Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Angry at OWC!

Noctilux.95

Noctilux.95

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 20, 2010
625
491
LA
I just lost 8-9 hours worth of Photoshop work working on a new OWC 240GB SSD 3G HD.
Nearly half of my 190 images (240MB+ each) are corrupt. I should have know something was wrong when my Wacom tablet would freeze up every time I started my Mac Pro.

After trouble shooting with OWC and checking both adaptor and HD we came to a conclusion the HD is bad. Not only do I have to redo the images but now I have to spend another day just downloading 10.7, all the apps, plug ins, etc..

I've had previous issues with OWC. My memory, also on my Mac Pro 4,1, has gone bad multiple times.

Is it just me or is quality control an issue with them?
 
It's you . I have no issues. It's been a while since I heard anyone with OWC issues. OCZ is another story. Can you scavenge the images with DataRescue or something similar?
 
I have a ton of their RAM in all my computers, with zero issues. All the same, things go bad, regardless of how good a companies quality control is.

Just bought a $500 graphics card from Apple, and it was DOA. I still consider their quality control good, but someone has to be that 0.5%.
 
Erm,

8-9 hours is a full days work, why wasn't time machine or something running if it was that critical.

I would only ever loose 1 hours work, let alone a day.

More your fault than OWCs TBH.
 
It's a bummer to hear about this, because I've loved my OWC RAM for 21 months running now. I don't have any SSDs yet, but eventually I will. Seems there isn't a single model that has a perfect performance record, hence the need for good backups. 8-9 hours lost sucks, but I've heard much worse.
 
OWC turnkey SSD iMac install -- AirPort antenne problem

I am a bit mad at OWC too right now -- I sent in a 27" 3.4GHz iMac to have a 120GB SSD installed, via their turnkey program....they were quick and got the machine back to me in two days....

BUT -- the WiFi was non-function, it could not see one network, which makes it useless because this is my work computer, and I do research on the internet all day for a law practice, so I constantly need internet, and I have no direct connection in my office, I use WiFi to the front office where the DSL is....

Apparently they "forgot" to re-connect the AirPort antennas when they put the machine back together, or they got disconnected when the box was bumped in shipment -- it was obvious the antennas were not connected properly because I was not picking up one network, just "scanning" --- where I would pick up about 25 networks before in my building downtown...

So...I had to rebox the thing and take it back over to UPS to ship back to them -- they said they will "fix it" and ship it back to me, and I will have it back Tuesday. We will see....

I'm on a MacBook Air here at work, my Mac Pro is my home computer...

The SSD drive in the iMac (Mercury Pro Extreme 6G 120GB) works flawlessly, and boots instantly, very very fast....but the machine is useless to me without being able to connect to the Internet.

I hope they get this thing fixed...still pissed about it. Was on the phone with them yesterday for over an hour, and had to carry this heavy thing back all the way across town to UPS, and lost 3 hours out of my workday yesterday.

Argh.
 
derbothaus said:
It's you . I have no issues. It's been a while since I heard anyone with OWC issues. OCZ is another story. Can you scavenge the images with DataRescue or something similar?
Click to expand...

This kind of comment is out of place.

Sounds like you are the kind of person who blames a person for getting the flu.

Blamers. Are. Yucky. :mad:
 
derbothaus said:
It's you . I have no issues. It's been a while since I heard anyone with OWC issues. OCZ is another story. Can you scavenge the images with DataRescue or something similar?
Click to expand...

The OWC ssd are basically OCZ repackaged ever so slightly with the same Sandforce controller, are they not? Seen a couple of other OWC ssd complaints else where.
 
OWC bad or not, it doesn't really matter. You should have backed up your data.

I don't trust SandForce based ssd's at all, some might agree and some might disagree.
 
G-Force said:
OWC bad or not, it doesn't really matter. You should have backed up your data.

I don't trust SandForce based ssd's at all, some might agree and some might disagree.
Click to expand...

I agree. The issues with SandForce reliability are widely documented. It's concerning how many people think OWC is somehow immune. OCZ merely sells more than OWC hence you hear more about OCZ failures. They all use SandForce reference designs, controllers, and firmware. Unfortunately, it takes disappointments like this before people understand why many of us don't recommend SF drives.

While a backup might have saved his work, it wouldn't have prevented his drive from going tits-up and causing a myriad of other hassles.
 
I saw a lot of good posts explaining the whole OWC quality as well as sandforce controller quality.

In general lets just remember that SSD's are still new especially when you consider them compared to conventional hard drives. Now we just made the jump to SATA III or 6GB/s, so SSD's also had to be retooled and raising possibilities for more problems.

just an FYI, I remember the first SSD's having even more issues then current problems.
 
the problem is the SF-2200 controllers, which OWC and OCZ (and others) use.

blaming the OPs backup strategy is stupid. just because he doesn't do a backup every minute or use mirrored drives doesn't mean it's his fault. not everyone wants to deal with a million TM versions or a RAID.
 
the problem is the SF-2200 controllers, which OWC and OCZ (and others) use.
Click to expand...

OWC, OCZ, IBM, Sandforce, not Sandforce, SSD, HDD, floppy, whatever, back it up. Just because something is more reliable than something else doesn't mean your specific storage device is perfect and will always be so.

Paper is pretty reliable. It doesn't crash. But then look at what happened to the Ancient Library of Alexandria.

Backup.
 
ActionableMango said:
OWC, OCZ, IBM, Sandforce, not Sandforce, SSD, HDD, floppy, whatever, back it up. Just because something is more reliable than something else doesn't mean your specific storage device is perfect and will always be so.

Paper is pretty reliable. It doesn't crash. But then look at what happened to the Ancient Library of Alexandria.

Backup.
Click to expand...

where did the OP say he didn't back up? you can infer that he does because he only last 8-9 hours of work, not all his data.

the issue here is how often. the OP could be doing his backups at the end of the day and still be in this situation.

and the OP was asking if OWC has a QC issue. I'm saying they don't, this is a Sandforce issue.
 
Hard drives fail, SSD's fail. This is news to anyone?

Simple rule, if you don't have at least three copies of your work, on at least two media types, with at least one copy stored off site, your work doesn't really exist.

I can understand being pissed that the drive you just bought failed, but you were just as likely to have a failure if you bought a SSD from Newegg, Amazon, or anyone else. To OWC's credit they do an excellent job replacing failed equipment. When one of the memory modules I bought for a MPB a year or so ago they overnighted me a new module.

The equipment failure was a luck of the draw, nothing more. The loss of your hard work however lies squarely at your feet for not backing up.
 
toxic said:
the problem is the SF-2200 controllers, which OWC and OCZ (and others) use.

blaming the OPs backup strategy is stupid. just because he doesn't do a backup every minute or use mirrored drives doesn't mean it's his fault. not everyone wants to deal with a million TM versions or a RAID.
Click to expand...

Not Blaming him for a bad ssd here! If its a bad SSD, OWC will not compensate him for his lost time will they? It is advisable/essential for anyone with mission critical work [how you make your living] to backup and do not trust the technology we use to speed up the workflow SSD, RAID or SAS....etc. How much are you willing to loose in time/money?
It is a shame that Noctilux.95 got bit this way -- but is it not a reminder for all of us - To backup?
From what we have seen from the OP we do not know if there is even any Backup at all, system? Users? Apps?

@toxic Do you backup? not trying to be confrontational just exploring the.


If Noctilux.95 went on a road trip for a drive across America would we not advise him to either carry a spare tire or have Road Side Assistance?
 
toxic said:
the problem is the SF-2200 controllers, which OWC and OCZ (and others) use.

blaming the OPs backup strategy is stupid. just because he doesn't do a backup every minute or use mirrored drives doesn't mean it's his fault. not everyone wants to deal with a million TM versions or a RAID.
Click to expand...

No one is saying the SSD failure is his fault, but we are saying his loss of 8-9 hours of his work is. He clearly states he's pissed at OWC for the loss of his 8-9 hours of work when that statement could have been, lost an hour of work if he was using Time Machine.

If you don't want to "deal with a million TM versions or a RAID", that's fine and your choice. Just don't complain when a situation such as this could have been avoided.
 
toxic said:
where did the OP say he didn't back up? you can infer that he does because he only last 8-9 hours of work, not all his data.

the issue here is how often. the OP could be doing his backups at the end of the day and still be in this situation.

and the OP was asking if OWC has a QC issue. I'm saying they don't, this is a Sandforce issue.
Click to expand...

It's amazing how quickly SSD's are falling into the same camps that HDD's have had for years. It's the I'd never use a Seagate hard drive vs. I'd never use a WD hard drive all over again. The only difference is that instead of the physical failures seen in spinning disks, SSD failure are usually firmware related. Sandforce has certainly had it's share of problems, but so have Intel, Micron, Toshiba, and the rest. I've never had a problem with either of my Sandforce SSD's, one of which is an OWC, but that doesn't mean one of them might not fail tomorrow. Then again the Intel SSD in my MacPro or the Samsung SSD in my MBA could fail just as easily.
 
toxic said:
where did the OP say he didn't back up?
Click to expand...

You misunderstand me, and that is perhaps my fault. I didn't claim he didn't back up. In fact I wasn't responding to the OP at all.

My response was to everyone, and it was meant to be generic and philosophical. My message is, regardless of how reliable or not your think your data storage method is, it's only as good as the last backup.

OP is talking about OWC HW QC going bad, including memory sticks. I have no opinion of that because I haven't purchased anything from OWC.
 
Trusting Technology is equal to trusting a wild animal -- All lovey dovey then WHAMM bit
 
JavaTheHut said:
@toxic Do you backup? not trying to be confrontational just exploring the.
Click to expand...

yes. I keep clones of my data and boot drive and run TM every couple days. I don't depend on my computer for business, though.

the issue here is the myth that SSDs are reliable, more so than HDDs. they aren't. while the OP could be mad at himself for not having a better backup solution, you can't knock him for what he does do already (assuming he does backup already).

as for who to blame? no one, really, it's just life.
 
IceMacMac said:
This kind of comment is out of place.

Sounds like you are the kind of person who blames a person for getting the flu.

Blamers. Are. Yucky. :mad:
Click to expand...

The "It's you" was tongue in cheek. You are taking the comment out of context. They asked "Is it me?" I was very nice after that;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back