(USA) WD Easystore 8TB External $180 @ Best Buy + FS


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3 hours ago, NodNarb012 said:

 

Yes, I bought 6 NESN's and 2 of them are white label WD80EMAZ drives.  The other 4 are WD80EFAX Red drives.  Once the Reds pass a WD full drive scan and a preclear, the 2 white labels will be returned to Best Buy.

 

Here's a chart that explains what the model numbers mean:

4sg8kvhe1nuy.png

 

Good info and thanks for posting. Maybe I am confused, but if the drive carries the WD model number, it is NOT a "while label" based on my understanding. My experience is white label drives have generic labels, and there is no identifier of the vendor to pursue any sort of warranty action. Even the model numbers in the firmware are generic. I have a couple of WD drives that have that exact model number pulled from Chinese NESN EasyStore drives. The labels were very white and cover the front of the disk. But they are helium filled disks as the enclosure is sealed differently from normal drives. Mine have several months on them and no problem. It is the Thai drives that have a larger cache that have a more elaborate WD label.

 

I just read about the NEBBs. It seems they are WD REDS as well, just with a different label on them (although I have yet to actually see one to confirm). But if it is only the label that is different, I would not care.  They are still warrantied the same if you put one back into the external case.

 

Here is an example of what a white label drive would look like. The batch I bought a few years back had a "mediamax" label. Obviously mediamax is not a hard drive brand. This is a crappy drive you would not want. It is a white label.

 

White Label Drive

 

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On 11/29/2017 at 6:49 PM, NodNarb012 said:

white label WD80EMAZ

I'm 2 for 2 with the WD80EMAZ drives despite being NESN/Thailand boxes.  I'm not entirely clear whether these are helium drives, reviews seem mixed (but trending towards them being helium).  I didn't want to deal with the 3.3v issue... but I'll likely use them in drive cages.  I may keep them, $149 is an amazing price.

 

FYI, there's a good chance that you'll break the little clips the first time you try unshucking.  I can't tell you whether that could impact your ability to return the drive.  It's easier the second time.

 

For anyone looking for a backup solution, these seem like a good drive even if you leave them in the enclosure.  No cooling, but ventilated.  

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3 hours ago, tdallen said:

FWIW, I took a quick look at a WD80EMAZ drive.  It does not seem to experience the 3.3v reset issue in a Supermicro CSE-M35T-1B drive cage, and tests out about 10% faster than a WD Red 6TB drive using diskspeed.sh.

 

Thanks for posting that. 

 

I wonder if anybody might know if the same might apply with the sata backplane in Supermicro SuperChassis 933T-R760 case and those drives with regard to the 3.3v reset issue.

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FWIW...

 

I have purchased 7 of these EasyStore drives now over the last 8 months. The price has been between $180 and $130 when on sale depending on the model (NESN or NEBB). I have 5 RED drives and 2 "white" label drives. Everything on these drives is exactly the same. I even have 3 different model numbers. WD80EFZX, WD80EFAX, and WD80EMAZ. The only 2 differences I have noticed are the WD80EFZX drive actually shows the helium level stat while the other two models say unknown attribute. Even though it is attribute #22 on all the drives and shows the same number, etc.  The other being the same drive also only has 128MB cache and the others have 256MB. All the drive info like firmware, etc is the same. There is no doubt on my mind that the white label drives are relabeled RED drives. These drives are totally worth picking up. You can preclear before shucking if you are worried about them. I have done that with two of them just because of ease. 

 

 

Edited by swells
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I got two more, one 8TB is a White label. one 4TB is a Red label.   

 

Shucking the drive is easy, without breaking tabs by quartering a plastic card (in my case, Gattitown pizza videogame credit card) then sliding each quarter down through the gap by each tab. (watch a youtube to see exactly where the tabs are)  With the game card pieces in place, the case slides right apart, no problem.

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6 hours ago, JustinAiken said:

Just got a WD80EMAZ, unshucked without breaking tabs.  Plugged it into my Norco 4220, it's not recognized :/ 

You need to cover pin 3 of the SATA power connector on the drive so the drive will power up. Kapton tape is the best option. You can overlap pin 2 and 1 also if you can't cut a piece precisely enough to only insulate pin 3.

 

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  • 3 months later...

I bought a WD My Book 8TB USB 3.0 Desktop Hard Drive WDBBGB0080HBK-NESN Black (https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822235160). 

 

I tested it in the enclosure, worked fine.  Shucked the drive and put it in my server, server booted as normal, but disk did not spin up.

 

I assumed I had the 3.3V issue, so I covered pins 1,2,3 with kypton tape as suggested.

 

Now I see the drive light come on, so the disk is spinning up, BUT my system locks up at the BIOS splash screen.  I remove the disk for the server and it boots as normal.

 

Any suggestion on a next step???

 

Pic of the raw drive attached.

IMG_0054.JPG

IMG_0056.JPG

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