Question: I bought 4x Western Digital Gold 4 TB (WD4002FYYZ) drives, a couple years ago, and they’re awful. They sat around, and I now finally got around to using them. They’re really hot, and one already failed after 2 days of use. The recoverable error counts on 3 of them are also quite high, and the other one is better, but I still wonder if it’s not higher than it should be.
I’m going to RMA the failed one, out of principle, but I’m not sure I want to use the refurb drive they’re going to send me, as a replacement. Instead, I’m thinking about replacing it with a drive of another brand. However, the reviews on the Seagate Constellation ES.3 (ST4000NM0033) aren’t exactly stellar. So, I’m thinking maybe I’ll give HGST a try, since they have a pretty good reputation.
WDC bought HGST, a several years back, and I noticed the specs on the newer version (WD4003FRYZ) of their 4 TB Gold drive are the same as the 4 TB Ultrastar DC HC310 (HUS726T4TALE6L4). Since the Ultrastar is a little harder to find (and I want to make sure I get it from somewhere that will sell a truly new drive, with full warranty coverage), I’d rather buy the WD Gold version, if they’re the same.
Datasheets:
https://documents.westerndigital.com/content/dam/doc-library/en_us/assets/public/western-digital/product/internal-drives/wd-gold/product-brief-wd-gold-2579-810192.pdfhttps://documents.westerndigital.com/content/dam/doc-library/en_us/assets/public/western-digital/product/data-center-drives/ultrastar-dc-hc300-series/data-sheet-ultrastar-dc-hc310.pdfNote: I’m not sure they’re all HGST rebadges, since the specs on some of the larger WDC Golds are a lot worse – more similar to the previous generation.
BTW, the WDC Black drives that these are replacing were just awesome. But, those were from like 2010. I’ve run them too long, already, and I need more space. It seems like Western Digital’s quality fell off a cliff, at some point between then and 2017 (when I my Gold drives were made). That’s probably why they bought HGST.
Answer:Here is a thread which illustrates how to detect a rebadged HGST HDD:
https://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=39354
The WWN on the label is 5000CCAnnnnnnnnn. That’s HGST.
The part number on the PCB is 006-OA90701. That’s also a HGST number. WD’s PCB part numbers are 2060-nnnnnn.
WD’s R/N number usually incorporates the nnnnnn component of the PCB part number.
The US7SAL080 R/N belongs to HGST:
https://documents.westerndigital.com/content/dam/doc-library/en_us/assets/public/western-digital/collateral/cert/cert-agency-approval-ultrastar-dc-hc510.pdf
HUH721008ALx6xx – US7SAL080 – SATA – 8TB