8TB wd red drives

Best Buy today has 8TB easystore external disks for 139. They are supposed to contain the WD red drives.

Yep, this review on Amazon has a picture showing it to be a Red drive.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/RSMQJUIJ8IR3M/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B073LK1F6X

Edit to add: Removing the drive video:

Found a note on the web. Get the model made in Thailand rather than China. They had different model red drives. Basically 256mb cache rather than 128mb cache

Now you tell me. :laughing:

Just kidding. The one I grabbed, indicates it is a “Product of Thailand” on the box UPC lable. My local Best Buy only had two on the shelves. The P/N / N/S: WDBCKA008HBK-NA and the model: WBCKA0080HBK-NESN.

Will post some pictures shortly.

I tried to find any mention of the differences when I posted. But ran out of time. Had to go to class at the Y.

Success! :smiley:

The WD EasyStore 8TB drive I purchased from Best Buy was made in Thailand. And it is the 256mb cache WD Red version. My Cloud enclosure was a first gen version.

I used Fox_Exe’s unbricking directions for unbricking/replacing HDD for first gen’s.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_6OlQ_H0PxVbzZac0plbkZKeGM/view

The those directions have a broken link to the archive file one needs to download. I used the original_v04.01.02-417.tar.gz file: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_6OlQ_H0PxVR2czRHB5cnU2bVk

Process took about half an hour to 45 minutes total. Used Ubuntu Live CD (https://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop) to boot a PC and had the 8TB drive connected to the computer’s SATA cable (all other computer hard drive’s disconnected). Downloaded the original_v04.01.02-417.tar.gz file to a USB flash drive and also had that connected to the PC prior to starting the process. Getting the EasyStore enclosure open without destroying it or scratching it up was a bit difficult. Just follow one of the various YouTube videos describing the “Shuck” process for the EasyStore enclosure. Ran into one issue with the WD Red drive not having one set of screw holes (for some reason) on it’s frame, more on that below.


EasyStore Box Label


EasyStore WD Red Drive


WD Red Drive, made in Thailand, 256mb cache version


When I went to mount the back-plane for the My Cloud, I noticed the WD Red drive didn’t have one set of screw holes like most other SATA desktop drives have. See the indicated yellow circles above. The WD Red drive on left, old drive (Seagate) I was using in the WD enclosure previously on the right. So I only used two of the three mounting screws (and barrel standoffs) rather than the normal three.


Initial boot, post unbrick, with the 8TB drive to the 04.01.02-417 firmware.


Post upgrade to 04.05.00-320 firmware with 8TB drive. I did do a System Only reset from the WD MY Cloud Dashboard > Settings > Utilities post firmware upgrade just to be safe.

So far everything seems to be working fine. Currently manually copying files from a Safepoint backup on an external USB hard drive to their respective folders on the new My Cloud drive. Could have done a Safepoint restore but decided to have more control over what I restore and to where on the new My Cloud drive.

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