Important info WD hides on 120gig SE 8mb Drives.

[spiderman2]

I found out why so many people cannot raid these drives well. WD has mixed in three platter drives-OEM and RMA ,the worst, Retail is only way to go. Here is the info WD refuses to tell customer's as I called them myself and they were not much help and did not tell me how to tell the difference in hard drives , so WD lied to me and this was their Top Tech Manager-I asked point blank and asked if you can tell the difference between a three platter drive and a two platter drive? Chief Tech Manager said" there is no way to tell the difference between a three platter drive and a two platter drive",- Even the curcuit board is different. Any RMA's or OEM will get a three platter slower older drive that is refurbished-made WD's Junk Factory. Only retail has these new two platter drives- WD's good factory. If you are setting up a raid this difference will screw up your hard drives in raid zero or even single drive setups. How to tell the difference- Three platters drive refurbished, the numbers are LBA 23437500 . Two platter version new drive LBA numbers are 234441648. I know this is true because I had a bad retail drive and sent it back and got a peice of junk - three platter drive dated 12/02. I bought two drives at the same time retail,. Now I have a two platter drive -05/03 and a three platter drive-12/02 a perfect mismatch that is bound to fail at raid zero. I may be able to bring back this dud to the store tomorrow and fix this mess. I hope WD stops intentionally- misleading people. .:r :r :p

[NDD]

Any comments BPB ? :t

[Ankerson]

:rolleyes:

[BipolarBill]

It's easy to tell the difference. The 3-platter 120GB drive is quite hefty. The newer one is so light, it feels phony.

One more thing:

RAID 0 suxors! :p

[Disk11]

LMAO!!!!
Its either fiber drives or SCSI for me from now on. Bill should remember my RAID 0 fiasco.

[BipolarBill]

Originally posted by Disk11
Bill should remember my RAID 0 fiasco. It's fading fast, thank God. :cool:

[gjimene2]

I could hear BpB screaming in the middle of the night up here in north texas :eek:

[spiderman2]

He should be, Because I know more about raids them him now.:x :x :D

[BipolarBill]

You're gonna learn more too. :rolleyes:

[gjimene2]

you will never stop learning :D

[spiderman2]

Thank you , Bill , I know that I am a pain in the **** , but this was a very good experience for me. I did learn a allfull lot about hard drives because of WD playing games with me. That's ok, I play games back and beat them at their own game's. I guess , I am a smart devil. I bought back that junky drive to the store and got a brand new one. I will post some very important info on this other drive soon. This makes a total of three drives from WD, I am their best customer when only one would do , I end up with three 120gigers se 8mb drive, but now I have two, two platter drives the fastest 120 gig 7200 out there-brand new and the store even gave me back $21.00 because the price went down.:t :x

[spiderman2]

The new 120gig drive ,I got at the store is a two platter version from 05/o3 and should work well with my other two platter version. It took a lot of work to get two good drives from WD and it taught me- WD's three year war is a joke and a hard ware scam . Getting new drives replaced with defective refurbilshed three platter drives is a sham . This 120gig se 8mb drive is one of there most popular drives they sell, to bad that Wd's quality control is non existing.:r :x :D

[BipolarBill]

You know, you keep bashing WD and buying their drives. Could you tone it down a bit? You're only making yourself into a hypocrite.

The 3-platter drive is 98% as fast as the 2-platter drive. In single-drive setups, there's no real difference. There's no real difference in a RAID 1 array either. It's only the n00bs that are using RAID 0 that are upset about it. I can see the WD engineers and support people laughing now:

"LOL! These guys are always whining about the drive difference, but they end up hosing their data anyway! Hah!"

Believe me - that's what they're saying too. ;)

[spiderman2]

You are right, I am bashing WD drives too much , but the problem is not the hard drive, only how they are mismanaged. It's too bad that WD poor quality control, can ruin a raid setup and their reputation. Wd drives are the fastest out and this may add to being more touchy. A raid zeo setup is very touchy, a lot of things can upset it. Like a raid setup does not like to be moved to much. A good raid setup is a balanceing act with both drives working as a team, anything disturbs them. My box is not being moved around, so thats not a problem. I think WD drives are going to work fine, in fact these new two platter versions have not even been reveiwed by web sites that test drives. I have heard these 120giger two platter versions 67gigger's-? are as fast as the bigger one's WD makes. But what would you have me do, run that three platter refurbished dud and screw up everthing? If I did run that setup , I bet it would not last six months. I want to run this setup at least a year or two like my current quantums are still doing at raid zero. I do backup my data on a 40 gig Maxtor 5400rpm tank. I bought two drives and expected them to work, well I got a dud,. I will end up with only two of the right drives so I have not wasted a dime. An got $21 back when the dud went back to the store, the price dropped -Lucky me:x :confused: )-|

[BipolarBill]

I still love WD drives. :)

[spiderman2]

I guess,I was on a bashing wave, I took out some flame.:eek:

[spiderman2]

I am going to install the Wd's tomorrow in a raid zero setup and it should be a lot of fun speeding up my box.;)

[BipolarBill]

Sigh.

[DMohler]

I'm a big time fan of WD drives. Sorry to read about your problems. Just got my system back up with two of the new Raptor's. So far there's a wow factor at how things seem so much quicker.

[spiderman2]

I want those , but thought they were too much dough and no hard drive space. I guess your a raid zero man too- Bill only likes raid 1, but I 've been successfull for three years with raid zero, that's why I am so picky what drive's I use. Matched pair or forget it.;) It;s been raining for a month, I have cabin bug and I am a bit crazy:x Just thing 240 gigs, can I fill it up before it dies?

[spiderman2]

The big day, Brand new Wd"s 120gigger SE 8mb both two platter version's thank God going in box , out goes old quantums As 7200 10 gigger's.. I will start another thread, I am sure your happy to here on getting the most out of these drives at raid zero. I am sure Bill will be happy. I am not going to post anymore on this thread because the problem is solved after much trouble, but when I returned the drives I made $21 because the price dropped and had two absolute screw drivers on them, hows that for revenge heha me the spiderman:p :p :p :p :p

[DMohler]

Sounds like a good day for you. Raid 0 is the way to go. You are right about drive space and price with the Raptor. Had to do it thou.

[spiderman2]

Backup data, how no more delay, wd 120gigers 8mb two platter 67gig disk here I come ,ready or not.