[CMinChrist]

Has anyone else had problems with VST and fixing/replacing FireWire drives. I have a Full Height 27GB drive. It stopped working 2 weeks ago. At first you could here everything start up, but it would not be seen by my Mac. A tech ran me through several steps and decided it needed to be looked at. By the time we were done the drive was not even spinning up.

I shipped it to them and they returned it saying it was misused. Their claim is that it is very dirty. The red paint or what ever it is wears off over time leaving the case sticky. It red comes off on to what ever it touches and dirt sticks to it. They claim it was very dusty inside and that it was making a horrible grinding noise.

Well upon return I plugged it up and it made no sound as the drive did not even attempt to spin up just like it was before I sent it. Therefore it is not likely it was making any grinding noise as they claim. Then I opened the case and there is very little dust and no dirt except around the fan.

So I called a supervisor today and spoke with her. She said they did not see dirt inside, but around the inside openings that reveal the FireWire connectors. The connectors are not dirty and if the case gets sticky dirt from a cars seats would stick to those areas as well if they are places against the back of the seat. Finally she tells me that the misuse comes from simply porting the drive around as it is only intended for use as a desktop drive. I said, that the documentation does not state that doing so void any responsibility they have under the warranty. So I looked on their site at the product info. And press release for the drive and sure enough it says the following:

"In addition to serving as a portable jukebox, digital photo album and video library, the high performance drives can also be used for backup, supplemental storage and as boot devices. They are also compatible with VST FireRAID Software, which allows users to create larger high performance volumes using RAID levels 0 (striping) and 1 (mirroring)."

Perhaps she does not define portable the way I do.

So any responses that cover similar problems with their support and the case paint wearing would be helpful.

Thanks

[jeromep]

I can't help you with their support, or lack thereof, but I can suggest something. If you aren't worried about voiding your warrenty, especially considering that they have basically told you they feel it is void, open up the case. You should find a major name brand manufacturer hard drive in the case. Do an RMA of the drive directly back to the disk manufacturer and you will get a new disk to put in the enclosure.

Please don't credit this suggestion to me, but another member posted this solution to a firewire drive that was out of VST's warrenty period and he decided to take the chance of opening it up. If my memory serves, the drive was an IBM and it even had a direct web URL to set up the RMA. The poster was very pleased with the outcome.

In his case, the drive failed very shortly after the normal warrenty expired and VST's response was for him to purchase a new drive. A company isn't required in any way to extend a warrenty after the contractual end date, but it certainly does make friends of your customers. Your posting may indicate a bigger problem at VST if posts like yours and others continually describe less than stellar service from them.

From a technicial standpoint, I seriously doubt that the enclosure or the related Firewire interface is the weakness in the drive unit, but that the disk itself has failed. Most disk manufactures have rediculously long warrenties for their hardware and therefore you can get a replacement for the failed disk directly from them.

[This message has been edited by jeromep (edited 01-28-2001).]

[jeromep]

One more thing, let's assume that you get a new drive from the disk manufacturer. You install it and find that the drive still does not work, say it spins up and seems to be mechanically fine, but the computer does not see the drive. I would suggest at this time downing the money and getting a generic Firewire enclosure from a place like ClubMac or anyplace you feel comfortable with. You are still money ahead and now have a very new drive in a better case enclosure.