WD Question Thread - Hard Drives, Dual Drive Setups, Storage Setup Optimization

[Captain_WD]

how do I enable trim on the ssd of the dual drive? 

 

Hey Halfblood11,

 

TRIM is enabled by default for all SSDs in Windows7 and the later versions of the OS. The 120GB part of the WD Black2 is recognized as such and thus TRIM works by default. 

In case you are wondering how to enable/disable TRIM, check this article: http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/39569-trim-support-ssd-check-enable-disable.html

 

Captain_WD.

[arnavvr]

I would love to see the blues get a 2-4tb model to compete with the barracudas

[Frankz]

@Frankz

 

Out of those three drives, I would recommend the WD Blue since its a mid-ground drive between performance and low-noise. WD Black drives are designed for ultimate performance, but tend to be louder than WD Blue. WD Blue is capable of running games and is great for general computing and storage. Games rely on storage only for their loading times and FPS and graphics stay unaffected. 

 

Regarding the RAID part, I would not recommend either of the drives for RAID arrays. I would suggest that you check out WD Red as it has additional features that enable it to work smooth and safer in such environments. 

 

Captain_WD.

Took your advice & bought a blue 1tb drive today .

[Qub3d]

 

@Qub3d

 

The firmware and the tuning of the two drives are different. WD Black is a performance drive, while WD Blue is designed for everyday usage and WD Black should outperform WD Blue. Some users base their accusations on the weight on the drives, but both drives are built with a single platter and thus their weight is similar. 

 

Captain_WD.

 

Thanks for the reply! I'm glad to get an answer.

[Halfblood11]

ive bought one now it was inbound before i got a response but ive watched the video guide on cloning the hdd to the ssd and there is no mention of if the hdd is bigger than the ssd a clean install needed it just says if you have more than 120 gb of data kinda disappointing that i have no install media handy and am caucious of reusing my key on my current os

[Captain_WD]

ive bought one now it was inbound before i got a response but ive watched the video guide on cloning the hdd to the ssd and there is no mention of if the hdd is bigger than the ssd a clean install needed it just says if you have more than 120 gb of data kinda disappointing that i have no install media handy and am caucious of reusing my key on my current os

 

The issue with cloning a larger drive on a smaller one is that the process makes an exact copy of the old drive onto the new one. In your case, if there is any data beyond the 120GB of your drive, it will be disregarded. Some people perform defragmentation to reorder their data and make sure it is withing the first part of the drive before cloning it to a smaller one. The issue comes when a system file or some other important file that is vital to the OS gets missed during the process. 

Cloning also has the potential to transfer errors, logical bad sectors, malware and corrupted data. Very often users encounter driver and compatibility problems when cloning one drive on another. There is also a problem when cloning a MBR-formatted drive on a larger one that needs to be GPT.

 

Captain_WD.

[dizmo]

I'm currently looking to get a larger capacity (1TB+) external hard drive, and had a few questions you'd likely be able to finalize for me.

I want something with encryption. I was looking at the following options:

 

WD Passport Ultra

WD Passport Ultra Metal

StarTech encrypted enclosure with 2.5" WD Blue drive. http://www.startech.com/HDD/Enclosures/Encrypted-External-Hard-Drive-Enclosure-Portable-SATA-HDD~S2510BU3PWPS

 

The main thing that caught my eye about the StarTech is that it doesn't need any software or drivers to function.

 

Do the Passport Ultra and Ultra Metal both feature 256bit encryption? It's only really mentioned on the latter's page.

How does it work? When I connect the drive, does it prompt for a password? Does it require any software to be installed, or is it purely hardware based?

If someone were to remove the drive from the Passport, would they be able to reconnect it to something else and gain access or does it destroy the data?

Is there a specific 2.5" drive you'd recommend if I go the StarTech route? One that's better in an external enclosure perhaps?

 

I've got to say, it's great to see an industry rep as experienced as you coming to the forum and providing some helpful insight. Not just in this thread, but I've seen you in others as well.

One of the many reasons I go WD when I choose HDD storage. I really hope you guys get into the SSD market soon too!

 

Thanks

[nekro]

I got my green 3TB todat. it's write/read speeds are way highter than i expected
Question: i got 2  old HHDs  (A WD1600 and a WD1600JS). i read somewhere about jumper options -SSH and something like that- What are the different options i get from each choice?

[Captain_WD]

I'm currently looking to get a larger capacity (1TB+) external hard drive, and had a few questions you'd likely be able to finalize for me.

I want something with encryption. I was looking at the following options:

 

WD Passport Ultra

WD Passport Ultra Metal

StarTech encrypted enclosure with 2.5" WD Blue drive. http://www.startech.com/HDD/Enclosures/Encrypted-External-Hard-Drive-Enclosure-Portable-SATA-HDD~S2510BU3PWPS

 

The main thing that caught my eye about the StarTech is that it doesn't need any software or drivers to function.

 

Do the Passport Ultra and Ultra Metal both feature 256bit encryption? It's only really mentioned on the latter's page.

How does it work? When I connect the drive, does it prompt for a password? Does it require any software to be installed, or is it purely hardware based?

If someone were to remove the drive from the Passport, would they be able to reconnect it to something else and gain access or does it destroy the data?

Is there a specific 2.5" drive you'd recommend if I go the StarTech route? One that's better in an external enclosure perhaps?

 

I've got to say, it's great to see an industry rep as experienced as you coming to the forum and providing some helpful insight. Not just in this thread, but I've seen you in others as well.

One of the many reasons I go WD when I choose HDD storage. I really hope you guys get into the SSD market soon too!

 

Thanks

 

 

Hey @dizmo ,

 

All current WD My Passport drives feature hardware encryption (including the two that you mentioned.). No software is required to be installed in order for the encryption to be active. It is purely hardware based and it is always on. All data is encrypted and it is up to you if you want to put a password on it or not. The drive comes with the WD Drive Utilities software which helps you manage and diagnose it.

 

Regarding the encryption itself, as I mentioned, data is constantly encrypted on its way to the platter, regardless if you have put a password or not. Do have in mind that if the drive is removed from the enclosure, you will lose all data on it since it cannot be read due to the hardware encryption feature. The data is still on the drive, but it is encrypted and cannot be read outside the enclosure. The 256 bit encryption makes it practically impossible to decode and even if someone clones the drive, the data would still be encrypted and unreadable without the enclosure. 

 

For enclosures, it depends if you'd prefer a more quiet drive, a performance drive or something for 24/7 continuous backup. The most common choice for 2.5" enclosures is WD Blue. It is the regular computing drive. WD Black, WD Green and WD Red are also good for this purpose. Again, it depends on what you are aiming for with the enclosure.

 

Thank you for the kind words!

 

Captain_WD.

[Captain_WD]

I got my green 3TB todat. it's write/read speeds are way highter than i expected

Question: i got 2  old HHDs  (A WD1600 and a WD1600JS). i read somewhere about jumper options -SSH and something like that- What are the different options i get from each choice?

 

Hey there @nekro ,

 

Glad to hear WD Green is performing good for you!

 

You can find more about the juper settings in this spreadsheet: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=YqlhHE

 

What would you like to do with those WD Caviar SE drives? 

 

Captain_WD.

[Captain_WD]

Ok guys, I got some additional answers to questions that I did not answer and will post them shortly

 

Captain_WD.

[Captain_WD]

Sadly, it is WD's policy not to discuss products and product development until they are officially announced so I cannot comment on any plans for full fledged SSDs, future update of WD VelociRaptor, larger Archive drives, any new colors in the consumer line of drives, RAM disks or other RAM caching technologies, new larger external portable drives. 

 

However, regarding the number of platters, regardless of the fact that I cannot tell you the exact number of platters of each drive, WD is constantly updating its technology and is updating its drives on the inside. My personal advise would be not to open the drive (which would be the most certain way to see how many drives there are) as it would void any warranty and would ruin the drive.

 

Regarding the development of WD Blue, it is designed and still considered a drive for everyday use and such users typically don't need large amount of storage (larger than 1TB). For larger capacities users either need the drive for simple storage or for more demanding tasks and for these purposes users should look into WD Green and WD Black respectively. 

 

There is currently no SMR drives in production.

 

The IntelliPower technology, it is specifically designed to save power and each drive that has it is tuned individually according to the best appropriate setting for it.

 

Upgrading the capacity of some drives is only logical as the WD Green drive is the "large capacity, quiet drive and it is usually the largest, but then other drives adopt the technology with their own specific features and eventually get updated.  

 

WD has two main technologies to help in environments that have higher vibrations: RAFF and StableTrac. RAFF (Rotary Accelerated Feed Forward) helps guide the drive heads in high vibrations to make sure that the head stays over the track. With StableTrac, the drives motor is secured at both ends, instead of just on the bottom. By also securing the motor spindle to the drive lid, it helps prevent the platters and spindle from wobbling. The drives that are designed for performance and heavier workload benefit from those technologies and are less susceptible to damage from such factors.

 

Regarding the firmware on the WD NAS drives, it depends on the particular NAS. Some NASs (like the WD Sentinel DX4000) have the OS and data on the same RAID volume. The WD My Cloud EX4, on the other hand, has the firmware on a chip, not on the hard drives. Also each dive has its own firmware while the NAS itself has a separate one (stored either separately or on the drives). 

 

About the larger external drives, I cannot comment on any future developments, but there are currently some external drives that are 8TB or more (not portable though): WD My Book Duo ,etc.

 

I will get an update on the reason SATA cables lock on WD Blue but not on WD Black and also on any future developments that I'm allowed to share with you. Do feel free to ask if you happen to have any other questions (here or via PM).

 

Apologies again for the late updates. 

 

Captain_WD.

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

Regarding the firmware on the WD NAS drives, it depends on the particular NAS. Some NASs (like the WD Sentinel DX4000) have the OS and data on the same RAID volume. The WD My Cloud EX4, on the other hand, has the firmware on a chip, not on the hard drives. Also each dive has its own firmware while the NAS itself has a separate one (stored either separately or on the drives). 

 

Thanks for the reply. 

 

I did sort it out in the meantime, but ended up doing it without WD parts.

 

I still had the Lacie 2Big NAS that preceded my EX4, so I replaced the hard drives in that with SSDs one at a time, letting it rebuild the array in between (so that the firmware is copied too).

Now it runs 2 SSDs (128GB each) in RAID 0.  No difference in terms or read and write speed, but the response is immediate (no more hanging near the end of songs, which really is my only gripe with the EX4).

The built-in fan never kicks in because the SSDs don't heat up like the original HDDs did, so it is dead silent too.

 

The EX4 is still my video storage and cloud server (I regularly back up the Lacie to one of the shares on the EX4, so when I'm on the go I have access to the backup via WD Cloud)

It's the best I could do with what I had on hand.  At some point I'll have to go for a custom NAS though, because this is getting a bit silly.

[Terminashunator]

To WD: Could we get a guide to decipher SMART data and to determine when it's time to retire platters?

[Captain_WD]

To WD: Could we get a guide to decipher SMART data and to determine when it's time to retire platters?

S.M.A.R.T. is a standard that manufacturers adhere to so users can find a lot more detailed info online that what we can provide or from the people that wrote the standard. There are communities (including this one) where you can find very useful info and ask skillful people about S.M.A.R.T. data and results.

Monitoring your drives' S.M.A.R.T. status would give you a pretty good idea of the drive's health and if it's time to replace it or not.

Captain_WD.

[alpenwasser]

To WD: Could we get a guide to decipher SMART data and to determine when it's time to retire platters?

 

Wikipedia actually has a pretty decent article on S.M.A.R.T. where you can read

up quite a bit about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.

Just FYI.

[Captain_WD]

 

Wikipedia actually has a pretty decent article on S.M.A.R.T. where you can read

up quite a bit about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.

Just FYI.

 

Yes, that is a good article that describes what each S.M.A.R.T. value is. I don't post Wikipedia as a source because it can be edited by anyone and the info there is not always reliable. But the article is indeed good and can be helpful. Also some storage manufacturers have guides on their website on what each specific value means.

 

Captain_WD.

[geoffrywillhardt]

would the WD black dual drive sata 6.0gb/s work properly with sata 3.0gb/s, I understand the speed would not be the same, but would the functionality work the same?

[Dabombinable]

would the WD black dual drive sata 6.0gb/s work properly with sata 3.0gb/s, I understand the speed would not be the same, but would the functionality work the same?

Yes, they'd work the same even under SATA 1.5Gb/s, though of course at a reduced speed.

[Captain_WD]

would the WD black dual drive sata 6.0gb/s work properly with sata 3.0gb/s, I understand the speed would not be the same, but would the functionality work the same?

 

Hey geoffrywillhardt,

 

As @ pointed out, it should work just fine, only at reduced speed (the SSD part). I am currently using it in my old laptop and it has SATA 2 (3Gb/s) and I have zero problems so far.

 

Captain_WD.

[Captain_WD]

Hey guys,

 

I decided that you might want to know there is a new drive in the WD consumer line: WD Purple NV. It has some improvements and comes in 4TB and 6TB capacities. Here's a link if anyone wants to know a bit more: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=oBojBE

I will do some testing as soon as I get my hands on it and will post some comments here

 

Captain_WD.

[Frankie]

 

I decided that you might want to knowHey guys,

 

I thought that you might want to know there is a new drive in the WD consumer line: WD Purple NV. It has some improvements and comes in 4TB and 6TB capacities. Here's a link if anyone wants to know a bit more: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=oBojBE

I will do some testing as soon as I get my hands on it and will post some comments here

 

Captain_WD.

 

 

Hey there I got a question. The purple drives are used for surveillance footage storage, is there any reason why should one choose this drive for a regular PC ? I mean there are drives like red that can also run 24/7 (More pointed towards NAS) and Black and RE4 that should also be probably fine with 24/7 function. Does the Purple drive have something particularly special ? 

 

Thanks

[mikat]

Hey there I got a question. The purple drives are used for surveillance footage storage, is there any reason why should one choose this drive for a regular PC ? I mean there are drives like red that can also run 24/7 (More pointed towards NAS) and Black and RE4 that should also be probably fine with 24/7 function. Does the Purple drive have something particularly special ? 

 

Thanks

purple is built for good write speeds so no security footage is lost, also 24/7 Operation

 

@Captain_WD am i right?

[Captain_WD]

@mikat correct. WD Purple and WD Purple NV are specifically designed for optimized performance in surveillance systems and has modified caching algorithms, improved error-checking, tuned for write-intensive (longer and constant) performance and are designed to sustain heavier work environments in terms of temperature fluctuations, vibrations, 24/7 runs. These drives have been specifically tuned to be compatible with DVR and NVR systems. And last, but not least, surveillance-class drives are designed to run very quiet. 

 

@Frankie there are people who use this drive for a regular desktop, server or even a NAS because of their low noise levels and optimized write speeds (used for continuous backups). Some people experience problems with these drives because of the specific error-checking feature and lower read speeds. 

As you said, WD Red, WD Black and WD Re are all designed to sustain longer workloads and so are WD Purple drives. I would say that they could be good drives for a NAS that does intensive writing (continuous backups, constant synchronization from multiple devices, quiet performance, etc.).  

 

Captain_WD.

[Frankie]

 

@mikat correct. WD Purple and WD Purple NV are specifically designed for optimized performance in surveillance systems and has modified caching algorithms, improved error-checking, tuned for write-intensive (longer and constant) performance and are designed to sustain heavier work environments in terms of temperature fluctuations, vibrations, 24/7 runs. These drives have been specifically tuned to be compatible with DVR and NVR systems. And last, but not least, surveillance-class drives are designed to run very quiet. 

 

@Frankie there are people who use this drive for a regular desktop, server or even a NAS because of their low noise levels and optimized write speeds (used for continuous backups). Some people experience problems with these drives because of the specific error-checking feature and lower read speeds. 

As you said, WD Red, WD Black and WD Re are all designed to sustain longer workloads and so are WD Purple drives. I would say that they could be good drives for a NAS that does intensive writing (continuous backups, constant synchronization from multiple devices, quiet performance, etc.).

 

Captain_WD.

 

 

Oh I see, so it boils down to 24/7 capability, intensive writing and silence. Thanks for the answer