Product number help?

Hi there…

I want to buy a couple of specific WD drives as they are on a tested hardware compatibility list for my NAS box.

The model specified in the list is WD20EARS-00S8B1.

What does the last bit after the - specify and is this important? All I find in online stores when I search is the WD20EARS and nobody specifies the end bit.

Does this have anything to do with the firmware running on the drive because this should be one of the newer 4K sector drives I think?

Thanks in advance…

durrie.

00S8B1 is the revision, it includes info like the firmware, manufacturing date, batch and region.

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AFAICT, the first 2 characters are the Customer ID, the next 2 are the Family Identifier, and the last 2 are the Customer Configuration Code.

A Customer ID of “00” indicates “Generic”.

Thanks for the update…

It’s just rather irritating that suppliers do not seem to add this suffix information to the product number…searching the net for this full product number plus 00S8B1 draws a blank…

Me thinks this may be one for the telephone support line!

According to the following document, “the model number suffix (characters to the right of the dash following the model number) is only for in-house use. Refer to Change Administration’s Model Specification (document number 2096-000101).”

Model Number Format for OEM and Distribution Channels:
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/Flyer/ENG/2579-001028.pdf

I haven’t seen WD’s internal document, but here is an explanation in Russian:
http://www.acelab.ru/dep.pc/doc.pc3000dos/060713.001/WD-main-N-2.pdf

Here is Google’s English translation:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&sl=ru&tl=en&u=http://www.acelab.ru/dep.pc/doc.pc3000dos/060713.001/WD-main-N-2.pdf