6TB WL HDD for $150 - Generic White Label

[hernandito]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA5AD3KE4284

 

They are cheap!! I know they are not 7200rpm... Anyone know if they are any good?

[Superorb]

Quiet and heavy duty lol.

[PhantomII]

Those are being sold by newegg for goHardDrive.

GoHardDrive  is kind of iffy. I've bought a few drives from them and they have all been reliable (so far) and passed preclear with no problem. The one DOA I've had was replaced promptly with shipping paid by them... Both ways.

 

However, the 2 TB Hitachi Ultrastars I've bought while listed as "New" all showed SMART tests logged at ca. 15,000 hours although power on hours in the SMART data showed zero hours. Apparently they have a way of resetting SMART data on some drives. When I called them out on it they insisted that they were "New OEM drives" and couldn't understand how they were tested at 15,000 hours  but offered a $20.00 (each) refund and I keep the drives, or a full refund if I returned them.

 

A bit of searching on the web showed that this is S.O.P for them and they've been doing it for a while.

 

I kept them as with the $20.00 discount, it was a very good price and so far after six months in my unRAID box, they're working fine. I'm running 7 of them and have 2 precleared spares.

 

On the other hand, I bought some 4 TB white label drives and the data in SMART shows that they were actually Western Digital RE drives and seemed to be brand new.

I have 3 running with 1 precleared spare.

 

They do have a one year warranty and I figure that as with most hard drives, they will either die within the first year, or they will last for many years.

 

So, having said that, $150.00 is a decent price for a 6 TB drive but know what you're getting into.

[jumperalex]

Looks like probably a WD Red to me. I find this very tempting.

 

EDIT: well at least a WD. Looks like the other "colors" have the same form and fit.

 

 

[gswarriorfan]

This is tempting but in my case not worth the risk.

[ashman70]

Too bad these aren't available to us up here in Canada, I'd buy a few just to try them.

[gswarriorfan]

found this in an amazon review:

 

Based on the specs and other clues, this hard drive is the Western Digital Red. So, you saved a hundred dollars by buying a "White Label" from GOHARDDRIVE - a 40% savings.

.

Reading the 1-star reviews on the WD Red, many users complained on this hard drive's short life due to the "load count problem." I examined my purchase's firmware, and it is free of this defect. Just in case if your's has this, here is an explanation of the problem and solution.

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Since this hard drive's introduction, users have consistently reported premature failures and data corruption. These complaints were well warranted, for the manufacturer has shorten the life cycle of this computer component by design.

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The source of the problem is Western Digital's attempt to make the device "more green" - use less electricity. One way to accomplish this goal is to park the heads on a plastic pad after eight seconds of no read/write requests instead of allowing them to float over the spinning platters of the hard drive. This adds up to 10,800 cycles each day. The numerous scrapings gradually wears out the heads. According to some literature, 250,000 to 1,250,000 cycles will result in damage that will lead to read/write errors. If you do the math, data corruption will begin within 23.148 to 115.741 days if you are employing the hard drive on a heavily used server. Regular consumers will not notice read/write problems until later. Some WD drives reported 3,000 to 5,000 cycles per day. At this rate, the first instances of data corruption will begin within 83.33 to 250 days.

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From my experience, early data loss will not be noticed by the average user. There are no signs of trouble if work files are not accessed, edited, and save. With numerous usages, lost sectors on the hard drive appear and indexes become corrupted. Then, damages become apparent. During bootup, Windows OS will begin employing Check Disk (chkdsk/f) to repair errors. Chunks of bad information get deleted and corrupted indexes are re-corrected during the process. Eventually, 50%-to-60% drive gets wiped out before the user realizes the problem. He accesses a file, and there is none. Using a file manager, further examinations reveal other missing data. This degradation takes time - months to a year depending on computer usage.

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Nevertheless, six years of complains have forced the manufacturer to do something - provided a firmware fix. WDIDLE3.EXE software is used to reset the parking cycle to as high as five minutes. For normal users, this change brings down the parking cycle to 133 per day. This is within the industrial average. Most drives experience 10 to 200 per day and are rated around 600,000. WDIDLE3.EXE can also turn off head parking. Unfortunately, this is not recommended. Users have reported that drive speed was reduced to a crawl or exhibited read/write problems.

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This solution is a masterpiece in public relations. Instead of deactivating or eliminating the eight second head parking cycle on newly manufactured drives, WD forces the user to make the firmware change after the sale. The process is not easy, and the company's website does not explain or provide any information - it provides just the software. The procedure requires unplugging all other devices that are connected to SATA ports and numerous resets to the BIOS. The computer must boot in DOS via a CD or USB 2.0 thumb drive and typing the required codes. Just finding the necessary software to create the booting device is a pain.

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As a result, non-technical consumers will not do anything and allow their hard drives to malfunction. For the "techkies," it will take hours of research, internet searches, and trial-and-error. Hopefully, they will also be discouraged. In one stroke, the company has placated the critics and still maintain high sales volume.

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I have already done the necessary work. So, here is the easiest procedure using a booting USB 2.0 drive.

.

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GO TO GOOGLE AND DOWNLOAD THE FOLLOWING PROGRAMS. . . . I can not provide links because the Amazon server automatically deletes their location.

. . . . . HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool

. . . . . Z-Zip

. . . . . wdidle3.exe

. . . . . FreeDOS (fd11src.iso)

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DO THE FOLLOWING IN THIS ORDER TO CREATE A BOOTING USB 2.0 FLASH DRIVE.

. . . . . 1. Install Z-Zip

. . . . . 2. Use Z-Zip to extract HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool and FreeDOS iso.

. . . . . 3. Install the HP software.

. . . . . 4. Install a USB 2.0 flash drive on one of computer's USB 2.0 ports.

. . . . . . . Right-click the HP icon.

. . . . . . . Go to COMPATIBILITY/PRIVILEGE LEVEL.

. . . . . . . Check RUN THIS PROGRAM AS AN ADMINISTRATOR.

. . . . . . . Exit the program.

. . . . . 5. Activate the HP program by clicking its icon.

. . . . . . . Select FAT for FILE SYSTEM

. . . . . . . Place a check mark on CREATE DOS STARTUP DISK

. . . . . . . Go to USING DOS SYSTEM FILES LOCATED AT and point to the

. . . . . . . . . . subdirectory of the FreeDOS files. It is \FREEDOS\SETUP\ODIN

. . . . . 6. Format the USB 2.0 flash drive. Depending on the size, it will take time.

. . . . . 7. Use WINDOWS EXPLORER to copy WDIDLE3.EXE to your formatted USB 2.0 flash drive.

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SHUT OFF YOUR COMPUTER.

. . . . . 1. Deactivate all devices connected to your SATA ports by pulling out their two cords. You do not want WDIDLE3.EXE to corrupt their firmware settings.

. . . . . 2. Connect your Western Digital Green Hard Drive.

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RESTART YOUR COMPUTER.

. . . . . 1. Go into your PC's BIOS setting.

. . . . . 2. Turn AHCI off. This will enable your flash drive to be recognized.

. . . . . 3. Set the thumb drive as the first bootable drive.

. . . . . 4. Save your BIOS settings and exit.

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RESTART YOUR COMPUTER. Your thumb drive should boot the computer and go into MS-DOS.

. . . . . 1. Type "wdidle3.exe" without the quotes and press ENTER. This will activate the program.

. . . . . 2. Type "wdidle3.exe /r" without the quotes and press ENTER. This will show the current timeout. The factory default is eight seconds.

. . . . . 3. Type "wdidle3.exe /s300" without the quotes and press ENTER. This changes the autopark timer to 300 seconds or five minutes - the maximum allowed.

. . . . . 4. Type "wdidle3.exe /r" without the quotes and press ENTER. This will check that the hard drive has accepted the change.

. . . . . 5. Shut off your PC.

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IF YOU NEED TO PROCESS ANOTHER HARD DRIVE, pull out the two connecting cables, attach them to the next Western Digital Green drive, and repeat the above process.

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ONCE FINISHED, TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER AND PLUG YOUR SATA DEVICES BACK.

. . . . . 1. Turn on your PC

. . . . . 2. Go back into your PC BIOS setting.

. . . . . 3. Turn AHCI on.

. . . . . 4. Change your boot order.

. . . . . 5. Save your settings and exit.

[Superorb]

We've been using the WDidle.exe file for years here, and most of us do this first to any WD drive we put into the unRAID system. I found out about this on one drive that had sky high numbers of starts/stops and head parks.

[MortenSchmidt]

I know nothing of these drives, but if you need WDIDLE you could also use this and do it on the unraid box without having to boot from USB:

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=40062.msg376418#msg376418