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

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bbq

Aspirant

Apr 08, 2011

kamlung wrote:
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...

I too would be interested in this - I'm currently trying the Virtual Machine route on my Mac ... and just a little cynical that it will work via a USB external drive

shoshanna00
Aspirant
Sep 14, 2011
Why not? i think there is nothing impossible in it.. Have you already tried? And what?

F_L_

Tutor

Oct 03, 2011

I have two
WDC WD20EARS-00J99B0 in my Ultra 2 as well.
And I can see that the LCC is increasing very fast.

But checking with hdparm it seems that setting is already turned off (AdvancedPM=no):

Ultra:~# hdparm -i /dev/sda
/dev/sda:
Model=WDC WD20EARS-00J99B0, FwRev=80.00A80, SerialNo=WD-WCAWZ1395124
Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec SpinMotCtl Fixed DTR>5Mbs FmtGapReq }
RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=50
BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=unknown, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=16
CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=3907029168
IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
PIO modes: pio0 pio3 pio4
DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 *udma6
AdvancedPM=no WriteCache=enabled
Drive conforms to: Unspecified: ATA/ATAPI-1,2,3,4,5,6,7

Is there anything else to do or is wdidle3 the way to go?

Edit: running FW 4.2.19

F_L_

Tutor

Oct 04, 2011

F.L. wrote:
I have two
WDC WD20EARS-00J99B0 in my Ultra 2 as well.
And I can see that the LCC is increasing very fast.

But checking with hdparm it seems that setting is already turned off (AdvancedPM=no):

Ultra:~# hdparm -i /dev/sda
/dev/sda:
Model=WDC WD20EARS-00J99B0, FwRev=80.00A80, SerialNo=WD-WCAWZ1395124
Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec SpinMotCtl Fixed DTR>5Mbs FmtGapReq }
RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=50
BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=unknown, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=16
CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=3907029168
IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
PIO modes: pio0 pio3 pio4
DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 *udma6
AdvancedPM=no WriteCache=enabled
Drive conforms to: Unspecified: ATA/ATAPI-1,2,3,4,5,6,7

Is there anything else to do or is wdidle3 the way to go?

Edit: running FW 4.2.19

OK, did a check with WDIDLE3 and disk were sat at 8 sec idle.
The wdidle3 /D changed it to disabled..

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WD20EARS just added on the official HCL - mistake and issues

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