[SOLVED] how to find out what drive is in WD elements without shucking

[Pc6777]

I recently bought a WD elements 8 terabyte. I also got a Seagate external 8 terabyte that's confirmed smr because I decided to shuck because its just for archival cold storage and I probably wont kill it before warranty ends anyway, but im keeping this one in the case for convince and warranty because I will use it semi heavily(gaming and uncompressing large files every so often, but I wont delete files and reinstall constantly). I called wd and gave the the sn and they said they don't even know what's inside. the guy said its probably a wd red and that they discontinued most smr drives. on crystal disc info it sys its a WDC WD80EDAZ-11TA3A0 8001.5 GB is this smr? is there a way to find out more without shucking? if I can find out the cache size that could give me a clue, because the cache on smr drives is usually very large to help mask all the rewriting. also, if this is smr, is it ok for gaming, I assume gaming is 95 percent reads for MOST games, there's are obviously some exceptions.

 

[mdd1963]

Last I had read during all the CMR/SMR debacle was that SMR was then only a thing on drives 6 TB and smaller...(granted, that was a year ago, so, can't be sure on that basis)

 

[fzabkar]

I believe this is the equivalent HGST model:

https://documents.westerndigital.co...c300-series/data-sheet-ultrastar-dc-hc320.pdf

It's described as a CMR model.

Here is a photo of the label:

https://www.picclickimg.com/d/w1600...11Ta3A0-Western-Digital-Sata-8Tb-Vgh5-Aug.jpg

The R/N is US7SAN8T0. That number brings up these documents, both of which refer to the Ultrastar DC HC320.

https://documents.westerndigital.co...t-manual-ultrastar-dc-hc320-sata-oem-spec.pdf

https://documents.westerndigital.co...t/cert-agency-approval-ultrastar-dc-hc320.pdf

The WWN begins with "5000CCA" which is a HGST World Wide Name.

BTW this drive actually spins at 7200 RPM, even though its firmware has been doctored to report 5400 RPM.

 

[Pc6777]

I believe this is the equivalent HGST model:

https://documents.westerndigital.co...c300-series/data-sheet-ultrastar-dc-hc320.pdf

It's described as a CMR model.

Here is a photo of the label:

https://www.picclickimg.com/d/w1600...11Ta3A0-Western-Digital-Sata-8Tb-Vgh5-Aug.jpg

The R/N is US7SAN8T0. That number brings up these documents, both of which refer to the Ultrastar DC HC320.

https://documents.westerndigital.co...t-manual-ultrastar-dc-hc320-sata-oem-spec.pdf

https://documents.westerndigital.co...t/cert-agency-approval-ultrastar-dc-hc320.pdf

The WWN begins with "5000CCA" which is a HGST World Wide Name.

BTW this drive actually spins at 7200 RPM, even though its firmware has been doctored to report 5400 RPM.

I ended up shucking because this drive runs HOT, it was getting close to 60c with small workloads inside the external casing and I planed on using this drive semi-intensively. Its stays much cooler inside my case with fans blowing on it. Didn't want to void warranty but if I kept it in case it could have died early from heat and or throttled a lot. The drive I shucked looks exactly like that picture, i did a little research and stumbled into some info myself, seems like wd may have had a shortage of red drives because the world problems, so they started using whatever was in capacity/high production and that these could be some form of server drives, which is why they run hot, servers are in air conditioned environments with better cooling. could be wrong. so your saying it reports as 5400 but actually runs at 7200 rpm? why would they doctor the firmware? so instead of nerfing it and make it spin at 5400 rpm, they make it report that but it is actually 7200? that weird, well that explains why it gets very hot for a "slower" drive. these drives seem high end, I wonder is wd is even making a significant profit on these., or maybe they are barley earing anything and selling these and breaking even to hold onto market share.

 

[fzabkar]

This model is an air drive. I bought two 8TB Elements units. One had this drive, the other had a helium model.

 

[Pc6777]

This model is an air drive. I bought two 8TB Elements units. One had this drive, the other had a helium model.

which ones better, air or helium model? tempted to buy more of these because the drives inside cost a lot more without the casing.

 

[USAFRet]

which ones better, air or helium model? tempted to buy more of these because the drives inside cost a lot more without the casing.

Define "better".

They both work.

 

[Pc6777]

Define "better".

They both work.

I don't know much about helium drives, like reliability/build quality that's what I mean by "better".

 

[USAFRet]

I don't know much about helium drives, like reliability/build quality that's what I mean by "better".

Do Helium-Filled Hard Drives Perform Better Than Air-Filled Drives?

Helium-filled hard drives attempt to cut down on friction, leading to better performance. We’ve crunched the numbers: how do they actually perform?

www.backblaze.com

 

[fzabkar]

Helium drives run cooler and should use less power.

 

[Pc6777]

Do Helium-Filled Hard Drives Perform Better Than Air-Filled Drives?

Helium-filled hard drives attempt to cut down on friction, leading to better performance. We’ve crunched the numbers: how do they actually perform?

www.backblaze.com

interesting, seem to have similar failure rates, although I'm not sure if helium leaking would ever be a significant problem. helium drives also have less resistance, so maybe they would run cooler/use less power, which could extend a drives life.

 

[Pc6777]

Helium drives run cooler and should use less power.

I just made that hypnosis right before I saw this post, this seems like a technology more oriented for servers/data centers, were power bills are more of a concern and drives spin faster than 7200 rpm and need less resistance. doubt they will start pumping 2 terabyte wd blues with helium anytime soon.