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WD SN770 1TB arrived slightly bent – is it still safe to use?
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WD SN770 1TB arrived slightly bent – is it still safe to use?

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Hi everyone,

I just received a WD SN770 1TB that I bought from an Italian website, but unfortunately it arrived slightly damaged during shipping. As you can see in the attached photos, it is a bit bent – there’s a visible curve.

Everything seems fine electronically, the only visible issue is this physical bending.
My question is: can it still be used safely in this condition? Is it going to work? Or is there a risk of failure in the short or long term?

IMPORTANT: they refunded me so that's "free"

Has anyone experienced something similar? I’d really appreciate any advice before I decide whether to install it or ask for a replacement.

Thanks in advance!

44 Comments

  1. PzTnT

    I wouldn’t call it entirely safe to use. It may break at any moment as the solder is probably under strain at best. Worst case is if the solder has broken entirely somewhere and causes a short. This would likely release the magic smoke from either the SSD itself and/or the board its plugged into.

  2. desblaterations-574

    There is no rule for that. Best bet might be to put it on an external and run a few write and read tests.
    I wouldn’t trust it out of the blue, but I might be working fine.

    As for every electronic it can last year’s without issue, or stop working soon. Plus adding it got some physical trauma, there is increase likelyhood of sooner stop working.

  3. ExtraGherkin

    Certainly a much higher risk of failure. It’s impossible to really determine the level of micro damage and estimate when/if they’ll lead to failure. How it’ll cope with heating up and cooling down over time. I wouldn’t risk it personally. Might slap it in a caddy and use to tranfer larger files or items I wouldn’t mind losing between fresh system installs but wouldn’t put any important data on it for any duration of time

  4. Public_Upstairs_6578

    This doesn’t look like “from shipping”

    It looks like a used drive that was screwed in without the distance screw on the mainboard

  5. LuminanceGayming

    check the drives SMART data, it looks like its a used drive someone installed incorrectly causing it to be bent

  6. snaap224

    If it works, it probably will work fine as long as you dont bend it back.

    Would only use it as game drive though and not put anything important onto it, because you wont get any warranty for it either.

  7. zKyri

    Since they refunded you and still got to kept it, use it as a secondary drive for non important things, don’t rely on it too much

  8. Kittysmashlol

    Slightly? Lol. Would not use at all.

  9. Jupiter-Tank

    That’s bent from misuse. So bent and then likely returned, either due to the cosmetic fault or possibly a functional one after the misuse. I would not consider using it.

  11. HankThrill69420

    I had a bent SSD like this, it was a samsung 980 Pro 250 that I put a heatsink on, and for some ridiculously stupid reason, the heatsink vendor thought it was a good idea to send it with a high-adhesion thermal pad. I had no clearance and had to remove it, which unfortunately resulted in bending it.

    That sucker was bent a little bit like this. It worked for about 2 years before giving up.

    ETA: i have 0 idea why i’m being downvoted for sharing a relevant experience. it may work, if it does, it won’t work well or for long.

  13. Proud_Chair1388

    If it is working then use it but be cautious for important data.

  15. Martimus28

    This should be alright to use. A lot of components would have major issues if they were bent like this, but I can’t think of any reason the drive would have issues from a bent PCB that would cause issues with the rest of the build. It will likely be fine. 

  16. JPop09

    It’ll probably be fine for awhile, but eventually it’s gonna give. I didn’t realize sometime ago that mine was like this and at one point my PC would just blue screen everytime I would launch a game

  17. Garrett1974

    Don’t you know yet?
    Curved M2 drives are the hottest new things in town 😍

  18. Karekter_Nem

    It’s a long shot, but try contacting go WD. Just say you bought this drive and don’t have the receipt anymore. They may deny the claim because user error, but they may also replace it so you keep using WD drives. They only got a bajillion old drives sitting on a shelf in a distribution warehouse somewhere.

  20. _j03_

    Is there a risk of failure? Yes. Can it still work perfectly fine for multiple years? Yes.

    Use it for non-important data that you can easily download again.

  21. IamChwisss

    Aside from the physical damage, you may need to download the driver and software for it. These had a bug causing random BSOD and had a specific patch released to fix the bug.

  23. MEGA_GOAT98

    if that is new send it back its damaged

  26. Pablo3214758

    You could use it in one of those NVME stand-up type docking stations. I wouldn’t put it in any expensive motherboard. I will guess there will be some pressure created from the bend that would damage your parts? I would put it in a stand dock and as mentioned by everyone else, do not use any important data.

  27. Wollinger

    Only one way to find out.

    Send to me and I’ll test it for you

  28. lonewolfempire

    Since they gave you a refund, I would get a mother one, (whether from another company is up to you). Try out that bent one, see if it works. Just maybe don’t put anything important on there

  29. Teslaturgy

    I would try it. Mine is like that from improper installation since I lost all my motherboard standoffs before I upgraded to an NVMe. Still going strong years later.

  31. UsefulChicken8642

    i was gonna say wtf until i saw it was free. i’d plug it in and try it. those little M.2 drive are made to take abuse

  32. oldnr1

    That’s what she said the first time she saw my wang!

  33. Tasden

    Also keep things away from cloth and fuzzy things. Static electricity will wreck things.

  35. EngineerVsMBA

    Don’t use it!

    There are tiny ceramic capacitors on that circuit board, and bending typically cracks these capacitors. It will work at the beginning as these capacitors are not critical, but it creates a path where particles start to move internal to the capacitor which starts as an undetectable increases its leakage current up to a point where it becomes a lower resistance path. This results in a smoking circuit board and possibly fried power supply circuits.

    This gets highly accelerated in a high temp high humidity environment, where you can replicate a failure in 72 hours, in the field it could be anything from a few months to many years. It will end with a short between power and ground, which will likely fry your motherboard.

  36. RedTuesdayMusic

    That’s been used. Incorrectly.

  37. LeatherLimit1681

    as safe as drinking expired milk

  38. DorfusMalorfus

    Only usable if you’re Australian

  39. hunkymonkey93

    Should be fine for games but you’ll need a curved monitor to watch movies.

  42. sadanorakman

    I’d be firing up crystaldiskinfo to see how many startup cycles it’s had, how many hours it’s been running, and how much data has been written to it.

    Not that it would make any difference: it was a free disk so I’d just be using it, but it would satisfy my curiosity whether it was actually pre-owned or not. 👍

    Let us all know, won’t you OP?

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