WD Easystore External Discussion

Just went in to my local BB and they had 2 in store, both made in Thailand. Since I wanted to pay with PayPal, I had to put the order in online and they'll only be ready for pick up tomorrow… #sadpanda
If I can convince the missus, I might try to snag 3 more before the price goes back up for my new NAS. $149+tax is not the best price ever but it's a pretty good price anyway, especially if they are all WD Reds with 256MB cache! ;)

I'll report back after I test 'e and shuck 'em! :)
 
Finally got around to trying that hack; I used a tiny flathead screwdriver to basically destroy the pins. I initially started by removing pin 8 on the Winbond chip, but it didn't do anything; the drive was still undetected by Windows. The guide also mentioned cutting pin 7 and after trying that, it finally worked. The enclosure is no longer detected as an "Easystore", instead it's identified as "AS2115" now. I took some pictures for anyone who might be thinking of doing this:

http://rreactor.com/lychee/#15142508140900
 
Sheesh, I haven't even opened mine yet. I've been so busy with Christmas and it's still not over yet, our family Christmas party is this Saturday!

Thanks to whoever posted the info on re-using the enclosure with non WD drives, I'm definitely going to be doing that!
 
levifig said:
Just went in to my local BB and they had 2 in store, both made in Thailand. Since I wanted to pay with PayPal, I had to put the order in online and they'll only be ready for pick up tomorrow… #sadpanda
If I can convince the missus, I might try to snag 3 more before the price goes back up for my new NAS. $149+tax is not the best price ever but it's a pretty good price anyway, especially if they are all WD Reds with 256MB cache! ;)

I'll report back after I test 'e and shuck 'em! :)
Click to expand...

All 3 are WD80EFAX, WD Reds with 256Mb cache (from Thailand). I shucked them already, which was REALLY easy using the 4+1 system (just used an old card, cut 1/3 out for the "leverage" piece, and then cut the other 2/3 in 4 squares pieces for the pegs).
Ran WD's Lifeguard Diagnostics Extended test on 1 of them, and it was good (took nearly ~20hrs btw). Still waiting to buy the motherboard/cpu/memory that'll go into making this NAS. Working on that now.

As for warranty, I'm keeping the original enclosures, though I might just keep one though since the odds of 2 failing at the same time HAVE to be low (especially since I'm gonna be doing RAIDZ1, which means 1 drive redundancy :p). FWIW, these serial numbers give me less than 1-year warranty since WD looks at manufacturing dates and these were manufactured May/June of this year. I'm guessing BB's receipt will take care of the "extra" few months. Honestly, drives can fail at any time, but I've never had a drive fail "naturally" after a few months and then within warranty. Besides, WD's warranty is impeccable (which is why I only buy WD). I've RMA'ed 3 drives, 2 of them I suspect a faulty AC adapter on an external eSATA enclosure (almost 10 years ago) killed, and WD didn't bat an eye and advanced replaced them! That stuff is priceless IMO!
 
Last edited:
levifig said:
All 3 are WD80EFAX, WD Reds with 256Mb cache (from Thailand). I shucked them already, which was REALLY easy using the 4+1 system (just used an old card, cut 1/3 out for the "leverage" piece, and then cut the other 2/3 in 4 squares pieces for the pegs).
Ran WD's Lifeguard Diagnostics Extended test on 1 of them, and it was good (took nearly ~20hrs btw). Still waiting to buy the motherboard/cpu/memory that'll go into making this NAS. Working on that now.

As for warranty, I'm keeping the original enclosures, though I might just keep one though since the odds of 2 failing at the same time HAVE to be low (especially since I'm gonna be doing RAIDZ1, which means 1 drive redundancy :p). FWIW, these serial numbers give me less than 1-year warranty since WD looks at manufacturing dates and these were manufactured May/June of this year. I'm guessing BB's receipt will take care of the "extra" few months. Honestly, drives can fail at any time, but I've never had a drive fail "naturally" after a few months and then within warranty. Besides, WD's warranty is impeccable (which is why I only buy WD). I've RMA'ed 3 drives, 2 of them I suspect a faulty AC adapter on an external eSATA enclosure (almost 10 years ago) killed, and WD didn't bat an eye and advanced replaced them! That stuff is priceless IMO!
Click to expand...
Shell has the same S/N as the drive that came with it, so if you think you need the enclosure to get warranty work, you probably the one that matches the drive s/n
 
nilepez said:
Shell has the same S/N as the drive that came with it, so if you think you need the enclosure to get warranty work, you probably the one that matches the drive s/n
Click to expand...

Yup. Thought of that the second I posted that comment and didn't bother to fix it! haha Right now I have plenty of storage space, so keeping all the enclosures won't be an issue. If I move or the warranty expires (whichever comes first), I'll just toss them all :)
 
Finally shucked the 4x EasyStore 8TB's (NESN) I got sometime before Christmas. I ran the WD Diag Extended on them in the USB enclosure (about 15 hours each). All 4 are EFAX, Red 256MB.

Now I need to put them in a server and figure out how MergerFS/Snapraid parity works.
 
Went to BB today, bought 8 drives, 6 are EFAX, 1 DOA, 1 EMAZ, and 1 WTF. See image.



e86f6889



DOA unit shows in windows hardware manager, cannot see it in crystal disk and cannot do anything in disk manager with it.
 
scobar said:
Went to BB today, bought 8 drives, 6 are EFAX, 1 DOA, 1 EMAZ, and 1 WTF. See image.



e86f6889



DOA unit shows in windows hardware manager, cannot see it in crystal disk and cannot do anything in disk manager with it.
Click to expand...

Some discussion on EMZZ drives in that thread. No real concrete info though.
 
Huh, so just another PN for white. For my usecase that should be a-okay.
 
If I order them online and they come in to the store, and I go to pick them up, can I return them if they aren't 256mb cache ones?
 
v6maro said:
If I order them online and they come in to the store, and I go to pick them up, can I return them if they aren't 256mb cache ones?
Click to expand...

The DOA unit I walked in and in less than 5min walked out with a new drive.
 
I grabbed 3 units from BB yesterday. 2 were white label WD80ENAZ and 1 was a red label WD80EFAX. They had a stack of about 40, lol.

I'm using these for Bust and started plotting one of the white label ones in one of my 24 bay servers, and it died after plotting for about 10 hours. Never had issues with red label WD's, so I guess I'll return the 2 white label ones and hunt through their stack for some more red label ones based on the serial numbers listed in the first post of this thread.
 
From what I've read, white label drives are updated red label drives that adhere to the current SATA power spec with "drive reset" enabled on a power pin. I haven't read about 128MB cache white drives yet.
 
went to my local BB and picked up 4, I didn't see these in the list except one that says it's a red - what do you guys think they are?

I'd check them out, but im stuck at work and cant see what they are right now :(

bd0nptG.png

k8t2Q4y.png

p6ipMx7.png

y6y6rhe.png
 
levifig said:
Just went in to my local BB and they had 2 in store, both made in Thailand. Since I wanted to pay with PayPal, I had to put the order in online and they'll only be ready for pick up tomorrow… #sadpanda
If I can convince the missus, I might try to snag 3 more before the price goes back up for my new NAS. $149+tax is not the best price ever but it's a pretty good price anyway, especially if they are all WD Reds with 256MB cache! ;)

I'll report back after I test 'e and shuck 'em! :)
Click to expand...

Why don't you get a Paypal Mastercard Debit card? Use it like a credit card and it just deducts from your paypal balance, or paypal balance and a backup source if you don't have enough funds in there.
 
v6maro said:
I'm planning to use all 4 in a Synology NAS - should I try and just get reds or are the whites ok?
Click to expand...

You'll be fine, there is no need to get all reds unless you are really OCD. The cache difference will make no difference at all.
 
I took the one white label one that failed to complete a burst plot. Guy at the counter told me to go back and grab another one and he'd do the paper work. Spent about 10 minutes digging through the stack of 40 they had. All were made in Thailand, but none of the serial numbers matched the list of red's on page one. So I just grabbed a random one. Got home, and it was a red label (serial 7SGGBREC in case someone wants to add that to the first post). Guess I got lucky. Thinking about going back and just picking up all 40 or however many they have now, and then return all the ones that turn out to be white label ones. I already have 24 6TB Red label ones and another 15 or so 8TB that are all Red label ones, so I'd like to keep it that way going forward. Yes, I'm OCD. :D But with that one white drive failing, I'm a little gun shy about picking those up again.
 
pclausen said:
I took the one white label one that failed to complete a burst plot. Guy at the counter told me to go back and grab another one and he'd do the paper work. Spent about 10 minutes digging through the stack of 40 they had. All were made in Thailand, but none of the serial numbers matched the list of red's on page one. So I just grabbed a random one. Got home, and it was a red label (serial 7SGGBREC in case someone wants to add that to the first post). Guess I got lucky. Thinking about going back and just picking up all 40 or however many they have now, and then return all the ones that turn out to be white label ones. I already have 24 6TB Red label ones and another 15 or so 8TB that are all Red label ones, so I'd like to keep it that way going forward. Yes, I'm OCD. :D But with that one white drive failing, I'm a little gun shy about picking those up again.
Click to expand...

>>Thinking about going back and just picking up all 40 or however many they have now, and then return all the ones that turn out to be white label ones.

Wow.

It must be so nice to know the whole world exists to serve your needs.


.
 
That was a joke you know, although it might not have come across that way...

I still have the 2nd white label I purchased earlier this week. However, it it too fails to plot, I will be returning that one as well.
 
pclausen said:
That was a joke you know, although it might not have come across that way...

I still have the 2nd white label I purchased earlier this week. However, it it too fails to plot, I will be returning that one as well.
Click to expand...
Not sure what plotting is, but all three of my white label drives passed bad blocks without incident.

Just checked, they only have around 1100 hours, but so far 0 smart errors. I guess what I am getting at is, it sounds like you got a dud.
 
Silentbob343 said:
Not sure what plotting is, but all three of my white label drives passed bad blocks without incident.

Just checked, they only have around 1100 hours, but so far 0 smart errors. I guess what I am getting at is, it sounds like you got a dud.
Click to expand...

Plotting is for Burstcoin mining.
 
So I have been through 3 white label WD80EMAZ drives now and none of them work when connected directly via SATA. They won't spin up at all. If I use the Easystore controller and connecting via USB, they spin up just fine.

Guess WD finally caught on to people using them as NAS drives and crippled them with updated firmware to where they will only spin up when given a signal from the Easystore controller...
 
pclausen said:
So I have been through 3 white label WD80EMAZ drives now and none of them work when connected directly via SATA. They won't spin up at all. If I use the Easystore controller and connecting via USB, they spin up just fine.

Guess WD finally caught on to people using them as NAS drives and crippled them with updated firmware to where they will only spin up when given a signal from the Easystore controller...
Click to expand...
No the new white labels have the new 3.3v reset 'feature' and you must be using an old power supply or power splitter which does not conform. You can easily fix this with tape or a molex to sata power adapter, search for easystore 3.3v
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top