|
|
Hello guys,
I need a new HDD, internal ones are too expensive, what drives would one of these have inside them?
http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/western-digital-element...
Thanks in advance
James
|
|
|
The Western Digital site says that it "Utilizes a WD drive with power-saving WD GreenPower Technology". That would mean that it's almost certainly one of these. You might want to check if you can get the bare drive (if it's suitable) cheaper, but it seems to be out of stock at a lot of places.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Register (or login) on our website and you will not see this ad.
|
|
|
|
The trouble is with the bare drives is they've sky rocketed with all that's going on in Thailand but I've sure I don't need to tell you that. I'm looking for an economical way to source a drive.
|
|
|
|
I've got a 1TB version of that external drive. The unit is sealed (no screws or such like visible or under pads). You'd probably need a sharp stanley knife or junior hacksaw to gain entry. Other external drives I've had could be opened relatively easily.
|
|
|
|
Hang on to your cash for a mo...
It's probably not the WD15EARX since that's the SATA III drive and there's no point putting that in an enclosure with a USB 2.0 interface when SATA II is fine.
Also I know that the 2TB external drives have WD20EADS drives in them (i.e not quite the current Caviar Green) so it's quite likely to be the WD15EADS
That said I don't think you can ever be 100% certain what drive you'll find in this sort of thing. I'm sure I read one review where they found another manufacturer's HDD inside. Since they don't make any actual promise as to the enclosed drive it might well be what they have available/what's cheap for any given production run.
|
|
|
|
Plastic lugs hold the bottom on - plus a bit of glue ISTR. A screwdriver can be used to pry the cover off
|
|
|
I'll get a screwdriver and knife and have a quick look. If I'm not back in 15 minutes please call A&E. 
|
|
|
Yes, not too bad, using a small flat headed screw driver. Much safer than a knife.
Internals
http://commit.me.uk/img_0298a.jpg
http://commit.me.uk/img_0299a.jpg
looks like a sata
|
|
|
|
okay so can easily be trasnfered to use as a standard Sata?
|
|
|
|
Ah, you went for the 1TB external drive in the end.
I note that the price of even that has risen rather a lot recently.
|
|
|
|
Yes. Take on board the caveats put forward by mr_bean though.
It took about 15 minutes to get disasembelled far enough to photograph.
|
|
|
|
okay as long as it's do-able then it provides a solution to the high prices
|
|
|
|
Assuming that the model is a WD15EARS (my 1TB model is a WD10EARS) that would seem to save £20 over the Amazon price for the internal drive (I haven't taken any P&P difference into account). I don't think I'd bother for that level of differential.
|
|
|
You can get a 2TB seagate or samsung internal HDD for £55... ?
edit - OK, maybe you could 3 weeks ago  I can still see some going around £80 region.
Glad I purchased mine when I did! Prices for the 2TB drives I bought off aria a month or so ago have almost tripled!
______________
Zen 8000 Active
Edited by Pipexer (Thu 24-Nov-11 18:20:07)
|
|
|
|
Don't touch these drives. They use proprietary boards that are about as thick as a fag paper and the lack of physical support for the USB connector means that it's poorly soldered connectors will come adrift from the mobo. When it does, re-soldering is almost impossible due to the placement of a plastic strip. Due to the presence of a hardware encryption chip, removal of components and some very delicate soldering will be necessary to attach it to a standard SATA interface. Absolutely dreadful!
I am currently attempting to retrieve data from one of these drives that like so many of them, has suffered from broken connectors. It's controller board is currently with a local electronics company who have flow soldering etc equipment. The cost would be prohibitive if I didn't know the manager there.
You're better off buying a decent external case and a drive of your choice.
|
|
|
Ive got the 1tb version of that external.
Just get a flat head screw driver and pop the bottom of the case and you can then slide the HDD out and just put it in your PC.
Works a treat. Being a green version i was expecting the transfer speeds of the drive to be a little slow but i get around 100mb most the time
BT 8MB
|
|
|
Flippin heck at HDD prices. I bought two 500gb SATA-II drives a year ago for £60 now the equivalent drive is £166 ea. 
Tim
ZeN & freenetname
recapped ST546v6 on 8 Meg Active
Check my bad boy speeds out on ZeN
|
|
|
Lots of second hand HDDs for sale here at camieabz towers. At 75% retail price. 
~~~~~~~~~~
© Camieabz 2002-2011
All Connection Data ~ plusnet
Scottish Labour politician: �The SNP are on a very dangerous tack. What they are doing is trying to build up a situation in Scotland where the services are manifestly better than south of the border in a number of areas.�
Interviewer: �Is that a bad thing?�
Scottish Labour politician: �No, but they are doing it deliberately.� |
|
|
Fortunately my drives are still working.
Tim
ZeN & freenetname
recapped ST546v6 on 8 Meg Active
Check my bad boy speeds out on ZeN
|
|
|
|
The ones I've taken apart have had standard SATA drives connected via a USB-SATA converter. I've used both bits independently without problems.
What was the specific model that is giving you grief - sounds like one to avoid certainly but I'm not sure that they're all like that.
|
|
|
I use a PATA drive, stripped out of an old laptop, stuck in an external case and connect over usb2 - works a treat for storage and running Ubuntu from my dual boot pc. The only cost was the enclosure 
|
|
|
|
So you're saying there is work to get these ready for PC use?
|
|
|
He appears to be commenting on the quality of the SATA - USB interface board (the board shown separated at the right of http://commit.me.uk/img_0299a.jpg ). For your purposes that is irrelevant as you'll remove that board and just use the SATA drive.
|
|
|
|
Boom the drive has just gone up to £89.99
|
|
|
|
The 1TB WD elements drive I bought for £44.89 on 19/3/2011 costs £74.99 today.
|
|
|
|
These are various "Elements" branded drives. I'll up some pics of the PCB's later.
|
|
|
He appears to be commenting on the quality of the SATA - USB interface board......
As you'll see from the links below, there is no seperate interface board.
Unfortunately, I've not seen the different enclosures, only the drives themselves. But I'm assured that they're all "WD Elements" branded.
There is quite a lot posted on the WD Discussion boards.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/580/wd3w.jpg
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/507/dscn0164q.jpg
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/406/pcbp.jpg
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/214/dscn0160h.jpg
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/507/2c534.jpg
Edited by Deadbeat (Tue 29-Nov-11 15:52:13)
|
|
|
So you're saying there is work to get these ready for PC use?
As you can see from the images linked to in my previous post, the ones that I've seen are simply not useable as internal drives without a lot of work.
Edited by Deadbeat (Tue 29-Nov-11 15:56:05)
|
|
|
|
That's all a bit tedious if you wish to "re-purpose" the drives.
I can't make out chip markings on much except the first photo which carries a USB3.0 to SATA bridge chip so, at present, they're still converting from USB to SATA, just doing it on one board. Obviously really as otherwise it wouldn't be possible to pick up a SATA interface in the way that you did.
OK. Will avoid WD drives if I want to rip the HD out!
|
|
|
Ill say again.
I have a WD Elements 1TB drive
I took it out the caddy, removed the SATA-USB PCB and then put it mt PC.
Worked fine.
BT 8MB
|
|
|
What model number?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Our democracy is but a name. We vote? What does that mean?
It means that we choose between two bodies of real, though not avowed, autocrats.
We choose between Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
Helen Keller
.
It Ought to be Easy | Greasemonkey scripts |
|
|
WDBAAU0010HBK-01
Is whats on the caddy and the HDD its self is
WD10EADS-11P8B2
BT 8MB
|
|
|
Ah! 3.5" - I need 2.5" for my lappy. Thanks, anyway.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Our democracy is but a name. We vote? What does that mean?
It means that we choose between two bodies of real, though not avowed, autocrats.
We choose between Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
Helen Keller
.
It Ought to be Easy | Greasemonkey scripts |
|
|
ah, then get a seagate protable.
i did that, BUT i dont have the box for it anymore so i cant tell you what model it was.
BT 8MB
|
|
|
I built a computer for a friend only a month ago and got a 1tb Seagate goFlex from Argos on offer for £50. Dismantled it and it was a Barracuda 13 - quite a decent drive in itself.
I kept the docking station part of it and can now use it almost like a hot swappable drive
|
Pages in this thread: 
Print Thread
deleted
