Question Western Digital shenanigans

[BarkingGhostar]

So, I went and bought one of the WD Elements in 8TB size from Amazon for $129. Seems that WD replaced what they had been using in these 8-14TB external solutions the Red label drives but recently switched them to white label units, which be less attractive to RAID/NAS folks looking for a cheap solution and to save money now have to deal with those white labels. What they have to deal with the the infamous 3.3 volt mechanism that WD employed to make the drive continuously reboot if removed from its external enclosure and placed as a naked HDD into something else. Of course one only needs to tape over pin 3 on the power to overcome this but this is just getting out of hand.

Also, while WD did state which internal HDD products were SMR vs CMR what they did say was anything about those drives they are not beginning to use in their external products. For instance, my WD Elements 8TB is using a WD80EDAZ HDD which conveniently wasn't on WD's provided list of internal drives. While they did say anything 8TB and over was CMR, they said this in the context of the report on internal HDD products, not those used in external products. This is why the EDAZ wasn't showing up on the list either way. If anyone finds out what the EDAZ products actually are, SMR or CMR, let me know.

 

[UsandThem]

I had seen on Slickdeals for quite a while that WD had started using white label drives in their external enclosures.

I can fault WD for many things lately (like the "not really 5900 RPM drives" and the whole SMR/CMR product line debacle), but I can't fault them for including white label drives (with the 3.3v pin) to discourage people from buying the external drives to shuck them. External backup drives are in a very tough product segment, and the pricing is much more volatile compared to their normal internal drives.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Really, so we take a drive with a normal 3-5 years warranty, put them into a external case, sell them for less and make the warranty 2 years. Who thinks this is fair, or any less fair than what they are doing internally? They are essentially saying that the cost difference of $50-75/drive is for warranty? That's some expensive warranty right there.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Really, so we take a drive with a normal 3-5 years warranty, put them into a external case, sell them for less and make the warranty 2 years. Who thinks this is fair, or any less fair than what they are doing internally? They are essentially saying that the cost difference of $50-75/drive is for warranty? That's some expensive warranty right there.

Perhaps. I could kind of care less about the warranty, if they continue to price their externals far lower (as you mention, $50-75/drive) than their internals. I'll buy externals (from a trusted source) on ebay all day long and shuck them for NAS usage. Worried about warranty-related failure? When buying qty., just buy an additional spare. You'll still save money buying externals.

And the 3.3v line thing isn't even an issue anymore, is it? That's a standard SATA mechanism, and is used in nearly all of the larger-capacity drives, it's NOT some WD hack just simply designed to screw over users shucking drives. Also, with just about all recent name-brand consumer NAS units, it's not even an issue.

 

[aigomorla]

Really, so we take a drive with a normal 3-5 years warranty, put them into a external case, sell them for less and make the warranty 2 years. Who thinks this is fair, or any less fair than what they are doing internally? They are essentially saying that the cost difference of $50-75/drive is for warranty? That's some expensive warranty right there.

To be fair a external drive does not stay powered on all the time.
Most people use it to move storage over for archive, its not intended to be used as a secondary drive unless you want to bring out NAS's and SAN's which is a whole new category of storage.

Also Shucking thats the term for taking a external drive and gutting it to put internally, will void your warranty.
Personally id rather go refurbished then shucking, as your can get really great deals on enterprise class refurbished drives which have much better motors, and will most likely outlast that shuck drive even being used.

I could kind of care less about the warranty, if they continue to price their externals far lower

Larry you should really try out refurbished enterprise class drives like HGST Helium series, or even WD Gold.
You can get them at a really good price, and they pair really well with NAS's which use some form of RAID, and are always on.
They are a bit loud for a gaming drive, but even then if noise is not an issue, the speed is there.
But its seriously a great niche for a redundant array config when factoring in drive cost.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

To be fair a external drive does not stay powered on all the time.
Most people use it to move storage over for archive, its not intended to be used as a secondary drive unless you want to bring out NAS's and SAN's which is a whole new category of storage.

Also Shucking thats the term for taking a external drive and gutting it to put internally, will void your warranty.
Personally id rather go refurbished then shucking, as your can get really great deals on enterprise class refurbished drives which have much better motors, and will most likely outlast that shuck drive even being used.

I have had plenty of WD drives that are constantly powering down for the sake of power savings I didn't ask for and I wasn't able to disable.

 

[sdifox]

Really, so we take a drive with a normal 3-5 years warranty, put them into a external case, sell them for less and make the warranty 2 years. Who thinks this is fair, or any less fair than what they are doing internally? They are essentially saying that the cost difference of $50-75/drive is for warranty? That's some expensive warranty right there.

So buy the internal drive?

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Well, I was accepting of the purchase and did so. I went back today to get a couple of more--not like I need them or anything--but they went back up to $145. LOL I guess there was demand for them.

 

[marcolopes]

So, I went and bought one of the WD Elements in 8TB size from Amazon for $129. Seems that WD replaced what they had been using in these 8-14TB external solutions the Red label drives but recently switched them to white label units, which be less attractive to RAID/NAS folks looking for a cheap solution and to save money now have to deal with those white labels. What they have to deal with the the infamous 3.3 volt mechanism that WD employed to make the drive continuously reboot if removed from its external enclosure and placed as a naked HDD into something else. Of course one only needs to tape over pin 3 on the power to overcome this but this is just getting out of hand.

Also, while WD did state which internal HDD products were SMR vs CMR what they did say was anything about those drives they are not beginning to use in their external products. For instance, my WD Elements 8TB is using a WD80EDAZ HDD which conveniently wasn't on WD's provided list of internal drives. While they did say anything 8TB and over was CMR, they said this in the context of the report on internal HDD products, not those used in external products. This is why the EDAZ wasn't showing up on the list either way. If anyone finds out what the EDAZ products actually are, SMR or CMR, let me know.

4TB and 6TB EDAZ ARE SMR! https://rml527.blogspot.com/2010/10/hdd-platter-database-western-digital-35_9883.html

I just got one on a recent 4TB Elements external enclosure, which i'm gonna return. I don't want this SMR crap!!!