WD Dev Department,

As stated in this thread:

http://community.wdc.com/t5/Desktop/Poor-performace-in-OpenSolaris-with-4K-sector-drive-WD10EARS-in/...

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we would like to have these drives models with a non-emulated firmware

that exposes the 4K sectors directly to the OS.

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The thing is that many Linux distros and Unix flavors already have support for that kind of disks and the 512-byte emulation is only presenting complications when trying to use the disk as is, thus forcing us to align the partitions to the correct underlying layout.

If the first goal of the emulation would be compatibility to actual or legacy OS's, then there should be no need of it if the OS is already prepared to manage the 4K sectors.

In fact, you could have the a jumper setting to activate the 512-byte emulation starting at LBA sector 64 and another setting to have the disk exposed with non-emulation at all and showing the real thing.

Just a thought that could make our lives a little easier in the *nix world.

Regards,

Leandro Vanden Bosch.

It should be easy to find out if an advanced format drive has been aligned or not.

So far I cannot find a way to do this.

Reasons why this would be helpful.

1. User might have forgotten if a drive was aligned for XP or not.

2. Buyers of used drives might need to know.

3. After using certain tools, or partitioning, etc., users might want to do a "sanity check" on the alignment state.

It would solve a trouble of finding one.

If you like the HD's to compete with current SSD's, at least for the short tem, you may want to have a double, triple or quad actuator arm in a small 2.5 factor disk. With a smarter controller, you could have the benefit of deciding to use them all for reading, writing, or  a combination of reading and writing at the same time.

Rotational Latency will be divided between the arms

Translational latency will be minimized if the design allows for smart predictive landing zone of each arm - whichever is closer to the data can access it.

Putting various arms like this will probably behave better than current RAID arrangements, since the internal architecture will not be limited to a static RAID layout (it's the same physical disk!), but will be smarter since it will know when all heads will be reading (possibly from same cylinder if necessary), writing or doing both and deciding when the arms should execute the operation.

This does not change the current technology at the low level: it merely parallelizes a proven solution, and makes it smarter.

If you add a bigger buffer to the disk, it will be hard to beat.

WD drives used to be known for being fast, quiet, and reliable.

It seems WD is removing AAM from some of it's later HD's (including green drives?). Perhaps this is due to a patents issue (?) but it would be better to allow the user to set a 'Quiet Seek Option' programmed in by WD rather than remove the ability entirely. The quiet or fast mode could be set via a small software utility downloadable from WD's support site.

We have recently bought three WD1502FAEX drives. We bought them for reliability rather than speed (5-year warranty implies more reliability). But they are as noisy as heck when seeking (or even when doing seeks during idling) - they sound like a coffee percolator next to you all day long - and apparently they do not have AAM in their feature set so we can't set them to 'quiet'.

For all of  your customers who are already affected by noisy WD drives (search this forum), please bring out a firmware upgrade to enable AAM (or some sort of quiet seek) so we can set them to quiet - otherwise  we have another 5 years of listening to coffee percolators all day long.

You might also make it clear in your product specifications which drives have/do not have AAM (or quiet mode) available - I can find no mention on your website, so at present it's a case of buying the drive(s) and then finding out.

On every hard drive in the world today there is always a Metal cover obscuring the internal workings of a hard drive.

How about a Clear Lexan or Heavy grade plexiglas cover On top and Place smaller more visible labelling on the cover with a see thru labelling system.

Make it available in several UV Light reactive colors giving the User the ability to see How a drive really works while giving the End users some splashes of colors This would in a few ways allow education into the technology of How a hard drive works and give the power Gamers Something to show off other then a Liquid cooling system.

this Can be a Limited Edition Hard drive depending on the applications for use.

the Velociraptor Drive was a start in the right direction But now is a time where the end User should have a say in the colors and the beauty of WD Design and Reliability.

the Plastic Covering can be sealed like the Metal plain tops in Use today I hope WD does take this into consideration and Puts this Design into  Production Just like the MY BOOK This would be a very popular design and would increase Sales.

It would be very nice for laptop users to have high capacity 2.5 HDDs with PATA interface available. At the moment the maximum capacity is 320 GB (no change since two years here). Since the first 2.5 HDDs with 500 GB per platter start to be available now, 1000 GB drives (with 2 platters, 9.5 mm height) should not be a problem. Older laptops that can handle 320 GB will be able to handle 1000 GB and many people - like me - are quite satisfied with older hardware they bought for a lot of money some years ago (especially true for IBM laptops). However, HDD space is always a problem.

I would like to exchange my 2.5 PATA 250 GB WD HDD against a 1000 GB model :-) 

Just two ideas:

1.

Simil RAID-4 or RAID-5 architecture within platters drive to improve reliability of entire drive.

When one sector of "simil array" did fails, it can be reallocated without data loss.

Pro: more reliability, more read speed, relatively simple implementation with minumum of 3 heads/2 platters.

Cons: more complexity firmware and processor/controller , less amount of data avalaible, less write speed performance.

2.

Single arm with two "L-shaped" or "Y-Shaped" head to minimize access time.

When the requested sector is in the first half of the drive , data was readed from "sub-head 1" otherwise from "sub-head 2".

Pro: half average access time, relatively simply firmware implementation.

Cons: more head complexity and weight, solve problem with head parking.

Thanks & Bye

Luke

I used to buy disks with more plates but I stopped doing that as it seemed the more plates the shorter the live of the disk.

4 plate disks are about as many as you can put in the form factor, however I have seen a competitor put 5 plates in a drive. I cannot speculate on how long it lasted.

Today most of my disks are 2 plate (4 head) disk assemblies. These seems to be reliable. I wonder if 3 plate models are now joining the 4 plate disks in the graveyard?

Of course cheaper models may have a single plate. I dislike that practice as it tends to be more of a disservice to the end user down the road. 2 plates are better as there is lots of storage.

My netbook came with a 160 GB disk but I replaced it with the WD3200BEVT I purchased as new previously. The disk was in a USB case when I bought the netbook.

2 plate disks are fine for the desktop and the portable.

A friend of mine recently installed a new, greater capacity power supply into his computer and when powering it up, found that the new power supply had blown all four of his hard drives. When he contacted a vendor regarding data recovery, they commented that WD drives, unlike Seagate's drives, are not shielded from this type of mishap with a metal shield, but instead use a foam divider that melts but provides no protection for the drive circuitry. Needless to say, the foam divider on all four of his drives was indeed melted.

Is it possible to place a shield/protector on the drive to protect from such an occurrence? With more and more larger capacity power supplies, this will become a greater possibiltiy.

Thanks!

The recently released SiliconEdge Blue SSDs sound good, but what I'd really love is for a Black version to come out that has a 5-year warranty and utilizes the less-expensive SandForce controllers. A 100-200GB with a reasonable price point?

The JMicron controllers aren't really doing it for me, especially at the current price points.

I thought at first that SiliconSystems' IP and tech would be incorporated...but the Blue turned out to be a JMicron...why?

I just recently received a WD Green 2TB of the EADS series Mfg. 2010
it has an extra black plate and screw to hold the spindle from the top

well this disk doesn't shake at all when flat or vertical

all the other WD disks I have, that don't have this black plate and extra screw
shake like crazy when mounted vertical and smooth as silk when mounted flat
but jump all over the table when mounted vertical

it's a 0.025¢ screw and a 1¢ plate

standardize the Mfg. put this on all disks and get 0 RMA for disk induced vibrational damage

When I look at a hard drive label I can not see if it is a Sata, Sata II or Sata III.  Why is that?  Why not just put it on the drive label?

My PC Configuration:
Intel quad core i7 3770  processor
DH77EB Mother board
1TB Seagate interal hard disk (Which is detected)
WD 2 TB caviar green WD20EZRX(whic NOT detected).
WD 2 TB caviar green WD20EZRX is not detected by GParted live cd also

Please help

Thanks
Bhushan

I bought a Black to use in my music studio - I bought it for performance to install in a custom built quiet PC (Fractal Design R3 case). My PC was completely silent until I started using the Black.  I researched forums to find out that those who bought their Blacks a year or so ago were fortunate enough to be able to enable AAM and reduce the noise to a satisfactory level without affecting performance too much - but the one I bought was recently manufactured and has been "locked" into performance mode at the factory.

Dear WD, I was a customer that had left you for Seagate years ago and had decided to come back and try out your product. I am VERY dissappointed that you have not yet taken action to release a firmware update that will re-enable AAM. The noise issue is getting lots of negative attention to WD on Newegg. You guys should really fix it.

Personally, if its resolved with a firmware update, I'll be buying again from WD. Otherwise, Im going back to Seagate.