Awesome bang-for-buck HDD. Have a great day :)
WD Elements 5TB USB 3.0 Desktop HDD $172 (with $25 Signup) @ Harvey Norman
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They have removable USB interfaces which encrypts your data.
It will come up as a HDD with its full contents unallocated so you will have to format it.
Note that some WD MyBooks use Hitachi HDDs (Since WD acquired the Hitachi storage division a few years back) so try and find this info out for this MyBook if its important for you.If you do do this, it's worth grabbing the data that hides on the disk in a little partition, so you can then place it on another drive that you might want to put in the housing. Without that partition, the other drive won't work.
I've had 4-5 WD drives over the years and all of them have been standard interchangeable desktop HDDs internally. In fact I can't remember ever cracking a usb drive, be it Seagate, WD, Hitachi etc., and finding anything else. I can't see how it would be cost effective to do anything else.
The drive inside is physically a "standard" SATA drive, but the SATA to USB bridging board does its magic so if you just cracked it open when new and reformatted, no problem. If the drive (or the bridging board) was failing and you just wanted to transfer the hard drive to another generic enclosure, then good luck.
Very true, I didn't realize this with the first one I removed. Fortunately I wasn't doing it because the the board was failing, so just reinserted it and copied the data off.
I've had an old WD portable drive that had a permanently attached USB board. Was around 2009.
all WD portable drives have the USB board permanently soldered on and no SATA interface. That is why I dont buy them.
its been like this for 5+years@voter1:
I was trying to remember when I got my WD 2.5" USB drive but couldn't so I just cracked it open. The internal drive manufacturing date was 17-08-2010, but I don't remember having it that long so maybe it sat on a shelf for a while. Regardless, it's not soldered to anything, just a standard sata connector and separate USB module.Maybe it's a model issue, some models are a slightly smaller form factor than others, and size constraints are the only reason I can see why they would do this.
what size was your drive? I think some of the really small drives 5 years ago still had the sata connection but from what I've read the 750gb ones up they are all soldered by WD.
I have a 500gb from around 5 years ago also that isnt soldered around then was the last batch they ever did.Im pretty sure ALL the current portable WD drives are soldered.
One way you can kind of tell if its soldered on is that WD portable drives are espeically small/short because they dont have the sata/USB interface. That might be a plus for you but for me the risk of damaging the usb port and then losing all your data because there is no way to connect to it is just too great.@voter1: Mine's only a 320Gb drive, so it would appear that size is important, despite what my girlfriends have told me in the past!
My one with on-board USB is also 320GB. Was a "My Passport", I believe. Drive manufactured 23 AUG 2009.
@elusive: Mine was an "Elements" model and looked the same as the desktop model of the time just more wee.
Some of Elements drives seem to have permanently soldered USB interface
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/212547#comment-3071776
I did this. Got the same drives from JB a few months ago, they contain WD Red drives. You'll need to format them when they are installed internally.
I find it extremely unlikely that the drive, in this deal, contains a red.
4TB reds (bare) cost me $210 each at the beggining of the year (and that was cheap at the time).Agreed. No-way could it be a red. Whole different kettle of fish, with big cost attached.
The internet is FULL of comments/proof it's a WD Red drive - I still can't believe it.
Cheapest price in the country is $292 for a 5TB RedI pulled 4-out-of-4 WD reds from the $90 office works 3TB Mybook deal
The two 3tb I purchased from the Officeworks deal were all green. Noted by the green 3tb label on the box. I imagine it would be the same for this 5tb drive.
To be fair, I price-matched JB-Hifi to get the same price. Still.. it shows that its potluck. Same for all the brands really. I remember sorting through Seagate external drives in Dick Smith to get the 7,200rpm models.
Sometimes for the same bare drive model number, you can get different platter sizes which would end up with vastly difference performance.
@Utopian: Entirely possible, if unlikely. I've read from various sources that they will put anything they have an excess of at the time in these enclosures, although no doubt they have a preference to use their cheaper models.
In fact I doubt there is as much of a difference in the manufacturing cost of the different models as there is in the retail cost, so it's likely pointless to quote retail prices as a reason for disbelief.
@ Trewq photo please, to satisfy some people here.. cheers!
https://www.dropbox.com/sc/a5fleuw79yp21vk/AABd00vseOGlFe9OQ…
Will that be suitable? Can probably find the receipt too if needed.
What is so good about RED vs green?
@tyler.durden: Red are NAS for networking and are better drives in general. Green are just for normal use and not as good in comparison to Red.
AFAIK, that's only with some 'portable' drives.
Does this use SMR tech?
Perfect! I have the internet on my computer.
Time to update my copy!
This is cheap, the 5TB Seagate I got months ago was $149, but I would prefer WD over Seagate.
This is not cheap
The $149 was much better value..
Your statement should just say
"I would prefer WD over Seagate."
I don't have an issue with Seagate, if u you got a good backup solution..
This is just personal experience. I am willing to pay $23 more for a WD one…which I found it cheap at the price $172.
…which costs money…
Making this deal much better value in the eyes of some/many.
I wonder how many rpm this drive has….
It would be a green drive so 5400-5900 RPM.
Edit: it's a Red drive as proven in comments below.
Bought one this morning and can confirm it's a green (BCADBAD) drive running 5700RPM (CrystalDiskInfo). Still a good deal for $172 for 4.54TB usable though
Thanks for the info. + from me
So the RED drive is just one off for some…
Most likely they ran out of green stock.
There's a lot more to speed than RPM ;)
If i plug it in to my modem/router would it be like wifi storage?i have d7 archer tplink
of course no….
yes, kinda.
I have an external drive plugged into my D7.
My PC and PS3 can access it. In fact when I torrent the files go straight to that drive, not saved on my PC.
No idea if phones or tablets can access it as I have never tried.
Is that what you mean?
Yes, the share drives can be accessed from almost of all my devices. laptop/pc, android phones/tablets using ES-explorer or raspberry pi, except xbox360. I can read/write files or stream multi-media.
well, if wifi storage is NAS then yes you can, if your HDD is less than 2TB.
I got 5TB from officework, and D7 couldn't detect it unless you make 3 partitions less than 2TB each. However with my D7, only 2 partitions can be detected.I put 2TB + 2x2TB partitions and I got 6TB NAS at home
Thanx for the rep ill probably stick w8th my wifi hard drive
OMG, just bought it form my R7000. Hopefully the R7000 can detect 5T.
Ahh, I only have a 2tb attached so didn't see that problem. Thanks for letting us know.
any idea if its a green or red drive inside?
Most probably green, since this isn't a NAS product.
Amazon comments say its red
http://slickdeals.net/f/7785863-5-tb-western-digital-element…
then ctrl-f, type inside
NOTE: Several SD users have reported that the drive inside this enclosure is the 5 TB Western Digital Red 3.5" IntelliPower NAS Hard Drive (WD50EFRX) [amazon.com]. This bare drive rarely goes on sale for less than $190.also:
https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales/comments/33jagd/hdd_w…
dont need, still 70% full on my NAS (5 drives) but should i just buy for hot spare drive?
Buy as plug-in backup to your NAS?
not enough, my NAS has 20tb :)
Edit: well… buy four of them then! :P
@tyler.durden: i have Synology Ds1511+ (5 bays). using Synology Raid system, similar with Raid1 (one disk fail at one time, is OK)
Inside are actually 5 TB WD Reds!
Nice…
If these do indeed contain reds, then I feel pretty silly for paying $1680 for 32TB worth of hard drive, when I could have gotten 40TB for the same money (or even less).
Warranty though. The pulls have no warranty once you break the case.
I have opened many drives like this in the past. Use plastic tools to open to avoid damage to the case. The key is to take your time and try to find where each release clip is located. If you do this correctly, you could keep the case hidden and just reassemble if you have any issues. Just remember to wipe the internals to clean em to avoid anyone noticing.. but rare chance they ever would.
I'll forever call BS on that. I'm happy to stand alone, with this view.
Warranty on the drive should never be affected by what you do with the case.
If the drive dies, it dies. Removing it from the case made no difference.
Often we remove the drive from the case to recover the data - Something they openly have ZERO concern in. They can't hold it against us - It's a reasonable & common requirement.This is from Seagate's warranty statement as an example:
"Our limited warranties are void if a product is returned with removed, damaged or tampered labels, or any alterations (including removal of any component or the external cover)"
@Thrawn: Seagate honour warranties? They'd be broke.
Seriously though, my views are that this infringes on our Australian consumer rights.You're probably right.. but nobody has taken them to court.
In my opinion though, by operating the drive outside the case you've altered the likely operating environment. Eg, inside a NAS maybe hotter. The USB3-SATA controller may have tweaks designed to extend the life of the drives. Who knows…
@Utopian: seagate have a company here that you can send your drive to for warranty. In the past i discussed with them if it would void warranty to remove a hdd from its case. They dont care so long as an I.T business provides a letter saying they opened it with care to recover the data because the usb interface had failed.
I agree with you on this.
But you also need to keep in mind how the user opens the case. If they are careless then in that rare case they could damage it but its highly unlikely.
I find its just better to remove the case with care and reassemble and send it back that way. Less headaches and one less thing to worry about..
I've popped out hard disk drives from external devices like this before, and had 1 that failed (a WD if I remember correctly). I used the serial number of the hard drive to check for warranty (via WD's RMA website), and saw that it's covered by warranty still. Just sent them the drive itself, and got a replacement afterwards.
I absolutely do not need one of these….. yet.
Thanks OP. I may be $172 poorer but will be 5TB richer :)
Wow. 5TB reds are usually much more expensive. I have 4 5TB red's in my Qnap running Raid 5… Might buy a couple of these for backups…
Can put this one for NAS?
Damn it why must I be broke atm lol
Great dealIt's time for you to hit the streets
and look for some johns
Is this a SMR drive?
If they are WD Red drives then no.
thanks for that. just finished my research and figured that out as well.
purchased.
hoping that it is a red!What if the drive inside is green? Will that be SMR?
EDIT: My research shows no indication that the WD 5TB green uses SMR. As the red is confirmed not to use SMR, I think the green is likely the same though it would be better is someone could confirm, please?
LOL!
Josh B
Hello Ozbargainer - Need any advice, talk to a expert now.what did you ask?
I didn't ask anything, I just clicked on the link and out popped.
"Hello Ozbargainer"
This is common, if you don't want them to know you are a professional, use Google.
Do these require an external power supply or can I just plug in the USB?
These are desktop 3.5" drives and have a power adapter in the box.
Anything that says desktop requires power.. Anything that days portable will be powered via usb
power it is… otherwise people will go super crazy at this price for 2.5" drive
as tempting as it is… i still got 6tb of storage left to fill on my JBOD… with 100% healthy sectors… imma wait for price per gb to drop more.
ah finally, you save me $172. im with you, but i have raid on my NAS. i suggest if you still have free bays, use raid for safety reason and buy bigger drives
raid is not really that useful for me. I use drivepool and it moves files for me when there is any slight chance of failure. also live updates via email… using stablebit scanner so im always aware.
I don't see the point of raid, unless its for commercial reasons.
Your answer to the point of raid is in your comment, what happens when the drive fail to spin, ain't no data moving off it then
drivepool automatically detects when a drive is showing signs of failure and moves the data over to another hdd until that hdd is replaced….
Are these difficult to pop open like the Seagate ones?
Was about to get something similar with the Amazon/Amex deal but this is way better deal. Thanks
Just bought one, damn I'm $172 poorer, sorry missus.
Thanks OP! Nice!
Wonder if this can be deshelled and used as internal HDD or is the USB interface permanently locked to the drive.