Western Digital Red's

shahpor

shahpor

shahpor

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Joined
13 Mar 2007
Posts
832
Hey.

Does anyone know what is up with the supply of Western Digital Red drives?

Been looking all over for almost a month now for some 2Tb versions, and so far nothing. No one even seems to have a clue when they will be available.

Looked all over, here at OcUK and all the usual parts suppliers, but it seems to be the same story no matter where you go.

Anyone have any ideas when we might see some?

Cheers.
 
I've been having the same issue to be honest - I'm dying to get a new NAS up and running and want a couple of these bad-boys in it!

I eventually succumbed and reluctantly pre-ordered a couple from elsewhere but even that supplier is now saying out of stock! :confused: (although for the past week or so it's had a number on order due (hopefully) for delivery early next week!)

You can sign up for OC to e-mail you when they are back in stock though!
 
I don't know why people are after these. So much BS marketing from WD as usual. They are basically fixed WD Greens and £40-50 more than a 3TB Seagate drive which uses pennies more power.
 
Depends on what you mean by 'fixed'?

Personally, I want them cause I run my pc 24x7 and am tired of replacing failed hard drives. I don't care what WD have done to the Red's, as long as they are reliable.

So far, I am replaced 3 Samsung Spinpoint F1/3's and 2 WD Caviar Blacks due to failure in the last 2-3 years.

No matter how much marketing BS WD produce, if the Red's are designed to work more reliably during 24x7 use, then I want to try them.

Just need to find some first :)
 
AbsenceJam said:
I don't know why people are after these. So much BS marketing from WD as usual. They are basically fixed WD Greens and £40-50 more than a 3TB Seagate drive which uses pennies more power.
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I'm after them because the reviews and comparisons I've seen show that they are cooler, quieter and have less vibration than the other brands which is important to me because my NAS will be sat right next to my main TV!

Other than that, a 3 year warranty is a nice bonus!

Oh, and where can I get a 3TB Seagate drive for £50-£60?? (assuming you are comparing to the OP's 2TB Red!)
 
I switched from the 3TB Seagates to the 3TB WD Red about 6 weeks ago, stock was plentiful then. The Reds are simply perfect for a NAS.

Seagate have just bombed in terms of quality and warranty and I have no faith in them for NAS operations
 
They have TLER from enterprise drives (time-limited-error-recovery) which makes them less likely to fail in a RAID setup. Worth the extra if you're using them in a NAS and value your data.
 
shahpor said:
Depends on what you mean by 'fixed'?

Personally, I want them cause I run my pc 24x7 and am tired of replacing failed hard drives. I don't care what WD have done to the Red's, as long as they are reliable.

So far, I am replaced 3 Samsung Spinpoint F1/3's and 2 WD Caviar Blacks due to failure in the last 2-3 years.

No matter how much marketing BS WD produce, if the Red's are designed to work more reliably during 24x7 use, then I want to try them.

Just need to find some first :)
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If you've had that many drives die then you have some sort of other issue, unless you own hundreds. Actually, I own and use hundreds and haven't had more than the odd bad sector develop, ever.

No disks are really more reliable than others, it's been written about in articles that enterprise disks with much higher MTBF's aren't any more reliable in reality.


StevieP said:
Oh, and where can I get a 3TB Seagate drive for £50-£60?? (assuming you are comparing to the OP's 2TB Red!)
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I think you misread, the 3TB Seagates are £40-50 cheaper than a 3TB Red.
 
AbsenceJam, to be honest, I am not that bothered about debating which is better. Like you say, there is usually not much in it either way, so each to their own :)

However, I do feel that the Red's do perhaps offer some advantages over other drives for continuous use (and RAID), and since I need some new drives anyway and the price difference between Red's and others isn't really that much, I would like to try them.

But it seems to me that either WD underestimated demand for the drives, or they are having problems producing them cause it does seem like they have been unavailable for quite some time now.

Just wondering what is going on and how long I can expect to wait?
 
robj20 said:
Reds cant be that good, were not using them, were still using WD RE4 drives they seem to be the most reliable ones we use.
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To be fair, aren't the RE4's specifically designed (and subsequently priced) for servers whereas the RED's are designed (and priced) for home NAS's!

Not comparing apples with apples there my friend! ;)
 
Yep, RE4 are specifically designed for server environments.

That, in itself, is not a problem, but it is unfair to compare a drive that costs just over £100 to one that is roughly £180.

The fact that the Red's are comparable in price to regular consumer drives is one of the reasons they are so interesting.
 
BluSky said:
I am after some reds for my home server which runs 24x7. They should be OK for that right?
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Well, according to WD, they are specifically designed to run 24x7, so they should be fine for your server.

I have seen some 1TB's for sale, but still no 2TB or 3TB as far as I can see.

At this point, I am tempted to damn the extra cost and just get some RE4's, but I get the feeling if I did, the Red's would appear in stock the next day :)
 
I see that these Reds are mostly intended/designed for NASs, but as they are the same price as WD greens at the moment (for 2TB, stocking issues aside), would they be better/just as good for media storage in a standard desktop PC with the OS on a SSD? That's what I'm thinking of doing, as they have a longer warranty and claim to be more robust etc in a vibration environment, but I'm a bit of a noob and not sure whether this is a big error, as pretty much nobody is discussing it apart from for NAS.

Would I be able to just specify it and have done or would it need some "features" turning off?
 
I am planning on running 2 in my standard desktop. Should be no different from running any other hard drive.

They are not the fastest drives out there, but since they are intended for mass storage, it is hardly an issue.
 
Exactly my point. I am sure there are plenty of people out there waiting for these drives, but it is getting silly now how long they have been out of stock?

At this point, I would settle on some sort of ETA. Running very low on space :(
 
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