I suppose I should avoid Gillware as well, but who really knows who did what to the OP's data. I guess I'll just add the OP's bitter-sweet experience to my annals and let others try to make sense of all the finger pointing.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

That is where I am at now. With the failed new drive their really is no way to know if it was bad from the factory or if Drivesavers messed it up.
For me, the "little" things I experienced with them, I will not be using them again if I ever have another loss.

Gillware....hard to say I guess. Other than Drivesavers claim of the wrong chip, I didn't really have any "bad" experience with them. But again I guess their is no way to really know anything as far as who did what or not.

I can say for sure tho, I will definitely get back to doing proper backups again. This is most definitely not something I want to have to go through again lol

Thank you