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Although Mrs Bell should have a separate backup of all her data, Western Digital has a duty of care for ensuring its software is fit for purpose. We take on the case
I bought a Western Digital 2TB hard disk, which is still under warranty.
A legitimate pop-up screen from Western Digital advised me to update the software. But after I had downloaded this from the company’s site and turned the PC on it couldn’t find the hard disk.
According to the company, certain models will do this. It will replace the disk but will charge £350 plus VAT to retrieve the data. Western Digital said we could try to take legal action, but people have tried and lost.
Barbara Bell
This case shows both parties have a responsibility for safeguarding data. Mrs Bell should ensure there is adequate backup for her files and Western Digital should make sure its upgrades are fit for purpose.
Mrs Bell moved the original copies of files to the Western Digital disk, so did not have a backup. The company bears no responsibility for this but cannot wash its hands of the matter if an upgrade renders a device useless.
We spoke to a lawyer who said Western Digital has a duty of care for ensuring software is ‘fit for purpose’. So if an upgrade causes problems it would appear Western Digital is culpable.
Mrs Bell’s said Western Digital employees told her that people have tried to sue the company over this issue before and lost. This may well be the case because showing that the upgrade caused the problem may be difficult to prove in court.
However, according to Mrs Bell, the company has admitted that this upgrade has caused problems in the past. If this statement can be verified, this is an admission that the company realises the upgrade could cause problems, and by not advising people of this, it is on legally shaky ground in our opinion.
We have contacted the company about this matter and have also asked it for proof of the cases where people have allegedly sued and lost over this matter.
We will update you on this case in a later issue once the Mrs Bell has sent us the details Western Digital has asked for and when the company has looked this problem over.
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2tb disk
hello something is not clear here what has happened to the disk where she copied from as if she still has it everything is still there,another point is click on F2 immediately the pc starts and see if that disk is enabled as I had the same sort of problem when I up graded to a 1tb disk,I still have the old 80 gb disk in case things go wrong,but when I got the same couldnt find the disk,looked in F2 and it was not enabled for some reason,think I just changed the sata lead over to put it right
Posted by Edgar Mills, 28 Nov 2011