# WD Easystore 8TB, red still in them?



## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

Was considering getting another one of those Best Buy Easystore 8TB for the internal red. I know there were some "white label" type reds in some of them. But they were still "red"/PMR drives. However from what I see the packaging has changed. Am wondering if anyone has purchased one of the new packaging type drives and if it still has a red (or white label red) inside? Best Buy has the Easystore for $160 right now. Also does anyone know if Seagate Barracuda 8TB drives are SMR or PMR? Specifically the ST8000DM004. I know the "archive" Seagate drives are SMR, the specs even say so, but I've "heard" some current Seagate Barracuda models may be SMR also.


----------



## jth tv (Nov 15, 2014)

Don't know but I bought an Easystore today.

Currently copying .tivo files from a RN214 ReadyNas to the Easystore. Slower than I hoped in initial testing of music files, 83 MB/s and 117 MB/s; others have reported 200 MB/s. I thought about shucking it and putting it in the ReadyNas, but at this point I am not. Copying should be done in 15 hours or so, whew.

There is supposed to be software that discloses the type of drive. But I thought I'd look around a bit more for an alternative, hopefully something by Western Digital or Seagate or Intel will also give that info.


----------



## Luke M (Nov 5, 2002)

tommage1 said:


> Also does anyone know if Seagate Barracuda 8TB drives are SMR or PMR? Specifically the ST8000DM004. I know the "archive" Seagate drives are SMR, the specs even say so, but I've "heard" some current Seagate Barracuda models may be SMR also.


It's SMR.

Some people get it confused with the Barracuda Pro, which is not shingled.

The latest WD Reds use air instead of helium, so they're louder and more power hungry than the old ones. I don't know whether the new drive is showing up in Easystores yet or not.


----------



## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

jth tv said:


> Don't know but I bought an Easystore today.
> 
> Currently copying .tivo files from a RN214 ReadyNas to the Easystore. Slower than I hoped in initial testing of music files, 83 MB/s and 117 MB/s; others have reported 200 MB/s. I thought about shucking it and putting it in the ReadyNas, but at this point I am not. Copying should be done in 15 hours or so, whew.
> 
> There is supposed to be software that discloses the type of drive. But I thought I'd look around a bit more for an alternative, hopefully something by Western Digital or Seagate or Intel will also give that info.


If you shuck or open the new one please post the model number, I would be interested. I don't think any of the disk checks will show the actual drive model while connected with the USB interface?

I'd like to find software that will show if a drive is SMR or PMR. Of course could only test after purchase, I'd kind of like to know before I buy  Thanks.


----------



## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

Luke M said:


> It's SMR.
> 
> Some people get it confused with the Barracuda Pro, which is not shingled.
> 
> The latest WD Reds use air instead of helium, so they're louder and more power hungry than the old ones. I don't know whether the new drive is showing up in Easystores yet or not.


Ok thanks. I thought the difference with the Pro was a warranty/support thing but I guess not. Interesting on the Reds, different model number? Have they replaced the helium filled or do they still sell both models?

Getting so difficult to know what you are buying now. Seagate, they had archive, desktop, Barracuda, Barracuda Pro and the other NAS and surveillance types. Now the basic Barracuda is called the Barracuda "Compute"? I wonder if the earlier models that don't say "Compute" are PMR? So many model numbers too. Usually now I'm getting 4TB and up drives. And mostly use for Tivos, might build a NAS also. Even WD, I think the larger "Blue" drives are SMR now. I wish they would just list in the specs if a drive is SMR or PMR but I guess they want you to spring for the specific NAS or surveillance models which usually cost a LOT more.


----------



## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

I admit this is a tangent, but I saw an article about 14 TB drives today.. then went to look on Amazon.. Apparently these aren't the only ones.. but wow.. just size.. They're like $500 IIRC.. still... in a couple years.. (hopefully Tivos will still be working and I'll still have non-HYDRA to download shows from/put back..)


----------



## duckman2000 (Oct 16, 2013)

I got two of the Best Buy Easystore 8tb drives recently (at different times) and one was a WD Red and one was a White. I only needed one for a NAS so the WD Red went into the NAS. I needed another portable HD so the White drive was kept in its original case.

There is a free software program called Crystal Disk Info that will tell you the exact model number of any attached drive...


----------



## Luke M (Nov 5, 2002)

tommage1 said:


> Ok thanks. I thought the difference with the Pro was a warranty/support thing but I guess not. Interesting on the Reds, different model number? Have they replaced the helium filled or do they still sell both models?


I assume they've stopped manufacturing the helium version (since the air version would be cheaper to make), but I don't know.

The helium version is WD80EMAZ-00WJTA0. The air version is WD80EMAZ-00M9AA0. (These are the product codes for the white label drives in externals). You can easily find out what you have with software that queries the "SMART" data.


----------



## jth tv (Nov 15, 2014)

tommage1 said:


> please post the model number


WD80EMAZ = White
Didn't open it, used CrystalDiskInfo7_7_0


----------



## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

duckman2000 said:


> I got two of the Best Buy Easystore 8tb drives recently (at different times) and one was a WD Red and one was a White. I only needed one for a NAS so the WD Red went into the NAS. I needed another portable HD so the White drive was kept in its original case.
> 
> There is a free software program called Crystal Disk Info that will tell you the exact model number of any attached drive...


Thanks. Were the Easystore drives in the new packaging (has a picture of a monitor and the drive on the front of the box) or the old packaging (just has a picture of the drive itself?). Thanks for info on Crystal Disk, I have info and mark, did not know it would tell you the model of the internal drive if it was hooked up with USB while still in the enclosure.


----------



## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

Luke M said:


> I assume they've stopped manufacturing the helium version (since the air version would be cheaper to make), but I don't know.
> 
> The helium version is WD80EMAZ-00WJTA0. The air version is WD80EMAZ-00M9AA0. (These are the product codes for the white label drives in externals). You can easily find out what you have with software that queries the "SMART" data.


Interesting, the "base" model number is the same but a significant difference in the drive itself. When searching to buy a drive I always just looked at the base model number, will now be looking at the entire number. When I got mine (late last year), I got a white, not only that I got the white that will not be recognized by some computers without covering a pin on the Sata power connection or using a molex to Sata converter. I think model number was/is WD80EMAZ, don't know the set of numbers after the dash. My computer would not recognize it without using the molex to Sata adapter. I put it into a Basic Roamio about a month ago, seems to be working fine (no adapter needed).

Is a WD "Gold" SMR or PMR?


----------



## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

Am curious, have two Seagate 4 TB drives I purchased to put into Tivos eventually. Have not used them yet. One is a "desktop" type, model 4000DM000. The other is a Barracuda (not "compute"), model 4000DM005. I ran Crystal Disk Mark on them. Heard some of the 4K random writes can be a LOT higher than the corresponding reads if a drive is SMR. Not sure if that is a valid test, can anyone tell if these are PMR or SMR based on these results? I saw some tests on an 8TB SMR Seagate where those 4K writes were almost 10x the reads (the Q1 T1 random write was 6.xxx compared to like 0.5xx for the read.) Just FYI I have a DM000 I have been using in a Roamio Plus for a couple years now with no issues. I THINK the DM004s are SMR, I THINK, the DM000/DM001/DM005 are PMR.

The "Desktop" DM000
CrystalDiskMark 6.0.0 Shizuku Edition x64 (C) 2007-2017 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : Crystal Dew World
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
* KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes

Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) : 154.530 MB/s Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) : 153.169 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 8,T= 8) : 1.667 MB/s [ 407.0 IOPS] Random Write 4KiB (Q= 8,T= 8) : 1.548 MB/s [ 377.9 IOPS]
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 1.400 MB/s [ 341.8 IOPS] Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 1.413 MB/s [ 345.0 IOPS]
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 0.531 MB/s [ 129.6 IOPS] Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 1.435 MB/s [ 350.3 IOPS]

Test : 1024 MiB [I: 57.1% (1974.1/3459.2 GiB)] (x5) [Interval=5 sec]

The Barracuda DM005
* MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
* KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes

Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) : 193.717 MB/s Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) : 192.857 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 8,T= 8) : 1.556 MB/s [ 379.9 IOPS] Random Write 4KiB (Q= 8,T= 8) : 1.530 MB/s [ 373.5 IOPS]
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 1.552 MB/s [ 378.9 IOPS] Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 1.363 MB/s [ 332.8 IOPS]
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 0.589 MB/s [ 143.8 IOPS] Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 1.339 MB/s [ 326.9 IOPS]

Test : 1024 MiB [R: 0.0% (0.2/3725.9 GiB)] (x5) [Interval=5 sec]


----------



## Luke M (Nov 5, 2002)

tommage1 said:


> Interesting, the "base" model number is the same but a significant difference in the drive itself.


Yeah. It's nasty of them to re-use major model names like that. But these are drives that were never sold as bare drives, only as USB drives. So maybe they feel at liberty to do whatever they want.



tommage1 said:


> Is a WD "Gold" SMR or PMR?


Definitely not shingled, those are WD's top of the line drives.


----------



## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

Luke M said:


> Yeah. It's nasty of them to re-use major model names like that. But these are drives that were never sold as bare drives, only as USB drives. So maybe they feel at liberty to do whatever they want.
> 
> Definitely not shingled, those are WD's top of the line drives.


I kind of figured that, however I think they are called "enterprise" drives. And I THINK I've seen some "enterprise" drives from other companies that were shingled. Though I could be wrong. Really getting confusing, at least for me..................

As for my 4TB drives, I also checked an 8TB Seagate USB Hub I use for Tivo backups. Crystal Disk says it's an ST8000DM004. Which is shingled though does not say that specifically in the specs as far as I could find. I ran Crystal Disk Mark on it (hooked up through USB 3.0, I never removed the drive from the enclosure as I knew it was shingled). And sure enough, all three 4K reads were .6xx MB/s and all three 4K writes were 7.xxx MB/s. A bit more than 10x difference write/read. So maybe checking those 4K reads and writes will identify if a drive is SMR or PMR? I have a couple Seagate 4TB 2.5" drives I was going to use in a Bolt but never did as I read they were shingled and people were mostly getting the flashing lights error. So may check them also when I get around to it


----------



## Cheap Flyer (Sep 23, 2003)

I just shucked one today, white label WD80EMAZ inside.


----------



## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

Cheap Flyer said:


> I just shucked one today, white label WD80EMAZ inside.


Did the drive come in the old style box, picture of the drive on the front? Or the new style box, picture of the drive attached to a monitor on the front of the box? If you look at ebay you can see both "versions" of the packaging.


----------



## Luke M (Nov 5, 2002)

tommage1 said:


> So maybe checking those 4K reads and writes will identify if a drive is SMR or PMR?


It's a clue, but not definitive, because non-shingled drives can also employ write caches.


----------



## Cheap Flyer (Sep 23, 2003)

tommage1 said:


> Did the drive come in the old style box, picture of the drive on the front? Or the new style box, picture of the drive attached to a monitor on the front of the box? If you look at ebay you can see both "versions" of the packaging.


The box mine came in has a picture of the drive attached to a monitor.


----------



## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

Cheap Flyer said:


> The box mine came in has a picture of the drive attached to a monitor.


Thanks, answers my main question when I started the thread, when I saw the new packaging I wondered if they had changed the internal drive, guess not so safe to buy.


----------



## duckman2000 (Oct 16, 2013)

tommage1 said:


> Thanks. Were the Easystore drives in the new packaging (has a picture of a monitor and the drive on the front of the box) or the old packaging (just has a picture of the drive itself?). Thanks for info on Crystal Disk, I have info and mark, did not know it would tell you the model of the internal drive if it was hooked up with USB while still in the enclosure.


Both Best Buy Easystore 8tb drives were in the new packaging (monitor and drive on the box) and bought within a couple of weeks in July. The red one has a SN# starting with 7SGZZ... and the white one has a SN# starting with 7JKGK...


----------



## duckman2000 (Oct 16, 2013)

This is from the slickdeals site concerning members who bought a Best Buy Easystore 8tb drive and what they found inside depending on SN# (SN# sticker is on the bottom of the box and visible before you buy the drive). Although it is not a guarantee for getting a WD Red drive inside (some serial numbers reportedly had both red and white drives), it may help increase the odds of getting a Red:
--------------
It appears that some serial numbers are showing up as both Red and White.

*RED (WD80EFAX / WD80EFZX):*

7SGBP***
7SGBX***
7SGD1***
7SGD2***
7SGD3***
7SGD4***
7SGEP*** (Confirmed Red WD80EFAX 256MB cache...this serial also listed under white label)
7SGEW***
7SGG3***
7SGG5***
7SGG9***
7SGGBY** (Confirmed Red WD80EFAX) (please confirm red, verified 7SGGBL** white WD80EMAZ)
7SGGG*** (Confirmed WD80EFAX - 68LHPN0)
7SGGH***
7SGGK***
7SGGL***
7SGGM*** (Confirmed Red WD80EFAX)
7SGGP***
7SGGR3** (verified red WD80EFAX)
7SGGRR** (verified red WD80EFAX)
7SGH9***
7SGHD***
7SGHE***
7SGHJ***
7SGHK*** (2 red found)
7SGHL***
7SGHS***
7SGHT*** (confirmed red WD80EFAX 256MB cache)
7SGHV***
7SGHX***
7SGHY***
7SGLX***
7SGL6*** (Confirmed Red, verified WD80EFAX)
7SGL7*** (please confirm red, verified WD80EMAZ)
7SGL9*** (WD80EFAX, 2 red found)
7SGJ1***
7SGJ3***
7SGJ4***
7SGJ6*** (Confirmed Red WD80EFAX)
7SGJE***
7SGJK***
7SGJL***
7SGJN***
7SGJR***
7SGJV***
7SGJP***
7SGJT***
7SGJX***
7SGJY***
7SGJZ***(confirmed red)
7SGK0***
7SGK3***
7SGKA***
7SGKP***
7SGKY***
7SGKZ***
7SGLA*** (Confirmed WD80EFAX-68LHPN0)
7SGLB***
7SGLD***
7SGLJ***
7SGLN***
7SGLY*** (Confirmed Red)
7SGLZ***
7SGM0***
7SGM5***
7SGM6***
7SGM7***
7SGME***
7SGMN***
7SGMP***
7SGMT***
7SGMU*** (Confirmed Red, verified WD80EFAX)
7SGMX*** (Confirmed Red, verified WD80EFAX)
7SGN3*** (Confirmed Red, verified WD80EFAX)
7SGN8*** (please confirm red, verified WD80EMAZ)
7SGND*** (Confirmed Red, verified WD80EFAX)
7SGNE*** (please confirm red, verified WD80EMAZ) (7SGNER** verified red) (7SGNEB** verified red)
7SGNJ***
7SGNM*** (please confirm red, verified white WD80EMAZ)
7SGNN***
7SGNR***
7SGNS***
7SGNU***
7SGNZ***
7SGN7***
7SGPA***
7SGPW***
7SGPX***
7SGP8***
7SGPY*** (WD80EFAX)
7SGPU*** (WD80EFAX)
7SGR2***
7SGR3***
7SGR9*** (Got a WHITE as well)
7SGRU***
7SGR0*** (WD80EFAX)
7SGS6***
7SGS7***
7SGT0***
7SGT3*** (Red WD80EFAX, 256MB)
7SGT8***
7SGTB*** (Red WD80EFAX, 256MB)
7SGTE***
7SGTH*** (Red, WD80EFAX , 256MB cache)
7SGX***
7SGXK*** (Red WD80EFAX, 256MB)
VK1D8 (China)
VK1G3***(China, 128MB)

*WHITE (WD80EMAZ):* New

1SGB2*** (White WD80EMAZ, 256MB)
7JGZ9***
7JHZA***
7JJ22***
7JJA3*** (White WD80EMAZ, 256MB)
7JKH15** (verified)
7JKKH***
7JKSZ***
7JKVL*** (White WD80EMAZ, 256MB)
7SGEP***
7SGJ2***
7SGL7***
7SGLA***
7SGLO***
7SGMP***
7SGMR***
7SGN8***
7SGNE***
7SGNM***
7SGNV***
7SGNY***
7SGP6***
7SGPZ***
7SGR3***
7SGR7***
7SGR8***
7SGR9***
7SGRB***
7SGRG***
7SGRN***
7SGRP***
7SGRV***
7SGS4*** (verified)
7SGSA***
7SGSJ***
7SGTJ***
7SGY5***
7SGY6***
7SGYP***
7SH0M***
7SGLS***
7SGGN***
7SGNX***
7SGPV***
7SGU9***
7SGUL***
7SGUS*** (verified)
7SH1A*** (WHITE WD80EMAZ, 256MB)
7SGWE***
7SGWK***
7SGYU***
7SGRN***
7SGXJ***
7SGZB***
7SGZW***
7SGRJ***
7SGGG***
7SGRD***
7JKG5***
7SGMZ***
7SGN5***
7SGNV*** (WHITE WD80EMAZ)
7SGR8*** (WHITE WD80EMAZ)

*WHITE (WD80EMZZ):* New

R6G5L*** (White WD80EMZZ, 128MB)
VJGA2***
VJGV4***
VJH43***
VLKYZ*** (White WD80EMZZ, 128MB)


----------



## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

mattack said:


> I admit this is a tangent, but I saw an article about 14 TB drives today.. then went to look on Amazon.. Apparently these aren't the only ones.. but wow.. just size.. They're like $500 IIRC.. still... in a couple years.. (hopefully Tivos will still be working and I'll still have non-HYDRA to download shows from/put back..)



Wow!! $500 for 14TB. I still remember paying $300 for 250GB drives back in the early 2000's.


----------



## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

Ha. I was looking at the packaging for the Easy Store via ebay auctions. Turns out there is only one packaging, some people took picture of the front of the box, others the back of the box................................ Duh.


----------



## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

I've got an 8TB WD white label WD80EMAZ running in my Roamio OTA since last December. So far so good.


----------



## net lander (Nov 11, 2018)

shwru980r said:


> I've got an 8TB WD white label WD80EMAZ running in my Roamio OTA since last December. So far so good.


Serial number begining with 7SJN is also white label WD80EMAZ.

Did you have to tape over the 3rd pin? Appreciate your input.


----------



## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

net lander said:


> Did you have to tape over the 3rd pin?


I am using one in a Roamio, did not have to tape the pin, I think that is for certain computers only. If using in a computer can just use a Molex to Sata adapter, that works (get a decent brand adapter).


----------



## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

net lander said:


> Serial number begining with 7SJN is also white label WD80EMAZ.
> 
> Did you have to tape over the 3rd pin? Appreciate your input.


I did not have to tape over the third pin to use on the Tivo or on a computer. I did have to use the wd drive utilities to write zeros to the entire drive before it would work in the Roamio OTA.


----------



## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

shwru980r said:


> I did not have to tape over the third pin to use on the Tivo or on a computer. I did have to use the wd drive utilities to write zeros to the entire drive before it would work in the Roamio OTA.


That's interesting, I did not do that. My steps were this.

1. Put in computer. It did not recognize so I had to use the molex to Sata adapter.
2. Ran some tests to make sure drive was good, Seagate or Crystal Disk or WD, don't remember which. Might have created a drive letter.
3. Put in Roamio, let it format and get to guided setup screen.
4. Pulled out and ran MFSR on it to get full capacity.
5. Put it back in the Roamio and ran guided setup. Has been working well since, knock on wood. Will be trying a copy and expand to 10TB using new MFSTools when the new update is complete, IE don't have to manually hex edit the drive.


----------

