ReadyNAS NV and Seagate 2TB Barracuda Green (ST2000DL003)

I had a ReadyNas Duo with 2 x WD20EARS (a 00MVWB0 and a 60MVWB0 - they had matched but one was replaced under warranty)

I have just upgraded to a NV+ (agonised over the V2 for ages but I don't need the higher capacity etc)

I 'build'the NV+ with 2 x WD20EARX-008FB0
Hot added the WD20EARS-00MVWB0 from the Duo and let it sort itself out (overnight) - all was good.
This moring I hot added the WD20EARS-60MVWB0 and let it sort itself out - it's just finished and, again, all is good.

So I now have:
Ch 1 : WDC WD20EARX-008FB0 [1862 GB] 1859 GB allocated
Ch 2 : WDC WD20EARX-008FB0 [1862 GB] 1859 GB allocated
Ch 3 : WDC WD20EARS-00MVWB0 [1862 GB] 1859 GB allocated
Ch 4 : WDC WD20EARS-60MVWB0 [1862 GB] 1859 GB allocated


Fingers crossed it stays good - and that this info is helpful for others.

Please be aware of a problem I have with WD20EARS on my DUO which you have just added to your NV
These are on the HW compatibility list for the DUO (but not the NV / NV+)

Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EARS 2 TB 3Gb/s 64 MB Yes 3 Firmware 80.00A80, Model # WD20EARS-00S8B1, See Tech Bulletin http://www.readynas.com/?p=3690

(with a pointer to See Tech Bulletin http://www.readynas.com/?p=3690 to make you aware of possible 4K sector size issues)

these have been running OK for 11 months and one drive started getting bad blocks and failed to resync. It failed Western Digital extended diags and also failed to re-allocate the bad blocks.
When I was initially investigating mine, the SMART Stats showed a very high value for Load Cycle Count. (in the thousands), further research showed that these green drives have a default 8 second inactivity setting for parking the heads and this was the reason for the high count. I wonder if the bad blocks might be caused by a head crash due to the frequent park / reload of the heads.
I saw that one contributer here has used the Western Digital supplied diagnostic program called WDIDLE3 /S0 to disable the head park (http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=44686)

I spoke to WD support in the USA to sort out the warranty replacement and in discussion he said that their Green drives such as this model are NOT suitable for NAS drives. The low power and head parking features make them unsuitable. I mentioned running WDIDLE3 on the drive to disable head parking which he replied that it should NOT be run on this model and it may trash the drive, he recommended not using Green drives in the NAS.

Your WD20EARS drives may work OK for a while but do keep an eye out for high Load Cycle Count and any bad blocks appearing.


These WD20EARS drives need removing of the HW compatibility lists

Some time back WD issued that warning, but buried it somewhere on their forum where it is impossible to find. I found it on the website of another NAS manufacturer but not on any others.