Review of White Label 4TB drives

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RyC

Active Member
Oct 17, 2013
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I emailed them to make sure the firmware versions I have are OK to use as well
 

RyC

Active Member
Oct 17, 2013
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They said as long as the capacity reports the same, the drives I have with those firmware should be fine. Burn testing is almost done and they seem to be fine so far, so I'll probably just keep them. They did offer to replace them with 2 of the same firmware with shipping paid by them though!
 

RyC

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Oct 17, 2013
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Had one of them fail on me tonight :(

Drive suddenly showed up empty, and Windows would hang when trying to reformat. Currently trying to erase through HDTune, but I emailed support and hopefully they'll just replace it. FlexRAID successfully saved everything on the drive though :D
 

chief_j

New Member
Jul 31, 2014
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So, it looks like the price went back up (238USD) so I'm guessing they are pretty much out right now. Has anyone else purchased a 4tb wl that wasn't a western digital RE or Red based drive?
 

andrewbedia

Active Member
Jan 11, 2013
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I can't say anything about SAS drives (goharddrive doesn't even sell them :/) but I have bought several (2x 150GB, 4x300GB) 2.5 10K RPM VelociRaptor knockoffs from them, and they've been nothing but garbage. They all seemed to shit the bed about 14 months after owning them--they'd start getting a few hundred dead sectors. Lesson here boys and girls is spend the money for real VelociRaptors if you're going to go that route.

The 3.5" drives I've bought from them have been fine, though.
 

smccloud

Member
Jun 4, 2013
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No problems with my 2TB drives either. I wouldn't trust them for the project I'm proposing for work, but mostly due to the fact that our IT department would say no.
 

HellDiverUK

Active Member
Jul 16, 2014
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VelociRaptor knockoffs from them, and they've been nothing but garbage. They all seemed to shit the bed about 14 months after owning them-
Pretty much the same as 'real' Velociraptors, then. They weren't particularly reliable for us, but the 500GB Blues in the same machines are all still trucking.
 

RyC

Active Member
Oct 17, 2013
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Just bought another. The one I didn't RMA from September is still going strong I think
 

james23

Active Member
Nov 18, 2014
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hey, ive been following this thread and enjoying it (thanks alot OP !) but anyone thikning of using GoHardDrive may want to take a look at a thread / experience i just had. it maybe a mixup but some things do seem intentional.. STHf link
 

RyC

Active Member
Oct 17, 2013
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Interesting. All the 4TB drives I've bought were sealed in the anti static bag. Drives physically looked new as in no scratches or marks especially around the screw holes. Don't remember if they came with a manufacture date on the label.
 

Rigel

New Member
Feb 22, 2015
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I bought a couple of WL4000GSA6472E drives recently (currently $130), but I ordered them separately a couple weeks apart. It looks like they're mixing different models since I got two two that differ a lot in firmware and benchmarks (using HD Tune Pro on same system and SATA port). They look the same externally though.

The first one was ordered on 2/23. Firmware HPG1; read transfer rate average 136.8 MB/s, max 170.6 MB/s; random access read 512kb @ 79 IOPS, average access time 12.6ms.

The second one was ordered 3/2. Firmware 01.01A01; read transfer rate average 124.6 MB/s, max 143.5 MB/s; random access read 512kb @ 60 IOPS, average access time 16.5 ms.

I don't have any WD enterprise drives to compare to, so all I know is that the second is different and a lot slower - particularly in random access. I have more drives on order, so hopefully I get more of the former than the latter.
 

Patriot

Moderator
Apr 18, 2011
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Keep in mind these are used WD drives with smart data cleared... You might have nearly 0 hours on them... they might be near their end...
 
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RyC

Active Member
Oct 17, 2013
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Send them a message and they should exchange it if they have any of the firmware you want left. When I ordered a few, I got mixed firmwares and they offered to exchange when I asked them about it.
 
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RyC

Active Member
Oct 17, 2013
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WD makes a few different enterprise drives (Re, Se, RE4, etc), and then there's the HP, Dell and Lenovo specific firmwares...

HPG1 is a 'RE3' firmware, 01.01A01 seems to be a 'Se'.
Also, where are you finding these firmware versions? I tried looking on WD's site and googling, but I can't find a list of firmware versions for real WD drives
 

smccloud

Member
Jun 4, 2013
325
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Send them a message and they should exchange it if they have any of the firmware you want left. When I ordered a few, I got mixed firmwares and they offered to exchange when I asked them about it.
Same for me. Newest one I don't care about (warranty replacement). Actually seems to be faster.