Anyone using noneraid WD GP drives for 24/7 operation?

Mech0z · Post by **Mech0z** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 2:19 pm

I am thinking of getting my second WD GP 1TB drive, but I am abit undercertain if its safe to have them running 24/7 when its not the raid edition?
I do not access them constantly which makes me think its safe or do it not matter how often you access it just how long time its online?

FuturePastNow · Post by **FuturePastNow** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 5:07 pm

I have one in a USB enclosure that has been running for several months now. I can't imagine why it would have a problem. "RAID Edition" drives are a waste of money even if you do use RAID.

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 5:15 pm

Maybe not 24/7, but I have 2-500GB GP drives in my WHS which easily does 18hrs/day. Been running since August with no issues whatsoever.

tehcrazybob · Post by **tehcrazybob** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 6:11 pm

I've got a non-raid version which has been running 24/7 since May, with an accumulated total of probably around 48 hours spun down. It's still going strong.

FuturePastNow - isn't it a bit wasteful to put such a fast drive into an enclosure which will never allow it to access or transfer faster than a standard 7200 RPM drive? Unless you're running in eSATA mode, that's what you're dealing with.

Overall, the difference between RAID editions and standard editions is minor. Mechanically, the drives are the same; I'm fairly sure the differences are in warranty and firmware. It's remotely possible they are parts-binned from the best components from a run, but it's still the same parts.

Ch0z3n · Post by **Ch0z3n** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 8:37 am

Why would a 5400rpm hard drive ever be faster than a 7200 rpm hard drive? im confused.

xan_user · Post by **xan_user** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 9:16 am

Ch0z3n wrote:Why would a 5400rpm hard drive ever be faster than a 7200 rpm hard drive? im confused.

Not really faster. imo. but USB would be a bottleneck for 7200 discs. no reason to go faster than 5400 if USB is the interface.

Ch0z3n · Post by **Ch0z3n** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 9:20 am

FuturePastNow wrote:I have one in a USB enclosure that has been running for several months now. I can't imagine why it would have a problem. "RAID Edition" drives are a waste of money even if you do use RAID.

tehcrazybob wrote:FuturePastNow - isn't it a bit wasteful to put such a fast drive into an enclosure which will never allow it to access or transfer faster than a standard 7200 RPM drive?

Green Power is a 5400rpm drive, so I am kind of confused. Am I just reading it wrong?

tehcrazybob · Post by **tehcrazybob** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 1:23 pm

Apologies for the confusion; when I wrote my reply I wasn't thinking GreenPower, I was thinking Velociraptor. However, I stand by my comment about RAID editions vs non-RAID editions: At best it's parts-binning, and at worst it's marketing. There aren't substantial differences.

Ch0z3n · Post by **Ch0z3n** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 1:35 pm

Fair enough, I kinda thought thats where you were going with that, I just wasn't sure if I had lost my mind and wasn't reading it properly.

Esben · Post by **Esben** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 5:46 am

Storage server running 4x1 WD Green in RAID5, uptime 235 days, runs BitTorrent client, so the drives aren't idle much. Drives are placed far apart, but with no extra cooling. No disk failures yet.