Buying new WD 1TB driver

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ZMAJ
Posts: 96
Joined: Wed Jul 18, 2007 4:43 am
Location: Croatia

Buying new WD 1TB driver

Post by ZMAJ » Wed Apr 29, 2009 2:12 am

Last two HDDs I had were WD 3200AAKS and WD 6400AAKS and I was very pleased with them.

Now I have to buy new 1 TB drive and I prefer WD.

As I see there are black and green WDs in Croatian stores.

I would like to buy green one becouse I prefer silence over performance but I have read something about problems and issues with this green series.

Is that fixed with new firmwire or I should buy another drive?

Code for this HDD selling in Croatia is 10EADS.

Should I buy it?

bgiddins
Posts: 175
Joined: Sun Sep 14, 2008 1:04 am
Location: Australia

Re: Buying new WD 1TB driver

Post by bgiddins » Wed Apr 29, 2009 2:39 am

ZMAJ wrote:Should I buy it?
Yes.

The "problems" with WD green drives failing early is pure conjecture at this stage - they appear to be one of the most reliable drives around if you go by forums etc. Don't think I've seen a reported failure yet.

As someone asked in another thread, a particular thread title on this forum is probably a dis-service to WD and creating unfounded FUD.

ugrakarma
Posts: 23
Joined: Sun Dec 16, 2007 3:43 pm

Re: Buying new WD 1TB driver

Post by ugrakarma » Sun May 03, 2009 11:00 am

bgiddins wrote: The "problems" with WD green drives failing early is pure conjecture at this stage - they appear to be one of the most reliable drives around if you go by forums etc. Don't think I've seen a reported failure yet.

As someone asked in another thread, a particular thread title on this forum is probably a dis-service to WD and creating unfounded FUD.
I put three eads to a raid and one of them died after a few days. No biggie since no data was lost but if you're out of luck you're out of luck. Any hd can die on you. I doubt there's any evidence that the series would be more prone to failure than any other.

bgiddins
Posts: 175
Joined: Sun Sep 14, 2008 1:04 am
Location: Australia

Post by bgiddins » Sun May 03, 2009 11:14 pm

I've had 4 EADS running in RAID 5 24/7 for quite a few months now... however if a HDD is going to fail I'm lead to believe it's either going to fail almost immediately (i.e. after a few days), or after a few years. Manufacturing defects show up pretty quick.

m0002a
Posts: 2831
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2004 2:12 am
Location: USA

Post by m0002a » Wed May 13, 2009 8:28 pm

If you running Windows it is fine. If you are running Linux, then the drive may rack up a huge number of load/unload cycles to the point were the number quickly exceeds the rated design specs for the drive (which doesn't mean the drive will automatically fail, but it increases the likelihood of problems).

m0002a
Posts: 2831
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2004 2:12 am
Location: USA

Re: Buying new WD 1TB driver

Post by m0002a » Wed May 13, 2009 8:47 pm

bgiddins wrote:The "problems" with WD green drives failing early is pure conjecture at this stage - they appear to be one of the most reliable drives around if you go by forums etc. Don't think I've seen a reported failure yet.

As someone asked in another thread, a particular thread title on this forum is probably a dis-service to WD and creating unfounded FUD.
Having purchased 3 of these drives, and after doing extensive research on the subject (including many interactions with WD) I don't think it is FUD if one is using Linux. I think it is a very serious issue. There are no problems that I know of if one is using Windows.

I have posted extensively in this thread as to why it is a problem for Linux and not Windows:
viewtopic.php?t=53551&highlight=

The bottom line is that Windows is accessing your hard drive every few seconds for various OS background tasks even when you are doing nothing on the PC (unless the PC is in sleep mode, etc) and this keeps the WD Green drive from going into unload.

Linux on the other hand, will only access the drive about once every 30 seconds for background tasks, which means that the WD will unload, and then load, a couple of times per minute. I believe that the original WD Green drives will unload if not used within 8 seconds by default. The rated spec for number of load/unload cycles per WD is 300,000. That means if your Linux computer is on for 12 hours a day, you will reach this design spec in about 208 days.

Here are the design specs:
http://www.wdc.com/en/library/sata/2879-701229.pdf

oberbimbo
Posts: 65
Joined: Sun Dec 23, 2007 3:18 am

Post by oberbimbo » Sat May 23, 2009 1:14 am

I call BS on the Linux claim. This is from a 18 month old WD10EACS running in a RAID5 on Ubuntu (note it is not quite running 24/7, more like 24/3 or so because I'm abroad a lot):

Code: Select all

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model:     WDC WD10EACS-00ZJB0
Serial Number:    WD-WCASJ1282787    
Firmware Version: 01.01B01           
User Capacity:    1,000,204,886,016 bytes
Device is:        Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
ATA Version is:   8                                                     
ATA Standard is:  Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated   
Local Time is:    Sat May 23 11:13:16 2009 CEST                         
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.              
SMART support is: Enabled                                               

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x82) Offline data collection activity
                                        was completed without error.    
                                        Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0) The previous self-test routine completed
                                        without error or no self-test has ever  
                                        been run.                               
Total time to complete Offline                                                  
data collection:                 (27180) seconds.                               
Offline data collection                                                         
capabilities:                    (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.        
                                        Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
                                        Suspend Offline collection upon new         
                                        command.                                    
                                        Offline surface scan supported.             
                                        Self-test supported.                        
                                        Conveyance Self-test supported.             
                                        Selective Self-test supported.              
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering            
                                        power-saving mode.                          
                                        Supports SMART auto save timer.             
Error logging capability:        (0x01) Error logging supported.                    
                                        General Purpose Logging supported.          
Short self-test routine                                                             
recommended polling time:        (   2) minutes.                                    
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:        ( 255) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time:        (   5) minutes.
SCT capabilities:              (0x303f) SCT Status supported.
                                        SCT Feature Control supported.
                                        SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000f   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0003   186   174   021    Pre-fail  Always       -       7675
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       98
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000e   200   200   051    Old_age   Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   098   098   000    Old_age   Always       -       2135
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0012   100   253   051    Old_age   Always       -       0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0012   100   253   051    Old_age   Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       95
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       23
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   199   199   000    Old_age   Always       -       5321
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   110   101   000    Old_age   Always       -       42
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0010   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x003e   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0008   200   200   051    Old_age   Offline      -       0


And FWIW, it's two 6 month old brothers show

Code: Select all

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x002f   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0027   174   166   021    Pre-fail  Always       -       6266
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       56
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x002e   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   099   099   000    Old_age   Always       -       1228
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0032   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       51
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       5
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       56
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   106   098   000    Old_age   Always       -       44
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       13
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0008   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0


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