Talk:Western Digital/Archives/2020

Removal of line about poor hard disk encryption
An anonymous edit by 76.126.50.95 removed a line in the hard disk section stating that WD's external drives had poor disk encryption. The note on the removal was that it was "slanderous", "impertinent", and "unreliable." I reviewed the cited source and the paper it relied on, and I found the statement to be basically accurate. I clarified it to indicate that this applied specifically to data protection, not to the quality of the drive itself, and that it applied to external drives. I also added two additional sources backing up the citation. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Macoukji (talk • contribs) 05:24, 10 June 2020 (UTC)

COI edit requests
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Hi! I work for a communications firm that represents Western Digital, and I have some requests for updating this article. I've broken them out by section:

Lead

 * 1) This is purely FYI: I updated the logo file to a more current logo provided to me by Western Digital for this purpose.
 * 2) In infobox:
 * 3) Update "Industry" from "Computer data storage" to "Data technology" (At this point, Western Digital's products encompass more than strictly storage offerings.)
 * ✅ —Compassionate727 (T·C) 01:09, 11 August 2018 (UTC)
 * 1) Under "Products", delete "hybrid drives", which are a legacy product. Capitalize the first letter of "solid-state drives" for formatting consistency. Add
 * removed hybrid drives as requested. I haven't added the others; can't find the relevant style guide off the top of my head, but infobox parameters shouldn't be an exhaustive list but rather a summary. Are there a 2-3 products that are more important than the others, or perhaps broader categories for those products that I could use instead? —Compassionate727 (T·C) 01:09, 11 August 2018 (UTC)
 * 1) Update "Number of employees" from  to
 * ✅ —Compassionate727 (T·C) 01:09, 11 August 2018 (UTC)
 * 1) Update  to  . Technically, these companies no longer operate independently, so it's inaccurate to call them subsidiaries. Add   to the list.
 * ❌ for multiple reasons, including the objection I raised above. Thinking aloud, if all of the brands are listed in the article (and they should be if they're in an infobox), a full list isn't necessary; again, perhaps the more important ones, if that's an applicable measure. Also noting from Wikipedia articles that G-Technology is described as a brand of HGST, which is described in both of the aforemention as a subsidary. SanDisk states it is also a subsidary, and Tegile Systems implies as much. Obviously Wikipedia isn't RS, so I'll need to look at all of this more closely. Tomorrow, presumably, when I'm back on ADD medications. Admittedly if you can provide sources describing these as brands rather than subsidaries, that would help. Updating all may be warranted, depending on what we can find. —Compassionate727 (T·C) 01:09, 11 August 2018 (UTC)
 * 1) Throughout the article, the company is referred to as "Western Digital", "Western Digital Corporation", "WD", and "WDC". I recommend that all these mentions be updated to simply "Western Digital" for consistency's sake, and that  be deleted from the first sentence of the lead. Happy to make a sandbox mockup with each mention highlighted if it's helpful.
 * Will make an effort to standardize to "Western Digital" as I implement other parts of this request tomorrow, make sure to let me know if I miss some. I don't think removing the acronyms and alternative names from the lead would be appropriate, though, even if we never use them. They're helpful people making searches based on reading they've done elsewhere. —Compassionate727 (T·C) 01:09, 11 August 2018 (UTC)
 * ✅, I think, let me know if I missed or clobbered anything. —Compassionate727 (T·C) 22:04, 13 August 2018 (UTC)
 * 1) On a related note, I've made an effort to standardize terminology to "hard disk drive" (for first mention) or HDD (subsequently), rather than the more ambiguous "hard drive". "Solid-state drive" (for first mention) and SSD (for subsequent mentions) already appears to be standardized in the article.
 * Again, will attempt to standardize as I go along, let me know if I miss something. —Compassionate727 (T·C) 01:09, 11 August 2018 (UTC)
 * 1) In first paragraph of lead, replace with  to reflect the company's current focus.
 * Most of this looks alright, but I take issue with "broad portfolio" as somewhat peacock-ish. Is this important to the idea being communicated? Can it be omitted? I think "…and sells data technology products, including storage devices…" reads alright. If the idea that is sells lots of products is really important, I think "numerous" would read better than "a broad portfolio": more concise and less like something you'd read in an advertisement. If you have other suggestions, I'm always willing to at least listen. —Compassionate727 (T·C) 01:09, 11 August 2018 (UTC)
 * 1) Update  in second paragraph of lead to.
 * ✅ —Compassionate727 (T·C) 01:09, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

History

 * 1) In 2010s subsection of History section, replace both mentions of  with , which is the correct name.
 * ✅ —Compassionate727 (T·C) 21:48, 13 August 2018 (UTC)
 * 1) Also in the 2010s subsection of the History section, in the fourth paragraph,  should be added before  . Also of note: Both refs for that sentence— —are dead links. Here are a new, external source to replace the first and an updated URL for the second:
 * ✅, although I would personally prefer the word "some" to "certain", if you don't object. —Compassionate727 (T·C) 21:48, 13 August 2018 (UTC)
 * 1) Jumping down to the "Parallel ATA hard disk drives" subsection of the Products section: I'd recommend deleting that subsection entirely and moving its sole sentence,, up to the appropriate chronological location in the History section.
 * Would you mind if I refactored this sentence a bit, both to better flow in the context of where I'm placing it, and to bring it closer to the meaning of the source (which, for example, does not say that WD was the last producer of PATA)? —Compassionate727 (T·C) 21:48, 13 August 2018 (UTC)
 * 1) Adding recent news to the very end of the section:
 * the first half was fine as presented. The second half does not match the source, which says 1 billion over two years (not 2 billion total) and does not (that I see) describe WD as a "founding member" of the technology. I'll refactor it accordingly unless you can provide sources. —Compassionate727 (T·C) 21:48, 13 August 2018 (UTC)

Acquisitions
Recommend this as a new section or subsection of History:
 * ✅ with perhaps a little bit of reluctance. —Compassionate727 (T·C) 21:52, 13 August 2018 (UTC)

Locations
I recommend removing this section entirely per WP:NOTDIRECTORY. It's also quite out of date and contains no sources.
 * ✅ —Compassionate727 (T·C) 01:12, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

Products

 * Subsections under the Products heading contain text which is insufficiently paraphrased from the source material. FYI.  spintendo   16:27, 23 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks for flagging! I've tweaked a few things, can't believe I hadn't caught one instance in particular. Mary Gaulke (talk) 00:17, 25 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks for flagging! I've tweaked a few things, can't believe I hadn't caught one instance in particular. Mary Gaulke (talk) 00:17, 25 June 2018 (UTC)


 * 1) Add new subsection:
 * 2) "Hard drives" subsection:
 * 3) Rename to "Devices" for accuracy.
 * ✅ Hubcapp (talk) 07:11, 4 August 2020 (UTC)
 * 1) Add to the beginning of the section and rewrite the sentence introducing the bulleted list as follows (the refs for the final sentence can be retained):
 * ✅ Hubcapp (talk) 07:11, 4 August 2020 (UTC)
 * 1) In the bulleted list, replace  with the more precise  . Add "WD" before each color for specificity. Update the description of Green drives as follows:
 * ✅ Hubcapp (talk) 07:11, 4 August 2020 (UTC)
 * 1) I'd suggest moving the single sentence from the "Issues" section into this subsection.
 * 2) "Software" subsection:
 * 3) Delete first sentence,, which is unsourced and confusing.
 * 4) Delete WD Smartware paragraph, which is unsourced and out of date.
 * 5) Add to end of section:
 * 6) Completely overhauling unsourced "Consumer products" subsection:
 * Most of this verbiage has made it into the article, but with a focus on separating Western Digital's Cloud & Non-Cloud products. Hubcapp (talk) 10:32, 4 August 2020 (UTC)

Corporate affairs
Recommend this as a new section, with the existing "Lawsuits" section as a subsection, and two new subsections:

Expansion of explanation of current product offerings
There could probably be more information given on the real physical differences between each marketed "color", as well as incorporating their SSD offerings branded under the Western Digital Brand. Currently there's only information on why the "Purple" brand started being offered, but Gold vs Black vs Red; Green vs Blue would be probably useful information as well. Hubcapp (talk) 05:18, 4 August 2020 (UTC)