I was looking for a larger hard drive for my NAS and saw that these are not too bad for the price. Works out to $28.79/TB. Not the lowest it has been, but not too bad considering the current prices.
CamelCamelCamel.
If you cant wait, then that is definitely recommended.
I waited for 16TB deals last Black Friday. Nada.
:(
I picked up the 18TB version back in March 2021 from Amazon UK for $438. Hopefully the 18TB version hits $460-480 at the next sale. I'll bite then.
14TB units were the sweet spot last time
btw, out of curiosity, does anyone have any experience shucking these? I mean the 16TB model…what drive to expect. i have tried googling but could not find a very clear answer.
Yeah, got the 12tbs from last Amazon sales and shucked them. Happily running on my Synos DS918+ for almost a year already, no probs so far, touch wood. And it comes in whites (I heard its similar to reds?)
Thank you! Thats good to hear.
Also found an old deal post for a similar US model: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/601565
If you want to learn how to shuck, check this tutorial, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QApvLyorr3g.
I have shucked the exact model. This one is easy to shuck and doesn't require blocking the 3.3v pin.
Pin mod is very much luck of the draw, in my case 1/4 drives required the mod, all were running off same data power lead and all were same model on the sticker.
The 3.3v depends on your power supply in your PC or the NAS you're running. Most newer NAS are fine especially the Synology. PSU depends on if you have 5 pin SATA connectors or 4 pin (4 pin is what you need for it to work properly) Some PSUs have both connectors and you may not realise that the one that didn't work was because it was connected to the 5 pin.
@Whisper Quiet: No these were all running off the same cable, swapping order made no difference, it was just that specific drive that needed the tape on the pin. I think WD is doing it to troll us :)
@BargainKen: Could be your PSU and the 12v rail to how much capacity it has to evenly distribute. Once a drive is plugged the PC has a memory set for it. 3.3v and the 5 or 4 pin connectors is how it decides what can run or not. Whether you won't to believe it or not
@Whisper Quiet: Its a 1000W PSU, more than enough carrying capacity. Drive didnt care where it was plugged, if it sensed voltage on the 3.3v pin, it failed to post. LIke I said 3 other identical drives (same model and capacity) didnt present the issue.
I must have spent over 2 hrs on it at first not understanding as all drives were identical but eventually the pin mod on that one single drive did the trick.
Of course plugging in the drive into a synology NAS or using some alternative cabling which either have no power present on the 3.3v pin dont have the issue but thats side-stepping my point.
Seagate also dont seem to do this pin mod shenanigans, only WD/HGST.
Possibly ePMR according to the bottom post: https://old.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/qf5ar3/is_this…
The exact model I shucked is WD160EDFZ-11AFWA0
I bought two of these a few months back. One for my stuff, the other to back up my stuff. I opened one up and inside is a "white label" Ultrastar DC HC550 also known as WD160EMFS.
Reddit thinks it may be either a WD Red or WD Gold. Manufactured Oct 2020.
Ultrastar DC HC550
That's a WUH721816ALE6L4. They're enterprise class 7200rpm drives. Way, way above a red, let alone red plus and red pro. They're Hitachi drives.
Yep, I got the 14TB a year back. The decent helium-filled version.
Apparently WD doesn't make drives over 8GB with SMR anymore, so you won't get shingles with this one.
I've shucked 10 and 18TB. Mine were white drives, WD100EMAZ. The 18TB was a WD180EDFZ.
If you are shucking them, you need to insulate pin #3 on the SATA power connector using Kapton tape.
waiting for black friday…..6tb+ left on my NAS…..
ikdf, 50GB free here - deleting linux isos that I rare use for now
So I lost a laptop worth of data today thru poor judgement. Managed to save my wedding photos and crypto, so mostly all good. I'm not super savy with this stuff but think I need to get better at backing stuff up on the regular. Could I plug something like this into modem and time capsule/back up family members stuff? Maybe monthly or something. Or are there better options?
If you are using Macs, Time Machine would be the best option. Shuck the drive and put it in this to a NAS that supports Time Machine would be pretty good. Better get a NAS that has redundancy in case of losing hard drives as hard drives also fail. The only problem is NAS is not cheap. Or if you can do it yourself or find some help, you could build a relatively cheap small factor PC and have Linux running as a Time Machine backup. I've personally done this way, a $700 ITX PC plus a few hard drives, it can also be my home media server that I can stream my library everywhere in the world.
It's a split between PC and mac. Not ideal but is what it is atm. I'll look into the NAS thing again.
NAS is not a backup
@gizmomelb: If you’re backing up your laptop to a NAS, then yes. It’s is a backup as it’s a separate copy.
@itsme56: Backup recommendation is the 3-2-1 rule.
3 copies, 2 local, but different media, 1 offsite.
By this rule a NAS 100% is one of the local copies.
@SirDale: I always just shake my head when people complain they've lost family history because they wouldn't listen to other people's advice and experience, because ''they know better''. We led you to the water, then you complain you're dying of thirst. Not our problem, we tried to help.
@gizmomelb: Yep, people need to make backups. A NAS can be one of them.
Thinking RAID on a NAS is in itself is a form of backup is (almost 100%) wrong (you can typically recover from a single disk failure), but not all NAS have RAID - there are a number of single disk NAS boxes available.
It ticks all the boxes for backup - separate from the host machine, a copy that can be accessed later. I don't see how it -isn't- a backup.
I don't see how it -isn't- a backup.
Because a lot of people believe RAID is a backup itself and use NAS as the only storage (one copy of the data on NAS because "it is reliable").
I'd consider getting backblaze. I have other backups in place, but for $5 a month or so I know I never need to worry again.
I have it running on my PC and laptops etc sync to that using goodsync and then 12tb is all backed up from there
$5 per computer?
It's $5 per computer but I have them all syncing to my one so only pay it once. You can also plug in external drives and it'll back them up as long as they're plugged in every 30 days
Google Photos for the pics
no more free storage :(
It’s true. But might be worth it due to the search and other features. I’ll probably pay when they start charging me
Does this come with an AUS power adaptor or do you need to request it from Western Digital? (if so how?)
You'll get UK + EU plug but the adapter itself is universal (100-240v, 50-60hz). So just use any international adapter that can convert UK or EU to AU. Amazon has a lot of those under $10 https://www.amazon.com.au/s?k=eu+to+au+adaptor
Don’t matter which plug it comes with. All you have to do is contact WD support online and request for an AU plug. They will send you the complete PSU with AU plug.
Do you have to create "Support incident" for that?
I tried live chat (outsourced to India) and they could not help me and ask me to call local number.
Yes, create support.
Check 12tb deals from black friday period last year as there was detailed instructions
.
@Nugs: Do you need to register the product first to create a support incident?
I am unable to register this drive with WD in Australia as they say it's Out Of Region.
@B3: Check 12tb deals from black friday period last year as there was detailed instructions
maybe things have changed in 12 months?
.
Current prices?
They seem to be coming down.
These have all been dropping in price recently. Worth waiting a couple of more weeks.
Can someone tell me if the 10TB WD elementt Officeworks is selling for $360 is the same type as this one?
I need a new hard drive urgently and don't think I can wait 1 month.
This one
https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/wd-element…
I bought one of these back in Feb '21
Had a WDC WD160EDFZ-11AFWA0 inside. Has been great. No issues.
Bought 4 of these earlier in the year, still going strong in my 918+ NAS.
Ordered 1 more now as dont want to wait till after christmas for the sake of potentially saving like $30 from Black Friday.
From experience run a disk check on each drive before shucking as once shucked its probably pretty hard to return
Does anyone know if Chia farming is still a thing, or has it crashed and gone away?
I'm still farming chia with a few hundred TB but do not recommend. Breakeven on this drive at this price is probably 18 months at least , maybe longer. You would be better putting $460 into buying and holding the coin if you believe in the project
Payback period can be 2-3 years if you buy a new HDD due to chia price drop and rising of mining difficulties. so no longer attractive esp compare to graphic card mining (Payback period is only few months).
Can only buy 3 at once :-(
probably buy 2 at once to sit under $1000. Then but another 2 perhaps.
Swear I bought a Seagate 16TB from amazon uk like a year ago for ~$400.. how are drives going up?!
Chia crypto
Got one previously with more than 14,000 hours running time. Obviously it's old disk with new case. Returned.
How do you check this?
Any drive SMART took will tell you the power on hours.
These are new drives though, they'll read 0 hours out of the box unless you've been mis-sold a customer return or something.
Just noticed a setting in my NAS - my shucked 8TB Barracuda's have been going over 53,000 hours (6 years 24/7).
I am interested in this kind of drive for long term backups only, do they only spin up when you access them or is it best to only plug them in when you do your backups?
If it is only for doing backups, I'd unplug it the rest of the time regardless, because if something happens to your PC, (malware, lightning, electrical shorts etc), it could take out your external HDD as well.
Ideally, you keep your backup drive at a 2nd location, like work or something. (In case your house burns down).
Any idea what drives these are? Is it ultrastar dc or red drives?
Just shucked mine. The drive inside is: WD160EDFZ-11AFWA0
Maybe this will help someone.
Tempting, but… Black Friday