best price it's been accordingly to CCC
Comes down to about $21.36 per tb.
Yes it can be shucked, however might require the pin trick.
CamelCamelCamel.
You've ordered in the past 3 hours. Cancel and rebuy.
its only 1.4% cashback, so not really worth the effort
is that equate to $5.38202 cashback?
I bought using Amazon gift cards purchased from Shopback at 2% discount. I also got $3 credit to Amazon account.
bought this for $443 in April, not happy!
don't visit this site if you want to be happy with any of your purchases
else you will get both joy and misery.
Any suggestions for something smaller in size to direct timemachine / iphone backups to? They'll be uploaded to the cloud from there
LOL if you don't like this size then get smaller size hdd
what is there to suggest…
all depends on your budget
Thank you so much OP! 😃 Have been watching for another one of these great deals recently as the drive from the super duper 14TB deal from a couple of years ago that was posted here on OZ Bargain is now full. So I just bought 2 of these big 18TB stonkers! (1 as usual is for backup) and I'm glad I can have all that free space back again😄 Cheers! You're a champion 🏆😃
Had to sign up for Amazon Prime but of course it was totally worth it, was only $7 and I will cancel it before it bills me again.
Instructions for getting free AU wall plug converters from Western Digital can be found at this link below:
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/567041
It's pretty straight forward and once you get the drives (need the serial numbers) you can do it online in about 5 minutes and then they will send them to you. I got the similar deal a couple years ago on the 14Tb version of these drives ( https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/572428 ) and IIRC it only took a week or so before the AU wall plug adapters arrived in the mail from WD service centre.
FYI, these will format to 16.3 TB in Windows.
What are people's thoughts on the reliability of these drives? I vaguely remember reading that WD bin their drives and that one's that don't possibly pass the full qc tests end up in externals?
i can only tell you from personal experience. i have a number of 12 & 14tb drives from this same product range from over 2 years ago. Their still running today with no problem and are passing every test.Their also running (either in use or at idle) 24/7
But as usual, your mileage may vary
I have seen an article that rates WD as having significantly better failure rates than Seagate who have apparently gotten worse in this department recently?
I think it was HGST that were better but not by a lot.
can you please post a link for it? Thanks
Really sorry but it was a while ago and I don't think I bookmarked it. But here is a link from a website that has lots of info on hard drives and this is a more recent article on HDD failure rates for the different manufacturers. I hope it helps
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze-drive-stats-for-q1-…
So I tried to buy 6 across separate orders but you're limited to 5 regardless :(
Got an alert on my 3rd cart of 2x and changed my quantity down to 1x only
So would this drive be ok to game off or is it mostly just for backups
Although it's perfectly capable to game off of, i would recommend Ssd's to game.
That being said, if you are ok with longer loading times then a HDD should suffice
….aaaand its over, GG all
Waiting for BLACK FRIDAY mate! Hope get this price again.
why does amazon ship hdd in paper bag!!!? LOL
the HDD's arrived all beaten up, broken boxes. not sure if i should trust my data on the drive.
Looks like I have one big return to sort out.
Mine arrived today, was in 1 of those padded cardboard bags. The WD box inside is in perfect condition.
However, regardless of the condition it arrived in, always test the hdd thoroughly as soon as it arrives.
I just had two that arrived in a cardboard box, and they were perfect. but the other 8 arrived in paper bag are damaged.
the ones that are damaged i can send back. amazon has a return mode that says Package arrived damaged.
I have some more coming next week hopefully they are alright
How do we test the hdd thoroughly?
Can use HD Sentinel to run surface scans
Can also just fill the drive with your large and small files and then run a verify script to make sure nothing corrupted.
@harryozz: If you want to fill and verify you can use h2testw since it's designed to fill & verify to detect fake USB stick/SD cards
TBH the thing that annoys me most, is that they sent my $2 chuppa chups in a cardboard box, but when it comes to a $300 hdd nah lets just chuck it in a paper bag. LOL
ahahah that's funny, i had a similar problem. I ordered some cheap clothing, that can easily get scrunched up without getting damaged, they got delivered in an oversized cardboard box, whilst the hdd's in the cardboard bag…..
I find this a pretty common problem around amazon's busiest times of year; black friday, Prime day, xmas.
I ordered 5 tiny boxes of vitamin D from Amazon, they shiped 4 in the a cardboard box, and 1 in envelope bag padded
Still plenty of room for that tiny vitamin D to fit in the box , don't know why this happen
@TrungTotti: Probably the supplier/Amazon only had 4 units so they filled the other unit from a different warehouse/seller.
Amazon UK often sends out stuff in their "eco-friendly" paper bags, regardless of its value.
Yeah damn hippies gotten in the way of my hard drive packaging jk jk
i'm sure the hdd will be fine the boxes are designed to take impact, but i rather return to be on the safe side
Mine arrived today too in Adelaide , the 18TB in the cardboard box, but the 5TB external in paper bag (Amazon UK paper bag). I never see Amazon Aus ship in paper bag before lol , Im a bit shocked
HDD are pretty decent at taking impact if they are in the packaging, keep in mind they are also mounted in the enclosure which has rubber stoppers on each corner of the drive to further reduce impact. I would just open them and test them and if they test okay then they're fine to use. Amazon will accept open box returns no problem.
How long does WD take to ship AU adapters? Trying to decide how to best test my drives, ideally I want to do it before shucking them.
Most external drives and other small computer related electronics (routers, switches,larger STBs etc) use 12V centre +ve psu. You can safely use any one that has an output rating of 2A and above to power up the drive.
The adapter that came with the drive is 12V 1.5A, so it's okay if it's 12V >=1.5A? I need to go digging in my box of random electronics
Yeah as long as it is more capable than the original one will do.
Got my disks today, now doing some stress tests on it before shucking…
How do you do that?
Use HD Sentinel Pro, reinitialize mode and going to run twice…
Download HD Sentinel Pro trial, click on Disk - Surface Test. Can click on Multiple Drive button if you bought a few and want to test them at the same time, otherwise just select your single new drive from the drop-down. Select the third test in the drop down "Write + read test (destructive)" and then run the test. It is estimating around 45-50hrs per drive for my new 18TB disks (16TB capacity).
it says "only available after registration and activation", so guessing you need to buy the software to do that test?
inside the trial zip file was hdsentinel_pro_setup, can't see a way to set it to trial only
i didnt realise it could test multiple drives at once - starting both 18TB now
1st drive went past the 'initialising' box quickly, and is up to 26 sectors checked so far, ETA 44hrs…
2nd drive took 1 minute at 'initialising' .. and is only up to 4 checked … ETA 310hrs!
All testing green/OK so far.
Bit weird though? or a result of 2 drive tests going at once?
I am going OS on Monday, and have a bunch of other things to do - i could test them separately i guess, but it'll be a bit nerve-wracking having to do anything urgent before i go!
@Agret: hi Agret, not sure i understand the q sorry - it was just a USB port on the other side of the same laptop.
in any case, I disconnected that 'slower' drive and hooked it up to another machine instead (on its own), and the Sentinel surface check is going much better now .. ETA 46hrs, already up to 25 checked in 4mins.
I think i like the idea of each drive being tested on a separate machine, even if Sentinel is meant to support it OK.
Still dont like the paper bag delivery — as many others have stated. hmm…!
@Agret: a good night's sleep has made me re-read your msg and realise what you were referring to .. ! It was USB 3.0, not 2
Delivered in a paper bag…
Mine came in an amazon box, but knackered luckily the box in it is still fine!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/p4miRLsbvA5H1HXp8
Mine was making this sound yesterday. It's stopped but you can occasionally hear the hard drive spin when it's transferring files.
Should I return?
See posts above for instructions on testing the drive.
No need to return unless those 50 hour tests come up with any issues.
Thats normal.
Damn, that's a filthy mouse there. But like Nom said, do the HD Sentinel write and test destructive to ensure its working fine…
Were you accessing the disk?
You should get HDDScan and run a SMART full test on the disk, it'll take a LONG LONG LONG time - see what it says.
Just got mine, and it came in a paper bag!! What a croc!!
Got mine today too and it also came in a dreaded Amazon UK brown paper bag.
I complained and they offered $15!! Insult!!
Test it thoroughly.
Show us a picture of this bag.
Same, mine arrived in a paper bag. Two of them. Looks like they spent a week in a washing machine. Box is all smashed up.
Expecting the click of death.
They power on OK.
Will go through full checks before I shuck them and put them in service.
Mine are all US7SAR180. All required the Pin 3 Mod.
After over 1 weeks and multiple R/W & Scan passes the unit was fine. SMART was all clear pre and post. Nuked with DBAN, shucked and now will move over the datasets which may take about 1 week.
Also noticed the internal drive is mounted using rubber holders within the enclosure. I suspect WD have thought this through, and any extra padding during shipment is not required.
if your R/N is US7SAR180 you need to do 3.3v pin hack.
If your R/N is US7SAS180 you do not need to do 3.3v pin hack or tape or anything. the drives work natively, no modification required.
There is a new pcb design for 2022 Q2 Drive revisions and they are no longer using the power disable feature by default.
https://documents.westerndigital.com/content/dam/doc-library…
This is the new thing i learnt today, thankyou
Sorry where can you find the R/N? I looked at the box but its different to what you mentioned here.
It’s on the physical internal hard drive itself
It is like you need to cut the wire to know if you have cut the correct wire:)
Thanks for letting us know about this.
Looks like I had the US7SAR180 series, does it matter if I used it on my Synology NAS or I still need to do the 3.3v pin hack?
Give it a go first without 3.3v pin hack, you might be in luck and itll just work
Just chuck it into my synology and recognized all good. Now syncing with the replaced drive.
I've got two SARs, both worked fine without 3.3v hack in my box with Corsair RM750x PSU.
Brown paper bag here too for the 18TB. Going to test it but has anyone else got an issue with the top of the enclosure? It is flimsy and when I picked it up the top plastic grill kinda popped up a little.
There is no replacement option I am told so if it is faulty you can only return locally for a refund.
Wasn't offered any compensation, didn't ask.
Edit: The Bag
The top grill part of these enclosures tend to be a bit flimsy, but their not really meant to be structural, mostly just meant for ventilation & shield hands from getting in there. However it shouldn't pop up (unless ofcourse you are shucking it). Regarding returning it, i'd recommend testing the drive first, if it pasts all tests i don't see why you would return it, it's still the best value 18tb drive you are going to find for a while. just pop the piece back in and keep using it?
Thanks for the info.
I agree, if it passes all tests I will be keeping it. I was just more concerned about not being able to get a replacement if it was faulty.
Received three drives in two brown paper bags. No damage to the box.
However, two of the three drives have reported one "reallocated sector count" each in S.M.A.R.T. monitoring during surface test (Sentinel in WRITE/READ mode, random data). The 3rd disk passed the test without any errors or reallocated sectors.
Considering the drives are brand and only had one bad sector, should I return them? I doubt we'll be able to get this price again anytime soon.
Return!! - I would never accept a brand new drive with reallocated sectors!!
Thanks for the advice.
Relocated sector count was at zero at the beginning of the surface test. Reallocation of 1 sector occurred during scan. From your experience, what's the likelihood of this number increasing?
EDIT: Interesting to note that "Reallocation Event Count" is 0.
I mean your drive is ok from an operational point of view but from a technical point of view, the drive had a bad sector and it had to allocate a reserved sector to compensate for that bad sector. When you start it up it won’t show always, but after writing to the disk it finds the bad sector and then the allocation occurs.
Not sure if that made any sense.
@TomGum: it makes perfect sense. Reallocation is permanent, so, unless there is some other issue with drive's surface, the count should remain steady. Only time would show it. I guess I could wait to see what happens before 30 day Amazon return day expires.
Make sure you aren't looking at the wrong column, I think you might be looking at the Threshold column. You should be looking at the Data column which should list all zeros.
@Multipass: Thanks.
In the meantime, the guys at Reddit Data Hoarder forum have addressed my concerns:
https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/wbwm8o/realloc…
23-07: Request the AU wall plug on WD site
09-08: Received one Aus wall plug + one 3.0 USB Cable (Delivered by UPS, CouriersPlease at 7am this morning)
Made in China but shiped from a warehouse in Vietnam, this province is my hometown in Vietnam, first time i received a parcel shiped from Vietnam :D
I tried a Au wall plug from wavlink hdd docking station bought from Amazon but it not work with this WD, randomly disconnect and reconnect the drive at least 2,3 times each hour.
I tried a Au wall plug from wavlink hdd docking station bought from Amazon but it not work with this WD
On the wall plug that came with HDD, it will say something like 12.0V, 2.0A. If you want to try another plug, it needs to match. It will have the same numbers on the AU wall plug too.
I ordered this drive and it didn't arrive. Some random worthless trinket arrived with a different order number and then the tracking was set as delivered. Amazon say they are refunding, but mighty pissed off I didnt get the bargain. :-(
wow, that sucks. The only time that has ever happened to me was when i bought from a different non-amazon seller on amazon.com.
However, fortunately refund is easily offered, but it really sucks that you didn't get the deal.
![[Prime] WD 18TB Elements Desktop External Hard Drive, $384.43 Delivered @ Amazon UK via Amazon AU](https://files.ozbargain.com.au/n/48/712348.jpg?h=c1296983)
nooo i forgot cashback