Has anyone shucked the WD 8TB BBGB0080HBK-BESN?

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These are the cheapest 8TB drives I could find online, and the previous NESN units were helium-filled WD white label drives- basically He10 units.

I've ordered three of these BESNs to shuck and set up a RAID 5 media server. Does anyone know what I'll find inside? As long as they aren't SMR drives I don't care that much, and some reports suggest these are CMR non-helium units.

Do they have any NAS/Enterprise features, such as TLER? Some of the white labels supported it by enabling it in software. For example on Linux you could write udev rules.
 
OP
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Oh thanks for the heads up. Two of the drives showed up to my office today morning, and one more will show up by Friday.

I guess first thing I'm going to do tomorrow is to test these drives out, see how much hot water I am in. Of course I'll first nuke the partitions before shucking.

EDIT: Oh and OP seemed to have faulty drives. Mine may or may not be EZAZ. They could be EDAZ for all I know.

 
Last edited:

whitestar_999

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Also from the above reddit link:

The WD80EZAZ-11TDBA0 requires a 3.3v pin mod to cover the 3.3v reset pin or it wont work inside a desktop computer. It does NOT require this if you are using it on most server backplanes or if you are using a molex to sata power splitter as it doesn't have the 3.3v (orange) line. Interestingly enough, the drive doesn't have the 3 rows of screws on the belly to facilitate mount to a sled, but does have all the holes for mounts to a drive caddy for a server rack.

AFter nuking the partitions do a quick format to NTFS too before shucking.
 
OP
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Run the crystaldiskinfo to see which drive/model it reports.
Crystaldiskinfo isn't an option. I'll be using smartctl most likely lol. And yes originally I planned to use molex convertors. But the link you posted OP said he couldn't use them to get the drives to work for whatever reason :shock:
 

whitestar_999

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Crystaldiskinfo isn't an option. I'll be using smartctl most likely lol. And yes originally I planned to use molex convertors. But the link you posted OP said he couldn't use them to get the drives to work for whatever reason :shock:
Check the edited post above, from whatever I read in those reddit links I posted it seems nuking the partition & then quick format to NTFS is recommended anyway irrespective of 3.3v power pin issue.
 
OP
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So I haven't received my third drive yet, but I grew impatient.

So I have shucked the two drives that I did receive:

Code:
$ smartctl -x /dev/sda
...
Model Family: WDC HGST Ultrastar He10
Device Model: WDC WD80EZAZ-11TDBA0
...
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.2, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
...

The important thing is that these are helium drives, with TLER disabled by default.

Also, based on what you see above, my drives did not require the 3.3v fix and booted flawlessly.

Also going to add that if you have a non-standard HDD mounting system, you may run into trouble like I did. I use a Fractal Design Node 304 case, which uses the HDD's bottom screw holes for mounting purposes. The problem is that the screw locations aren't identical to standard desktop drives for the bottom. So you'll be able to screw two of the holes but your other holes may not align with the caddy. This is a huge problem because you may introduce a lot of lateral movement (i.e. parallel to the axis of rotation) with only two screws. I solved this problem by using an eraser as a spacer between the two disks, and some tape to hold the erase in place.

They will likely work just fine if you use enterprise HDD trays (usually on rack-mount), but desktop mounting holes are spaced more closely together.

Standard mounting (with 4-6 screws) on a tower desktop will likely be problem-free. The screw holes for them are identical to ordinary desktop drives.

Also, important to note (and extremely so) that your mileage may vary. Nobody has any idea what the hell WD is doing with their manufacturing processes. The reports of SATA 3.3 versioned HDDs date from earlier years. There are also reports where these drives are shipped with desktop internal innards (the EDAZ model).

Hell, I'm not sure which batch my third drive (which is supposed to show up tomorrow) will be from. Amazon shipped it from a different location.
 

whitestar_999

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So basically the usual side screws design in ATX tower is fine(like corsair 100R)? Also isn't it problematic to run a hdd without TLER especially for RAID setup.
 
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So basically the usual side screws design in ATX tower is fine(like corsair 100R)? Also isn't it problematic to run a hdd without TLER especially for RAID setup.
TLER can be enabled with SMART commands. You just have to do it with every power cycle. On linux tools like udevd, your init system and cron can automate the process. On windows, I cannot say.
 

whitestar_999

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TLER can be enabled with SMART commands. You just have to do it with every power cycle. On linux tools like udevd, your init system and cron can automate the process. On windows, I cannot say.
I think this should work fine on windows:
*www.smartmontools.org/wiki/Download
 
OP
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Ah, didn't know smartmontools had a windows version.

Update 2: Drive 3 required a molex converter to be detected. Which is strange, because all three are the exact same model from the exact same production batch.
 

whitestar_999

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Seems like a bit risky as I don't trust molex convertors for hdd larger than 2TB. I was initially planning on getting 1 of these drives but now I think seagate may be better option(assuming it does not have similar 3.3v/TLER issues). I just need a large drive for storage so smr/cmr doesn't matter much to me anyway.
 
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If you go with SMR, do make note of your usage pattern. Otherwise you'll end up with insanely slow write performance. While it may not be a concern after you've fully written to the disk, and don't need to add anything else, you'll end up in trouble if you need to change any of the data within.

There will also be increased load on the disk and fewer idle hours, which will increase wear and tear significantly.

Also, I'm curious as to why you don't trust molex? A 5V molex cable is well within spec for a single HDD's load.
 

whitestar_999

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I use large capacity hdd only for storage/consolidating data/backup data across smaller size HDDs. Basically I would write around 4-6TB of data just after buying 8TB hdd & then it is transfer of a few dozen GBs of data every week or so. Do you think this will be alright for SMR hdd.

I only used cheap generic molex convertor & never felt comfortable using them with larger than 2TB hdd. Which one you use?
 
OP
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I use large capacity hdd only for storage/consolidating data/backup data across smaller size HDDs. Basically I would write around 4-6TB of data just after buying 8TB hdd & then it is transfer of a few dozen GBs of data every week or so. Do you think this will be alright for SMR hdd.

I only used cheap generic molex convertor & never felt comfortable using them with larger than 2TB hdd. Which one you use?
I used a molex convertor I have from way back in 2011. I was lucky I still have it :)). Not sure if it came with my old case or power supply.

As for your query on SMR, if you ever need to modify your data, your speeds will slow to a crawl. There will also be performance hits during writes that happen on overlapping sectors.

Unless the price difference is huge, I strongly suggest spending the extra 2k-3k on a CMR drive.
 

whitestar_999

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Let me check then, this time amazon has partnered with hdfc instead of sbi which went to flipkart this year for oct sales so that disrupted the entire calculation. I was planning on 10% sbi off up to 1500+5% sbi yono amazon unlimited off+2.5% sbi simplyclick amazon unlimited off to get stuff from amazon but now I will have to rely on hdfc debit card 10% off up to 1500+5% hdfc smartbuy amazon unlimited off. I always get hdd/pc stuff from amazon only. On flipkart now I will have 10% off up to 1500+5% up to 750 sbi yono flipkart off+1.25% sbi simplyclick non-amazon/non-wallet transaction unlimited off.
 
OP
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If you can, prefer a local vendor. Amazon is generally more expensive. Also the price of the disk I bought has gone up to 18.6k now, so I'm definitely not buying more any time soon.
 
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