Western Digital Announces Caviar Green 2.5 TB and 3 TB SATA Hard Drive

Konceptz · Oct 19, 2010

Never had a WD drive go bad on me...ever. I still have some WD IDE drives running.

Per Hansson · Oct 19, 2010

Is it possible to use this as a boot drive if you create two partitions and make the boot partition smaller than 2TB on a normal BIOS mainboard that does not support EFI?

Nibrok · Oct 19, 2010

Just picked up (5) 2tb Samsung F4 drives for a raid 5 array @ $95 each and they are smokin fast. Also, I have a 5tb raid box all with 1gb WD Green drives and never had a problem with them. Although I will have to agree with the other person who post about the sequential write speeds with the WD's, they are slooooooooooooooooow.

Disparia · Oct 19, 2010

My real reason: because they're 3TB.

I do like WD, but also Seagate and the others who are still producing today. There is one exception -Samsung- who I haven't bought yet (but I have a couple 2TB drives in my cart right now).

My rough estimate counting personal and work systems that I oversaw in the last eight years, 2 bad drives in 900. Even had good luck with Deathstars. I had them in air-cooled bays, so the idea that it may have been a heat issue with them seems plausible. Don't know if an official reason was ever given by IBM or not. Not that it's important now.

timta2 · Oct 19, 2010

i hope you have a computer with EFI instead of a BIOS, cause otherwise you wont be able to use one of these as a system drive.

So that's good news to Mac owners (except for the lack of BootCamp support), since all modern Macs use EFI. I'm sure a lot of professionals will be looking forward to the added drive space.

Imperceptible · Oct 19, 2010

As if you would want to use one of these as your main drive. Get an SSD and use this as storage, obviously. As for data loss, you'll find more and more people are making sure to backup their vital data, either with an external enclosure or a NAS. I myself would be interested in having 2 of the Black series (once they are out) as internal drives and then using a NAS with 2 of these Green variants as backup. But I'll need to wait for the premium to be knocked off the price.

EDIT: After reading Anand's review, he is suggesting the same thing:

But I wouldn't recommend using it as a boot/application drive, the random performance and even light workload performance just doesn't measure up. The 3TB drive (or a pair of them in RAID 1) would be a great companion to an SSD for all of your mass storage needs.

RejZoR · Oct 20, 2010

The problem is with Windows actually, not BIOS itself. At least so i heard in some other thread.

VulkanBros · Oct 20, 2010

Mussels said:
i've had many WD blacks die on me for no reason. they just fried overnight, in the same enclosures that seagates and samsungs still run fine in.

WD blacks are barely faster than my 5,400RPM samsung 2TB's - if that.

WD cost more, use more power, make more heat, and arent any faster than samsung - so i see no reason to go them.

oh and as for their green drives which negate some of those problems.... SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOW at sequential writes. from personal experience, never again.

Hmmm....that works the other way around for me......
I never had a prob. with my WD´s, but two of my four Samsungs F1 (1TB) died on me ... They are in the same enclosure as my Caviar Black 2TB´s.....
and when we are @ it .... I still have two 74 GB Raptors running, and they are 7 years old.....so I´ll stik with WD.....

bear jesus · Oct 20, 2010

RejZoR said:
The problem is with Windows actually, not BIOS itself. At least so i heard in some other thread.

I thought it was a problem with both but to be honest i really dont have much of an idea about the causes of the 2.19tb limit.

From the legit reviews review
"The WD Caviar Green 2.5TB and 3TB drives have capacities in excess of 2.19 TB and this presents barriers for PC hardware, firmware and software. To get around these issues WD is bundling its WD Caviar Green 2.5 and 3 TB hard drives with an Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI)-compliant Host Bus Adapter (HBA), which will enable the operating system to use a known driver with correct support for large capacity drives."

In the review they used the drive as a secondairy and used the included pci-e to connect the drive to the test setup so i would assume the os is a major problem but have no clue if it could be used as a primary drive even with the included adaptor :confused:

I have no idea, what about 2 2tb drives raided, does that not cause problems due to the os seeing it as a single 4tb drive? :confused:

I give up

Mussels · Oct 20, 2010

RejZoR said:
The problem is with Windows actually, not BIOS itself. At least so i heard in some other thread.

its two problems

windows cant use partitions above 2TB except in 64 bit
BIOS cant boot from partitions (or is it drives?) that are greater than 2TB

Lipton · Oct 20, 2010

* To boot from this (>2,2 TB) drive you need a 64-bit OS (Vista/7) and UEFI.
* To use it (>2,2 TB) as a secondary drive without UEFI you need Vista/7 and the HBA controller.
* The disk must be partitioned with GPT to use more than 2,2 TB due to the limitations of MBR.

Gathered from WD and Wiki, please correct me if I'm wrong.

jagd · Oct 20, 2010

Another problem is external Hdd cases ,none of them on market can see more than 2TB atm iirc

Mussels said:
its two problems

windows cant use partitions above 2TB except in 64 bit
BIOS cant boot from partitions (or is it drives?) that are greater than 2TB

btarunr · Oct 20, 2010

Mussels said:
its two problems

windows cant use partitions above 2TB except in 64 bit
BIOS cant boot from partitions (or is it drives?) that are greater than 2TB

That's why Windows 7 setup prompts you to create that 100 MB boot partition, so that BIOS boots from a 100 MB logical drive.

TheLaughingMan · Oct 20, 2010

I still don't get why anyone would want to boot from these drives? Their sher size will now effect speed. I would never use a drive larger than 1 TB as a system drives cause I just don't see a reason to do it.

bear jesus · Oct 20, 2010

TheLaughingMan said:
I still don't get why anyone would want to boot from these drives? Their sher size will now effect speed. I would never use a drive larger than 1 TB as a system drives cause I just don't see a reason to do it.

Obviously it's the same kind of people who would want 2 in raid 0 for a 6tb boot drive :laugh:

jagd · Oct 20, 2010

We have to one day ,hdds over 2TB will be norm someday and we will see a lot of people coming and asking why they are having problem(s) .Not just for today .

TheLaughingMan said:
I still don't get why anyone would want to boot from these drives? Their sher size will now effect speed. I would never use a drive larger than 1 TB as a system drives cause I just don't see a reason to do it.

Processor	i7-14700k
Motherboard	MSI Z790 Carbon Wifi
Cooling	DeepCool LS720
Memory	32gb GSkill DDR5-6400 CL32 Trident Z5
Video Card(s)	Intel ARC A770 LE
Storage	990 Pro 1tb, 980 Pro 512gb, WD black 4tb
Display(s)	3 x HP EliteDisplay E273
Case	Corsair 5000D Airflow
Power Supply	Corsair RM850x
Mouse	Logitec MK520
Keyboard	Logitec MK520
Software	Win 11 Pro 64bit
Benchmark Scores	Cinebench R23 Multi 35805

System Name	Rocker
Processor	i7 920 @ 4.2g
Motherboard	Asus Sabertooth X58
Cooling	Corsair H100
Memory	Corsair Dominator DDR3 1600 (12gb) 7-7-7-20
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte GTX570 OC
Storage	Intel X25-M SSD (160gb)
Display(s)	HP 24" w2407
Case	Antec 300
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Corsair HX650
Software	Windows 7 64bit Ultimate

Processor	Intel i5-6600
Motherboard	ASRock H170M-ITX
Cooling	Cooler Master Geminii S524
Memory	G.Skill DDR4-2133 16GB (8GB x 2)
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte R9-380X 4GB
Storage	Samsung 950 EVO 250GB (mSATA)
Display(s)	LG 29UM69G-B 2560x1080 IPS
Case	Lian Li PC-Q25
Audio Device(s)	Realtek ALC892
Power Supply	Seasonic SS-460FL2
Mouse	Logitech G700s
Keyboard	Logitech G110
Software	Windows 10 Pro

Processor	i7-3770K
Motherboard	Biostar Hi-Fi Z77
Cooling	Swiftech H20 (w/Custom External Rad Enclosure)
Memory	16GB DDR3-2400Mhz
Video Card(s)	Alienware GTX 1070
Storage	1TB Samsung 850 EVO
Display(s)	32" LG 1440p
Case	Cooler Master 690 (w/Mods)
Audio Device(s)	Creative X-Fi Titanium
Power Supply	Corsair 750-TX
Mouse	Logitech G5
Keyboard	G. Skill Mechanical
Software	Windows 10 (X64)

System Name	Commercial towing vehicle "Nostromo"
Processor	5800X3D
Motherboard	X570 Unify
Cooling	EK-AIO 360
Memory	32 GB Fury 3666 MHz
Video Card(s)	4070 Ti Eagle
Storage	SN850 NVMe 1TB + Renegade NVMe 2TB + 870 EVO 4TB
Display(s)	25" Legion Y25g-30 360Hz
Case	Lian Li LanCool 216 v2
Audio Device(s)	Razer Blackshark v2 Hyperspeed / Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2e
Power Supply	HX1500i
Mouse	Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition
Keyboard	Scope II 96 Wireless
Software	Windows 11 23H2 / Fedora w. KDE

Western Digital Announces Caviar Green 2.5 TB and 3 TB SATA Hard Drive

Konceptz

Per Hansson

Nibrok

New Member

Disparia

timta2

Imperceptible

New Member

RejZoR

VulkanBros

bear jesus

New Member

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator

Lipton

jagd

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator

TheLaughingMan

bear jesus

New Member

jagd

System Name	Gaming temp// HTPC
Processor	AMD A6 5400k // A4 5300
Motherboard	ASRock FM2A75 PRO4// ASRock FM2A55M-DGS
Cooling	Xigmatek HDT-D1284 // stock phenom II HSF
Memory	4GB 1600mhz corsair vengeance // 4GB 1600mhz corsair vengeance low profile
Storage	64gb sandisk pulse SSD and 500gb HDD // 500gb HDD
Display(s)	acer 22" 1680x1050
Power Supply	Seasonic G-450 // Corsair CXM 430W

System Name	Rainbow Sparkles (Power efficient, <350W gaming load)
Processor	Ryzen R7 5800x3D (Undervolted, 4.45GHz all core)
Motherboard	Asus x570-F (BIOS Modded)
Cooling	Alphacool Apex UV - Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora + EK Quantum ARGB 3090 w/ active backplate
Memory	2x32GB DDR4 3600 Corsair Vengeance RGB @3866 C18-22-22-22-42 TRFC704 (1.4V Hynix MJR - SoC 1.15V)
Video Card(s)	Galax RTX 3090 SG 24GB: Underclocked to 1700Mhz 0.750v (375W down to 250W))
Storage	2TB WD SN850 NVME + 1TB Sasmsung 970 Pro NVME + 1TB Intel 6000P NVME USB 3.2
Display(s)	Phillips 32 32M1N5800A (4k144), LG 32" (4K60) \| Gigabyte G32QC (2k165) \| Phillips 328m6fjrmb (2K144)
Case	Fractal Design R6
Audio Device(s)	Logitech G560 \| Corsair Void pro RGB \|Blue Yeti mic
Power Supply	Fractal Ion+ 2 860W (Platinum) (This thing is God-tier. Silent and TINY)
Mouse	Logitech G Pro wireless + Steelseries Prisma XL
Keyboard	Razer Huntsman TE ( Sexy white keycaps)
VR HMD	Oculus Rift S + Quest 2
Software	Windows 11 pro x64 (Yes, it's genuinely a good OS) OpenRGB - ditch the branded bloatware!
Benchmark Scores	Nyooom.

Processor	C2duo e6750@ 2800mhz
Motherboard	GA-P43T-ES3G
Cooling	Xigmatek S1283
Memory	2x2Gb Kingstone HyperX DDR3 1600 (KHX1600C9D3K2/4GX )
Video Card(s)	HIS HD 6870
Storage	samsung HD103SJ
Case	Xigmatek Utgard
Audio Device(s)	X-FI Titanium Pci-e
Power Supply	Xigmatek NRP-PC702 700W
Software	win7 ultimate -64bit

System Name	RBMK-1000
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
Motherboard	ASUS ROG Strix B450-E Gaming
Cooling	DeepCool Gammax L240 V2
Memory	2x 8GB G.Skill Sniper X
Video Card(s)	Palit GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GameRock
Storage	Western Digital Black NVMe 512GB
Display(s)	BenQ 1440p 60 Hz 27-inch
Case	Corsair Carbide 100R
Audio Device(s)	ASUS SupremeFX S1220A
Power Supply	Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Mouse	ASUS ROG Strix Impact
Keyboard	Gamdias Hermes E2
Software	Windows 11 Pro

System Name	ODIN
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
Motherboard	Gigabyte B550 Aorus Elite AX V2
Cooling	Dark Rock 4
Memory	G Skill RipjawsV F4 3600 Mhz C16
Video Card(s)	MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Ventus 3X OC LHR
Storage	Crucial 2 TB M.2 SSD :: WD Blue M.2 1TB SSD :: 1 TB WD Black VelociRaptor
Display(s)	Dell S2716DG 27" 144 Hz G-SYNC
Case	Fractal Meshify C
Audio Device(s)	Onboard Audio
Power Supply	Antec HCP 850 80+ Gold
Mouse	Corsair M65
Keyboard	Corsair K70 RGB Lux
Software	Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
Benchmark Scores	I don't benchmark.