Why not? Because Western Digital will NOT support their firmware upgrades:
http://joeparrie.tumblr.com/post/304...t-they-tell-me
In this case, the drive itself was out of warranty. However, the Western Digital software and web site proceeded to urge the owner to upgrade the firmware. Then the drive running on the new firmware did not work.
It seems Western Digital wants to brick your out-of-warranty drives...