Customer Reviews

Western Digital Red - 2TB Desktop SATA Hard Drive for NAS - OEM

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I ordered 4 (four) of these 2TB version which are advertised as weighing 599 grams, which would imply 2 platters of 1TB. I knew there are 3 platter version in the wild weighing more (around 640g), with the exact same product number as the 2 platter version, i.e. WD20EFRX-68AX9N0, but when I saw 599 g in the Amazon details, I happily ordered 4 of them.

Sadly, I received the 3 platter version instead, which weigh 640 g, make more noise and perform worse than the 2 platter version (the platters on the 3-platter version are 750 GB). I have the 3TB version which is a 3 platter drive, and they weigh exactly the same and make the same noise (note that I had 4 drives of each to compare against).

Be warned when you order. There is more info on the WD Red 2TB platter lottery here: rml527.blogspot.ca/2010/10/hdd-platter-database-western-digital-35_9792.html

3 stars because of the misleading information. They are all going back. Amazon should post the correct information! This is causing a waste of time and money for everyone (return post, opened item, etc).

For a long time there have been 2 sectors of the hard drive market.

Domestic drives, which offered good value for money, but were not specified to run 24 hours a day, and increasingly had lousy warranties, often just one year.

Enterprise drives, which were specced to run in servers, RAID arrays and the like, had 3 to 5 year warranties, but cost significantly more than their domestic counterparts. They could cost double or 3 times what a basic drive would.

WD has spotted the gaping hole in the market, those of us who want to build a small network attached storage unit, but didn't want to rink putting cheap drives with their 1 year warranties inside.

Hence the Red series. These drives are specified to be used in NAS devices, with a 3 year warranty and - it's claimed - improvements to the hardware to increase life expectancy. The price premium for the Red series seems to be about 20% above the domestic equivalents, which, if they deliver, seems reasonable.

So far I've installed 1 2tb drive with no problems. Let's see how reliable it proves to be, but Red seems to be just what many of us have been looking for!

Bought two of these, both arrived well packaged in their own little boxes with trays. Unfortunately one arrived completely dead. My NAS doesn't recognise the drive and my two desktops try but fail. Searching around the web, it seems like this is quite a common thing with these drives. WD do offer a good RMA process though and they will ship a new drive to you before you send the dead one to them, provided you furnish them with a valid credit card number.

The drive that is working is fine, with good speeds and very low noise and power usage.

Just thought i would drop a line- as i nearly didn't order from Amazon because of the packing concerns in some of the previous reviews. Amazon seemed to have listened- as my two internal hard drives were packed very well. They each had a cardboard box surrounded by packing. In the cardboard box was the hard disk suspended in custom plastic inserts. I cannot find fault with the packaging- they looked and were very secure.

Amazon shipped this product well packaged which arrived on January 21st 2013, together w/ its three years warranty! - So to check on this warranty info, I went to the Western Digital web-site to register my new product & I input the product serial # by viewing it through the semi-see-through olive-green factory sealed plastic cover but prior to removing it from the drive, in order to test out the validity of product serial # with the three years warranty on the "WD Red Drive" to see if it actually is valid & so it is as I got my full WD Red Drive three years warranty which expires in February 2016! Perfect Amazon order!

Although Western Digital United Kingdom do offer an European limited three years warranty on this "WD Red Drive" European product, it would be wise before making any "WD20EFRX" (WD Red Drives) purchase to firstly verify whether or not this listed product will in fact receive the full three years European warranty on it - due to some possible "American" imports being sold within the European Union causing a few Amazon UK customers to experience European warranty related issues with these "American" imports as "Western Digital - United Kingdom" can't cope with any American imports & so therefore "Western Digital - United Kingdom" would only grant a year's warranty on these "American" imported purchases as I've already personally checked on this issue with "Western Digital - United Kingdom" Technical Support prior to placing my order - so before ordering do firstly check on this issue!

Should the Western Digital warranty check fail to grant/supply a three years warranty on your newly purchased product - without opening/removing the semi-see-through olive-green factory sealed plastic cover from the WD Red Drive - return it back to Amazon immediately for a full refund & fast - due to warranty related issues!

Western Digital 2TB 3.5inch SATA6 Internal Hard Drive - Red

The drive was received inside a box with loads of scrunched up brown paper inside another box. The drive itself was inside a sealed anti-static bag, wrapped in bubble-wrap.

The drive has been incorporated into an unRAID NAS after pre-clearing and exercising to ensure it has no errors. It is currently holding about a terabyte of data built from the parity drive after a 1 terabyte drive died on me and is currently being RMA'd to Western Digital.

OUT OF REGION WARRANTY

However, on registering this drive with Western Digital, it said it was "Out of Region". Their web site explains what this means but in essence it means it does not have a Western Digital warranty so you would have to send it back to Amazon for replacement. Now Amazon say they will only give it a 1 year warranty. So I have been conversing with both Western Digital and Amazon to try and get this sorted out. The product description does not say anything about a reduction in the length of warranty. If I buy a genuine Western Digital "RED" drive I expect to receive the "RED" warranty of 3 years. I am currently asking for recompense for the reduced warranty period or a replacement drive with a genuine Western Digital "RED" warranty of 3 years. Unfortunately, you cannot tell if the drive is "Out of Region" or not until you register the product.

I will update this review when I hear from Western Digital and Amazon.

If you're after HDDs for Home or SOHO Networked Attached Storage, then you can't go far wrong with these. Firstly, in terms of delivery, some reviewers have complained not about the product itself, but the poor packaging in which they are shipped. Having purchased these directly from Amazon, the drives I received were very well packaged in their own WD cartons, nicely bundled into a larger tightly packed Amazon box. Now having installed these as RAID 1 in a Synology DS212J box, I am pleased to say that they survived the courier intact and consequently appear to be the perfect basis around which a decent home NAS can be built. They are a good combination in terms of capacity, performance (so far) and warranty. Higher priced by about 20% than their 'Green' drive counterparts, the benefit of having a longer warranty and better performance means that I'm prepared to pay the premium, oh and again with these Amazon sold units, I had no issue with registering the drives with Western Digital for their 3 year warranty. With the drives currently running cool and barely audible inside the NAS box, I'm confident that WD have stolen a march on the other manufacturers and come up with a winning package for the increasingly popular home Network Attached Storage market.

I have recently bought two of these drives for an NAS duo upgrade. They were both "out of region" so I phoned WD and spoke to their representative who did not seem to think it was a problem. I had to show them a copy of the receipt and I am still waiting for confirmation but he was of the view that they would extend the warantee. The both seem to be working normally.

2 x 2TB drive arrived today 25th Jan 2013 from Amazon. Packaging didn't seem enough, drives in a large box with some scrunched up paper on top. Due to previous reviews, the first thing I checked was the online warranty with S/N. Both drives showed as 'out of region' on the WD website. I called WD, and they informed me that 'out of region' is just because I am in the UK, not US, and the warranty is still as normal - 3 years. Online WD site shows warranty until 2016, so I think 'out of region' is OK. I have 'hot swapped' the 2 drives in my ReadyNAS DUO and so far, so good. So, in summary....packaging could be better, 'out of region' worries don't seem to be valid, product is good so far!

What can you say about a hard drive, it fitted the Nas, it is quiet in operation, read and write speads are good. Paid a little extra to obtain a Red drive as these have good guarantees and are rated for 24/7 use which is great for a Nas Drive.

Would have given the unit 5 stars if the packaging it arrived in was better. The unit was in a sealed bag that was bubble wrapped. There was no boxing.