I just finished building my first Unraid box and this forum was an amazing help.  Everything has gone perfectly and without a hitch thanks to all the great forum members here.

 

I have a few questions about the WD EARS Jumper.  My drives are all WD 2TB 5400 RPM Drives (WD20000CSRTL).  Clearly not an EARS drive.  I did however install a jumper on the 7 & 8 pins of these drives. 

 

I don't have any issues but its obvious that I don't need them. 

 

1) Can I take these off?

2) Should I leave them on? 

3) Will it have any adverse effects further down the line?

4) When I install more drives, should I include jumpers?

 

Any info is greatly appreciated.

 

JDM

 

 

Does the label say "Advanced Format Technology" on the top of the drive?  I recently purchased 2 EADS drives and they are Advanced format and therefore require the jumper for use with UnRaid.  If yours don't say it, what does putting a jumper on pins 7 & 8 do according to the diagram on the label?

Thanks for the reply jazzysmooth.  I'll check when I get home and post my findings.

 

If its any help I attached a photo of the box - maybe someone can tell from the photo.

From what I have read this is the retail version of the EADS drive. It looks like the 2TB drives do have the advanced formatting, at least what I have read on their website. A way to check would be to register your drive with WD and see what you come up with.

Thanks burtjr, I'll try that.

 

The top of the drive says 32MB WD20EADS and your right,  it is the retail version purchased at Best Buy.

 

Everything is working just fine.  I'm only wondering that if the jumper is not required, will this have any adverse effect in the future or should I even worry about this at all.

 

Thanks

JDM

As long as the drive's label doesn't say anything about 'Advanced Format' then you should be fine without a jumper.  I'm using a few older 1.5 TB EADS drives with no jumpers.

Thanks Rajahal

 

I'll take a closer look hen I get home.  But assuming the jumpers are not necessary - can I pull them out? should I just Leave them in?  If I install a new WD20EADS shoud I put a jumper in since the others have one?

 

Maybe this isn't really an issue but it has me thinking.

This might help clear it up

 

"QUOTE" From WD Website

 

"Advanced Format Technology (AF) - Technology being adopted by WD and other drive manufacturers as one of multiple ways to continue growing hard drive capacities. AF is a more efficient media format that enables increased areal densities. (EARS and AARS models only)"

 

This implies that all EADS drives DO NOT have Advanced Format Technology and Therefore do not need the jumper.

 

Any ideas for my situtuation?  leave them in/take them out - what are the effects of doing either?

Just look at the label on your drives - its the best way to determine once and for all if you need the jumpers.  Again, 2 EADS drives that I recently purchased are Advanced Format so your quote is likely outdated.

This might help clear it up

 

"QUOTE" From WD Website

 

"Advanced Format Technology (AF) - Technology being adopted by WD and other drive manufacturers as one of multiple ways to continue growing hard drive capacities. AF is a more efficient media format that enables increased areal densities. (EARS and AARS models only)"

 

This implies that all EADS drives DO NOT have Advanced Format Technology and Therefore do not need the jumper.

 

Any ideas for my situtuation?  leave them in/take them out - what are the effects of doing either?

 

This page on Western Digital's site:

 

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1679&p_created=&p_cats=185&p_cv=1.185&p_pv=2.294&p_prods=227%2C294#jumper

 

shows the jumper options for the EADS type drives (along with some of their older models) and they don't show any function for the jumper between pins 7 and 8. 

 

There is more info here:

 

http://support.wdc.com/product/kb.asp?fid=wdfCaviarGreen_SATA32&wdc_lang=en

 

If I had done this I would be tempted to remove the jumpers, but I would only remove the jumper from one drive to make sure the drive still functioned correctly afterward.  I would be tempted to do the test on the parity drive, and then do a parity check after removing the jumper to make sure the contents of the drive were not affected (if you get parity errors right away you'll know something bad happened, then you can stop, replace the jumper and hopefully redo the parity check).

 

WARNING: if you remove or add the pin7/8 jumper on an EARS type drive you will destroy all the data on that drive since it effectively renumbers all the blocks by one - so make sure your drives are not marked EARS or "advanced format".

 

Regards,

 

Stephen

 

 

 

Great info VCA

 

I'll do that.  Another thought is just leave them alone.  They are functioning fine. 

 

My question however if I do leave the jumpers intact is - Should I add the jumper to new EADS drives even if they are not necessary?

One more time, look at your drives (disregard that this is a EARS drive, it was the easiest image to find) - if they say Advanced Format on them (note the highlighted section)

 

 

Then you don't want to remove the jumper.  If they don't say anything about Advanced Format

 

 

Then a jumper on pins 7 & 8 isn't doing anything and might as well be removed.

 

As far as any new drives, if they don't say Advanced Format on them, then there's no reason to add the jumper as it doesn't do anything.

 

Thanks a lot for that info.

 

I'm looking at a blurry photo of my drive and it doesn't mention anythging about advanced format. 

 

That clears it up but I'm fearful of yanking the jumpers out since everything is running fine.

 

I'll do some testing and post back.

I second VCA's suggestion.  Remove a jumper, run a parity check.  If there aren't any errors, then repeat for the other drives.