The phrase “performance class” used to mean something distinctly different than it apparently does now, and Western Digital never bothered to tell anyone it was changing the meaning of the term. Despite being classed by WD as a 5400 rpm drive its acoustic pattern is the same as 7200 rpm drives. This might seem like a non-issue, given that customers directly benefit from having a 7200 RPM drive. The caption from Imgur states: “This drive is marketed as 5400 rpm and even reports as such via SMART, but the frequencies here clearly indicate 7200 rpm!”. Open Disk Utilities. This acoustic plot is from a WD80EMAZ-00WJTA0 drive inside a WD Elements 8TB SSD. While WD Red drives are listed as “5400 RPM class” in Western Digital’s literature, the drives actually spin faster than that, at 7200 RPM. By doing so, we are able to leverage our economies of scale and pass along those savings to our customers. The WD Elements 2TB averaged 75.5% lower than the peak scores attained by the group leaders. Top Rated Gear: WD Elements 2TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive, USB Powered MFR: WDBU6Y0020BBK-EESN. Western Digital elements desktop storage with USB 3.0 offers reliable, high-capacity, add-on storage, fast data transfer rates and universal connectivity with USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 devices. If you have a disk spinning at 7200 RPM (7200/minute = 120/second = 120Hz) then resulting vibrations will be at this base frequency or integer multiples (overtones) of it (120Hz, 240Hz, 360Hz, …). Select WD Elements on the left side of the window. There are more details on the topic at the Reddit thread above, including a specific list of affected models (all 8TB or higher). My only worry is that both from my understanding are not 7200 rpm and I believe the My Book I bought in 2013 or 2014 was (which is now selling for $180 on amazon vs. $90 for the new one) JoeySmyth. Buy now & save $10. WD Elements 6TB External HDD - RPM? I remember when WD started introducing “performance class” drives. The tradition of breaking the hard drive market up by spindle speed is literally decades old, and Western Digital helps no one when it plays games like this. Just because something isn’t actively harming customers at the moment doesn’t make it a great idea, and being dishonest on package labeling isn’t helping, either. The WD 2TB Elements Portable External Hard Drive is one of the best external Hard drives that money can buy. 4K Random Write Speed 1.78 MB/s. Buying Options. The WD Elements is a compact yet high-capacity external storage device that won't dig a hole in your wallet. Earlier this year, Western Digital got caught lying by omission when it came to disclosing that certain drives used shingled magnetic recording (SMR) instead of conventional magnetic recording (CMR). This is disingenuous. Redditor DataHoarder writes: The direct way to measure rotational speed is via the acoustic frequency profile. As with every Western Digital product, our product details, which include power, acoustics and performance (data transfer rate), are tested to meet the specifications provided on the product’s data sheet and marketing collateral. Western Digital’s 4 TB Elements is about as fast as our top pick, but its warranty doesn’t last as long. © 1996-2021 Ziff Davis, LLC. This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. These drives actually spun a bit below 5400 RPM if I remember correctly, in the name of conserving power. Avg. While the two drives are very similar in most aspects, the Expansion is faster but the Element is cheaper. I’m fairly certain WD isn’t shipping 10K hard drives in 7200 RPM packaging. While WD Red drives are listed as “5400 RPM class” in Western Digital’s literature, the drives actually spin faster than that, at 7200 RPM. Western Digital WD Black 1TB Performance Mobile Hard Drive - 7200 RPM Class, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64 MB Cache, 2.5" - WD10SPSX 4.5 out of 5 stars 2,044 $71.99$71.99 Get it as soon as Tue, Jul 7 WD Elements 1,2,3,4TB RPM? The drives affected include a range of WD Red drives and WD elements drives, though the test sample wasn't exactly wide. If you are in the market for a High capacity drive to backup or store important file then this is the perfect drive for you. I am not able to read my data in the disk. WD Red 6TB NAS Internal Hard Drive - 5400 RPM Class, SATA 6 Gb/s, SMR, 256MB Cache, 3.5" - WD60EFAX 4.1 out of 5 stars 511 $149.99$149.99 Get it as soon as Thu, Aug 27 The big difference between this situation and the SMR incident is that in this case, everyone outside the small group of people who might have hardware problems from running a 7200 RPM drive in a 5400 RPM enclosure/chassis is arguably being helped. The sleek design features up to 12TB capacity plus Western Digital quality and reliability. From the View menu, choose "Show All Devices." But a 5400 RPM drive and a 7200 RPM drive are not automatically fungible: 7200 RPM drives draw more power and dissipate more heat than a 5400 RPM drive. Avg. WD is currently implementing Advanced Format technology on its WD Caviar Green line of products, beginning with the WD20EARS, WD15EARS, WD10EARS, WD7500AARS, WD6400AARS and WD5000AARS models. Telling customers you’re selling them a 5400 RPM drive when it’s actually a 7200 RPM drive could cause problems if the hardware that drive is intended for can’t dissipate the additional heat or provide enough power. $90 from Amazon. PCMag Digital GroupExtremeTech is among the federally registered trademarks of Ziff Davis, LLC and may not be used by third parties without explicit permission. What is the RPM of the WD Element HDD is it 5,400RPM or 7,200RPM? The Western Digital Elements is a spinning disk drive. Strengths. This WD Elements 8TB drive is listed as "5400 RPM Class" on its datasheet, and its firmware reports 5400 RPM via SMART—but it's humming at 120HZ. Have purchased “My Passport” Have just realized that there is NO information on the device that says whether it … The WD Elements drive is protected by a limited 2-year worldwide warranty and a micro-USB to USB Type-A cable is included. WD Elements, 2.5TB: WDBAAU0025HBK: Leaflet (English) WD 160GB Dual-Opt Backup 2MB 7200rpm Ret (WDXUB1600BB) WDXUB1600BBNE: Leaflet (English) WD Elements 1.5 TB: WDBU6Y0015BBK: Leaflet (English) WD Elements, 750GB: WDBUZG7500ABK-EESN: Leaflet (English) WD Elements, 3TB: WDBWLG0030HBL-EESN, WDBWLG0030HBK-NESN, WDBWLG0030HBK-EESN, … A WD Black 7200 rpm drive: A Western Digital Elements 8TB drive classed as 5400 rpm: There is differentiation between 7200 rpm and 5400 rpm drives until the WD Elements 8TB drive’s acoustic pattern is displayed. This is the second time in a year that the company has misrepresented the hardware that it’s shipping to customers. Now, the company has been caught misrepresenting how fast certain hard drives spin — and trying to weasel out of it with reference to a marketing claim that doesn’t mean what it used to. It wasn’t a way to secretly ship 7200 RPM drives without telling anybody. Ars Technica contacted WD and asked them about these discrepancies. Simply plug this drive into a compatible USB 3.0 (USB 3.1 Gen 1) or USB 2.0 port and begin transferring data at speeds up to 5 Gb/s when using the integrated micro-USB 3.0 interface. TL;DR: The popular WD80EMAZ and WD80EZAZ drives from WD Elements and My Book appear to run at 7200 rotations per minute (rpm), despite being advertised and self-reporting as 5400 rpm. © 1996-2021, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates, Select a location to see product availability, External CD DVD Drive USB for Windows & Mac, External DVD Drive, Amicool USB 3.0 Type-C CD DVD +/-RW Optical Drive USB C Burner Slim CD/DVD ROM Rewriter Writer Reader Portable for PC Laptop Desktop MacBook Mac Windows 7/8.1/10 Linux OS Apple, External DVD Drive USB 3.0 USB C CD Burner Amicool CD/DVD +/-RW Optical Drive,Slim Portable DVD CD ROM Rewriter Writer Duplicator for Laptop Desktop PC Windows 10/8/7 MacBook Mac Linux OS Apple, BLACK, WD 2TB Elements Portable External Hard Drive, USB 3.0, Compatible with PC, Mac, PS4 & Xbox - WDBU6Y0020BBK-WESN, LaCie Rugged USB-C 4TB External Hard Drive Portable HDD – USB 3.0, Drop Shock Dust Rain Resistant Shuttle Drive, for Mac and PC Computer Desktop Workstation Laptop, 1 Month Adobe CC (STFR4000800), Fantom Drives 2TB 7200RPM External Hard Drive - USB 3.2 Gen 1 - 5Gbps - GForce 3 Aluminum - Black - Compatible with Mac/Windows/PS4/Xbox (GF3B2000UP) by Fantom Drives, FD 5TB 7200RPM External Hard Drive - USB 3.2 Gen 1 - 5Gbps & eSATA - GForce 3 Aluminum - Black - Compatible with Mac/Windows/PS4/Xbox (GFP5000EU3) by Fantom Drives, WD_Black 8TB D10 Game Drive, Portable External Hard Drive Compatible with Playstation, Xbox, PC, & Mac - WDBA3P0080HBK-NESN, Glyph Studio S14000ENT 14TB External Hard Drive (7200RPM, USB 3, FW800, eSATA) (Enterprise Class), Toshiba Canvio Flex 2TB Portable External Hard Drive USB-C USB 3.0, Silver for PC, Mac, & Tablet - HDTX120XSCAA, G-Technology 4TB G-DRIVE USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive, Silver - Compact, High-Performance Storage - 0G03594-1, WD_Black 5TB P10-Game Drive, Portable External Hard Drive Compatible with -Playstation, Xbox, PC, & Mac - WDBA3A0050BBK-WESN, Seagate Portable 2TB External Hard Drive Portable HDD – USB 3.0 for PC, Mac, PS4, & Xbox - 1-year Rescue Service (STGX2000400), Seagate Backup Plus Portable 5TB External Hard Drive HDD – Red USB 3.0 for PC Laptop and Mac, 1 year MylioCreate, 2 Months Adobe CC Photography & 2-year Rescue Service (STHP5000403), LaCie - STHA4000800 d2 Professional 4TB External Hard Drive Desktop HDD – USB-C USB 3.0 7200 RPM Enterprise Class Drives, 5 Year Warranty and Recovery Service (STHA4000800) Black, Fantom Drives 500GB External Hard Drive - Super Fast 7200RPM USB 3.0 - Black Aluminum External Hard Drive Compatible with Mac, PC, Xbox One and PS4 - (GF3B500UP), Seagate BarraCuda 2TB Internal Hard Drive HDD – 3.5 Inch SATA 6Gb/s 7200 RPM 256MB Cache 3.5-Inch – Frustration Free Packaging (ST2000DM008), G-Technology 2TB ArmorATD All-Terrain Rugged Portable External Hard Drive - USB-C, USB 3.1 Gen 1 - 0G10434-1, Seagate STEL6000100 Backup Plus Hub 6TB External Hard Drive Desktop HDD – USB 3.0, 2 USB Ports, for Computer Desktop Workstation PC Laptop Mac, 2 Months Adobe CC Photography, All customers get FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by Amazon. Though the Western Digital Green drive inside each My Book still spins at 5,400 rpm, the drives include Western Digital’s backup utility, making them better for … Also great. Right click and choose "Erase" from the pop-up menu. You analyze its acoustic signature. It spins at the rate of an average, low-power laptop drive, around 5400 revolutions per minute. WD Elements Desktop WDBWLG0100HBK - hard drive - 10 TB - USB 3.0 overview and full product specs on CNET. The 3TB Elements USB 3.0 External Desktop Hard Drive from Western Digital is an external hard drive designed to fit easily onto your desktop. Similar to Seagate Expansion, WD Elements also offers plenty of space, but for even a lower price. How do you tell if a drive is spinning at 7200 RPM? While this may not be a concern for a majority of users, it’s also not the first time we’ve seen dishonest behavior from Western Digital. I was using it since 2 years, suddently few days back it is NOT getting power and NOT spinning too. This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. This might seem like … List of all WD firmware and software available for download. WD External Drives. Color: Black, Operating System: Macintosh, PC/Windows, RPM: 5400 RPM We strongly encourage you to read our updated PRIVACY POLICY and COOKIE POLICY. 7200 RPM drives are also noisier than 5400 RPM products. WD External Drives. LukeTCThatsMe37. Here’s the company’s response: For select products, Western Digital has published RPM speed within a “class” or “performance class” for numerous years rather than publishing specific spindle speeds. External Drives for PC. I have a WD Elements External hard disk, model “WDBABV7500ABK”. If a drive marketed at 5400 RPM actually spins at 7200 RPM, what’s the difference between 5400 RPM and 7200 RPM drives? The Elements drive quickly backs up and retrieves files by utilizing USB 3.0 technology and draws power from a USB bus-powered port on your device, meaning that it requires no other additional external power source. WD External Drives. This isn't a great result which indicates that there are much faster alternatives on the comparison list. Last year, I bought a few of these drives myself (both WD80EMAZ-00WJTA0 and WD80EZAZ-11TDBA0). WD 2TB Elements Portable External Hard Drive, USB 3.0, Compatible with PC, Mac, Playstation & … For 5400 RPM this would be multiples of 90Hz instead (180Hz, 270Hz, 360Hz, …). The price difference lies in the fact that the WD Elements is a much slower drive since its sequential read/write speeds of around 95MB/s, are some 30% slower than those of its Seagate rival. Subscribe Today to get the latest ExtremeTech news delivered right to your inbox. Hi All, I am trying to confirm the RPM of the WD Elements 6TB External HDD but am having no luck on the web finding … This has been done and the results confirm that these WD Red drives are spinning at 7200 RPM, not 5400 RPM. WD Elements Portable WDBUZG0010BBK - hard drive - 1 TB - USB 3.0 - overview and full product specs on CNET. External Drives for PC. This also applies to the 10TB models and maybe more. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our, Western Digital Comes Clean, Shares Which Hard Drives Use SMR, Western Digital Sued to Permanently Block SMR in NAS HDDs, Western Digital Releases First EAMR Disks in 18TB, 20TB Capacities, AMD’s Retail Market Share Surges Based on European Reseller Data, ET Deals: Save 15 Percent on Dell Alienware, XPS, and G5 PCs, Make Your Work Space Work For You With This Innovative Desk Pad, Elon Musk, Now World’s Richest Man, Reaffirms His Intention to Live on Mars, Nvidia’s Purchase of ARM Is Being Investigated by UK Watchdog, Western Digital Caught Misrepresenting HDD RPM Speeds, Too. cliffmstone December 16, 2019, 5:35am #1. UML February 14, 2019, 4:45am #1. True, in this case, the situation arguably breaks in the customer’s favor — but that doesn’t make it a good idea for companies to play fast and loose with specifications. Regardless, Western Digital’s position in this matter is anything but exemplary. Sustained Write Speed 51.1 MB/s. We also fine-tune select hard drive platforms and the related HDD characteristics to create several different variations of such platforms to meet different market or application needs. The WD Elements Portable drive is an excellent alternative to the Seagate Expansion. External Drives for PC. October 15, 2015, 1:18am #1. This lowers its relative cost on the market due to the rising popularity of solid state drives. WD isn't the only maker offering a 5TB portable (Seagate, LaCie, and ADATA also have 5TB portable offerings), but this is the capacity you want if what you need is … 120Hz * … Apparently, enthusiasts have been trying to prove Western Digital hard drives spin at the wrong speed for more than a year. When I cotacted WD Support, they asked to do the data recovery myself through authorized data recovery vendor. 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