This was posted 4 years 3 months 1 day ago, and might be an out-dated deal.

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WD 10TB Elements Desktop Hard Drive $268.42 + Delivery (Free with Prime) @ Amazon UK via AU

1590
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Decent price for 10TB. White labelled and drive will be filled with Helium (mod note: see footnote)1 and won't be a Red inside, not SMR. May require tape mod.

  1. Sign Up for a Western Digital account (if you do not have one)
  2. Once signed into the site go to https://support-en.wd.com/app/account/profile or just click "Update your Profile"
  3. Fill in all the relevant fields like your address, then register your new WD 10TB drive "Register a New Product" you will find the information as a sticker on the rear of the external drive case
  4. Then create a "New Support Incident" and then select the following options
Product Type Other WD Products
Operating System Windows 10
Category Warranty & Replacement
Serial Number [Enter this info found on the sticker near the rear of your external HDD drive case]
Firmware Version [Leave Blank]
Summary Require Correct Power Adapter
Description Hello, I recently purchased the WD 10TB Elements Desktop External HDD through Amazon.com.au however the item came with a UK type power adapter. Could you I please receive an AU type adapter for this drive. Thank you. My Address Information: [List your address]
  • Western Digital support are really good at responding to your enquiries and will send out the correct power adapter for free but expect a longer wait time due to COVID-19. I know pre-COVID it was delivered within 10-14 days.

  1. Based on user feedback on other sites it is possible these drives are not helium filled 

Price History at C CamelCamelCamel.

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closed Comments

  • +4

    Is this a good thing?
    “ White labelled and drive will be filled with Helium and won't be a Red inside, not SMR. May require tape mod.”

    • +9

      Helium drives have less air resistance and are generally superior, SMR drives are not good for a lot of writes random writes, like in a striped RAID situation.
      More just an advisement.

      • +9

        If I may open this drive, I might sound like a Mickey mouse?

    • +30

      If you aren't planning to pull it out of the external case and run it internal (aka 'Shucking') then it is all pretty irrelevant.

      The "not SMR" part is the most crucial thing - you can do some research on exactly what the "White" drives are, but TL;DR is they're actually pretty good and kinda like a poor man's Red. The helium bit basically means they run cooler. I've got 3x 8TB WD He Whites in my home built server & they're doing great thus far.

      All the HDD manufacturers got in crap for not labelling SMR drives properly so people couldn't make informed choices, but especially WD where some of their Red NAS drives in the 2-6TB sizes were SMR (the EFAX ones, the older EFRX are PMR) and they caused all sorts of problems.

      SMR drives have better storage density than PMR, so more storage on the same size platters, but they have a flaw with write performance under certain circumstances that makes them unsuitable for RAID arrays, especially bad for ZFS Z1 & Z2 - at best you get awful performance, at worst they drop from arrays and you lose data.

      As a single drive either internally or externally in someone's PC - like as a large games install drive or a backup drive, SMR is fine albeit not as fast for write as you might like.

      The "tape mod" is to get them to turn on at all when used outside their external casing, you can also use a molex to SATA power adaptor as it does the same thing (eliminates the 3.3v pin) If in doubt, google it. Ironically installed in a NAS or hot swap backplane, they often don't need the 'tape mod', I didn't have to do it in my Silverstone hot swap case.

      HTH, sorry if it is info overload

      • +6

        Side Note: Please do try and steer clear of Molex to SATA adapters, the most common ones are well known to catch fire.

        • +2

          What? I've been using multiple molex to sata adaptors for over 6 years. None have caught fire, or even smoked, not even a little bit.

          • +2

            @bargainshooter: I believe I’ve had power supplies purchased from reputable brands with them included even.

          • +3

            @bargainshooter: 99% of them will be fine, it's just if 1% of the molded ones are bad that means a lot of sorry stories online. The molded ones sometimes have two wires inside them short out, and you can't see the problem ahead of time because they're encased in plastic.

        • Molex to SATA is fine, provided you don't get molded cables. Look for crimped or punched down.

        • Crimped ones are fine. The majority of Molex to SATA cables do tend to be the cheapo molded ones that are dangerous.

          These for example are fine:
          https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B077QQFJJ8/ref=ox_sc_ac…

    • not smr hdd, is a better and faster traditional hdd

  • +31

    Upvote for the excellent write-up.

  • +7

    No tape mod required if you use it inside a synology nas.

    Also i recently did a power adapter request, took 4 days to process the request then 24 hours to ship, then 5 days to recieve it.
    So 10-14 days is on the money.

    • Interestingly I needed the tape mod for my Asustor NAS (AS6202).

    • Lucky you. Mine took over a month.

      Bought 2 drives. Put in my request. No lack of clarity in my address. No issue getting them to agree to sent it.

      They sent 2 out. One supposedly got here (Sydney suburb) and the other got delivered to Melbourne according to UPS proof of delivery.

      The second package they sent after much back and forth got here, with 2 adapters.

  • +6

    They're not strictly helium filled anymore. The older WD100EMAZs were He filled but the newer WD101EMAZs are air filled. Luck of the draw as to which you will get.

    • I think all the newer ones are air-filled WD101EMAZ, only older stock are helium.

  • +3

    I'm holding out til it dips to about <$250

  • +4

    Love the detail in the post. Well done. Hopefully more deals in the future include it too!

    ps. For those who have filled their Synology NAS boxes with the 12TB drives recently, remember you can't expand the SHR volume with a smaller drive like a 10TB!

    • I can go from 2x 4TB to 2 of these in my Synology though right?

      • +1

        Yep. Assuming it's SHR, you can do it one at a time (i.e. remove one drive, put one in, rebuild array, remove other drive, put one in, rebuild array, expand volume).

        • What if it’s RAID 1?

          • +2

            @turkz1: Replace one drive, sync, replace 2nd drive, sync, and then expand to use full storage size.

    • I've got 2 10tb in my synology shr at the moment and trying to decide whether to bite the bullet now and pay for 12tb even though I won't be able to use the other 2tb (but it lets me get the 4th drive as a 12tb as well).

      Or just stick with at 10tb drives.

      • +1

        Only worthwhile if you plan to get 2x or whatever larger drive otherwise stick to 10s. Also depends when you’re likely to need the capacity.

  • +4

    These are no longer helium filled. My last drive was WD101EMAZ Drive.
    Currently my WD100EMAZ 10TB Helium Drives (ones I bought last year) are running in my synology at 31 degrees, the new WD101EMAZ are running at 39 degrees.
    These drives the WD101 do not need tape mod, in my experience.

    • +1

      What speed are the drives and how to they stack up in your unit for use/idle? (not sure if your temps are use or just idle)

      Based on this https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/gqcpjb/shucked… you seem to be correct they dont feature the helium drives

      • Theyre 5400 rpm, in terms of transfer speeds I haven't done crystal disk info on it, I expect it to be about 175-190MB/s sequential read write

    • Do these drives aggressively park the heads every few seconds?

      • I dont know how I could tell?

        • you'd know, loud clicking every so often that has you questioning the drive

      • +1

        yes they do

  • "won't be a Red inside"

    Still suitable for chucking into a NAS?

    • +2

      Anecdotally yes, and there's alot of people who claim the white drives are essentially the same as reds… and I myself use 3x12TB white drives in my NAS.

    • +5

      Based off power ratings and R/N digits:
      - The WD101EMAZs are speculated to be binned HC330s.
      - The WD100EMAZs are speculated to be binned WD Reds (WD100EFAX).

      Either drives are suitable for home NAS use.

  • -8

    Just a bunch of jibberish

    • Hi, whom did you contact fort he AU plug? I also ordered the 12tb one from Amazon UK.

    • Ethernet cables?

  • +2

    12TB WD Elements at around $25/TB are a better value. Also, they can be ordered via Amazon so no mucking around getting them from UK. 12TB drives are WDC WD120EMFZ-11A6JA0, 5400RPM Helium filled, very quiet and running cool.

    • +3

      Link? All the drives on Amazon (which are best value) come from UK or US Amazon regardless (via the aussie Amazon but ships from the us/uk Amazon)

      • https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/558622

        Expired at that price, currently $310.97 = $25.91/TB vs $26.85 in this deal.

      • The price fluctuate all the time. If not in a hurry, you should track the price via Camel Camel and buy it around $310 price.

  • +1

    12tb Elements still available for $310 from Amazon UK.

  • I really need to upgrade my 4x3TB WD reds in my RN104, but not sure if I should take the gamble of trying to get 4 externals and shucking or just buying 6TB Reds

    • If your four drives are raid 1, 10 or 01 then shuck these.
      If it’s raid 5, probably buy real red drives. (but you really shouldn’t use raid5)
      Shuck drives are good for configurations that tolerate more trouble drives. They are generally reliable (since they’re re-labelled red or enterprise drive). But you never know if you have bad luck or what secret sauce WD puts in there. So please be safe.

      If your NAS is for business, don’t shuck. ironwolf pro should be better choice (comes with free data recovery)

      • Any particular reason not to use raid 5 (or by extension SHR)? Is it just the lower level of redundancy?

        • +1

          I'd presume since recovering a failed drives hammers the remaining ones hard, the chance of a 2nd drive failing during recovery is a possibility and that possibility is more likely due to the large size and unknown natural of a shucked drive. Once again though just because recovery fails, doesn't necessarily mean all your data is lost. Just gets more complicated. Depends how much you care about the data though. Higher redundancy means more space lost, so more $'s per TB of usable storage.

          • +1

            @rhangman: And bitrot prevention and correction. RAID6 got two hashes so the chance of failure on both hash is significantly lower than raid5, especially drives are extraordinarily large nowadays.

            Remember the rebuild time of a 8x8TB setup can easily go up to half a month on some lower end NAS models, like my old DS1812+. A full data scrub = 1 week, rebuild from 1 drive loss took me 21 days. It’s a SHR-2 setup. I probably won’t use SHR anymore as I’m always pairing same model/capacity in my NAS.

            It was actually a pretty interesting story. Had to replace a shucked Seagate Barracuda from Expansion enclosure, as SMART shown 3 pending sectors. And after I did a security wipe on that drive, SMART info actually cleared up, no more pending sector and no bad sector. But just too afraid to use the drive again so got it replaced. They sent me a recertified drive instead. Working good now.

      • It's actually setup as X-Raid2, which is a variation of Raid 5 I think?

  • Anyone knows if these drives are good for Plex?

    • +3

      If people are using them in a NAS, no worries at all.

  • Can anyone confirm that the tape mod is or is not required in a NL-54 Microserver NAS?

    Reddit suggest it doesn't…

    Thanks

    • +1

      Not a definitive answer, but they were fine in my old N36L when they briefly lived in mine as I transferred the data to the new drives.

      Also OK in my ML10v2 on the 'main' backplane but when connected directly to the PSU they don't start. I just removed the 3.3v pin for the one drive powered that way, and all has been good.

      Got mine in Black Friday specials last year (US Amazon), running 4 in a zfs raid-z1 array - they're WD100EMAZ. Happy days.

      • Thanks for that. Going to buy one and apply the tape anyway if needed.

        Cheers.

    • +1

      My WD 12TB Elements drives didn't need a tape mod on HP Microserver N40L.

      • Thanks for that.

    • +1

      Gen6 Microserver doesn’t have 3.3v on Backplane (as they’re all converted from molex) so no tape required.

  • I run a raspberry pi 4 Plex server, suits my needs well and no issues with transcoding etc. Needing to upgrade the single USB drive in fear of drive failure to perhaps a raid 1 setup. A couple of these drives seem perfect. So my question is, do I ditch the Pi for a NAS that can run Plex, shuck the drives OR get a cheap enclosure (Orico maybe) which supports raid 1, OR just plug two of these USB drives into my PI and setup raid directly? Thanks for any help!

    • +1

      USB enclosure raid1 are sh*t. Rather to use md raid1 over two USB connected drive.
      But yes you should consider invest in a proper NAS. USB drives can drop out of RAID due to hard-coded sleep timer on the USB-SATA bridge.
      Or DIY a computer, maybe out of thinkcentre or optiplex SFF as they’re not much more expensive than a Pi 4, but WAY more powerful. Get ESXi or Proxmox on it and you got a home lab to play with. Easily equivalent of more than a dozen Pis.
      There are Lenovo M93p SFF models natively support 2x 3.5 hdds. And is possible to squeeze 4 hdds in total (2x 3.5 + 2x 2.5). Add a dedicated GPU, you can transcode 4K now. You can’t do that on Raspberry Pi. How about a DVB tuner and TV Headend for live stream/DVR free2air TV?

      • Thanks, good advice. I might try the pi with two of these drives connected over usb using mdadm while I wait for a good OzB deal on a decent NAS.

      • If the drives do drop out of the raid due to sleep etc, do they auto re-sync/mirror when back online?

  • Can you shuck this and put a Seagate Ironwolf inside does a free enclosure? Or will it not work?

    • Possible the USB PCB is firmware locked to WD drives. Can check tomorrow, but not with an IronWolf, did have a spare, but it was DOA, so sent back. If it works with non a non WD drive though, should work with an IronWolf.

      Have been wondering about all the spare parts. Cases and USB PCB's. Then there's all the power adapters. Must be 100's of US/UK adapters lying around. Then there's all the people who ordered free AU adapters even though they are shucking. Not worth shipping individual adapters overseas, but if sold as a bulk lot, someone would probably be interested in them.

      • Nah… they’re not firmware locked. You can use any drive with the USB bridge board.

        There’s a catch. Sometimes it won’t work the first time it powers on with a new drive. Simply disconnect the power, and plug back in, should work from the second time and go on. Probably the bridge need to refresh connected drive model or sort.

    • Tried a 12TB ironwolf drive, it works.

  • 10TB! - who has that much porn?

    • -3

      I have that much saved Fortnite gameplay. I guess you could call that porn? But seriously I need to cull that. It's not like I'll ever watch it all, or I'm even a good player. But I play with my family and we haven't taken many photos in lockdown. Plus occasionally i actually do well. So I'm having trouble tossing it. But damn I can't justify 2x $250+ to keep 2 copies.

    • +3

      You say that like 10TB is a lot?

  • +1

    Looks like whether you like it or not they've moving from helium filled drives to air filled drives. Resulting in more noise and more heat. And I suppose air filled drive has a lower manufacturing cost. As for helium leaks it only seem to occur only if the drive is damaged.

    • +1

      Considering we were facing a helium shortage, I'm kind of glad they're moving to air filled.

      • I am the opposite spent all my time finding helium ones, for comparison a 10TB Red Air uses 8.4W power, and 34dba noise. The helium one uses 5.7W power and 20 dba noise. That 14dba noise is very noticeable if you are in the same room as your as HDD's.

  • Is it the best quality? I care for the life of the HDD.

    Which one should I buy that last forever?

    • +3

      I'd suggest a stone tablet…

    • +1

      Buy enterprise level HDD if you after a longer warranty drive, such as WD red, it comes with 5 years warranty, although you would need to send the drive to Malaysia for warranty claim (approx cost $40 per return incl insurance from Melbourne).

      Also, remember the 321 backup rules too.

    • If you want data longevity, an LTO-8 tape drive could be the answer (However the drive hardware is VERY expensive), they generally last a lot longer than a HDD - not forever though.
      About 30 years life expectancy with tape VS 3/5 years for a magnetic hard drive
      (I have a 750GB external HDD from 2007 which still works, so life expectancy estimates can differ depending on usage frequency I imagine)

      • +2

        The problem is not whether a drive can work after a decade, but whether the data on it has bit rot during the time without power. LTO tapes are superior in such regard. No sensitive moving part, can be easily stored in dry and cool places and still keep data intact. On the other end of the scale is flash storage media. Cells can lose charge after prolonged offline storage. Lose charge = no more data.

        • +2

          We use LTO for any long term backups, been using the various flavours of LTO for the last decade, never had a failure, have lost count of the number of failed HDDs in that time. Transfer rates on the LTO-8 are crazy fast too.

  • Rats I missed the 10TB days of helium drives.

    I just recently moved the NAS under the stairs and running SHR with 3x 10TB REDs. I want to fill the last bay with another 10TB, is it ok if I get one of these? (Don’t care about noise).

  • My favourite is this 1TB 5TB HDD!?!
    https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B07VS8QCXC/

  • Has anyone who ordered this has theirs shipped yet? I placed mine on the 24/08 and still not shipped. Expected delivery 22nd Sept though.

    • got mine today

      Device model: WDC WD101EMAZ-11G7DA0
      Serial number: VCGGLGJJ
      LU WWN device id: 5 000cca 0b0c6a286
      Firmware version: 81.00A81
      User capacity: 10,000,831,348,736 bytes [10.0 TB]
      Sector sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
      Rotation rate: 5400 rpm
      Form factor: 3.5 inches
      Device: Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
      ATA version: ACS-2, ATA8-ACS T13/1699-D revision 4

      does run warmer but seems fine :)

    • I ordered mine early last week - the order status is confirmed on Amazon but the money hasn't even come out of the account. I'm not sure what the problem is there :<

      • Took a bit of time, just got notification yesterday has been shipped and is on its way from the UK

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