WD ShareSpace 8TB - 4TB drives?

WD Legacy Products Other Network Drives
1

Hi All,

I have been searching around for an answer to this question, but so far no luck, but apologies if it’s already covered somewhere.

Anyhow, we have a WD ShareSpace 8TB NAS which has 4x2TB Caviar Green drives in it which is configured in RAID5.  3 of which have been RMA’d in the past and now it seems the 4th failed too…!  However, now it’s out of warranty so we’re looking to replace the drive.

Rather than replace with a 2TB disk, we were wondering if the device would work with 4TB drives (WD Red for example).  I know it won’t increase the RAID5 at this time, but ideally, we’d like to switch to RAID 10 down the road.

So, anyone know if 4TB (or even 3TB) drives will be ok in the device?

Thanks in advance,

Anthony…

2

Hello,

Page # 177 of the WD Sharespace User’s Manual states:

“Important: The WD ShareSpace enclosure is designed to support only WD Caviar® Green™ hard drive assemblies. Visit support.wdc.com and search the knowledge base article 2569 for detailed instructions on obtaining a replacement drive for this product. Use only WD hard drive assemblies of the same size or your warranty will be voided.”

How to replace a drive in a WD ShareSpace

For more information contact support directly.

Contact WD

3

Hi Hamlet,

Thanks for taking the time to reply - appreciated…

However, given my device is well past it’s warranty period anyhow, I’m not concerned about voiding it.  Given the known issues with Green drives in a NAS and WD’s own stance that RED drives are more appropriate, I’d still like to know if it’ll work.

I guess we’ll replace the drive with at least a 2TB RED regardless and see how we go.

Cheers,

4

Electronicaly speaking the green and red versions have the same or better rateings.

I would not be afraid to try if I was in your shoes.

If I was purchaceing new drives untested, I would only buy one and try it JBOD and see what happens b4 I commit to the other three.

It is possible that the firmware of the Sharespace talks to the green versions and rejects others, but I doubt it.

I know I am responding to a post from a few months ago at this time.

but thougth I would throw in my 2c anyhow.

Did you give it a try?

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Any luck? Did you just replace the green drive with red one and the system rebuild alright?