WD 1.5TB Green drives - Useful as door stops

well they made the first generation compatible with external NAS so all the  firms put WD green on their compatible list   but then next generation was made incompatible, making it impossible for people to know they just bought a incompatible HDD the ycan not use !!!

the compatible HDDs and incompatible has the same name (WD15EADS)

SO YES WD IS TO BLAME

Can you show me where WD ever stated compatibility?

This is WDs official policy regarding enclosures:

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=296

They very clearly state you should contact the enclosure manufactuer for support. I’m not trying to argue with you - just trying to be helpful and point you in the right direction. As far as I’m aware this is pretty standard with hard drive manufactuers, so synergy (sp?) should know this and either have a solution, or tell you that the drive is incompatible.

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As adviced i checked the compatility on the enclosure manufactuers homepage and the HDD was compatible

and the HDDs ran fine (all three) 

but later when i bought another HDD, the same as model as before WD had made changes to the HDDs (again same model) whitch made the HDD incompatible

so when you buy a WD WD15EADS there is no way to khow if it works in your system :frowning:

How do the GP drives taken from the NAS box work when installed inside a computer?  What happens if you try testing them with WD’s diagnostics?

I also bought a WD15EADS-00P8B0, and I can confirm that it is a total **bleep**ty HD.

I have used WD15EADS-00P8B0 with my Symology DS207, i thought that Synology was to blame, because it was so slow, but NO NO NO it is WD that cant design HD.

I was so frustrated, that I bought at QNAP TS-119 Turbo NAS, but the disk was still to slow. Then I tried it with MY PC, as a backup disk, and it worked, but it is still slow as hell, it is constant shifting in speed from 0,5mb/s op to 70mb/s.

But maybe next Christmas I will also use it as Christmas decorations.

It really amasses me, that a large firm like WD, don’t  put out a firmware update or pull back the product. This type of negative product support is something the hardcore PC community will remember.

I am not a pleased user, and I think I have bought my last WD product.

If you want a good stable product buy Samsung HD, i did because WD couldn’t deliver.

I have a WD10EADS Green drive myself, I can’t find any drivers or anything that might look like a solution to this but quite honestly I think this ‘Green’ hard drive bull is a scam to get us to buy run down components that use up less power than the other brands.

I’m not entirely sure what I can do, can I assume these drives are full of it and get another one that will suddenly work wonderfully? Or is there some simple trick to it like switching off an option that I’m not aware of because there have been some annoying moments like that for me. I’m glad I’m not the only one suffering from the problem of not being able to use this drive for even movies and basic storage but I do feel bloody ripped off.

HI

same problem here.

i got 2 WD20EADS-00R6B0 works fint in my nas… got 2 more WD20EADS-00S2B0 Not working fint… is there a firmware to WD20EADS-00S2B0 and where (link plz)…

I can read that others have the same problem…

link: http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=25733&start=255

I hope. there is a firmware to fix this.

Dr_who

I’ve got exactly same problem with two my 15eads-00P8B0 and i opened a ticket in wdc support 100102-000616, but still no answer :( 

while googling around i found a lot of people with the same problem but no successfull fix/workaround for it.

russian hardware related site  http://forum.ixbt.com/topic.cgi?id=11:39956-63, there is some stats with problem hdd’s (just ctrl-f and higlight 15eads, begging from 63 page)

or even whole category on synology forum  http://forum.synology.com/enu/viewforum.php?f=151

Hi,

I have the same problem here. Synology finds the WD15EADS as compatible with their NAS products, so I bought one. Unfortunately I get the WD15EADS-00P8B0, which obviously has a changed specification to previous series of the model. Now the WD15EADS-00P8B0 is explicitly marked as slow in the Synology list - too late for me. Next time I will do without WesternDigital products because you couldn’t be sure that it works like other tested items of the same model. It is a very serious experience for me.

Best regards

Guido

Hi,

Just for the record I would advise that I am also having similar issues with 2 WD15EADS-00P8B0 drives. 

  

The  only thing I can say is that it is definately a problem with the drives as they behave similarly across three complete different hardware/software platforms.  At least one of these has no RAID function (software or hardware) either so  that is not the cause.

Small files seem to transfer ok but larger ones get stuck.  The WD lifeguard tools report no issues either.

It would be interesting to see if anyone else is having issues.  Try to copy a 2Gb file directly to the disk directly attached under windows and check your event log for errors.

Currently have a support case and RMA in with WD regarding this issue.

Jason

Same issues here.

  • Hardware spec
    Asus P5K-E ( P35 chipset)
    Intel Core 2 Duo E6420
    4GB DDR 800
    Western Digital Green EADS 1TB * 2, EADS - 00P8B0
    HIS ATI 4850 512mb
    Corsair vx 450

I have my windows 7 ultimate 32 - bit installed when it is released.
Everything is fine except 3 weeks ago
The situation is, the mouse icon indicate loading, then windows hang ( like right click of recycle bin / mounting the CD image etc. ) and  I get explorer.exe not responding messages ; or opening a new tab for firefox, the firefox freezes for about 20 seconds without responding
Strange enough, the problem is more frequent when I surf internet via Firefox or Google Chrome.

When I check the Windows Resource Monitor, the highest active time is 100% and it lasts for 30 seconds.
I tried to find out which process occupy the load, but no luck :cry:
There are some applications loading with few kb/s and I don’t think they cause troubles.

Hi,

I’m running with an Apple Mac Pro running 10.6.2

Model:    WDC WD15EARS-00Z5B1                     
  Revision:    80.00A80
  Serial Number:         WD-WMAVU1309053
  Native Command Queuing:    Yes
  Queue Depth:    32
  Removable Media:    No
  Detachable Drive:    No
  BSD Name:    disk1
  Bay Name:    Bay 1
  Partition Map Type:    GPT (GUID Partition Table)
  S.M.A.R.T. status:    Verified
  Volumes:
WD Green:
  Capacity:    1.5 TB (1,499,957,936,128 bytes)
  Available:    727.19 GB (727,190,011,904 bytes)
  Writable:    Yes
  File System:    Journaled HFS+
  BSD Name:    disk1s2

It does indeed appear to be something weird with these drives.

Yep, browsing problem,I’m getting broken AVI/MPG files and occasional slowdowns with noises that sound like the drive is resetting. I’ve tried the drive with just the WDC in and also it’s baby brother a

Capacity:    320.07 GB (320,072,933,376 bytes)
  Model:    WDC WD3200AAJS-00B4A0                   
  Revision:    01.03A01
  Serial Number:         WD-WMAT15044210
  Native Command Queuing:    Yes
  Queue Depth:    32
  Removable Media:    No
  Detachable Drive:    No
  BSD Name:    disk0
  Bay Name:    Bay 2
  Partition Map Type:    GPT (GUID Partition Table)
  S.M.A.R.T. status:    Verified
  Volumes:
UNTITLED:
  Capacity:    319.73 GB (319,727,931,392 bytes)
  Available:    17.71 GB (17,708,269,568 bytes)
  Writable:    Yes
  File System:    Journaled HFS+
  BSD Name:    disk0s2
  Mount Point:    /Volumes/UNTITLED

Can you advise if a firmware update will be made available for this or if you can authorise and RMA as this? 

Regards,

James

I bought a WD Elements 1.5TB (MADE BY WD. SO THE BLAME LANDS SQUARELY AT THEIR FEET.)

I bought the drive in December 17th, and only use it occassionally for 20 days. And now it’s DEAD (it show up on explorer briefly only as drive icon with question mark on it, and if u click it’s unavaliable, and then it disappears then it repeats few seconds later, recognize as drive, questionmark, then disappear again). I took it out of the external drive enclosure, and plug it in straight to check if it’s just the problem with interface. It seems to work at first (HDD now showing up) with everything in it. But when I start copying file to it, it will stall my system (every 10 seconds, it will have 1 SECOND LAG/STALL/SKIP) resulting in files that are copied with corruptions. If I transfer files from this drive to my internal drive, it will take FOREVER - 1.3 GB takes 10 MINUTES! (it only took 40 seconds in my WD internal drives (2 physically different WD drives).

SO, what am I suppose to do?

VERY, VERY [text deleted]  ANGRY AT THE MOMENT.

Same problem here. The disk is totally worthless.

When will there be a firmware update for this stupid bug?

'm having the same problem, when i want to stream 1080p .mkv from my Qnap ts-210 it is lagging. Can anyone recomend a hdd that works? 

Got the same problem with my 1.5TB 00P8B0 disk.

If WD doesnt solve this, this will be the very last WD-disk i bought, after all my like 8-9 disks before have been WD.

Bought the 1.5TB Green power drive, cause I thought it would suit well for a low power, low noise and low performance needs like a Popcorn Hour A110

But when im writing to the disk, though FTP, Samba or attached like a External USB drive to the PC, it FREEZES one minut, goes normal one minut, freezes again one minut, goes norman one minut, freezes one minut etc etc etc…

This is extremly annoying, causing it to take like 20 times more time than it should.

It really pisses me off…!!

Question: If a put this disk in my PC, would it work flawless?

It would be a solution for me, otherwise i just got this useless disk i dont know what to do with.

Hello, I have the same issue.

2 Server, both have 2 HD’s each in them, all 4 are WD15EADS-00P8B0 drives.

Both server will periodically stall out with heavy harddrive usage according to the HD activity Light.    We’ve disconnected these servers from the network and have been able to reproduce this issue with no one even logged into them.

Ran both Process Monitor and Process Explorer, server is doing nothing in the background to cause this stall.

Anyone received a fix for this problem yet?

No support whatsoever from WD. They ignore supportmails, don’t even have the decency to send a reply telling you “thank you for your money, sorry we ripped you off”.

I’ll never buy anything remotely related to WD again. And I’ll make sure noone I know does either.

I’ve wasted many many hours with this stupid harddrive before I found the real reason it wouldn’t work (the disk is ■■■■).

Hello,

I have a WD15EADS-00P8B0.

I noticed like some of you that it completely frezees for a few seconds. I had this problem on two different pc, with Windows XP and Linux (Fedora and Ubuntu). Opened a support ticket, but did non get any technical help.

I think this is triggered by writes and it’s probably a firmware bug. The mechanical part of the disc seems fine and completes the tests with the WD tools. It just hangs for a while than starts working again with no error messages from the controller.

I have two questions:

  • do these drives have 512 or 4096 bytes sectors?

  • does WD replace drives with this problem? Do they even acknowledge this problem?

Received my replacement drives from the RMA procedure.  Took a few weeks and $50 shipping which was highly inconvenient .  The replacement drives were not new (only recertified). 

The replacement WD15EADS-00R6B0 drives appear to be working fine at the moment.  I still don’t  really trust these drives with anything important after previous issues. (also considering they are recerts)  Also since I now discover that WD say they strongly recommend/do not support using them in any RAID which leaves me with a bunch of drives that are no longer fit for their original purchase.