If you get a white label drive and if you shuck the drive and put it into your computer and it detects inside the enclosure but not inside the computer, lookup the WD white label 3.3 pin mod. The video shows how to open the enclosure without breaking it and shuck the drive in great detail. Thanks for the guide. Over the last 8 months, only one of the 8TB models died. That's major cost savings even if you figure in shorter warranty. I recently just shucked my first WD 8TB Easystore and despite what I have read on the internet, I don't believe my "White label" 8TB drive is a WD Red drive. This allows for cheaper NAS builds. The whole process will take over 30h for 8TB. “Shucking” refers to removing the drives from external HDDs, because often it’s cheaper than buying the drive directly. WD80EMAZ is another model we are seeing that seems to be the same drive, the Ultrastar HC320 Datacenter drive. This is a helium-filled 256MB cache drive, like the WD Red 10TB solution. There are, however, workarounds (more on that in a minute), and in some cases, it’ll work just fine out of the box—particularly on PCs with newer power supplies, as well as many NAS devices and server cases. I found this out from a YouTube video by JDM_WAAT published on 7/26/2017 titled "Western Digital Easystore 8TB (WD Red inside) unboxing and shucking. If you have a NAS or other high-capacity storage device at home, you know how expensive those extra-reliable Western Digital Red drives can get. And even if there wasn’t a sale, the 14TB WD Easystore regularly sells for $260—still a healthy markdown. I got mine from Best Buy on sale for $169.99, which seems like a good deal when compared to other WD Red 8TB hard drives and the $299.99 shelf price. I use Hard Disk Sentinel, because my PC is convenient to run it on, and it’s backed up. The Western Digital (WD) Easystore 8TB is an external hard drive sold exclusively by Best Buy. Some small pieces of thin plastic—guitar picks work great, but if you don’t play guitar, a cut-up gift card or credit card will also work. WD 8 TB My Book USB 3.0 Desktop Hard Drive with Password Protection and Auto Backup Software, Black. I’m very interested in getting a WD EasyStore 8TB. However, I do NOT want a drive that has hardware encryption, e.g. It seems WD is moving to white label drives in these enclosures; however, that does not mean these are generic, lower-spec drives. If in doubt, stop. I can buy 8TB external for $230, the cheapest non-shingled internal is $100 more. Go slow, be patient, and try not to break anything. Commerce Content is independent of Editorial and Advertising. They are positioned asymmetrically. data via something like SmartmonTools, even before shucking and search the model numbers to see what the drive actually is. I only had to mess with the 4 tabs on the opposite side of the rounded edge, after that I was able to just push and slide the outside casing off. How to shuck (or remove) the internal hard drive from a Western Digital Easystore 8TB External Hard drive. WD 8TB Easystore That’s a cool $160 savings over the standalone bare drive, nearly a 50% discount. Drives have issues all the time, don’t skip this. More infos about ID the drives inside, shucking, etc. I have an iFixit Pro Tech Toolkit for just such occasions. Checking the drives before taking them apart means you can more easily send them back. Ordered 3 of the 8TB Easystore to shuck and then use in a NAS, here's what I got: All 3 were marked WDBCKA0080HBK-NESN, all 3 said they were made in Thailand. Newsletter. This is why I run them using a PC that I can easily restore. I find the Easystore disks run quite hot, so I usually have a fan to force air into them. There is a possibility you could get a WD RED drive. So it makes a lot of sense to look for deals among external drives, even if you’re really shopping for internal drives. Surprisingly, the hardest part of the process was actually getting the damn enclosure open. It works especially well with 8TB drives, because currently there’s only one way to make them (except for shingled magnetic recording (SMR) drives, which should be avoided at all costs for the purpose of using the drive in a NAS). As it regularly goes on sale it is a very cheap method to pickup large amounts of reliable storage. Being able to buy cheap 3.5" externals and shuck them is a major cost advantage to me. This comes as a blow to anyone buying these drives to shuck. List of all WD firmware and software available for download. The limit is 5 per customer so I've got to figure out a way to get that 6th drive I need. You can read more about the white label drives, and which power supplies are known to work, in this thread at /r/datahoarder. I bought four 8TB Easystore drives from Best Buy over the past 18 months to shuck and so far all of them have been WD reds. If the drive is not recognized, however, then you are likely a victim of the SATA 3.3 mismatch. It seems less likely to uncover Western Digital Red drives in these enclosures, presumably thanks to Western Digital catching on to the practice. Nov 24, 2018 #1 Just snagged 5 of these for a storage upgrade. I already own 3 WD 8TB red drives and 2 WD 8TB white drives. Born naked, helpless, and unable to fend for himself, Toby eventually overcame these handicaps to become a tinkerer, scuba diver, and musician. D. digital_adhd New Member. This means that the Easystore isn’t officially available outside of these countries, as the product is exclusive to Best Buy. That way, you can keep the enclosure in a safe place, and if the drive dies within two years, you can pop it back into the enclosure and get it fixed or replaced under warranty. By looking at the WD site I found that all 8 TB drives are CMR as of the creation of that info, so I believe I will take a shot at getting an Easystore … These are basically the same thing as the Element drives, but have an exclusive branding for Best Buy. Some small pieces of thin plastic—guitar picks work great, but if you don’t play guitar, a cut-up gift card or credit card will also work. There are threads upon threads discussing which drives are best and how to find them, but with things in constant flux, you’re better off just winging it and being prepared for the worst. At this point, the outer shell can be slid off. Your email address: By opting-in you agree to have us send you our newsletter. 2 contained WD WD80EFAX Red label drives, Firmware 83.H0A83 It's sought after by many r/datahoarder folks because it often (but not always) contains a WD Red 8TB drive which can be "shucked" and used in a home server among other similarly shucked Easystore drives. Undo the cross-head screw holding the interface to the drive. Instead, a lot of people are finding similarly-specced “white label” drives inside Easystores. There’s a whole subreddit pretty much about this, r/DataHoarder (of course there is). My last purchase of an 8TB Easystore yielded a "white label" WD80EMAZ drive. Once you do, the drive should work normally on any power supply, with no ill effects. Flipping the enclosure over we see how everything is laid out inside the kit. It seems crazy, but sometimes, buying an external drive can actually be cheaper than buying a similar internal drive with the same specs. Europeans are probably out of luck, but don’t worry, it isn’t worth giving up humane healthcare and basic human rights for cheap HDDs. Then, continue to remove the drive with an up/forwards movement. After removing the outer shell, we find a WD100EMAZ 10TB white label HDD inside. All the others previously were Reds. Once the drive is shucked, slide it into your computer or NAS and see if it’s recognized by the operating system. shuck wd elements, In order to shuck a Western Digital Easystore, you’ll need a few things: A set of small screwdrivers with both phillips and torx heads. The economics of this elude me, but as a result, drive shucking became a common practice among savvy NAS users. A+ would shuck again. These days, things are a bit more complicated. Model and Specs. Are there any SMR Western Digital 8TB drives? The WD Blue 2.5" HDD series that feature the SMR technology is the 1 TB drive, and the 2 TB drive while from the WD Black 2.5" HDD series only has a single drive that uses the SMR technology, which is the 1 TB drive. The objective is to get your tool between the two halves of the clip. In order to shuck a Western Digital Easystore, you’ll need a few things: This video, embedded above, is probably the best walkthrough of the process, though this one was also a bit of help. Maybe I'm lucky? Spudgers or plectrums work well, if you don’t mind damaging the plastic you can also use a screwdriver. He posts his personal ramblings here. If it is, you’re good to go—load up that sucker with all the personal photos, vile backups, and...um, Linux ISOs you want. Shuck AWAY! A+ would shuck again. WD Easystore. The Western Digital Easystore is the most popular drive for shucking. Joined Sep 12, 2014 Messages 4,431. I would much rather see this type of post per enclosure type with how to shuck, rather than 100 look what I took out enclosure posts a week. I have an. You can feel the positions by inserting about a centimetre, and then rotating/wobbling it around. This 8 TB, Best Buy-exclusive external drive usually retails for around $190, though it frequently goes on sale for $180, $170, or—occasionally—even lower. These tools can and will erase whole disks. You will feel two tabs on each side. There are four tabs, two on each side. Best Buy is a US firm trading in the USA, Canada, and Mexico. WD80EDAZ is the new drive that is being found in the WD 8tb Easystore drives instead of the WD Red WD80EZAZ we are all used to. Advertisements. It’s not a bad way to save $100. C. Churchill Admiral. That all sounds complicated, but it’s actually pretty simple. Easystore WD 10TB Drive Shuck #3 Easystore WD 10TB Drive Shuck #1. We are going to curate a selection of the best posts from STH each week and deliver them directly to you. There’s a whole subreddit pretty much about this, r/DataHoarder (of course there is). You just need to cover up the 3rd pin of the SATA power connector with some kapton tape, as shown in this video. Once upon a time, you could open up this drive and find an 8TB Western Digital Red drive inside—in and of itself a $280 product. By inserting a credit card or similar between the outer shell and inner inner, a small catch is lifted and the outer shell can be pried off. WD 10 TB Elements Desktop External Hard Drive - USB 3.0, Black. Now the hard part, you will need to get some pieces of thin plastic or metal to use as a pry tool. Triple check the disk name/ID. I do not plan to shuck it, but if the controller dies I want to be able to recover the data without a fuss. I found that it works just fine in this Rosewill case, which I use to house my custom-built home server. Jan 7, 2018 #4 ... it comes back as "WD80EFZX....." which if you google, is a Red, so you can be sure before you shuck...which if done right, is reversible. You can get some insane deals near US holidays. Certain model white drives are also thought to be immune from the SATA 3.3 problem, but the workaround is easy enough that I wouldn’t fret over it—just grab an Easystore, bring it home, and prepare to shuck. I found this out from a YouTube video by JDM_WAAT published on 7/26/2017 titled "Western Digital Easystore 8TB (WD Red inside) unboxing and shucking. 30 Jun '18. This item Western Digital 8TB EASYSTORE External HDD (WDBCKA0080HBK-NESN) WD 8 TB Elements Desktop External Hard Drive - USB 3.0, Black. The WD Blue and WD Black Series come in the 2.5" form factor. “Shucking” refers to removing the drives from external HDDs, because often it’s cheaper than buying the drive directly. You should be able to slowly pry open a gap at the front of the enclosure, which then makes it easy to slide the shell off. Some of these white label drives use SATA revision 3.3, which includes a new feature that can disable power to the hard disk. But otherwise, the white label drives appear to work just as well...with one caveat: compatibility. I used a guitar pick and some iFixit tools for the job. In the past, Western Digital was using red label drives exclusively, but at the time of publishing this instructable, the white label drives are more common. Many others reported the same. You can check the S.M.A.R.T. The video shows how to open the enclosure without breaking it and shuck the drive in great detail. Probably not. I just picked up two more 8TB WD Easystore externals from Best Buy, that makes four total and I plan to replace the 4x3TB pool in my second FreeNAS box with the 4x8TB. I’ll offer no guidance on this, but it isn’t too tricky. On the label side, carefully push up the front so the drive becomes angled in the shell, and the bumpers pop up from their groves. - WD 8TB Easystore on sale at Best Buy $130. They have slightly different model numbers than their Red counterparts, and the Easystore has a 2-year warranty instead of the bare Red drives’ 3-year warranty. Practically every other week the drive is on sale at Best Buy for ~$170 and contains a Western Digital Red drive. Sidenote, I just shucked two of these. Performance is great. You will need to slip the tool between the matte plastic on the I/O side and the glossy plastic on the sides. If you have an older power supply that doesn’t support this feature, a white label drive may not spin up when plugged into your computer. To start with, the WD Easystore range of hard drives are only available through Best Buy. When you shuck, or remove, the internal disk from a Western Digital Easystore external drive, you'll find either a red label or a white label internal disk. If you enjoyed this video and want to support me please leave a LIKE, write … Here’s a little secret: you can get similar high capacity disks much cheaper by “shucking” them from Western Digital’s external drives. Thread starter Jailer; Start date Nov 24, 2018; Jailer Not strong, but bad. The only remaining step is to remove the rubber bumpers, which are held in place by Torx T10 screws. I am going to shuck and use a Thermaltake ST0021U Max 5 Active Cooling USB2.0/eSATA Ext Enclosure. The outer shell has tabs connecting it to the inner part. I've hard of … A couple months with the new Synology DiskStation DS1618+ has demonstrated one thing above all: I…. Western Digital 8TB WD Red Plus NAS Internal Hard Drive - 5400 RPM... Rosewill 4U Server Chassis/Server Case/Rackmount Case, Metal Rack... iFixit Pro Tech Toolkit - Electronics, Smartphone, Computer & Tablet... 12mm X 33m 108ft Heat Tape Heat Resistant Tape Heat Transfer Tape... A set of small screwdrivers with both phillips and torx heads. Shucking 8TB WD Easystores. This allows for cheaper NAS builds. WD easystore 8TB External USB 3.0 Hard Drive: USB 3.0 interface; plug-and-play USB connectivity; data transfer rates up to 5 Gbps with USB 3.0 tiramisu April 26, 2017, 8:31pm #2 2 year warranty with the enclosure but other than that I wish I could afford to by 24 and fill up a … it is tied to the controller board and the data cannot be read without it. Easystore WD 10TB Drive Shuck #2. But do not fret—there is an easy fix. Maybe slid off is the wrong wording, it’s quite a tight fit and requires some prying. I verified the 256mb cache on my Thailand drive (WD80EFAX-68LPHN0). This 8 TB, Best Buy-exclusive external drive usually retails for around $190, though it frequently goes on sale for $180, $170, or—occasionally—even lower. He eats potato chips with chopsticks so he doesn't get grease on his mechanical keyboard. The rubber does require some force to move. To remove the USB and power interface, first rotate the transparent plastic rod and then pull forwards to remove it. WD Easystore 8TB Compendium • r/DataHoarder . Jan 6, 2016 793 185 43. Easystore WD 10TB Drive Shuck #4. The USB interface is now only held on by the SATA interface and power, so slide it away from the drive. Don’t be a muppet about this. Once the drive is removed from the inner shell, the USB interface and bumpers are next. The Western Digital Easystore is the most popular drive for shucking. Have 5 of the 8TB Easystores and 2 of the 10TB Easystores. At the moment (and throughout 2017, for that matter), the best value in drive shucking has consistently been the example we used in the previous section: the 8TB Western Digital Easystore external USB 3.0 hard drive. Shucking, as the practice has come to be known, is the process of buying an external drive, opening it up, and removing the bare drive for use within a PC. Get the best of STH delivered weekly to your inbox. To do this, place the between the two pieces of plastic over a tab, angle towards the matte plastic side and push down. The drive is held in place by four rubber bumpers to reduce vibration and noise, additionally you have to be a bit careful about the USB and power interface at the back. Now it’s time to get the drive out of the inner shell. There are utilities for BSD and Linux to do surface scans, but the write + read test is destructive, and I’m too scared to run it using my NAS. Whitson Gordon is a writer, gamer, and all-around tech nerd. 3.5" drives are completely different matter. So I know this deal is over (drive is back to $139.99 instead of $129.99), but just for reference I picked one of these up and the drive inside was the WD80EZAZ-11TDBA0 helium filled drive (as reported by CrystalDiskInfo, didn't shuck the drive). If you did it right you should feel the tool mov… Could be worse, could be Australia. I verified the 256mb cache on my Thailand drive (WD80EFAX-68LPHN0). Just did the RMA with WD and only sent the drive in. Some folks, alternatively, recommend using a SATA-to-Molex adapter to power the drive, but I’ve heard enough horror stories about cheap ones catching fire that I’d rather not risk it. Available outside of these for a storage upgrade something like SmartmonTools, even if you’re shopping... What the drive is not recognized, however, i do not want a drive that has encryption! 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