The official HCL has (quietly !) been updated for Sparc based machines with a 2TB WD desktop class drive: the WD20EARS (http://www.readynas.com/?page_id=82). This is in principle good news as the WD20EADS which might have been a candidate (if not discontinued in a near future) seems to have a lot a quality and compatibility issues.But ... :1) The HCL mentions the exact version to be used: WD20EARS-00R6B0. Googling the reference does not provide any answer (but the WD20EADS-00R6B0 which is well known). AFAIK, the current available version of the drive is the WD20EARS-00S8B1.There should be an error in the HCL or the new entry is useless !2) No restriction appears on the RAIDiator version to be used meaning by the way that the new 4K sector size, which implementation starts in high capacity drives such as the EARS, is fully supported since the beginning. It's amazing as other vendors have delivered updated firmwares for that specific purpose (and keep partitions aligned or performance may degrade significantly).Or will the 4K sector size be supported by RAIDiator 4.1.7 as current beta "adds support for WD drives that don’t support TLER" (= WD desktop drives) ?And does this new entry in the offical HCL mean that LCC issues are now fully tackled by RAIDiator 4.1.7 (since the EARS has the same green features as the EADS and WDIDLE is not supported by WD on newer drives), even though some users report recent WD firmwares do not count any more Intellipark related LCC in the Smart infos ?Please Jedis clarify and thanks to still supporting early (Infrant ...) adopters !Regards.

Would really like to know the same details about this specific hard drive. I'm about to consider buying an NV+ (cheapest option for me) and this would probably clinch it. But, I don't want to buy the NV+, and along with 4 of the current model of WD20EARS if it's actually not going to be supported on the HCL -- for obvious reasons.Any info is appreciated!

Any confirmation yet if it is the WD20EARS or WD20EADS? I'm about to pull the trigger and buy two WD20EARS drives for my ReadyNAS Duo but want to make sure that's the correct drive since I'm ordering online.

chano22000 wrote:1) The HCL mentions the exact version to be used: WD20EARS-00R6B0. Googling the reference does not provide any answer (but the WD20EADS-00R6B0 which is well known). AFAIK, the current available version of the drive is the WD20EARS-00S8B1.There should be an error in the HCL or the new entry is useless !Edit: I don't know if this is an error, but it would be good if a Jedi could clarify.chano22000 wrote:2) No restriction appears on the RAIDiator version to be usedAlthough it doesn't mention a RAIDiator version it is advisable to be on the latest RAIDiator version before inserting new disks. NetGear is most likely to have tested disks on the latest version of RAIDiator.chano22000 wrote:It might be maybe mandatory to use RAIDiator 4.1.7 (currently beta) which "adds support for WD drives that don’t support TLER" (=WD desktop drives).It could be a good idea to use that beta or 4.1.7 when it is finally released. It shouldn't hurt, though it's not recommended in a production environment as betas can have issues that can result in loss of data and require a factory default to get a working system again.It would be nice for a Jedi to comment, but with a bit of common sense you can come to a reasonable conclusion.slingload wrote:I'm about to pull the trigger and buy two WD20EARS drives for my ReadyNAS Duo but want to make sure that's the correct drive since I'm ordering online.You should ask the online reseller if they can supply you with that disk with the firmware version mentioned on the compatibility list then.

Still no news here??My NV+ is nearly full and the WD20EARS is good priced, big and quiet, so it could be the best option for me, too.As I was concerned about the 4k fact I read along here but no final answer so far :( The question is not only if it runs, but also if it runs at normal speed. Translation from 4k to 512bytes seems to lack and be quite slow in many situations as I read in many reports...The speed of my ReadyNAS mustn't be slower or I'm getting trouble working on it.Hope to hear from the Jedi soon - or the Sith, if they know the answer :wink:Related Threads:http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=37983&p=212798http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=38181&p=214194http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=36530http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3691

Don't worry about the suffix after the WDC part #. This is for internal use by WD to know 1) the original customer (retail, enterprise, which OEM) 2) firmware rev and platter type and 3) whether its new or refurbished.I suppose Netgear is listing the entire model # of the WD20EARS they approved for one simple reason. WDC has a history of enabling/diabling/breaking things when they revision a drives firmware. Sometimes they play around with TLER settings, etc.Personally speaking I would NOT use this disk right now. Its the first 4Kb sector disk, and although The Linux kernel is OK with 4Kb sector disks, I'm not so convinced WDC has their firmware "tuned" yet. I would recommend waiting 6 months before jumping into this disk or other 4Kb sector disks. Other vendors will be watching how WDC fares in the real world so I suspect disks that release later in 2010 will be better. By early 2011 drive vendors have agreed to switch over 100% of their product to 4Kb sector. I question whether that will happen in the timeframe they discussed recently. Thats my 2 cents on the subject.

WD20EARS just added on the official HCL - mistake and issues

124 Replies

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Prostheta
Aspirant
Nov 27, 2010
I'm having tons of issues with the single WD20EARS-00MVWB0 in my Duo. Works fine until you try dropping any kind of files into the file system, which is kind of a fundamental flaw in my plan for using it methinks.
No, I can't find a definitive answer either. Some people appear to manage, some appear not to. I've changed the head parking timer and done a factory reset....BTW how do I query my sector size?

M635_Guy

Aspirant

Nov 28, 2010

ought wrote:
I have 2 of these and a shiney new Readynas Duo. But I don't dare take the WD20EARSs out of their bags yet in case I have to sell them and buy an alternative.

I am getting mixed messages from helpful forum members and so it is confusing.

A clarrified official line would be good. Are these WD20EARS-00S8B1s fully compatible or are they not?

ought wrote:
I have 2 of these and a shiney new Readynas Duo. But I don't dare take the WD20EARSs out of their bags yet in case I have to sell them and buy an alternative. I am getting mixed messages from helpful forum members and so it is confusing. A clarrified official line would be good. Are these WD20EARS-00S8B1s fully compatible or are they not?

My question is how to get confirmation that you're getting the -00S8B1s drive from Newegg, etc. I guess I'll look at the Hitachi drives instead (which don't have any footnotes), but they are ~$30 a drive more...

Prostheta
Aspirant
Nov 28, 2010
Well, FWIW I pulled the WD20EARS-00MVWB0 and dropped it into this rack machine, swapping out an older WD7501AALS-00J7B0 into the Duo. No hassles now. I would say AVOID when it comes to any of the EARS drives, as the price of going for a slightly more expensive drive that definitely works is better than chancing it or wasting precious time querying the model number of the first WD drive checked in the bays ;-)

I think I'll just go for a couple of Seagates or Samsungs off the HCL when this 750Gb (694Gb in use) gets rammed.
maerem
Aspirant
Nov 29, 2010
I just did the wdidle3.exe /S300 on my WD20EARS-00MVWB0-disks and now I only get 1tb instead of 2tb when looking at them though raidar or Windows-diskmanagement :(
Anyone else experienced this?

I used the wdidle3 in the "FreeDOS WDIDLE3 and TLER"-iso provided in this thread. Im trying to make an iso with wdidle3 v. 1.05 to undo the damage but I can't with x64 Windows.
Will report back here with progress...

//maerem
Prostheta
Aspirant
Nov 29, 2010
It's in a Windows 7 box, and reports a "full" ~1850GB. How strange....
I hate Windows disk management. I'm using Acronis Disk Director 11 which is a lot more comprehensive and predictable.
maerem
Aspirant
Nov 29, 2010
After running wdidle3 v1.05 on my WD20EARS-00MVWB0-disk its now back to 2tb - phew
mechael
Aspirant
Feb 16, 2011
I'm ready to buy the NV+, but very confused about the hard drive compatibility....

I know the WD20EARS-00S8B1 is in the list, but
a. I don't know if I can get this version; it seems like the current version being sold is WD20EARS-00MVWB0
b. also, the 00MVWB0 consume much less power
So, in either case, I'd like to get the 00MVWB0 version if I have a choice

At this time, because on the list, 00MVWB0 is the best option, the seagate is not a good drive, the hitachi is expansive; and surely for about the same price, I won't get a 1GB drive. And if the 00MVWB0 isn't going to work with the NV+, then really the NV+ doesn't have any good and reasonably priced drive.

Is 00MVWB0 compatible? Is there a definitive answer? Work or no?
wtriba
Aspirant
Mar 10, 2011
"Is 00MVWB0 compatible? Is there a definitive answer? Work or no?"

My NV+ setup:

Device Description
Disk 1 WDC WD20EARS-00S8B1 1862 GB , 38 C / 100 F , Write-cache ON OK
Disk 2 WDC WD20EARS-00MVWB0 1862 GB , 38 C / 100 F , Write-cache ON OK
Disk 3 WDC WD20EARS-00MVWB0 1862 GB , 36 C / 96 F , Write-cache ON OK
Disk 4 WDC WD20EARS-00MVWB0 1862 GB , 32 C / 89 F , Write-cache ON OK

I used the wdidle3 on each for LCC. Been running for 5 months with no issues. I purchased a backup replacement drive from newegg and see the model they're shipping now is 22MVWB0 - well it's my backup. If anyone has any experience or issues with this model, I'd be happy to hear about it.
manocc
Aspirant
Mar 22, 2011
POSSIBLE ALTERNATIVE to WDIDLE3?

I have 4 WD20EARS-00MVWB0 and plan to install them in my nv+ in the next few days.

From my research it seems clear that the LLC issue has to be dealt with and I see that the popular solution is to connect the disks to a separate machine, boot a dos environment and use WDIDLE to increase the idle timeout.

I came across this alternate solution and I'll probably give it a try.

http://rant.gulbrandsen.priv.no/hardware/readynas-wd-caviar-green

It involves SSHing to the nas and using the hdparm command to effectively tune down the load/unload frequency - much more convenient than connecting to another box and booting dos. Has anyone tried this? Any experiences? I'll provide an update when I've had a chance to try it out but would love to hear from anybody who has experience with this. I couldn't find any reference to this in the forums.

kamlung

Aspirant

Mar 25, 2011

manocc wrote:
POSSIBLE ALTERNATIVE to WDIDLE3?

I have 4 WD20EARS-00MVWB0 and plan to install them in my nv+ in the next few days.

From my research it seems clear that the LLC issue has to be dealt with and I see that the popular solution is to connect the disks to a separate machine, boot a dos environment and use WDIDLE to increase the idle timeout.

I came across this alternate solution and I'll probably give it a try.

http://rant.gulbrandsen.priv.no/hardware/readynas-wd-caviar-green

It involves SSHing to the nas and using the hdparm command to effectively tune down the load/unload frequency - much more convenient than connecting to another box and booting dos. Has anyone tried this? Any experiences? I'll provide an update when I've had a chance to try it out but would love to hear from anybody who has experience with this. I couldn't find any reference to this in the forums.

manocc wrote:
POSSIBLE ALTERNATIVE to WDIDLE3? I have 4 WD20EARS-00MVWB0 and plan to install them in my nv+ in the next few days. From my research it seems clear that the LLC issue has to be dealt with and I see that the popular solution is to connect the disks to a separate machine, boot a dos environment and use WDIDLE to increase the idle timeout. I came across this alternate solution and I'll probably give it a try. http://rant.gulbrandsen.priv.no/hardware/readynas-wd-caviar-green It involves SSHing to the nas and using the hdparm command to effectively tune down the load/unload frequency - much more convenient than connecting to another box and booting dos. Has anyone tried this? Any experiences? I'll provide an update when I've had a chance to try it out but would love to hear from anybody who has experience with this. I couldn't find any reference to this in the forums.

any luck on this? i have mostly switched to macs and laptops and don't have a PC where i can run WDIDLE3 on the drive...

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WD20EARS just added on the official HCL - mistake and issues

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