(Old Model) Toshiba Canvio Basics 1TB Portable Hard Drive (HDTB210XK3BA)

I have 23 portable hard drives from various manufacturers. 16 of them are USB 3.0, and 7 of those are this particular model (HDTB220XK3CA). Over the years, I’ve had 3 drives that failed. It happens. One was a Maxtor, one was a Western Digital, and then this one from Toshiba. I use the drives exclusively for storing my blu-ray rips and I connect them to a media player and watch them. I purchased this drive from amazon on May 25, 2014. I have no idea when I started actually using the drive. I always keep 2 unused drives. (I never want to experience data loss again, so I mirror every drive). Ultimately I had about 900GB used of the 1.8TB available on this drive. Writing data to the drive was never an issue. However, when I attempted to play the movies on my media player, every file skipped. I tried a different media player and experienced the same issue. I then moved the files to an identical Toshiba drive and the skipping stopped. I therefore reformatted the problematic drive and moved files back to it. The skipping persisted. Windows 8 nor Windows XP could find actual drive errors, but the drive was obviously defective.I was outside of amazon’s return window, so I had to go through Toshiba directly since the drive has a 1 year warranty. This was an incredibly easy process. Here’s how it went:On May 25, I ordered the Toshiba 2TB USB 3.0 drive from amazon for $104.11 including tax.On August 25, I filed a 3-step online claim with Toshiba. I was given the option of replacement or credit to be used at Toshiba’s site. I opted for the coupon. They indicated how much the coupon would be at that time. I immediately received an RMA number in my inbox.On August 25, I shipped the defective drive to Toshiba at my cost of $16.24. Toshiba preferred UPS, but I could ship via any method of my choosing.Today, August 29, UPS indicated that Toshiba accepted the package at 10:36 a.m.At 6:14 p.m. I received an email from Toshiba stating the claim was closed and received a coupon code valued at $218.33.They claim the coupon amount is calculated to account for replacement value and shipping. So, a coupon of 218.33 minus the original cost of the drive at 104.11 minus the 16.24 I paid to ship it to them yields a net profit to me of $97.98.It should be noted they tell you that as soon as you use the coupon code for any amount, it expires (so you need to make a purchase for at least the amount of the coupon). I turned around and purchased two 2TB drives from Toshiba’s site. (I purchased a higher model drive than the original). Total out of pocket for me was $52.26. But remember, I purchased an additional 2TB drive. If all I wanted to do was replace the single drive, I would have profited.That’s pretty efficient customer service on Toshiba’s part. Taking nothing away from amazon, as I was clearly out of the reasonable return window.The bottom line is that if you purchase enough drives, you will eventually have a drive fail regardless of manufacturer. You need to ensure your data is backed up. Toshiba’s easy return policy is reason enough to use them.