Tuesday September 28 8:41 PM ET
Western Digital Recalls Hard Drives
IRVINE, Calif. (AP) - Western Digital Corp. (NYSE:WDC - news) has recalled 400,000 hard disk drives
because of a defect in a computer chip, the company said.
The defect can cause the hard drives - the part of the computer that stores data - to fail to power up after
six to 12 months of use, company officials said Monday. The recalled hard drive is part of the WD Cavair
series.
The recall is the latest in a string of problems, including recent layoffs and a plunging stock price, for the
Orange County-based computer company.
Western Digital officials said it was unclear how much the recall would cost or how many of the affected
hard drives actually landed in consumer hands.
The company, whose largest computer manufacturing costumers include Gateway Inc. (NYSE:GTW -
news) and Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE:CPQ - news), said many of the disk drives are still in the
hands of manufacturers and sellers.
''No data has been lost, and none is in danger of being lost,'' said Charles Haggerty, Western Digital's
chief executive.
The hard drives being recalled were made between Aug. 27 and last Friday, and have drive capacities
between 6.4 gigabytes to 20.5 gigabytes, the company said.
Consumers who purchased computers in the past month can check specification sheets on their
machines to see if they include a Western Digital drive, officials said. The company's Web site,
www.westerndigital.com, offers a software program that can be downloaded to identify any affected
products.
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