Not the best deal IMO at $23 Per TB, but we haven't had decent prices in AU for HDDs since the Seagate deal last year.
Its a good price for a stop gap purchase for your Linux ISOs if you're waiting for Black Friday Sales to come.
CamelCamelCamel.
Can this be shucked and used in an NVR?
That was an article from years ago when WD brought out hard drives with a new SATA power specification which wasn't compatible with older PSU (3.3V pin issue). Chances are every current PSU on the market is fully compatible with the drives straight out of the box. So likely no drive SATA connector modding is necessary these days. Unless you are running a really old PSU.
Would you what type of drives inside these by any chance?
Are they server/NAS grade drives or more like lower end consumer drives? (Like exos vs barracuda, sorry mostly familiar with seagate)
@Larsson: It would be a WD Enterprise grade white label drive. Kind of like how an Exos is Seagate Enterprise grade hard drive.
@Larsson: Yes. Well hard drives which were designed for Enterprise use. For use in a server or it can be used as a single drive in a desktop PC.
For NAS you really need the WD Red hard drives. As those drives feature NAS features in the firmware.
@hollykryten: Eh, if it’s the same drive they should all have similar features such as working in clusters and taking vibrations into account. Though yes I agree in principle ideal to get something that’s intended to use in its design use case.
What are the chances this is 7200rpm.
Using this exact one in my UDMSE for a year now. No problem whatsoever.
It's white-labelled helium drive, most likely WD200EDGZ, which is the same body as HC560 according to the RN number. Though running at 5400rpm instead of 7200.
WD doesn't do proper DC or RED drives in desktop external anymore, unlike Seagate, which are all Barracuda Pro or EXOS. No guarantee on small capacity external drives, though.
Wait this isn’t 7200rpm?
WD200EDGZ comes up through Google as a 7200rpm drive.
@hollykryten: All white labeled drives in enclosures should be 5400rpm as they’re firmware downgrade drives. Yet most places including smartmontools db says they’re 7200rpm.
They could be 7200rpm though. It’s all very mixed information.
@hollykryten: Less heat, less power consumption, more reliability.
7200rpm drives generally aren't worth the trade-off - you can already get over 250MB/s from a modern 5400rpm drive.
@Nom: I'd be imagining that as current HDDs are far more dense in data stored, compared to a +10 year old drive; that there's also more data contained per revolution on the disk, and so a 7,200rpm speed is not as necessary.
@mull: Exactly right.
They do have a very minor improvement in seek time, but meh, if you care about seek time then you're going to be using SSD instead 😁
@petestrash
Thanks, was quite funny actually, as I was checking out I got the notification of this being posted. while out of stock now, at least the price is locked in.
Unavailable without a US account by the looks of it
I ordered from my AU account on the Amazon US store
Ahhh brilliant! I forgot you usually need to log in again if it's international. Got it coming up for $313.48 USD so fingers and toes are crossed that it delivers.
It's not a bad deal
So many Linux ISOs to store! 😉☠️😉
Ordered, couldn't wait til Black Friday. May I ask what VPN is everyone using to download their Linux ISOs? One with port forwarding?
I've heard many people download their Linux ISOs using Mullvad.
Any advantage over the usual suspects with 100% cashback like Nord?
I thought many people use real debrid to stream their Linux ISOs instead these days.
(Interesting that Mullvad accept cash payment through the mail though)
look into real-debrid and you will never need to worry about download speeds or vpns again
Just looked into this and jesus christ. A bit of setup (like 15 minutes) but I'm instantly streaming 70GB HDR 4k Linux ISOs with no waiting, very little buffering and no switching websites to find the ISO in question.
Does it need to be plugged to a 240v power?
You may need a plug adapter, sometimes they come with them, but otherwise the power supply will convert whatever electricity from AC to DC, so no worries on that end.
Yes. It will come with a US adapter though. But you can request an AU one through WD Customer Support if you need it. Or at least that was the case last time I bought a bunch of these - I put through the serial numbers of all the WD drives I had and they sent me a box of 12 or so adapters. And then they randomly sent me another box by mistake, so I've got an almost lifetime supply of adapters here now.
Mine last year came with adapter with replaceable plug and I managed to find AU-spec plug that just works, was from a Dell Wyse 3040 adapter.
In reality any 12V 2.5A+ adapter would do. Centre positive I believe (but don't quote that on me)
Yep, WD support sent me an AU adapter when I requsted one after ordering this model from amazon UK via AU. Was really easy.
$500 in late 2022.
Did you reach out to WD Australia for adaptors?
@clubhonda: Was just through https://www.westerndigital.com/en-au/support
Raised a support request and provided details they asked for
" Staff Account (<NAME>) 14-Dec-2022 08:59:00 AM
Hello <NAME>,
Thank you for your reply and providing required details. We have successfully created the fulfillment of the AU power adapter for your Western Digital 20 TB Elements Desktop Hard Drive. You will receive the same free of charge within 10-15 business days.
If you have any further questions, please reply to this email and we will be happy to assist you further.
Sincerely,
<NAME>
Western Digital Customer Service and Support
https://www.westerndigital.com/support
thanks for the hint - I just did the same thing for a 20Tb Elements drive from USA. They are shipping me an AU power supply.
My 8TB version which i bought in 2019 stopped working after a few years of very occassional use. I don't have a good impression of this line.
I've been running these for years and haven't had an issue. For work storage however, I run two of these - one as a mirrored backup, just in case. Don't want to lose 20TB to random drive failure.
Sorry to hear, I think it just depends which batch you get,i have been running various WD elements 24/7 since 2019 so far no issues. i like buying with amazon because if something happens within the first 2 years they are usually very accommodating
usually very accommodating
Very accommodating when the delivery guy chucked the box at the doorstep too. Plus these international delivery comes in the original box without any packaging.
Amen to that most of my drive boxes come broken with holes in them haha, sometimes the harddrive is about to fall out. i still cant believe they ship them with no packaging.
Could be luck, but also 8TB drives may be downgraded from Blue or Green instead of the more premium DC/RED Pro, which certainly lasts longer.
MTBF is really meaningless unless you're running hundreds of drives altogether. When the only drive fails you, its MTBF become 100% instantly ;)
I mirror these drives in case of failure. If you're storing 20TB of anything critical without redundancy, you're simply asking for trouble. Depending on project size, I can fit anywhere between 10-300 projects on here. So for two of these drives I'm looking at storage costs of between $3-$90/project for local redundancy. If you can't build that into your costs, you're doing something wrong. Of course, if it's for personal use, you have to decide how valuable your files are to you.
Been looking for a deal, and this is it.
Fingers crossed they fill their back orders.
Are these EXOS/Ironwolf or just barracuda?
Wrong brand, my friend.
Whoops it’s WD, duh.
Question remains though, server/NAS hardware vs consumer?
I was about to edit but you commented so thanks hahaha
Not Seagate but if it was it would most likely be barracudas.
must resist…..annnnnd failed
This will fit 7-piece Syzygy endgame tablebase.
AUD $480 with cappy exchange rate
I'm sure no one cares but there's some reddit page with a link to firmware for the case so you can use it with other hard drives once you pull out the original.
Please share the link i have over 100 enclosures in my garage from all the years of shucking
Nice!
I think this is it: https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/gmic75/is_ther…
same reply here: https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/p8s4cb/is_ther…
The yandex link.
The cool thing is you can modify the firmware with a hex editor and make it show up as any usb VID/PID with custom strings but don't need to.
I didn't have to modify the board / disconnect the protection pin on my ones, just short pins while connecting and then re-flash, as reply in second link states.
Note that they changed the chips, this is for the newer ones with JMicron chips. The older hack is detailed here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/fbz91z/want_to…
What's the warranty process with these and how long are they covered for?
2 year for the elements and 3 for the my book version with the more square enclosure. It's worldwide, you register the serial number / date of purchase / receipt on the wd support site. You can start a return process from your inventory there. You pay for shipping to Thailand and they send a replacement. You include the US power adapter, they return a local power adapter included instead.
I dropped one from standing to flat on a table which killed it right after purchase, wouldn't start, I had taken it out of its enclosure before sending it back and put it back in, they didn't ask any further questions and sent a new one back. Only took 2 or so weeks for the return trip.
Anyone on back order? How does the process work?
the item is sold out now.
The price is gone now, but you place your order, hope more stock shows up, they charge you, and then they send it out to you.
28 October 2024: Tracking on Amazon now confirms arrival date of 12 November 2024, which it advises was previously 11 November 2024 — there must have been an update I didn't see between my previous update on 16 October 2024, changing from 12 November 2024 to 11 November 2024.
Fingers crossed it actually ships soon.
09 October 2024: Order placed, item was on back order, shipping date TBA
16 October 2024: Update received, arrival expected between 11 and 28 November 2024
Thanks for sharing, my delivery dates are similar.
31 October 2024: Checked tracking on website, it now advises — "Arriving Nov 6 - Nov 10", however it has not actually been shipped yet according to their tracking.
Anyone been charged by Amazon yet? Have a charge on my cc from Amaxon for a similarish account from yesterday evening, but no email from amazon as yet.
It's been 3 weeks now since I ordered. Depending on how I look at the order I get different information. Currently on mobile it says, "Now arriving November 12", but on pc it says, "Arriving Nov 8 - Nov 12".
The listing itself says "In Stock" and I believe it has said that for at least a week, with a delivery date of "November 10" or "November 5" as the fastest.
At no point has Amazon attempted to charge me yet which is very frustrating as they appear to have had stock for a while now, and my Linux iso's have almost completely filled my UNRAID server.
Yeah it turns out it was Amazon charging my cc, it's just shipped today.
Does your show as actually shipped when you check the tracking on Amazon?
Payment finally taken last night, but not yet shipped.
Payment taken on sunday and my drives shipped monday.
Shipped Monday night, estimated delivery November 12th.
I haven't been charged but that's because there's no money in my account, when they send me an email to pay I'll top up my account
These are expensive online in Australia. Mine just arrived from Amazon USA - USD $269.99 + 14.99 USD shopping plus GST = $US313.48 charged AUD $479.91. $939 at Officeworks and $899 at digidirect. Dont forget to lodge a request for WD for an AU Plug power supply. When I checked online for warranty it says it is not supported in AUS.
![[Backorder] WD 20TB Elements Desktop External Hard Drive US$313.48 (~A$464.68) Delivered @ Amazon US](https://files.ozbargain.com.au/n/23/870723.jpg?h=852c5d5c)
for brand new, this is pretty decent. HDD prices will be on a slight upswing for now