Hello WD Community,
I understand that the WD Ultrastar series hard drives are designed for data center to be used in servers.
Therefore I am not sure whether it can also be used in normal desktop computer and in external hard disk dock/enclosure just like any other WD Internal SATA drives such as the Blue/Red/Purple/Gold etc?
Does it have the same standard SATA connector and SATA Power connector like the other Internal drives?
Kindly enlighten me. Thank you very much for your help.
Hi @balance,
Please be informed that WD Ultrastar series hard drives can be used on the ordinary desktops. It is the same as an ordinary SATA hard disk, but the power supply-demand will be slightly larger.
We cannot guarantee if it can be used in the external hard disk box and NAS. You need to check the compatibility list of hard disk boxes and NAS products.
Hi balance, I have the same question as you. Regarding to WDs answer, I’m wondering if you bought an ultrastar DC HC550 or not. And if you did, had you tried using it with an external doc, or you just used it as an internal HDD?
I have an Orico 5 disk USB-C box and Ultrastar disks work fine. I have one HUH721212ALE601 in the unit and it works fine as a 12TB disk should.
Given the box is JBOD I can use bitlocker if I need more security etc, the box shows as 5 discrete disks.
I’m using Ultrastars in my Windows desktop. They read & write at 250MB/s.
BUT, they never power down. I set Windows power management to turn hard drives off after 20 minutes of disuse, but they just keep spinning. If they ever overheat, they will drop permanently from 250MB/s to 160MB/s, so you have to throw them out if they’re in a RAID array.
They won’t spin up in any system, whether internal or external, that doesn’t have the Power Disable Feature described in a WD 2016 tech brief, and instead ties Pin 3 to +3.3V.
A quick note to power disable feature:
Mine is Ultrastar DC HC570, so it may not be the same as HC550 but…
I have the 18TB SC550 and it is stuffed in a USB disk enclosure and works beside 4 other disks. The box has a fan to move air around but the disk seems fine.
Disk is on all the time so it has maybe 31,000 hours on it now since I first acquired it, and it has been rock solid.
