WD replacing some HGST Ultradisk enterprise HDDs due to high failure rates

The Register received a note that Western Digital is replacing "a small number" of its HGST UltraStar enterprise hard disk drives due to high failure rates.

Oddly enough, there's no list of affected drives. A quick peek at the HGST website shows most of their high-end enterprise disks are helium-filled so we wonder if the problem is related to that.

The company suggests organizations that use HGST UltraDisk products and think they might be affected should contact their WD supplier.

WD spokesman Paul Wooding said:

We have identified a small, isolated population of HGST Ultrastar disk drives demonstrating higher than expected failure rates when used in specific situations and use cases.

WD added: "While the Ultrastar product is meeting our expected field performance overall, we are addressing this specific issue, and working with applicable customers to identify and replace potentially affected drives. Western Digital is focused on delivering high quality products and supporting the needs of our customers."