WD launches investigation into problems with its controversial SMR hard drives — same drives that got WD sued in 2021 now reporting failure rates due to ‘fundamental’ flaws

Hard drive manufacturer Western Digital has confirmed that it is looking into potential problems with its older hard drives identified by data recovery scientists. The drives in question, a collection of 2TB to 6TB WD Blue and Red models released around 2020, are SMR drives, a classification that already brought WD a class-action lawsuit in 2021.

“Trust and reliability are the foundation of everything we do at Western Digital,” reads WD’s official response to German outlet Heise Online. “We take the…