Western Digital Class Action Settlement: Free $30 Software for Purchasers

zippyjuan · 06-30-2006, 12:14 PM

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/storage...629225834.html

Quote:

Western Digital Settles Misleading Capacity Class-Action.
Western Digital to Provide $30 Software to Customers for Free

Category: Storage

by Anton Shilov

[ 06/29/2006 | 10:59 PM ]

Western Digital Corp., a leading maker of hard disk drives (HDDs), has settled a class-action lawsuit under the terms of which the company was alleged in deluding customers by marking its hard drives according to decimal system, which means that the actual capacity of an HDD is less than that noted by WD.

Hard drive makers usually consider a gigabyte as 1000000000 bytes, however, as a kilobyte is 1024 bytes, while megabyte is 1024 kilobytes and gigabyte is 1024 megabytes, operating systems report that a billion bytes is really approximately 976562.5 megabytes. As a result of that San Francisco lawyers Adam Gutride and Seth Safier, who filed a class-action suit last year, alleging WD in deceiving customers about the actual capacity of HDDs.

While the firm finds the accusations unfounded, the company said, in a bid to avoid potentially expensive legal battle, it would give away $30-worth software designed to back up and recover computer files to anyone who bought one of the company's disk drives from March 22, 2001, through February 15 of this year, according to Associated Press news-agency. Western Digital has also agreed to pay $500 thousand in fees and expenses to the lawyers who filed the suit last year.

Customers seeking for the free software should register their claims at a special web-page ( http://www.wdc.com/settlement/ )until the 16th of July, 2006.

A similar lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court by the same lawyers, is still pending against another top disk drive maker, Seagate Technology.

Jcranmer · 06-30-2006, 12:56 PM

Dantz Retrospect is the free software. (I already own a copy and never use it) I would have rather had the $30.00. On top of that you have to have the reciept for your drive. I have a bunch of WD drives, but I don't have anything to prove when I bought them.

Maarchk · 06-30-2006, 04:29 PM

yeah thats weak. Oh, here, i have 100 dollar softwares to give out to people. Oh wait, i created the software so it costs me nothing, but i think its worth 100 bucks. Thats so stupid.
how about you give me my missing megabytes you little bastards.

hapoo · 06-30-2006, 04:41 PM

Its a frivolous lawsuit IMO. The standard for HD capacities has been the same for decades. And for many years to avoid confusion they've had a disclaimer explaining that the different numbering schemes. Its an industry standard, the same way that CRTs are represented by the tube size and not the actual viewable size.

clutchy · 06-30-2006, 05:39 PM

how about this whole class action is ridiculous... lawyers unbelievable... I wish i could convince people they'd somehow been duped then collect $500,000 wouldn't that be perfect? creating half a million dollars... anyone who collects on this is ridiculous.

06-30-2006, 04:29 PM	#3
Maarchk Rear Admiral Upper Half Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Where the east meets the west. Posts: 3,066	yeah thats weak. Oh, here, i have 100 dollar softwares to give out to people. Oh wait, i created the software so it costs me nothing, but i think its worth 100 bucks. Thats so stupid. how about you give me my missing megabytes you little bastards. __________________ "The girl is crafty like ice is cold." "I left my heart in san francisco... And my liver at Moe's Tavern." A real friend is one who listens to you as much as they talk to you.

06-30-2006, 04:41 PM	#4
hapoo Fleet Admiral Join Date: Jan 2000 Location: 742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield USA Posts: 9,276	Its a frivolous lawsuit IMO. The standard for HD capacities has been the same for decades. And for many years to avoid confusion they've had a disclaimer explaining that the different numbering schemes. Its an industry standard, the same way that CRTs are represented by the tube size and not the actual viewable size. __________________

06-30-2006, 05:39 PM	#5
clutchy Rear Admiral Lower Half Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Yucaipa, CA Posts: 2,863	how about this whole class action is ridiculous... lawyers unbelievable... I wish i could convince people they'd somehow been duped then collect $500,000 wouldn't that be perfect? creating half a million dollars... anyone who collects on this is ridiculous. __________________ LK was treated unfairly thanks X

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06-30-2006, 12:56 PM	#2
Jcranmer Commander Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Pekin, IN Posts: 1,377	Dantz Retrospect is the free software. (I already own a copy and never use it) I would have rather had the $30.00. On top of that you have to have the reciept for your drive. I have a bunch of WD drives, but I don't have anything to prove when I bought them.

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