Anyone know if there's firmware updates for WD20EARX drives?

[Foxhack]

I picked up a set of 2 TB WD Green drives (wd20earx-00pasb0) recently from a local liquidator - they were manufactured in 2011 and all have under 330 hours total use time, so I want to use them for data storage. A friend told me that these drives need to have their firmware updated, but I can't find any reliable info and WD's website is a pain in the butt that doesn't even have support info for these drives.

So uh, is there anything specific I need to do to these drives so they don't blow up on me? I ran a quick SMART test and they all seem fine.

Thank you.

 

[SvenBent]

did he say why the drives need firmware update ?

 

[Foxhack]

It was something about the heads being parked way too much and wearing out the drives too son.

 

[Zepher]

I think it was widdle or something like that that keeps the head from parking every 5 minutes.

 

[Zepher]

https://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?p=113

 

[Zepher]

This is my the only EARX I am running now, and I "think" I ran the wdidle tool on it back when I got it, but I am not positive. I know I ran the tool on one or more WD Greens, but they may have been the EARS ones.

 

[jlbenedict]

You need the "wdidle3" utility

 

[Foxhack]

Hm, thanks, jlbenedict - that helped me narrow down the search and I found this thread:

http://alfredoblogspage.blogspot.com/2013/01/western-digital-wd20earx-load-cycle.html

I need to fix up my old system to be able to do this (my current PC doesn't like booting from USB media).