My new 7200 rpm hard drive reports as only being 5400 rpm

WD Internal Drives Desktop & Mobile Drives
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I bought a 3.5 inch hard drive a week ago and on the box it clearly states 7200 rpm. It’s a green one whatever that means, sata/600 and the model number is WDC WD30EZRX-00D8PB0 3 tb using firmware 80.00A80.

I’ve got Windows 7 64 bit loaded on it with the operating partition as 500 gig and the other partition the remainder of the disk.

I’ve used Crystal Disk Info which tells me the hard drive speed and also System Info For Windows which reports the exact same information. 

I went back to Curry’s where I bought it and they said go to Western Digitals website for info as they weren’t qualified to comment and the software tools I had used were not industry standard. They went on to say I should use Microscope or Hiren’s boot cd.

Anyhow, is this normal for the drive to report itself as 5400 rpm when I’ve  paid for 7200 rpm?

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Welcome to the Community.

These are the specifications for the WD Green (WD30EZRX) hard drive family:

http://www.wdc.com/global/products/specs/?driveID=927&language=1

As you may notice the rotational speed is not listed as 7200RPM, but rather as IntelliPower. This means the hard drive will only spin under 7200RPM when the device is under heavy load while decreasing its rotational speed in non-demanding circumstances down to 5400RPM. This is because the WD Green family of hard drives was designed for power-saving and low-noise above all else. If you would like a WD hard drive with a constant 7200RPM ratio, then I’d recommend the WD Blue and/or WD Black hard drive families.

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I see, that’s that then. Bit of a cheat by WD to market stuff like that, but I appreciate the knowledge. 

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Western Digital, please, please, please stop perpetuating this dishonest, deceptive IntelliPower marketing nonsense. Even your own staff have been, and continue to be, deceived by it.

Here is the WD Green Drive Specification Sheet:
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-800026.pdf

If you navigate to the bottom of the page and zoom up the fine print about 10 times, you will see the following statement:

“[IntelliPower is] a fine-tuned balance of spin speed, transfer rate and caching algorithms designed to deliver both significant power savings and solid performance. For each WD Green drive model, WD may use a different, invariable RPM.”

Note the words “invariable RPM”. This means that IntelliPower drives rotate at a fixed speed under ALL conditions. Green drives NEVER spin at 7200 RPM. They ALWAYS spin at 5400 RPM.

In reality IntelliPower is a fine-tuned balance of spindoctoring and technobabble designed to obfuscate the actual rotational speed.

Here are a few more threads that illustrate this Intellipower confusion:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?strip=1&q=cache:http://community.wdc.com/t5/Desktop/WD20EARS-4k-or-512-sector/m-p/62064
http://community.wdc.com/t5/External-Drives-for-Mac/Rotation-Speed-My-Book-Studio-LX/m-p/240758
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?strip=1&q=cache:http://community.wdc.com/t5/Desktop/WD20EARS-spinning-at-7200rpm/td-p/42765
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?strip=1&q=cache:http://community.wd.com/t5/Desktop-Portable-Drives/IntelliPower-technology-maximize-speed/td-p/548709
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?strip=1&q=cache:http://community.wd.com/t5/Desktop/Intelipower/m-p/154920

Even Newegg is peddling this “5400 to 7200 RPM” nonsense:

Western Digital WD5000AAVS 500GB 5400 to 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136230

Where did this disinformation originate, and how did it become so widespread? No doubt WD has taken cynical advantage of this [Deleted]. Please stop now. I urge those people who have been duped by this IntelliPower nonsense to demand a refund.

BTW, since the speed is invariable, there is no legitimate reason for WD’s drive to report a speed of 0 in word 217 (Nominal media rotation rate) of the ATA Identify Device information block. Instead the drive should report its actual, invariable speed, just like WD’s other models.

I invite GaryF to run a HD Tune read benchmark against the drive. If he could then upload the graph, I will be able to determine the drive’s actual RPM. I would also very much like to see a photo of the packaging.

Here is an example for a Green drive:
http://ettcweb0.aa0.netvolante.jp/log/20090830004.png

Notice that the band of access time data points is about 11 msec wide. This corresponds to the time required for one complete revolution at 5400 RPM. The width for a 7200 RPM drive would be 8.3ms.

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GaryF wrote:

I see, that’s that then. Bit of a cheat by WD to market stuff like that, but I appreciate the knowledge. 

Can you post a picture of the packaging and where it says 7200 rpm?  Cause I’ve never heard of that.

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Wow fzakbar, lots of info. I have taken the links and will be reading them. 
What software do you recommend to read the drive?

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Yes Bill I’ll do that at 4pm.

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IMG_20150129_183229082_HDR.jpg
IMG_20150129_183229082_HDR.jpg2592×1456 894 KB
It clearly states 7200 rpm. Nowhere else on the box or in the paperwork inside is the speed mentioned. 

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I need to see the whole box, so I can point out that it is indeed showing 7200 rpm for a green drive.

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IMG_20150129_200330706.jpg
IMG_20150129_200330706.jpg1456×2592 1.03 MB
It’s not a green it’s a blue box. But it still says 7200 rpm

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Do you realize what you are looking at?  It’s a standard chart we use on all of our boxes to compare main differences between our drives.  In this case, it shows you which drives have 7200 rpm rotation speeds.  If you look across the 7200 rpm line you should see that the green drive does NOT have a check mark.  That means that the green drive does not have a rotation speed of 7200 rpms.  So, the box is not lying to you.  You just are not reading it correctly.  If you were looking for a drive with a rotation speed of 7200 rpms, then you should have bought either a Blue drive or a Black drive, based on the chart on the box, itself.

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Bill do you realise what you’re looking at lol The box is blue!
It’s not green!

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What’s that got to do with anything?  It’s the chart that tells you which drives run at 7200 rpm, and the green drive doesn’t show a check mark.  I don’t know what else to tell you, other than look at the green portion of the chart. The green drive has check marks for what features it supports.

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What’s it got to do with anything? Have I fallen into an alternate reality?
I have a blue drive. Not a green one. 
The chart says blue drives run at 7200 rpm. My drive is blue.

The green one doesn’t run at 7200 rpm. That’s fine as I don’t have a green one. 

I don’t know what else to tell you except…why are you banging on about green drives when I don’t have one?
I have a blue one. 

Now…repeat after me…GaryF has a BLUE drive…

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@GaryF, “WD30EZRX” is a Caviar Green model number, not Blue. See the link to WD’s specification sheet in my previous post.

Caviar Green drives spin at an invariable speed of 5400 RPM.

Caviar Blue drives spin at a invariable speed of 7200 RPM.

Your drive’s reported speed is consistent with the one in the following thread:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?strip=1&q=cache:http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-2194787.html

Does your drive have a green or blue coloured label?

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GaryF wrote:

 

Now…repeat after me…GaryF has a BLUE drive…

Hahaha… Awesome.  That was truly funny. 

I was just going by what you said in your original post, that you purchased a green drive, “It’s a green one whatever that means, sata/600 and the model number is WDC WD30EZRX-00D8PB0 3 tb using firmware 80.00A80.”

So, what are we arguing about, now?  'Cause I’m lost.  :smileyvery-happy:

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My humble apologies. I must have said green at the start because of the code, but the box is deffo blue. I am assuming that the colour of the box determines the colour of the drive?

It must do otherwise how would you know what you’re buying?
I do believe that the drive itself has 7200 rpm printed on it, I’ll take the computer apart later and check to see. 
This is all  becoming a mystery!

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As fzabkar already asked, post a photo or scan of the label of the drive itself, minus the serial number. We already know what it looks like: it’s green or partially green, and has the word “GREEN” printed on it due to the model number WD30EZRX.

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1679/~/specifications-for-caviar-green-and-caviar-gp-serial-ata-hard-drives

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Right I took the back off and this is indeed a green drive. Nowhere does it have the spin speed on the drive itself, only on the packaging, but as the packaging is blue I think this is falsely advertised,as how do you check what the drive is unless you open the packaging? Which is sealed.
So, how do I contact WD to get a drive replacement? I want the 7200 rpm drive I thought I was buying.

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GaryF wrote:

Right I took the back off and this is indeed a green drive. Nowhere does it have the spin speed on the drive itself, only on the packaging, but as the packaging is blue I think this is falsely advertised,as how do you check what the drive is unless you open the packaging? Which is sealed.
So, how do I contact WD to get a drive replacement? I want the 7200 rpm drive I thought I was buying.

You can’t just return the drive and get a blue or black?

Also, can you post a picture of the front of the box for us to see?  And had the box been previously opened when you bought the drive?

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