item. Someone bought it, removed the drive, stuck some old, probably bad, drive in the case, and returned it. Best Buy just looked in the box, saw a drive, put it back on the shelf, and sold it to you as a new drive.

When I was writing my post, I forgot that some folks in this world may be "less than honest".

I would guess that jagabo is on the right track, chances are the 5 TB drive was removed and a different old smaller than 5 TB drive was put in the case.. However when they put it back in the case, they didn't bother to put the drive and circuit board back in the case in the correct orientation which would explain the reason why the connector is offset or out of place.

Fair chance that the 5 TB drive is gone, replaced with a cheap old small drive (far less than 5 TB) that may or may not even work. In this case, someone may have gotten a "free upgrade" in drive size (although I don't understand why someone would intentionally think that a external drive is worth this kind of hassle, manufacturers tend to put their reject (IE lower RPM or higher capacity drives that may have failed to pass QA tests at full capacity) drives in those cases and sell the unit at a discount compared to the more expensive single drives).

Store took it back and them resold it as new to you.

Unfortunately this puts you in a bad way as you most likely unknowingly bought a tampered with drive with no recourse.

If this is the case, it is not WDs fault, it is the STORES fault, but they have passed the buck to you and you are left with no options.

Even if WD warranty applies to the case serial number, they will check it over and if the drive inside is not a 5 TB drive and or the serial number on the drive does not match the serial number on the case it is game over..

Originally Posted by Tom Saurus

I chatted with them and at first they didn't want to do anything as I opened the box. I explained how can you tell if anything is wrong with a hard drive if you don't take it out of the box. I feel awful paying all this money and I will never buy a WD hard drive again. I hope they have a remedy they said they would send an email.

Hi, Tom. I'm confused if you contacted WD about your drive issue, or if you're dealing with Best Buy (in Canada?). If you purchased the drive from Best Buy and they're telling you to contact WD for support on a theoretically brand-new drive, that sounds very strange to me (here in the USA, anyway). I don't shop Best Buy much, but I've bought a lot of WD drives in my time (from Amazon and from WD direct) and I have never had an issue returning a bad drive. Actually I have never had a bad WD drive right out of the box, and the few times I've had issues with a WD drive under warranty, I've not had a problem getting a refund/replacement pretty quickly.

But if the issue is with Best Buy not allowing your return because you waited beyond 15 days to return it, I'd go back and talk to a manager and show the problem and I'll bet they'll warranty it. Or if you can't get to a nearby Best Buy store, you can (at least here in the USA) return it via mail (within a 30-day window, I think). Good luck!