WD40EFRX WD Red 4tb For ReadyNAS104?

Netgear say they are aware of this "issue" and are working on it, presumably with WD. No assurance that a solution will be forthcoming or when though.

I have had an interesting conversation with WD.
1. There are no new readynas devices on their (WD) compatibility list for the red drives. Some legacy units are on the list.
2. They maintain that there needs to be a modification to the Netgear firmware to allow the 4 tb drives to be used without the LCC issue.

I have pointed out of course that there seems to be a difference in the 3TB vs. 4TB behaviour and this would indicate that the problem lies with the drive, not the NAS.

Unfortunately I think those of us who have purchased these drives based on users' experience with the 3TB version are not going to receive the answers we want as both companies do not yet have these drives on a compatibility list that would indicate they can be used with the new readynas devices.

I can confirm that I am seeing the same problem with the 4TB red drives. LCC of 1260 in 6 hours!
I am trying to return the drives to the reseller but I suspect they will say no.
I have also submitted a email support request to WD.

Really annoying this, the marketing has really misled us here and the drives are clearly behaving differently to the 3 TB Red Drives.

StephenB wrote:

fastfwd wrote: StephenB wrote: The load cycle count problem is on Western Digital, not Netgear. Hopefully if enough people complain WDC will post a firmware update. ... Or change their policy to allow us to modify the idle3 timer value without voiding the warranty. Yes. But a NAS drive clearly should be configured properly for linux. The other RED drives don't have this issue - WDC dropped the ball here.

When they start having to honor the warranty on a three year drive starting around 6 months, they will.

fastfwd wrote:
StephenB wrote: The load cycle count problem is on Western Digital, not Netgear. Hopefully if enough people complain WDC will post a firmware update. ... Or change their policy to allow us to modify the idle3 timer value without voiding the warranty.

Yes.

But a NAS drive clearly should be configured properly for linux. The other RED drives don't have this issue - WDC dropped the ball here.

StephenB wrote:
The load cycle count problem is on Western Digital, not Netgear. Hopefully if enough people complain WDC will post a firmware update.

... Or change their policy to allow us to modify the idle3 timer value without voiding the warranty.

The load cycle count problem is on Western Digital, not Netgear. Hopefully if enough people complain WDC will post a firmware update.

One option would be to use idle3-tools: http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=59700

The steps might be a bit different for OS6 to the old OS, but you could give it a try.

StephenB wrote:
Have you checked the load cycle count?

, load count is 83402 on drive 1, 76748 on drive 2, 82595 on drive 3, power on hours 553.

Load Cycle Count; Load/Unload Cycle Count S.M.A.R.T. parameter indicates the number of cycles into Landing Zone position. \\

Comes out to about three times a minute. That's ridiculous. Trouble is, some operating systems regularly write something onto the hdd causing a few load/unload cycles a minute (typical Linux example: /var/log/*) :(

I just ran S.M.A.R.T. across an old WD Blue 320gb hard drive that I am using for a swap drive in a Windows 7 box. Power on hours 25302, Load Cycle Count 15629. Seems that OS6 Linux based OS could stand a tweak or two not to write so much to the hard drive or Netgear could support the drive and tweak the power management setting for the drive if they decide to support it. Unless someone out there now knows how to do that on OS6?

In the mean time for the original post, do not buy them...and thanks StephanB for pointing me in the direction of saving my hard drives. I am shutting the 314 down until either I swap out for ECL hard drives or Netgear decides to support them. Or I can figure out how to change the power management options for the drives

Have you checked the load cycle count?