Faulty hard drive from PC World - they try to claim it isnt! My rights?

gavrd1

Hi there

I bought a Western Digital My Passport Essentials external hard drive from PC World in July which I use to backup my computer which has a standard 3 year warrantya.

Recently, my backup software (Norton Ghost) has been saying there is a problem with outputting to the hard drive and so since then I have tried reformatting the drive (windows standard format which just crashes halfway through and also the western digital software to reformat it back to factory settings which says it completes) and since then when plugging it in, it does not show up in windows at all so I can only assume it has developed a fault. I have tried this on 2 different computers too, giving the same result.

However, taking it back to PC World the the women there said she plugged it into a machine there and that there was no problem whatsoever, and that I was to try reformatting it using the WD software, which I explained I already had done. She just claimed that there was nothing wrong with it despite the fact I had tested it myself on 2 different systems at home and that they wouldnt do anything about it.

I'm no mug when it comes to PCs (I have a degree in computer science so am more likely to be more competitive at troubleshooting than non-qualified PC World staff are), but as they are claiming that they havent found a problem, even though I don't think they tested it properly, what would my next move best be? There is still no recognition of the drive everytime I try to do anything with it.

Thanks

deanos

Take it back and get them to show you it working ?

trevormax

deanos wrote: »

Take it back and get them to show you it working ?

Yep, this is what i'd do too. Then have the smuggest "I told you so" expresion ready for the moment it doesn't work

Alias_Omega

If when they test it, the item is working, then they cant fault it.

You need to show them it not working.

gavrd1

i have thought about that, as when i went there the woman took it into the tech guys section which public arent allowed in (although can see inside) and to me it looked like the bloke behind there told her to "plug it in" which she did but she didnt try to access the drive, she did nothing more.

when i plug it into mine it shows up as a usb device plugged in but thats all, it doesnt show up in "my computer" or do anything else so my guess that is what she took the presumption of it working from. i then hear him tell her "its fine, tell him to format it" which i already had done several times.

am thinking about taking my laptop in there which it doesnt work on and showing them that it doesnt work on that?

bumpoowee

I've heard stories about PC world and hard-drives.

JezCooke

If it recognises the USB device but it doesn't show up in 'My Computer' then it's possible that after it was reset it no longer contains any partitions. Click on the 'Start' button and go to 'Run' then type "DISKMGMT.MSC" (without the quotes) and press enter. See if it shows up there, if so you should be able to right click on the 'free space' section and create a partition, then format it. It may well be knackered but worth checking at least.

Freddie_Snowbits

He went to PC World!

Try this on the techie bored instead

gavrd1

thanks for the help everyone. im going to presume that its faulty as still no improvement.

even though the "safely remove hardware" module knows it is a usb storage device when plugged in, it wont show up in disk management (nearly crashes the computer when loading it) and rarely shows up in "my computer" (again nearly crashing when loading). the odd time that it does show up in "my computer" it gives an error when doing a standard windows format and also does the same when using the WD utility to format it. when plugged in the light on the drive also constantly flashes or just stays on for good.

so if i do take it back again and can prove that it is faulty, then am i right to presume that they are entitled to replace it for me with it being only 3 months old and having a 3 year warranty on it?

thanks

deanos

Its up to them to prove its not faulty as you have had it under 6 months which is in the SOGA , you dont have to prove anything