“Shucking” refers to removing the drives from external HDDs, because often it’s cheaper than buying the drive directly. Easystore WD 10TB Drive Shuck #2. You can check the S.M.A.R.T. Joined Sep 12, 2014 Messages 4,431. WD 8 TB My Book USB 3.0 Desktop Hard Drive with Password Protection and Auto Backup Software, Black. C. Churchill Admiral. The limit is 5 per customer so I've got to figure out a way to get that 6th drive I need. As it regularly goes on sale it is a very cheap method to pickup large amounts of reliable storage. I can buy 8TB external for $230, the cheapest non-shingled internal is $100 more. So I know this deal is over (drive is back to $139.99 instead of $129.99), but just for reference I picked one of these up and the drive inside was the WD80EZAZ-11TDBA0 helium filled drive (as reported by CrystalDiskInfo, didn't shuck the drive). To start with, the WD Easystore range of hard drives are only available through Best Buy. And even if there wasn’t a sale, the 14TB WD Easystore regularly sells for $260—still a healthy markdown. Some folks, alternatively, recommend using a SATA-to-Molex adapter to power the drive, but I’ve heard enough horror stories about cheap ones catching fire that I’d rather not risk it. You just need to cover up the 3rd pin of the SATA power connector with some kapton tape, as shown in this video. Best Buy is a US firm trading in the USA, Canada, and Mexico. There are threads upon threads discussing which drives are best and how to find them, but with things in constant flux, you’re better off just winging it and being prepared for the worst. You can read more about the white label drives, and which power supplies are known to work, in this thread at /r/datahoarder. I’m very interested in getting a WD EasyStore 8TB. Shucking, as the practice has come to be known, is the process of buying an external drive, opening it up, and removing the bare drive for use within a PC. Over the last 8 months, only one of the 8TB models died. Thanks for the guide. He posts his personal ramblings here. Some small pieces of thin plastic—guitar picks work great, but if you don’t play guitar, a cut-up gift card or credit card will also work. Here’s a little secret: you can get similar high capacity disks much cheaper by “shucking” them from Western Digital’s external drives. This means that the Easystore isn’t officially available outside of these countries, as the product is exclusive to Best Buy. Commerce Content is independent of Editorial and Advertising. I've hard of … But otherwise, the white label drives appear to work just as well...with one caveat: compatibility. This item Western Digital 8TB EASYSTORE External HDD (WDBCKA0080HBK-NESN) WD 8 TB Elements Desktop External Hard Drive - USB 3.0, Black. He eats potato chips with chopsticks so he doesn't get grease on his mechanical keyboard. Born naked, helpless, and unable to fend for himself, Toby eventually overcame these handicaps to become a tinkerer, scuba diver, and musician. That all sounds complicated, but it’s actually pretty simple. WD Easystore 8TB Compendium • r/DataHoarder . This 8 TB, Best Buy-exclusive external drive usually retails for around $190, though it frequently goes on sale for $180, $170, or—occasionally—even lower. Easystore WD 10TB Drive Shuck #4. I use Hard Disk Sentinel, because my PC is convenient to run it on, and it’s backed up. Ordered 3 of the 8TB Easystore to shuck and then use in a NAS, here's what I got: All 3 were marked WDBCKA0080HBK-NESN, all 3 said they were made in Thailand. Newsletter. You will need to slip the tool between the matte plastic on the I/O side and the glossy plastic on the sides. D. digital_adhd New Member. The Western Digital Easystore is the most popular drive for shucking. Flipping the enclosure over we see how everything is laid out inside the kit. These days, things are a bit more complicated. The objective is to get your tool between the two halves of the clip. To do this, place the between the two pieces of plastic over a tab, angle towards the matte plastic side and push down. Jan 7, 2018 #4 ... it comes back as "WD80EFZX....." which if you google, is a Red, so you can be sure before you shuck...which if done right, is reversible. Practically every other week the drive is on sale at Best Buy for ~$170 and contains a Western Digital Red drive. WD 8TB Easystore Sidenote, I just shucked two of these. Triple check the disk name/ID. It’s not a bad way to save $100. It seems crazy, but sometimes, buying an external drive can actually be cheaper than buying a similar internal drive with the same specs. I’ll offer no guidance on this, but it isn’t too tricky. Once you do, the drive should work normally on any power supply, with no ill effects. Spudgers or plectrums work well, if you don’t mind damaging the plastic you can also use a screwdriver. If the drive is not recognized, however, then you are likely a victim of the SATA 3.3 mismatch. The Western Digital (WD) Easystore 8TB is an external hard drive sold exclusively by Best Buy. Some of these white label drives use SATA revision 3.3, which includes a new feature that can disable power to the hard disk. Your email address: By opting-in you agree to have us send you our newsletter. There is a possibility you could get a WD RED drive. By inserting a credit card or similar between the outer shell and inner inner, a small catch is lifted and the outer shell can be pried off. You can get some insane deals near US holidays. I would much rather see this type of post per enclosure type with how to shuck, rather than 100 look what I took out enclosure posts a week. When you shuck, or remove, the internal disk from a Western Digital Easystore external drive, you'll find either a red label or a white label internal disk. Undo the cross-head screw holding the interface to the drive. This 8 TB, Best Buy-exclusive external drive usually retails for around $190, though it frequently goes on sale for $180, $170, or—occasionally—even lower. In the past, Western Digital was using red label drives exclusively, but at the time of publishing this instructable, the white label drives are more common. To remove the USB and power interface, first rotate the transparent plastic rod and then pull forwards to remove it. These tools can and will erase whole disks. But do not fret—there is an easy fix. It seems less likely to uncover Western Digital Red drives in these enclosures, presumably thanks to Western Digital catching on to the practice. Europeans are probably out of luck, but don’t worry, it isn’t worth giving up humane healthcare and basic human rights for cheap HDDs. I found this out from a YouTube video by JDM_WAAT published on 7/26/2017 titled "Western Digital Easystore 8TB (WD Red inside) unboxing and shucking. They are positioned asymmetrically. If you have an older power supply that doesn’t support this feature, a white label drive may not spin up when plugged into your computer. Could be worse, could be Australia. Jan 6, 2016 793 185 43. I got mine from Best Buy on sale for $169.99, which seems like a good deal when compared to other WD Red 8TB hard drives and the $299.99 shelf price. There are utilities for BSD and Linux to do surface scans, but the write + read test is destructive, and I’m too scared to run it using my NAS. If you did it right you should feel the tool mov… How to shuck (or remove) the internal hard drive from a Western Digital Easystore 8TB External Hard drive. I do not plan to shuck it, but if the controller dies I want to be able to recover the data without a fuss. After removing the outer shell, we find a WD100EMAZ 10TB white label HDD inside. There are four tabs, two on each side. If in doubt, stop. it is tied to the controller board and the data cannot be read without it. There are, however, workarounds (more on that in a minute), and in some cases, it’ll work just fine out of the box—particularly on PCs with newer power supplies, as well as many NAS devices and server cases. Now the hard part, you will need to get some pieces of thin plastic or metal to use as a pry tool. Just did the RMA with WD and only sent the drive in. The outer shell has tabs connecting it to the inner part. Being able to buy cheap 3.5" externals and shuck them is a major cost advantage to me. On the label side, carefully push up the front so the drive becomes angled in the shell, and the bumpers pop up from their groves. I find the Easystore disks run quite hot, so I usually have a fan to force air into them. I am going to shuck and use a Thermaltake ST0021U Max 5 Active Cooling USB2.0/eSATA Ext Enclosure. So it makes a lot of sense to look for deals among external drives, even if you’re really shopping for internal drives. The video shows how to open the enclosure without breaking it and shuck the drive in great detail. 3.5" drives are completely different matter. Shuck AWAY! WD Easystore. I found this out from a YouTube video by JDM_WAAT published on 7/26/2017 titled "Western Digital Easystore 8TB (WD Red inside) unboxing and shucking. All the others previously were Reds. I have an iFixit Pro Tech Toolkit for just such occasions. There’s a whole subreddit pretty much about this, r/DataHoarder (of course there is). A+ would shuck again. A couple months with the new Synology DiskStation DS1618+ has demonstrated one thing above all: I…. The economics of this elude me, but as a result, drive shucking became a common practice among savvy NAS users. You can feel the positions by inserting about a centimetre, and then rotating/wobbling it around. I have an. Whitson Gordon is a writer, gamer, and all-around tech nerd. However, I do NOT want a drive that has hardware encryption, e.g. - WD 8TB Easystore on sale at Best Buy $130. The Western Digital Easystore is the most popular drive for shucking. Once the drive is removed from the inner shell, the USB interface and bumpers are next. It seems WD is moving to white label drives in these enclosures; however, that does not mean these are generic, lower-spec drives. This allows for cheaper NAS builds. Many others reported the same. I used a guitar pick and some iFixit tools for the job. Get the best of STH delivered weekly to your inbox. This allows for cheaper NAS builds. WD easystore 8TB External USB 3.0 Hard Drive: USB 3.0 interface; plug-and-play USB connectivity; data transfer rates up to 5 Gbps with USB 3.0 tiramisu April 26, 2017, 8:31pm #2 2 year warranty with the enclosure but other than that I wish I could afford to by 24 and fill up a … I just picked up two more 8TB WD Easystore externals from Best Buy, that makes four total and I plan to replace the 4x3TB pool in my second FreeNAS box with the 4x8TB. That way, you can keep the enclosure in a safe place, and if the drive dies within two years, you can pop it back into the enclosure and get it fixed or replaced under warranty. If it is, you’re good to go—load up that sucker with all the personal photos, vile backups, and...um, Linux ISOs you want. If you get a white label drive and if you shuck the drive and put it into your computer and it detects inside the enclosure but not inside the computer, lookup the WD white label 3.3 pin mod. I verified the 256mb cache on my Thailand drive (WD80EFAX-68LPHN0). This is a helium-filled 256MB cache drive, like the WD Red 10TB solution. Drives have issues all the time, don’t skip this. 30 Jun '18. If you enjoyed this video and want to support me please leave a LIKE, write … data via something like SmartmonTools, even before shucking and search the model numbers to see what the drive actually is. Have 5 of the 8TB Easystores and 2 of the 10TB Easystores. It's sought after by many r/datahoarder folks because it often (but not always) contains a WD Red 8TB drive which can be "shucked" and used in a home server among other similarly shucked Easystore drives. If you have a NAS or other high-capacity storage device at home, you know how expensive those extra-reliable Western Digital Red drives can get. Instead, a lot of people are finding similarly-specced “white label” drives inside Easystores. This comes as a blow to anyone buying these drives to shuck. Easystore WD 10TB Drive Shuck #3 Certain model white drives are also thought to be immune from the SATA 3.3 problem, but the workaround is easy enough that I wouldn’t fret over it—just grab an Easystore, bring it home, and prepare to shuck. Easystore WD 10TB Drive Shuck #1. Then, continue to remove the drive with an up/forwards movement. Shucking 8TB WD Easystores. The rubber does require some force to move. Model and Specs. Thread starter Jailer; Start date Nov 24, 2018; Jailer Not strong, but bad. You should be able to slowly pry open a gap at the front of the enclosure, which then makes it easy to slide the shell off. In order to shuck a Western Digital Easystore, you’ll need a few things: This video, embedded above, is probably the best walkthrough of the process, though this one was also a bit of help. Surprisingly, the hardest part of the process was actually getting the damn enclosure open. Maybe slid off is the wrong wording, it’s quite a tight fit and requires some prying. Don’t be a muppet about this. The USB interface is now only held on by the SATA interface and power, so slide it away from the drive. They have slightly different model numbers than their Red counterparts, and the Easystore has a 2-year warranty instead of the bare Red drives’ 3-year warranty. By looking at the WD site I found that all 8 TB drives are CMR as of the creation of that info, so I believe I will take a shot at getting an Easystore … Performance is great. The WD Blue and WD Black Series come in the 2.5" form factor. The drive is held in place by four rubber bumpers to reduce vibration and noise, additionally you have to be a bit careful about the USB and power interface at the back. That's major cost savings even if you figure in shorter warranty. Western Digital 8TB WD Red Plus NAS Internal Hard Drive - 5400 RPM... Rosewill 4U Server Chassis/Server Case/Rackmount Case, Metal Rack... iFixit Pro Tech Toolkit - Electronics, Smartphone, Computer & Tablet... 12mm X 33m 108ft Heat Tape Heat Resistant Tape Heat Transfer Tape... A set of small screwdrivers with both phillips and torx heads. List of all WD firmware and software available for download. That’s a cool $160 savings over the standalone bare drive, nearly a 50% discount. Probably not. Nov 24, 2018 #1 Just snagged 5 of these for a storage upgrade. Once the drive is shucked, slide it into your computer or NAS and see if it’s recognized by the operating system. I found that it works just fine in this Rosewill case, which I use to house my custom-built home server. 2 contained WD WD80EFAX Red label drives, Firmware 83.H0A83 WD 10 TB Elements Desktop External Hard Drive - USB 3.0, Black. You will feel two tabs on each side. I recently just shucked my first WD 8TB Easystore and despite what I have read on the internet, I don't believe my "White label" 8TB drive is a WD Red drive. Some small pieces of thin plastic—guitar picks work great, but if you don’t play guitar, a cut-up gift card or credit card will also work. Once upon a time, you could open up this drive and find an 8TB Western Digital Red drive inside—in and of itself a $280 product. I already own 3 WD 8TB red drives and 2 WD 8TB white drives. Advertisements. I only had to mess with the 4 tabs on the opposite side of the rounded edge, after that I was able to just push and slide the outside casing off. Checking the drives before taking them apart means you can more easily send them back. Now it’s time to get the drive out of the inner shell. This is why I run them using a PC that I can easily restore. The only remaining step is to remove the rubber bumpers, which are held in place by Torx T10 screws. WD80EDAZ is the new drive that is being found in the WD 8tb Easystore drives instead of the WD Red WD80EZAZ we are all used to. Go slow, be patient, and try not to break anything. I bought four 8TB Easystore drives from Best Buy over the past 18 months to shuck and so far all of them have been WD reds. The WD Blue 2.5" HDD series that feature the SMR technology is the 1 TB drive, and the 2 TB drive while from the WD Black 2.5" HDD series only has a single drive that uses the SMR technology, which is the 1 TB drive. The whole process will take over 30h for 8TB. We are going to curate a selection of the best posts from STH each week and deliver them directly to you. shuck wd elements, In order to shuck a Western Digital Easystore, you’ll need a few things: A set of small screwdrivers with both phillips and torx heads. It works especially well with 8TB drives, because currently there’s only one way to make them (except for shingled magnetic recording (SMR) drives, which should be avoided at all costs for the purpose of using the drive in a NAS). More infos about ID the drives inside, shucking, etc. Maybe I'm lucky? There’s a whole subreddit pretty much about this, r/DataHoarder (of course there is). These are basically the same thing as the Element drives, but have an exclusive branding for Best Buy. At this point, the outer shell can be slid off. I verified the 256mb cache on my Thailand drive (WD80EFAX-68LPHN0). My last purchase of an 8TB Easystore yielded a "white label" WD80EMAZ drive. The video shows how to open the enclosure without breaking it and shuck the drive in great detail. A+ would shuck again. WD80EMAZ is another model we are seeing that seems to be the same drive, the Ultrastar HC320 Datacenter drive. At the moment (and throughout 2017, for that matter), the best value in drive shucking has consistently been the example we used in the previous section: the 8TB Western Digital Easystore external USB 3.0 hard drive. “Shucking” refers to removing the drives from external HDDs, because often it’s cheaper than buying the drive directly. Are there any SMR Western Digital 8TB drives?