Western digital red black what is the difference. Western Digital (WD) - names of hard drive lines. Capacity of WD HDDs for personal needs

Series testing hard drives WD Red for NAS

The recent announcement of a new series of hard drives from Western Digital was quite quiet. However, these models have already appeared on the local market, and it makes sense to get to know them better. Our main interest in the Red series is caused by its positioning by the manufacturer for use in entry-level and mid-level network drives.

Typically, the selection of disks for a given operating scenario is carried out according to several parameters - the presence of the model in the official network drive compatibility list, the required volume and suitable cost. Additional criteria include noise level and energy consumption. In most cases, models with a reduced rotation speed look good. Their lower performance is not as important in network-attached storage devices, which are limited to a gigabit interface with reality throughput about 100 MB/s.

In particular, if we look at Western Digital products, we will be talking about the “Green” series, which appeared on the market more than four years ago and has since gone through several generations. In front of everyone unique characteristics These products are not always the best choice for network storage devices. Therefore, this summer, the manufacturer introduced a special line of Red wheels and once again reminded how it distributes “colors”:

WD Blue: basic performance for mass applications;
WD Green: quiet and cool large capacity models;
WD Black: Maximum performance for demanding applications;
WD Red: network drives for home and small office.

It should be noted that the company also offers other 3.5″ format models. So, let's mention WD VelociRaptor for high-performance workstations, WD RE for the corporate segment and high-end network storage devices, WD AV-GP for household appliances.

WD Red hard drive series

The presented models of the new series WD10EFRX, WD20EFRX and WD30EFRX have a capacity of 1, 2 and 3 TB, respectively. The buffer size is 64 MB. The rotation speed is modestly kept silent and hidden behind the designation “IntelliPower”. Connection interface - SATA 6 Gbit/s. Data transfer speed from the surface is estimated at 150 MB/s. The manufacturer claims their ability to operate in a temperature range from 0 to 70 degrees Celsius. The noise level of the older model is rated at 24 dBA in search mode, and power consumption does not exceed 4.4 W.

Except technical characteristics, the user cares about the reliability of the solution. It is very difficult to evaluate it correctly. In our opinion, most modern hard drives, when used under normal conditions, provide the level required by a home user. Let us remind you once again that you should not lump disk failure, RAID arrays, backup and data security. However, this question is beyond the scope of this article.

Reliability can be indirectly assessed by the characteristics specified by the manufacturer. For example, for WD Red the number of parking spaces is 600,000, MTBF is 1,000,000 hours, and the warranty period is three years. These numbers are closer to the RE series than other desktop models. Despite this, the cost of new models is at a fairly attractive level.

There is one note regarding the warranty period - in Russia, warranty service is provided by the end sellers. And, unfortunately, it is possible that a particular store will offer a shorter period than the manufacturer itself announces to distributors.

Red also differs from other household series in its support for 24/7 operating mode and TLER technology.

It is already clear that the discs turned out to be interesting and it will be difficult to evaluate them in one test. So in this article we will check their performance in a network storage drive in single disk and RAID arrays 0/RAID1 of two hard drives. A modern two-disk QNAP device will help us with this.

We will have a separate article about the network drive itself, so here we will only briefly describe its characteristics. The TS-269 Pro is today's top-end dual-drive model from QNAP. It is based on the x86 platform and has Intel processor Atom D2700 (2.13 GHz, 2 cores, 4 threads), 1 GB random access memory(expandable up to 3 GB), disk controller supporting SATA 6 Gb/s, two Gigabit network ports, two USB port 3.0 and three USB 2.0, one eSATA. Built-in 512 MB flash drive allows you to install firmware on drives without using special program, you just need to have a web browser.

The device is made in a body familiar from previous devices. Hot-swap drive bays are located on the front panel. The panel itself is made of plastic, the rest of the body is metal. At the rear are the connectors and the cooling fan grille.

The drive supports all modern network protocols and can be successfully used when working with various operating systems for clients. It allows you to work with standard network folders, set user access restrictions, supports iSCSI volumes.

Through the package system you can add a lot of additional things to it software- media server, offline file download system, video surveillance, antivirus, VPN server and much more.

Configuration is carried out through a web interface, which has a translation into Russian and a built-in help system. Special tools are provided to simplify the setup of remote access.

Firmware version 3.7.3 Build 20120801 was used in testing.

Performance testing

Intel NASPT 1.7.1 with 32 GB templates was used for performance testing. Unfortunately, we were not able to find all drive models of the same capacity, so 1 and 2 TB devices are used in the tests. In addition to the three “regular colors,” we also had a pair of rare WD AV-GPs on hand, which we also decided to add to the list of participants. As a result, it became the following: WD Black WD1002FAEX-00Z3A0, WD Green WD10EZRX-00A8LB0, WD AV-GP WD20EURS-63S48Y0, WD Red WD20EFRX-68AX9N0.

First of all, it should be noted that installing all of these hard drives into a network drive did not cause any problems, although not all of them were on the compatibility list.

Even though the drives look identical, and the differences in rotation speed or head positioning are relatively small, we expect the results to be very different. The reason for this will be the firmware of the hard drives. They are configured and optimized by the manufacturer based on the intended use cases for the disks, and there can be a lot of options.

Let's start with the results of working with one disk. This mode in network drives allows you to work quite flexibly with the configuration - you can add/remove disks at any time. However, in this case there is no fault tolerance, and when replacing a disk, you will have to make backup copies of the data. But for home use This is a fairly popular and interesting option.

The first graph showed noticeable differences in the behavior of hard drives on our test templates. The most striking of them are observed in read operations, while writing is similar for all models. Even on a multi-threaded template, all show speeds of over 65 MB/s, and a single thread can be written at almost 100 MB/s. Random write is expectedly slower - 15-20 MB/s. As for reading, here the devices show very different numbers. At the same time, WD Red noticeably loses in random operations, but wins back in multi-threaded sequential ones. So for most traditional scenarios this drive can be considered best choice. Note also that AV-GP does not perform very well in multi-threaded reading. It is clear that its positioning does not imply such loads.

Let's now see what changes when using a RAID0 array. Previously, in tests of network drives, we noted many times that few of them liked the “single-disk array” option. In many cases it was significantly different in speed (to a lesser extent) than other configurations. For home network drives, a striped array is interesting more because of the ability to combine disks into one large volume than from the point of view of increased performance.

It can be noticed that this type the array is “equalized” by the majority of participants. The newcomer slowed down the pace of reading, while the others, on the contrary, got a second wind. AV-GP lags a little behind in writing and multi-threaded reading, but this is quite forgivable. Considering software method implementation of a RAID array, you can also pay attention to its speed compared to a single disk. As we can see, the striped array does not perform better in all tests. But multi-threaded operations are clearly easier for him.

The third configuration studied, RAID1, is the only one possible for dual-disk devices if fault tolerance is required. But at home, the “mirror” is not very popular due to its very high redundancy. It can be easier and more convenient to set up regular backups of important data from one drive to another using the built-in tools of a network drive.

The performance of this array option also depends little on the type of hard drive. Apparently, their own algorithms operating system Network storage drives affect speed more than hard drive firmware. In absolute terms, while striping has increased write speeds, a mirrored array is significantly superior to a single drive in read speed.

conclusions

First acquaintance with new series hard drives for network storage drives was quite interesting. We saw that when using single-disk volumes, WD Red is clearly preferable to other models from the same manufacturer. The results obtained with RAID0 and RAID1 arrays in a two-disk network drive are not so clear. There are definitely differences between the disks, but one leader cannot be identified. All hard drives behave differently on different templates.

We will definitely return to exploring the new line on network drives from other manufacturers and as part of disk arrays with more than two hard drives. However, it can already be noted that Red drives are clearly no worse than their brothers at working in a NAS. If you add to this higher reliability (at least according to the specifications), lower consumption and lower noise levels, then it becomes clear that only one issue remains - cost. Unfortunately, as usually happens with good new products, it’s difficult to call it attractive now. But I want to believe that over time it will decrease and Red will really become affordable solution, combining the reliability and speed of RE with the low consumption and noise level of Green.

As for the QNAP TS-269 Pro network drive used in the tests, it showed excellent compatibility and, thanks to its high-performance platform, allowed hard drives realize your full potential.

The average retail price of WD Red series hard drives in Moscow, current at the time you read this article, is: WD10EFRX - $78(), WD20EFRX - $108(), WD30EFRX - $136().

Decoding the markings of internal WD hard drives:

(1)WD (2)000 (3)0 (4)A (5)B (6)C (7)D

1 . Western Digital.

2 . One or three digits are used to determine the disk capacity. The volume is measured in the quantities specified in paragraph 4.

3 . 0 - serves to highlight some features. For example, the WD5001ABYS disk differs from the WD5000ABYS only in that the former has a perpendicular recording method versus the parallel one of the latter.

4 . A letter describing the value in which the volume specified in paragraph 2 is measured and the disk form factor:

A – gigabyte/3.5”,
B - gigabyte/3.5" or gigabyte/2.5",
C - 3.5",
E – terabyte/3.5”,
F – 10 gigabytes/3.5”,
G/H - gigabyte/3.5",

5 . A letter describing the market segment for which the drive is intended and the family to which it belongs:

A – Desktop/Caviar;
B – Enterprise/RE2 (3-plate)/RE2-GP;
D – Enterprise/Raptor;
E, P — Mobile/Scorpio Blue
G – Enthusiast/Raptor X;
J - Mobile/Scorpio Black
L - Enterprise/VelociRaptor;
V - Audio-Video (Audio and Video Equipment);
Y – Enterprise/RE2 (4-plate)/RE2-GP/RE3/RE4.

6 . Letter describing the speed and size of the cache:

B – 7200 rpm and 2 MB cache;
C – Caviar Green and 16 MB cache;
D - Caviar Green and 32 MB cache;
F – 10000 rpm and 16 MB cache;
G – 10000 rpm and 8 MB cache;
H - 10000 rpm and 32 MB cache;
J – 7200 rpm and 8 MB cache;
K – 7200 rpm and 16 MB cache;
L - 7200 rpm and 32 MB cache;
P – RE2-GP and 16 MB cache;
Y – RE2/RE3 and 16 MB cache or RE4 and 64 MB cache;
R - Caviar Green, 64 MB cache and Advanced Format;
S/E - 7200 rpm and 64 MB cache. V - 5400 rpm and 8 MB

7 . Letter describing the hard drive interface:

B – PATA-100;
E—PATA-133;
D – SATA-150;
S – SATA-300;
X - SATA-600.

Old markings

The above is regarding new way markings. Previously, a template was used in which pp. 4-5 were absent; two or three digits were allocated for the disk size (volume was measured in gigabytes); the following digit was reserved for all families; in paragraph 6, the letter L was also used (7200 rpm/2 MB), and the letter P had a different meaning - 7200 rpm/8 MB; in paragraph 7 the letter R (SATA-150) was also used.

For example: WD800JB: 80 GB, 8 MB buffer, 7200 rpm, IDE, and WD800JD: 80 GB, 8 MB buffer, 7200 rpm, SATA; WD5000AAKS: 500 GB, 3.5", Caviar family, 16 MB, 7200 rpm, SATA2; WD5000BEVT: 500 GB, 2.5", 8 MB, 5400 rpm, SATA2.

Note:

WD10EADS-00P8B0 and WD15EADS-00P8B0 drives may have strong visible slowdowns at random times during the write/read processes, which are difficult to diagnose/catch when claiming under warranty.
WDxxEARS disks have Advanced Format, which imposes special features on their operation.

FAQ

1. I heard that WD hard drives have a ramp. What is it for?

Indeed, some WD drives have a ramp. The head block is located on it when the plates unwind, stop, or when the drive is turned off. This helps to increase the shock resistance of the drive when not in operation, and in the long term, operation reliability increases due to reduced contact and wear of plates and heads.

2. In what mode are drives with the SATA-300 interface supplied?

Hard drives with the index “S” (SATA-300) are sold with the SATA-300 mode enabled and the Spread Spectrum Clocking (SSC) function disabled.

3. What are jumpers used for?

Closing contacts 1-2 leads to the inclusion of the Spread Spectrum Clocking function.
Closing contacts 3-4 will enable Power Management mode (PM2 enable mode: to enable power supply in standby mode, place a jumper on pins 3-4. This mode will provide controlled spin-up using a spin-up command in accordance with the ATA standard and is intended primarily for the operation of servers/workstations operating in multi-disk configurations.
Important! For PM2 mode it is necessary compatible system BIOS that supports this feature. If PM2 is enabled and not supported BIOS system, the hard drive does not spin up and is therefore not detected by the system.
Note: The PM2 function does not work on all WD SATA drives).
Closing contacts 5-6 will enable SATA150 transfer mode.
Closing contacts 7-8 will lead to a shift of one sector of partitions in disks with Advanced Format.

4. Some WD drives have two power connectors: SATA and Molex. Which one should I connect to?

You can connect power to either one, but not to both at the same time.

5. All hard drives that I have seen have a board with electronics on the bottom. I bought WD, but this board is empty! This is fine?

For WD hard drives, the board with electronics is upside down. This technique, according to WD, allows you to solve two problems at once - protect the chips from external influences and ensure their cooling. Since the microcircuits are located under a layer of PCB, they cannot be accidentally damaged by a sharp object when unpacking and installing the hard drive into the case. They are also protected from static electricity. Between printed circuit board and the housing has a layer of thermally conductive material, thanks to which the microcircuits can transfer heat to the metal.

6. Why are acceleration sensors installed on WD electronics boards?

The boards contain one or two acceleration sensors, which are used to detect the vibration of the drive during operation and allow the controller to compensate for the movement/acceleration of the actuator caused by these vibrations. They allow you to quickly and accurately get onto the desired path even in conditions of increased vibration (RAFF technology - clause 17d).

7. What warranty does WD give for its desktop hard drives?

3 years on the Caviar Green/Blue series and 5 years on the Caviar Black, RE and Raptor series.

8. What are the differences between the Caviar Green, Caviar Blue, and Caviar Black series?

Green - slow, quiet, cool, low-power drives. Spindle rotation speed is in the range of 5000-5600 rpm (i.e. the speed is fixed, but may vary for different models). Great for storing data. They park idle (they have a ramp). The parking function may interfere with the user, then it needs to be disabled using the wdidle utility.
Blue - regular general purpose disks. Spindle rotation speed - 7200 rpm.
Black - positioned as high-performance wheels. Differences from Blue: they have a dual-core processor (marketing says “two processors”); may have more cache than Blue-classmate; air spoiler plates cutting air flow; double spindle mounting (bottom on the platform with the motor and top on the cover); double actuator on some models; 5 years warranty.

9. What are the differences between Raptor series wheels and Caviar Blue/Black series wheels?

The main difference is the Raptor's rotation speed is 10,000 rpm versus 7,200 for the Caviar. As a consequence of this, Raptor's access time is significantly shorter. The warranty on Raptor wheels is 5 years.

The Raptor X is a regular Raptor with a large clear lens on the top through which you can view its operation.

VelociRaptor drives also have 2.5" platters and a 2.5" format, which further reduces access time.
Some VelociRaptor models (WD3000GLFS and WD3000HLFS) can be installed in both 2.5" and 3.5" bays. To do this, use a 3.5" metal radiator supplied with the disk, which, together with the drive mounted in it, is screwed with standard screws in the 3.5" compartment.

10. What are the differences between the Caviar RE series and Caviar Green/Blue/Black?

RE stands for "RAID Edition". RE series drives have an increased MTBF, different firmware, and support TLER technology (see paragraph 17c). The manufacturer is positioned for professional applications, for example, in data storage systems or servers/workstations when working in RAID arrays. The warranty on them is 5 years.
Have two processors; vibration compensation system; head flight adjustment system; TLER system; ramp.
The RE-GP Series are Green Series drives with RE Series features.

11. What is the difference between WD5000AAKS and WD5000KS drives?

Their main difference (and this applies to all models, the markings of which are distinguished only by the presence of “AA” in one and the absence of another) is that a disk with “AA” has a significantly higher recording density than a disk without it. Such drives have fewer platters, which means they are faster, consume a little less energy and have a slightly lower temperature (for example, the WD5000KS contains four platters, and the WD5000AAKS has three). Naturally, disks with “AA” are newer.

12. Is it worth buying an RE hard drive for your home system?

I note that, in my opinion, the above features of this series at home practically do not provide any advantages. Now let's look at the strategy for the behavior of different disks on different systems.
Regular desktop drives are designed to operate independently, and when connected to a RAID controller, they are not even aware of its presence. If errors occur during the operation of the drive, its firmware tries to correct them independently using the built-in error correction system. If the repair process takes more than 8 seconds (although there is no standard for controller wait time, these 8 seconds are typical for most RAID controllers), then the RAID controller will consider the disk to be faulty and turn it off from the array, which can lead to unpleasant consequences.
For a WD hard drive using TLER technology (item 18c), the situation is different. If an error occurs, the drive tries to correct it on its own for 7 seconds, and then transmits information about the error to the RAID controller, which decides whether to fix it now or leave it for later.
However, if the opposite situation occurs (a hard drive with TLER operates outside of RAID), the drive “thinks” that it is connected to the RAID controller, and if it is impossible to correct the error using its own means, it admits its powerlessness and offers the controller to solve the problem. But he’s not there...
Therefore, Western Digital itself does not recommend installing a WD hard drive with TLER in a system where RAID is not planned.

13. What is the maximum temperature of WD hard drives?

For modern WD hard drives, the maximum permissible temperature is 60 degrees on the surface of the can. However, this does not mean that the drive will be able to operate for a long time at such heating.

14. All programs show that my WD hard drive has a temperature of 70 degrees. What to do?

According to Western Digital technical support, hard drives manufactured from October 25, 2005 to mid-April 2006 had problems with calibrating the temperature sensor, and therefore it shows a temperature higher than the real one by 20 degrees or more. The problem can be resolved by changing the firmware.

15. Does WD have perpendicular recording discs?

This recording method is used in the WD7500AAKS and all newer models of all series.

16. Is it true that the spindle speed of hard drives from the Caviar Green family varies from 5400 to 7200 rpm depending on the load?

No, this is just a marketing ploy by the manufacturer. In fact, the situation is this: for the Caviar Green WD family, the possibility of different spindle speeds on different models is declared, but on each specific drive this speed is CONSTANT, which is confirmed by a quote from the description of the IntelliPower technology: “For each GreenPower drive model, WD may use a different ,invariable RPM" (http://www.westerndigital.com/en/library/sata/28).
Because WD does not disclose what the true speed of the released models is, hiding behind the meaningless IntelliPower label, you have to rely on test results. So, according to various tests, the assumption is confirmed that all Caviar Green hard drives now have 5400 (much more often) and 5000 (less often) rpm (for example, http://www.storagereview.com/1000.sr?page=0 %2C2, http://www.silentpcreview.com/article786-page2.html). Thus, the current “green” WD wheels have a speed of 5400 or 5000 rpm, which DOES NOT CHANGE during operation.

17. Where is the temperature sensor located on WD drives?

Inside the jar in the area marked with a red circle. It is the temperature of this sensor that is displayed in S.M.A.R.T.

18. What proprietary technologies does WD have?

a) SecureConnect – a more reliable connection SATA connectors(requires a special cable from WD);
b) FlexPower – the presence of both SATA and molex power connectors;
c) TLER (RAID-specific Time-Limited Error Recovery) – allows you to reduce the time required to recover read errors, reduces the percentage of RAID failures (see clause 13);
d) RAFF (Rotary Accelerator Fead Forward) – optimizes performance characteristics drives when operating in vibration environments, such as in rack-mounted servers and network-attached storage systems.
e) SoftSeek - reduces actuator noise during positioning, optimizing the shape of the control signal supplied to the head drive when moving them over long distances;
f) IntelliPark - parking heads in idle mode (used in Caviar Green);
g) IntelliSeek - bringing the head unit to the desired sector just at the moment it arrives under the head, instead of a frantic flight to the track and further waiting for the desired sector.

19. How to use the wdidle program to change the hard drive parking parameters when idle?

wdidle needs to be copied to a bootable DOS CD/DVD/flash drive, switch the SATA controller to IDE mode, disconnect other drives just in case, and boot from bootable media. Next, run the program with the appropriate parameters:
/S - sets a timer for the time after which the disk parks the heads if there are no calls to it, in hundreds of milliseconds (the parameter can be equal to from 1 to 255). By default it is 80, i.e. 80*100 ms=8000 ms=8 s;
/D - prohibits parking;
/R - displays the current timer value;
/? — displays utility help.

20. What is technologyAdvanced Format?

This is the technology used in the production of some series of new terabyte HDDs. Its essence lies in the fact that the surface of the disks is divided into sectors of non-standard size - 4 KB versus 512 bytes of regular ones. This is good for working with large files and, on the contrary, negative when working with small files. Thus, it is better to use such HDDs only for creating file storage, but not for actively working with the disk, otherwise this could lead to a decrease in performance.

In addition, for such disks to work with Windows XP, they can only be formatted special utility WD Align, otherwise a catastrophic decrease in performance will again be noticeable.

21. How can I find out the number of platters and heads in various WD hard drives? There is nothing in the specifications.

WD is often accused of not providing information about the number of heads and platters in specific drives to the end user. Therefore, you have to get this information from reviews. Here's what we found out:

A) disks up to 160 GB:

WD400Bx – 1 plate/1 head;
WD800xx – ½;
WD1200xx – 2/3;
WD1200AAxx – ½;
WD1600xx – 2/4;
WD1600AAxS (B) – ½;

b) disks with a capacity of 250-400 GB:

WD2500xx – 3/6;
WD2500AAxS (B) – 2/4, with “B3A”, “B4A”, “VSA” or “VTA” in the model number (MDL) – ½;
WD2500AAKX - ?/?;
WD2502ABYS - ½;
WD2503ABYX - 1/1;
WD3000xx - 3/6;
WD3200xx - 3/6;
WD3200AAxS (B) – 2/4, with “B3A” or “B4A” – ½;
WD3200AAKX - ?/?;
WD3200AALX - ?/?;
WD3202ABYS - ½;
WD4000xx - 4/8;
WD4000AAxS (B) – 3/5;

V) 500 GB disks:

WD5000KS - 4/8;
WD5000AAxS (B) – 3/6, with “A7B”, “A8B” or “L9A” – 2/4, with “M9A” or “V1A” – ½;
WD5000AAKX - ?/?;
WD5000AALX - ?/?;
WD5001AALS - 2/4;
WD5002AALX - ?/?;
WD5000AACS – 2/4 and 2/3;
WD5000AADS - ½;
WD5000ABPS - 2/4;
WD5000YS - 4/8;
WD5000ABYS - 3/6;
WD5002ABYS - 2/4;
WD5003ABYX - ½;

G) disks with a capacity of 600-800 GB:

WD6000HLHX - 3/?;
WD6400AAKS — 2/4, with “H2B” — 2/3;
WD6401AALS - 2/4;
WD6400AALX - ?/?;
WD6402AAEX - 2/3;
WD6400AACS - 2/4;
WD6400AADS - 2/3;
WD6400AARS - 2/3;
WD7500AAKS – 4/8;
WD7501AALS - 3/5;
WD7500AALX - ?/?;
WD7502AAEX - ?/?;
WD7500AACS – 3/6, with “DB6” – 3/5;
WD7500AADS – 2/3;
WD7500AYPS - 3/6;
WD7502ABYS - 3/5;
WD8000AARS - 2/3;

d) disks with a capacity of 1-1.5 TB:

WD1001FALS - 3/6, with "E3A" or "U9B" - 2/4;
WD1002FAEX - 2/4;
WD10EALS - 2/4;
WD10EALX - ?/?;
WD10EACS – 4/8, with “D6B” – 3/6;
WD10EADS – 3/6, with “M2B” – 2/4, with “P8B” – 2/4, 5000 rpm;
WD10EARS - 2/4, with "Z5B" - 5000 rpm;
WD1000FYPS - 4/8;
WD1002FBYS - 3/6;
WD1003FBYX - 2/4;
WD15EADS - 3/6 and 4/7;
WD15EARS - 3/6;
WD1501FASS -3/6;
WD1502FAEX - ?/?;
WD1502FYPS - 3/6;
WD1503FYYS - 3/6;

e) disks with a capacity of 2 TB and higher:

WD20EADS - 4/8;
WD20EARS - 4/8, with "MVWB" - 3/6;
WD2002FYPS - 4/8;
WD2001FASS - 4/8;
WD2002FAEX - ?/?;
WD2003FYYS - 4/8;
WD25EZRS - ?/?;
WD30EZRS - 4/8.

WD Red hard drives from Western Digital have gone on sale.
Tell me, what is the difference between the WD Red series and others?

WD Red hard drives are the latest so-called. "red" series from Western Digital.
This series was created directly for storage (NAS).
It originates from the “green series” (WD Green), which has already proven itself to be excellent.

The WD Red series has absorbed all the best that the “green” has, and there are innovations for long, reliable battery life.
The key difference between WD Red and WD Green are several hardware features and firmware tweaks that make Red a more suitable option for NAS use.

The firmware of WD Red drives includes NASware technology, which increases reliability and performance, reduces downtime and simplifies their configuration.

First of all, the emphasis is on increased reliability - the time between failures has increased by a third, and the warranty period has been extended.
The firmware has been modified to take into account the peculiarities of operation in storage facilities - for example, read heads are prohibited from being parked too often, and a hard drive that begins to fail will not suspend the entire system and will be “carefully removed” from the array.

WD Red by default does not park the heads at all (when the power is turned off, this happens automatically).

No engine stop.
By default, the firmware does not allow WD Red to stop the engine: the spindown (standbly) timer value is zero.
Which again maintains a stable disk response time.

Error correction timeout.
WD Red has an option SCT ERC (SMART Command Transport Error Recovery Control), WD calls it in its own way: Time Limited Error Recovery (TLER).
This is a fundamental parameter for disks in a RAID array that controls the behavior hard drive when defective sectors are detected.
Desktop drives stubbornly try to read data - this in extreme cases leads to the disk sinking into itself for 20 minutes.

For disks in a RAID array with redundancy, this is unacceptable: if the HDD becomes dull for a long time, the controller will simply throw it out of the array.
Therefore, it is better to signal “I’m alive” to the controller as soon as possible, and the lost data will be restored from neighboring disks.
In WD Red, the default error correction time is 7 seconds (like the WD RE series).

Completing commands.
NASware technology minimizes data corruption or loss in the event of an unexpected power loss by terminating the currently executing command before exiting.
This further improves reliability.

Western Digital does not disclose the response time of the drives.
There is only a phrase on the official website that WD Red has “optimized search”, which leads to “best-in-class performance”.

Also, the carriers have been tested with a large number of equipment, so you can be absolutely sure that there will be no misunderstandings “between the pieces of hardware.”

One of the features is the almost complete absence of vibration.
This is achieved by 3D balancing. Like car wheels.
The block of magnetic plates is secured to the spindle with several screws.
By adjusting their length, vibration and noise can be reduced.
During tests, the hard drives showed absolutely no signs of vibration, and due to a competent cooling system and low heat generation, the temperature in all tested modes remained within 35 °C.

The ATTO and CrystalDiskMark benchmarks estimate linear read speed at 158 MB/s, write speed at 156 MB/s.
When copied by the manager Total Commander of a file “weighing 5 gigs” on the computer’s SSD, the exchange was at a level of 154 MB/s.
Among hard drives with spindle speeds up to 5400 rpm, this is one of the best indicators.

The average time between failures for WD Red is 1 million hours.
Although this does not mean that individual HDD will operate without breakdown for 114 years.
Just one out of 114 disks will fail in a year.

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Anna Sokolova 2016-11-30

This publication provides detailed review internal SSD drives and HDDs from Western Digital

Manufacturer characteristics Western Digital

Western Digital (WDC) has been developing and manufacturing hard drives and storage devices since 1988. This is a fairly large manufacturing corporation, with about 50 thousand people working in its numerous global representative offices. The countries in which Western Digital's production facilities are located are Thailand and Malaysia, and the design and engineering team sits in different places Northern and Southern California. The extensive dealer and distribution network has numerous representatives in many countries around the world.

Since 2010, Western Digital has been a leader in the storage industry and is the largest hard drive manufacturer in the world.

Western Digital Warranty Features

Western Digital is the only manufacturer in the world that provides replacement of a faulty disk or drive under warranty. Even if the distributor representative refuses to replace the buyer, or the warranty period has expired, but the extended WD warranty is still valid, then the failed screw can be exchanged for an identical or better new HDD completely free of charge, if the model presented for replacement is not available .

Western Digital Internal Storage Categories

Western Digital drives come in the form of traditional HDDs and SSDs, manufactured in a variety of form factors for both desktop and desktop computers. server systems, and for laptops of standard and ultra-thin configurations.

All Western Digital internal drives are conveniently divided into 6 categories of purpose, designated by color:

GREEN– economical SSD drives for individual PCs and laptops with capacities from 120 to 240 GB;

BLUE– SSD drives, HDD drives and hybrid SSHD drives for individual PCs and laptops with capacities from 250 GB to 6 TB, cache memory from 8 to 64 MB;

RED– HDD drives for organizing network storage, for PCs, with a capacity of 2 to 8 TB, cache memory from 64 to 128 MB;

BLACK– HDD drives for storing large amounts of digital data (photos, videos and other media information) for PCs and laptops with a capacity of 1 to 6 TB, cache memory from 16 to 128 MB;

PURPLE– durable HDDs for organizing video surveillance systems, for PCs, with a capacity of 1 to 8 TB; cache memory from 64 to 256 MB;

GOLD– HDD drives of the highest degree of reliability for organizing servers and data centers, for PCs, with a capacity of 2 to 10 TB, cache memory from 64 to 256 MB.

How to Choose the Right Hard Drive or SSD

To choose the most suitable hard drive for your needs, the main task is to determine by whom and for what purposes it will be used, how often and with what intensity.

All WD drives and drives are equipped with:

high-speed SATA 6 Gb/s interface, providing maximum disk performance;
the ability to set up automated regular backups;
NoTouch contactless reading technology, which protects data by mounting the recording heads at a secure location relative to the disc surface.

WD SSDs for Personal and Business

WCD offers two options for its solid state SSD drives:

GREEN PC SSD
BLUE PC SSD.

Both options are suitable for both the personal needs of individual users and businesses. What are their differences?

Read and write speed of SSD WD

The reading speed of BLUE PC SSD and GREEN PC SSD drives differs slightly, for green – up to 540 MB/s, for blue – up to 545 MB/s, so in this parameter they are almost identical.

The recording speed of GREEN PC SSD drives is 430-465 MB/s, and in comparison with them, BLUE PC SSD drives write at a speed of 500-525 MB/s, that is, 15-20% faster

WD SSD Capacity

The capacity of the green drive is available in 120 or 240 GB;
The capacity of the blue drive is 250, 500 GB or 1 TB.

WD SSD Resources

For GREEN PC SSD, the resource for 120 GB disks is 40 TB of write operations, and 240 GB is 80 TB of write operations.

For BLUE PC SSD, the resource for 250 GB disks is 100 TB for write operations, which extends the service life of the “blue” model compared to the GREEN model by 20%, the 500 GB configuration will withstand 200 TB of write operations, and the 1 TB version - up to 400 TB write operations.

The average time between failures of WD BLUE SSD drives is 1.75 million hours, which means that the data on them will be protected for many years.

To monitor the current status and performance of SSD drives, special software has been developed - a monitoring panel solid state drives WD, whose tools allow you to check parameters SSD operation in real time.

Thanks to the low power consumption of this model, the laptop's battery power is significantly saved, which is one of its outstanding advantages over other configurations.

Form factor SSD WD

Both the blue and green WD drive configurations come in two form factors: 2.5 inch (7 mm) and M.2 2280. This means that the drives of these models can easily fit in most modern models compact in size desktop personal computers and thin laptops.

Cost of SSD WD

The GREEN PC SSD model is the most budget-friendly solution for the needs of the average user. It is cheaper than the BLEU PC SSD and is suitable for most everyday tasks.

GREEN PC SSD - ~ $56 for 120 GB; ~ $86 for 240 GB,
BLUE PC SSD - ~ $103 for 250 GB, ~ $360 for 1 TB,

WD Hard Drives for Personal Use

Purposes of using hard drives individual users:

Home archive storage files, videos and photos;
Creation– processing of texts, images and videos;
Games and display of high-quality video footage;
Work and play– surf the net, transfer data and watch video content in high quality.

What type of disk should be purchased for personal use:

Affordable;
Capacious enough to store all the necessary files;
Reliable data keeper;
Fast;
Providing regular backups.

The best option for home use is to install a fast SSD drive as a system drive and an HDD drive as storage for files. WD offers both, as well as hybrid drives that combine both types of drives.

The needs of individual users may require resources of varying capacities, and yet, as a rule, this is usually small-capacity hard drives up to 2 TB, as well as high-speed small-capacity SSD drives (up to 120 GB), which is quite enough for fairly fast work with the system .

WD drives for PCs and standard laptops

Western Digital HDD options are designed in a variety of configurations for desktop PCs as well as standard laptops.

Suitable for desktop PCs:

WD BLUE PC DESKTOP
WD RED NAS
WD BLACK PERFOMANCE DESKTPOP
WD PURPLE SURVEILLANCE

Suitable for standard (not ultra-thin) laptops:

WD BLUE PC MOBILE
WD BLUE SSHD PC DESKTPOP – a hybrid of SSD and HDD
WD BLACK PERFOMANCE MOBILE

Capacity of WD HDDs for personal needs

For an ordinary user who is not particularly active in updating their digital libraries and archives, a basic disk of up to 1 TB will be sufficient.

For mid-level users who actively shoot a lot of videos and photos on their smartphones for reliable storage backup copies All your data will require a disk with a capacity of 2 to 4 TB. This volume will be sufficient for all existing and future tasks.

For consumer creative professionals, it is important to consider the prospects for the development of their media storage. Photographers, designers, graphics specialists and planners choose high-capacity HDD drives with a capacity of 5-6 TB to reliably store their work.

Available capacities of WD PC drives:

BLUE series – from 1 to 6 TB
RED series – from 2 to 6 TB
PURPLE series – from 1 to 8 TB
BLACK series – from 1 to 6 TB

Available capacities of WD drives for laptops:

BLUE series – from 500 to 1 TB
BLUE SSHD series - from 1 to 4 TB
BLACK series - from 1 to 6 TB

Home archive storage, work and entertainment

BLUE

To meet individual file security needs and backups, as well as fast work with data and surf the Internet without freezing on a regular home computer It will be enough to install BLUE series disks.

Distinctive features of BLUE series HDDs

Capacity - from 500 GB
More affordable price compared to RED series HDDs
Speed class: 5400 and 7200 rpm options
Cache: 64 MB
Tested Reliability - Two Year Warranty
Possibility of installing a hybrid SSHD disk, combining the options of a fast SSD and a capacious HDD

Models of BLUE disks for storing home archives, work and entertainment:

Creation

Creative work of a video editor, specialist in computer graphics and professional photographer involves individual and collaborative work with data, images and video, editing and sharing files. For such tasks you will need:

significant disk capacity or network storage;
Availability of capacities for high-speed transmission and processing of media content;
as well as the ability to set up regular backups of existing archives and ongoing projects.

RED

For your creative needs, you'll need something more reliable than a standard desktop hard drive, such as network-attached storage, which the RED series drives are specially designed for. Conventional hard drives are not designed to operate in 24/7 NAS systems or RAID arrays, and very often overheat, and system errors can occur that lead to data loss. The reliable and specially tested WD RED Series drives do not have these shortcomings.

Distinctive features of RED series HDDs:

Speed class: 5400 rpm
Cache: 64 MB, 128 MB
Error management system
Protection from noise, overheating and a balancing control mechanism that protects the disc from vibrations
Designed for 24/7 home RAID and NAS storage environments
Increased reliability - 3-year warranty

WD RED Creative Drive Model:

WD RED NAS - ~ $106 for 1 TB and - ~ $415 for 8 TB

BLACK discs for creativity

For resource-intensive tasks that require high data and media processing speeds in everyday conditions, for example, photo editing, video rendering or playing online games, you will need higher-class WD drives - the BLACK series.

BLACK drives provide these characteristics:

Double the processing power thanks to the dual-core processor built into WD BLACK models
high rotation speed class - 7200 rpm
Dynamic caching technology, which increases system performance, optimally distributes available cache memory - from 16 to 128 MB, eliminates latency and maximizes performance
large capacity - from 0.5 to 1 TB for laptops, from 1 to 6 TB for PCs
5 year warranty
Anti-vibration protection ensures reliable data storage.

WD BLACK creative disc models:

Games

WD BLUE SSHD

The responsiveness of the WD BLUE SSHD Hybrid drive ensures games load quickly and auto-save, allowing for smoother gameplay and reduced lag between game levels. Traditional hard drives do not support such capabilities.

WD BLUE gaming disc model:

WD BLUE SSHD PC DESKTOP — ~ $140 for 1 TB and — ~ $240 for 4 TB

WD BLACK

Due to the ever-increasing size of games being released, significant storage capacity is required to store them. WD BLACK hard drives satisfy the appetites of gaming enthusiasts with maximum performance and generous storage capacity. this disk, as well as a limited 5-year warranty, the duration of which is comparable to the warranty period for other components of a gaming PC or laptop.

WD BLACK gaming drive models:

BLACK PERFOMANCE DESKTOP (for PC) - ~ $182 for 3 TB and - ~ $326 for 6 TB
BLACK PERFOMANCE MOBILE (for laptops) - ~ $67 for 160 GB and - ~ $82 for 750 GB

WD Business Drives

Business needs for data storage, recording, security and continuity of access to information are growing every day, and Western Digital has solutions that fully satisfy all existing and emerging business needs.

What are the data storage needs of the business:

ensuring the operation of individual workstations, as well as the entire local network of the company;
organization of network data storage NAS and RAID arrays;
support for continuous 24/7 shared access to company files;
video surveillance system equipment;
organization of server systems for storing, managing and processing data.

Disk purchased for business

Capacious enough to store all the necessary data and their backup copies;
Providing regular backups;
Resistant to various weather and temperature conditions;
Adapted to work in harsh conditions of continuous round-the-clock operation;
Extra-fast;
Reliable;
Compatible with other devices and storage systems.

WD BLUE drives for business

BLUE family drives are ideal for organizing individual workstations of various capacities. BLUE drive models are available for both desktop computers and laptops. By varying the capacity of hard drives and pairing them with fast SSD drives, depending on the requirements for a separate office computer, you can easily build local network required productivity and area.

BLUE drive models for business:

BLUE PC DESKTOP (for PC) - ~ $111 for 2 TB and - ~ $290 for 6 TB
BLUE PC MOBILE (for laptops) - ~ $90 for 1 TB and - ~ $144 for 2 TB
BLUE PC SSHD DESKTOP (for PC) - ~ $140 for 1 TB and - ~ $240 for 4 TB

WD RED Drives for Business

The main purpose of RED category WD drives is to organize data storage. RED drives are designed to operate under increased loads in 24/7 operating conditions.

Low power consumption and compatibility with NASware 3.0 technology provide the perfect combination of cost-effectiveness and reliability for NAS storage systems and RAID arrays. It is the reliability of data storage and automated backup that brings this category of disks into a separate category of information storage devices.

RED drives combine network-attached storage with your existing network, making it possible to provide public access to files. For small businesses, RED NAS drives are available in 1-8 bay systems, while larger businesses' storage needs can be met with RED PRO drive configurations for larger storage systems up to 16 bays.

RED NAS and RED PRO drives also differ from each other in speed class: RED NAS has 5400 rpm, and RED PRO has 7200 rpm.

The reliability of RED series WD drives is backed by a 5-year limited manufacturer's warranty.

RED drive models for business:

RED NAS (for PC, 1-8 bays) - ~ $106 for 1 TB and - ~ $415 for 8 TB
RED PRO (for PC, up to 16 bays) - ~ $300 for 5 TB and - ~ $530 for 8 TB

WD BLACK drives for business

Maximum performance and effective solution Business tasks of moderate to high complexity are guaranteed by WD BLACK series drives, which, due to their dual-core processors, guarantee twice the processing power compared to models with single-core processors.

The BLACK Series' integrated dynamic caching technology optimally distributes cache memory between read and write operations, resulting in unprecedented system performance and responsiveness.

Disc speed class BLACK – 7200 rpm. These models are equipped with a vibration reduction system, which increases the reliability of data protection.

High-performance WD BLACK drives will ensure uninterrupted team collaboration with large data stored on it (for example, images and videos), eliminate auto-save and load delays as much as possible, and increase performance.

BLACK drive models for business:

BLACK PERFOMANCE DESKTOP (for PC) - ~ $182 for 3 TB and - ~ $326 for 6 TB
BLACK PERFOMANCE MOBILE (for laptops) - ~ $67 for 160 GB and - ~ $82 for 750 GB

WD PURPLE drives: video surveillance for personal needs and business

The PURPLE series of hard drives is a separate, specially designed line of drives for high-definition video surveillance equipment.

PURPLE hard drives are adapted for use in sets of up to 8 pieces and up to 32 cameras, and the PURPLE NV model – up to 18 drives and up to 64 cameras, therefore they are able to fully satisfy any private and business needs in the field of video surveillance.

Why a regular hard drive is not suitable for video surveillance

Classic hard drives with standard specifications are not suitable for video surveillance system equipment, since they are designed to operate for short periods of time, and not for round-the-clock use in harsh weather and temperature conditions in which high-definition video surveillance systems usually operate.

Why choose PURPLE drives for video surveillance:

Unique AllFrame technology improves ATA streaming, eliminating errors that can cause image decay and interruptions in recording, sometimes appearing in video surveillance systems, improves playback, eliminating losses and reliably storing every frame;
Compatible with a wide range of security systems and DVR models;
Resistance of equipment to work in harsh conditions of round-the-clock operation in the open air at various temperatures and precipitation;
IntelliSeek technology minimizes noise environment and vibrations;
Low power consumption due to the fact that PURPLE NV drive models belong to the IntelliPower speed class. This technology optimizes caching algorithms, thereby minimizing performance losses from lower spindle speeds.

PURPLE disk models for business:

PURPLE SURVEILLANCE (for PC) - ~ $60 for 1 TB and - ~ $360 for 8 TB
PURPLE NV SURVEILLANCE (for PC) - ~ $168 for 4 TB and - ~ $281 for 6 TB

WD GOLD drives for business

WD GOLD drives are the most reliable storage devices with 24/7 premium support guaranteed by the manufacturer.

Our testing of WD GOLD 4 TB

We tested the Western Digital Gold 4TB 7200rpm 128MB hard drive in our laboratory. You can view the test results

Purpose of GOLD series disks:

equipping data processing centers (DPC);
installation in complex systems NAS/SAN of any complexity;
organization of multi-level corporate video surveillance systems;
equipment for high-speed server systems of various capacities, from entry-level to multi-level corporate data storage systems.

Why you should choose GOLD series drives for server systems:

The load capacity of GOLD disks is up to 550 TB of processed data per year, which is 9 times higher than the loads withstandable by standard disk configurations for conventional desktop PCs;
Speed class – 7200 rpm;
High degree of proven reliability - uninterrupted continuous operation and support of GOLD disks are guaranteed any day of the year, without weekends or holidays;
The average mean time between failures is 2.5 million hours;
WD drives have been tested for integration into various configurations NAS systems and various sets of equipment, after which the compatibility of GOLD disks with most types of computer and digital equipment was established;
These models are resistant to failure at various extreme temperatures;
The positioning system for non-contact (and therefore low-wear) heads that read data is equipped with two drives that mutually correct the position of the head above the track, preventing it from coming into contact with the disk surface;
GOLD drives use error recovery technology that reduces the frequency of drives disconnecting from RAID arrays, which happens quite often with regular desktop drives;
Anti-vibration intelligent RAFF technology quickly monitors and corrects linear and angular vibrations, and also improves performance;
Features a multi-axis shock sensor that automatically detects subtle shocks and compensates for them while maintaining data integrity.

Models of GOLD disks for business:

GOLD DATACENTER — ~$140 for 1 TB and ~$730 for 10 TB
GOLD RE DATACENTER — ~$240 for 4 TB and ~$335 for 6 TB

Differences between these two models:

Energy consumption: The DATACENTER model consumes an average of 8 W when reading, while the RE DATACENTER consumes a little more - 9.5 W.
Amount of available cache memory: the DATACENTER model in almost all capacities is presented in a volume of 128 MB (except for 10 TB - 256 MB), and the RE DATACENTER in a 4 TB capacity is 64 MB, and in the 5 and 6 TB variants it provides 128 MB.

Follow the recommendations presented in the material, and you will select the most efficient and productive internal HDD, SSD drive or SSHD hybrid for your computer, laptop or data storage system of any configuration and complexity based on your needs and financial capabilities.

Today there are four models on the agenda. The smaller capacity is only 1 TB, which is already a minimum in this class: so much fits on just one platter. But they are very different in characteristics, despite the fact that all four models “belong to the pen” of the same company. Let's get to know them better.

Western Digital Green WD10EZRX

A representative of the “green” series with all that it implies - after Seagate refused to produce low-speed models, these remained only in the WD range and in the form of only two families. Red is a completely different story: they are intended for use in NAS and similar equipment, so even on the company’s website they are listed outside the desktop models section. But Green is included in it, and sometimes they are even the main and only ones in the computer. However, as we already know, this is not entirely correct, since the platter rotation speed reduced to 5400 rpm has a disgusting effect on performance, but many are willing to do this for the sake of silence and low power consumption of such models. Moreover, this time we have a hard drive, albeit smaller capacity than in the previous article, but it has only one platter with a capacity of 1 TB, which has a positive effect on the characteristics mentioned above and increases performance. So let's see how much, taking this model as the base one.

Western Digital Blue WD10EALX

Although in fact the Green series is not the youngest in the WDC assortment. The Blue line claims this role, which can most accurately be described by a line from an old song: I made him out of what was:) In fact, this is true - in the blue family, for example, there are still models with a PATA interface, and the maximum capacity is only one terabyte. However, in the latest modifications (namely WD10EZEX), this volume is achieved using only one plate, so it differs from WD10EZRX only in the spindle rotation speed. But we took a slightly different model: lower density, but without Advanced Format. And let’s try to see how a double-plate with a higher rotation speed will look against the background of a single-plate with a lower one.

Western Digital Black WD1002FAEX

If in the segment of laptop drives the “blue” and “black” lines differ very clearly in rotation speed, then in the desktop market there is no such thing. Formally, Black is faster, but today it’s difficult to understand why. Except that the cache capacity differed for a long time, but after the introduction of Advanced Format, 64 MB became the standard for everyone. WD1002FAEX, however, does not use it yet. In general, the technical characteristics of the mechanics are identical to the WD10EALX, but it is superior in cache and, possibly, firmware. So let’s compare these two hard drives in practice.

Western Digital VelociRaptor WD1000DHTZ

This drive appeared on the market quietly and unnoticed, which greatly distinguishes it from its predecessors. Although this is not surprising - circumstances have changed.

Exploitation