Am I going to have a problem accessing this drive with my 9211-8i? The spec sheet says it has 4kn sectors, but also 512e. Thanks.
I just got mine and checked it in WD's warranty checker:
OUT OF REGION 0F38459 PCM Drive ASM OEM-STD 18TB SATA 512e SE CMR P3 Power disable feature Not Support 25-Jul-2026
So these drives are 'out of region' purchases in bulk and then imported to the US, but when you do a warranty check, they are still covered under warranty. And knowing OWC, if there's a problem with WD, you should be able to call them.
As far as shipping, I was not terribly impressed. The box was a standard sized hard drive box, but did not have the 'two bookends' type of shipping material WD and Seagate use from the factor. Instead, there were two pieces of foam on the top and bottom of the drive that sandwiched it tight enough that it
shouldn't have moved. But without any cushioning on the ends of the drive, a good enough impact would make the drive slide right into the cardboard on either end. Mine seemed pretty secure and didn't seem to have moved at all in the journey.
Inside the box, I found my packing slip as well as a small ziplocked pouch with 4 mounting screws which was nice.
Unfortunately, that's all I found nice as this box was literally just inside a plastic bag and shipped that way--so if the bag was dropped or handled rough, there's a good chance for some drive damage. I haven't run a smart long test on mine yet or hooked it up (and probably won't be able to for a week), but I'd definitely test these after you get them if yours arrives with similar packaging.