Western Digital Black in RAID???

[Rocknblogger]

I read or heard somewhere that the Western Digital Black Series drives should not be used for RAID configurations, is this true?

 

[treefrog07]

Here's some info on WD RAID HDDs. WD says the RE series are for RAID. Black HDDs have the same warranty, but no TLER. Of course the RE series HDDs are a few $ more than the Black. You might google for more info on whether or not TLER can be activated on Black HDDs - no guarantees.

 

[Pointertovoid]

Also remember that Raid-0 is slower than a single disk when using current 7200rpm technology, at least for booting and to load applications. Sensible only for big pictures, video...

 

[huron]

As treefrog stated, the main problem that I have read about, and worry about with WD drives (non-raid edition) is the TLER problem.

 

[Rocknblogger]

Thanks for the reply guys. I did some more digging and I confirmed my fears. Here's a heads up for anyone with a WD Black drive. If you're using Win7 make sure that you adjust your power saving settings to "Never" shut off hard drives. I did not realize that mine was set to shut off on 20 minutes and I can tell you from frustrating experience that it caused a lot of problems. I though I was well on my way to formatting and re-installing my OS, but after changing that setting my PC is running like it was the day I built it.

Some of the problems I was having;

System lockups
Extremely long load times for right click menus
BSOD's
Long load times of apps and documents

Since changing my settings I have not had a single one of these occurrences.

 

[treefrog07]

Another little-known, but troublesome default setting exposed. Thanks rocknblogger!

 

[Rocknblogger]

Your very welcome. I'm new to these forums and I joined precisely because of the great info I've found here. Just trying to pay it forward

 

[bdestroyer8418]

Well this is good to know. Since I remember my buddy talking about it just a few weeks ago when he build his new system. I just bought some of those WD 500GB Black. I was about to go exchange them out. Glad I shouldn't have to.

 

[Rocknblogger]

Well this is good to know. Since I remember my buddy talking about it just a few weeks ago when he build his new system. I just bought some of those WD 500GB Black. I was about to go exchange them out. Glad I shouldn't have to.

Just remember that you can't run them in RAID if you decide you want to do that at a later date.

 

[moofachuka]

Thanks for the reply guys. I did some more digging and I confirmed my fears. Here's a heads up for anyone with a WD Black drive. If you're using Win7 make sure that you adjust your power saving settings to "Never" shut off hard drives. I did not realize that mine was set to shut off on 20 minutes and I can tell you from frustrating experience that it caused a lot of problems. I though I was well on my way to formatting and re-installing my OS, but after changing that setting my PC is running like it was the day I built it.

Some of the problems I was having;

System lockups
Extremely long load times for right click menus
BSOD's
Long load times of apps and documents

Since changing my settings I have not had a single one of these occurrences.

I'm here to thank you for your suggestion I never thought windows set hdd spin down in 20 mins by default especially on desktop...