WD Caviar Green HDDs Suffer from a Critical Design Flaw

Global recalls are never good for PR :) It's so much easier to "sit on" the problem and phase out the bad product line for a new, corrected product line.

stormy13 said:

Only came to their attention because WD finally admitted to it...

HP pushed out a software update for customers who bought machines with the 1-2TB 'Green' drives over a year ago. I got an email from them about it, strange this isn't news for me.

I would have posted about it had I realized it played out like this..

EDIT: Here is a copy of the email for anyone interested, and this is very dated, which I think is important to keep in mind.

******************************************************************

URGENT SUPPORT NOTIFICATION FROM HP

******************************************************************

Dear HP Customer:

Our records indicate that you purchased an HP desktop computer
system with a 1 TB, 1.5 TB or 2.0 TB hard disk drive. As part of
HP's commitment to producing reliable, high-quality products, HP
and its suppliers have developed a software update that eliminates
the possibility that the hard disk drive used in the model of HP
desktop that you purchased could fail to save data properly.

Although the possibility that this issue could affect your
computer is small, HP strongly recommends that, as a preventive
measure, you immediately apply the update to your desktop
computer. The update is available on the HP web site, and it is
also available through the HP Update utility software that is
preinstalled on your desktop computer once you are connected to
the Internet.

To apply the update to your desktop computer, you may either
accept all HP Updates or log on to www.hp.com and download the
software update. It is not necessary to use both options.


The steps to download the update from hp.com are:

1) Open http://www.hp.com

2) Click on the "Support & Drivers" tab.

3) Click "Download drivers and software (and firmware)."

4) Enter your product name/number (for example, "p6218f").

5) Click on "operating system" and then select either
Microsoft Windows 7 (32-bit) or Microsoft Windows
(64-bit).

6) Under "Firmware," click on "Western Digital SATA Hard Disk
Drive Firmware Update."


The Steps to run HP Update are:

1) Click Start.

2) In the Programs menu, click HP or Hewlett-Packard.

3) Click HP Update. The HP Update program starts.

4) On the HP Update screen, click Settings.

5) Use the Settings menu to adjust how often the program
checks for updates.


Keeping HP Update enabled is the most effective way of making
sure that you receive important updates for your computer in the
future and HP encourages its customers to make use of this
helpful utility.

If you have any questions, please contact HP Support at
1-800-HPINVENT.

Sincerely,

Hewlett-Packard Company

seekermeister said:

sygnus21 said:

I still say they're good drives (Caviar Blacks) just stay away from the greens

I have 3 black FAEX lemons that say otherwise.

Well I guess our millage varies. You say lemons, I say apples

BTW I have 5 (FEAX) blacks and they're still running fine.

Crap, I have three of the WD15EARS in a server waiting for a fourth one. I guess I better check these out and give them the fix.

Description

This firmware modifies the behavior of the drive to wait longer before positioning the heads in their park position and turning off unnecessary electronics. This utility is designed to upgrade the firmware of the following hard drives: WD1000FYPS-01ZKB0, WD7500AYPS-01ZKB0, WD7501AYPS-01ZKB0.
CAUTION: Do not attempt to run this software on any hard drives other than what is listed above. Please make sure that the computer system is not turned off during the firmware upgrade. Doing so may damage the hard drive beyond

The above is from WD>
WD Support / Downloads / SATA & SAS / WD RE2-GP

According to Western Digital, the following models are affected: WD20EADS, WD20EARS, WD15EADS, WD15EARS, WD10EADS, WD10EARS, WD8000AARS, WD7500AADS, WD7500AARS, WD6400AADS, WD6400AARS, WD5000AADS, WD5000AARS, WD1000FYPS, WD7500AYPS and WD7501AYPS.

Western Digital has released a DOS-based utility to modify the behavior of the HDD to wait longer before invoking idle mode. However, since most of their latest HDDs still ship with the default setting of 8 seconds, we strongly recommend users with affected HDDs to use the utility and monitor S.M.A.R.T data immediately.

Read more: Critical Design Flaw Found in WD Caviar Green HDDs

This is from:
Critical Design Flaw Found in WD Caviar Green HDDs

I don't know who to believe. I have a WD10EADS Green drive without any symptoms. One souce says it is affected but WD says it is not.?