Hacking WD Greens (and Reds) with WDIDLE3.exe

Netix

Cadet
Joined
Jul 18, 2017
Messages
9
The WDC 'Blue' drives are designed for desktop use, not for NAS systems. That's the root of the problem; the two environments simply have different requirements. You'd be better served using the WDC 'Red' drives, which are designed for NAS use.
Yeah.. I know.. but it kind of hard to find an affordable WD RED here in Canada.. way cheaper to go the Green way but now they've disappeared :(
 

Ericloewe

Server Wrangler
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Feb 15, 2014
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20,175
New Blues are Greens. They just changed the label.
 

Netix

Cadet
Joined
Jul 18, 2017
Messages
9
New Blues are Greens. They just changed the label.

Not only the label.. can't change the park time anymore.. so the LLC are going through the roof :/

Just tried again on one manufactured 17 Jan. 2017 and same error as last time.. using two different computer and using two different method; wdidle3.exe on a dos boot usb and with UBCD. Any idea what I should try ?

The error I get is :

VSCSendKey CMD Error 51 04 10 4F 00 00 A0

Edit :

Tried some more with WD5741.exe this time.. and got :

Drive update not needed.

Second Edit :

Installed Ubuntu to try idle3-tools and got this error on both drive :

sg16(VSC_SENDKEY) failed: Invalid exchange

Anything else I could try or I'm out of luck ?
 
Last edited:

Sonik

Dabbler
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Sep 30, 2014
Messages
21
Have you tried on a PC with the old style BIOS? I had problems on newer PC's with UEFI but not on my older PC. I've changed loads of Blues on those without any errors. A couple of Blues that I recently changed were only manufactured 4 months ago.

Also, if you want to pick up Blues without intellipark then the 500GB and 1TB 7200RPM models are still the old style Blues. Just a shame they don't do the larger capacities without intellipark.
 

Netix

Cadet
Joined
Jul 18, 2017
Messages
9
Have you tried on a PC with the old style BIOS? I had problems on newer PC's with UEFI but not on my older PC. I've changed loads of Blues on those without any errors. A couple of Blues that I recently changed were only manufactured 4 months ago.

Also, if you want to pick up Blues without intellipark then the 500GB and 1TB 7200RPM models are still the old style Blues. Just a shame they don't do the larger capacities without intellipark.

I've put the sata mode in IDE for both of the computers I've tried them on.. I don't have anything else on hand except some laptops.. :/
 

Sonik

Dabbler
Joined
Sep 30, 2014
Messages
21
Try going on to the Ultimate Boot CD website. Click on version history and try an older version. It's a long shot and I don't know if it'll make a difference, but worth a try. I use version 5.1.1 from a few years back. Think it has an older version of WDIDLE3 on.
 

Netix

Cadet
Joined
Jul 18, 2017
Messages
9
Try going on to the Ultimate Boot CD website. Click on version history and try an older version. It's a long shot and I don't know if it'll make a difference, but worth a try. I use version 5.1.1 from a few years back. Think it has an older version of WDIDLE3 on.

Do you still have this version somewhere ? oldest I could find on UBCD website is 5.2.0 ! Thanks

Edit :

Found the wdidle3 2.0.0.1 version somewhere and now I can see that the timer is at 8 sec. but when I try to change it. It says : This drive is not supported.

Found the wdidle3 1.0.0 and 1.0.3 same error as the 1.0.5 :(
 
Last edited:

Sonik

Dabbler
Joined
Sep 30, 2014
Messages
21
This is why I think it's down to the the type of BIOS and some sort of incompatibility with newer drives. I don't think WD has disabled it intentionally though as I've still been able to change all of mine, even those manufactured recently. The older PC I use is just an old Dell Dimension I had in my garage from 2006. It picks up all the drives and changes them without any errors.

I have set all mine to 300 seconds (5 minutes). I do regular checks with CrystalDiskInfo and they're definitely not parking every 8 seconds. Plus I have software that writes to the drive every 4 minutes to prevent the heads from parking.

If there is a compatibility issue then WD really should release an updated tool. I doubt it's high on their priority list though.

If it gets to the point where I can't change the park timer on any drives then I might consider a different model or brand.
Although, I have seen quite a few users posting with high load/unload cycles and the drives have been running fine for years.
 

Netix

Cadet
Joined
Jul 18, 2017
Messages
9
This is why I think it's down to the the type of BIOS and some sort of incompatibility with newer drives. I don't think WD has disabled it intentionally though as I've still been able to change all of mine, even those manufactured recently. The older PC I use is just an old Dell Dimension I had in my garage from 2006. It picks up all the drives and changes them without any errors.

I have set all mine to 300 seconds (5 minutes). I do regular checks with CrystalDiskInfo and they're definitely not parking every 8 seconds. Plus I have software that writes to the drive every 4 minutes to prevent the heads from parking.

If there is a compatibility issue then WD really should release an updated tool. I doubt it's high on their priority list though.

If it gets to the point where I can't change the park timer on any drives then I might consider a different model or brand.
Although, I have seen quite a few users posting with high load/unload cycles and the drives have been running fine for years.

Why do you live so far ? haha.. I don't think there's a way for me to find a bios dating from 2006 :/

Is there any script I could run from window preventing the heads from parking ?

And do you know if there's way to know from the model or s/n number if the drive would be a Green or a blue ? I could try to see if there's some old my book lying around staples or wal-mart around town :/
 

Sonik

Dabbler
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Sep 30, 2014
Messages
21
I'm not too sure on that one, sorry, I've never actually used FlexRaid. There will be other users on this thread who'll know a lot more about that than me.
 

Sonik

Dabbler
Joined
Sep 30, 2014
Messages
21
Only just noticed your edited post.

The old style 1TB Blues (7200RPM no intellipark) are model WD10EZEX.

The 1TB 5400RPM Blues WD10EZRZ are the re-labelled Greens. Same with the 2-6TB Blues, those are also just re-labelled Greens.
 

Che^ron

Cadet
Joined
Jun 12, 2014
Messages
6
So I just found this thread (likely a lot later than I should have) and I wanted to share my WD Green 2TB cycle counts to see if I win some sort of award or something.

Code:
Drive 1 (WDC WD20EARS):
start_stop_count: 6006
load_cycle_count: 1609554
power_on_hours: 43090

Drive 2 (WDC WD20EZRX):
start_stop_count: 34
load_cycle_count: 831309
power_on_hours: 29658

Drive 3(WDC WD20EARX):
start_stop_count: 1615
load_cycle_count: 954092
power_on_hours: 45933

What do I win?  Haha.
 

guglez

Explorer
Joined
Feb 21, 2014
Messages
56
Just received a mail of happiness from my server that one of my drives was evicted from the pool. It's a WD30EFRX. It has 1 600 000 LLC with 20k power on hours :( Should I replace both drives or it's ok just to disable this parking feature? Is it possible to do that from FreeBSD/FreeNAS?

Here is it's smart:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x002f 200 200 051 Pre-fail Always - 327
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0027 178 174 021 Pre-fail Always - 6091
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 111
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 200 200 140 Pre-fail Always - 0
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x002e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 073 073 000 Old_age Always - 20035
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 110
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 34
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 001 001 000 Old_age Always - 1659070
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 119 110 000 Old_age Always - 31
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 10
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0030 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0008 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 0


And the smart from the similar disk from the same mirror pool:

ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x002f 200 200 051 Pre-fail Always - 0
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0027 174 172 021 Pre-fail Always - 6291
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 110
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 200 200 140 Pre-fail Always - 0
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x002e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 073 073 000 Old_age Always - 20038
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 110
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 33
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 001 001 000 Old_age Always - 1690304
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 118 109 000 Old_age Always - 32
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0030 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0008 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 0
 

farmerpling2

Patron
Joined
Mar 20, 2017
Messages
224
Just received a mail of happiness from my server that one of my drives was evicted from the pool. It's a WD30EFRX. It has 1 600 000 LLC with 20k power on hours :( Should I replace both drives or it's ok just to disable this parking feature? Is it possible to do that from FreeBSD/FreeNAS?

You are putting your drive into standby too quick. Increase the time it takes before a drive goes into standby. Most drive warrant drives for either 300k or 600k cycles. Greens are just 300k, if I remember right.

I would replace them. I would suggest buying a NAS drive, as when the greens start to fail it will likely be quick, based upon my experience.

Greens are not made as well as a good NAS drive. They also leave you at a higher risk of failure and losing your whole array when bad blocks start to happen. Seen it happen to a couple people.

When one drive goes the other(s) will not be far behind...
 

farmerpling2

Patron
Joined
Mar 20, 2017
Messages
224
So I just found this thread (likely a lot later than I should have) and I wanted to share my WD Green 2TB cycle counts to see if I win some sort of award or something.

Code:
Drive 1 (WDC WD20EARS):
start_stop_count: 6006
load_cycle_count: 1609554
power_on_hours: 43090

Drive 2 (WDC WD20EZRX):
start_stop_count: 34
load_cycle_count: 831309
power_on_hours: 29658

Drive 3(WDC WD20EARX):
start_stop_count: 1615
load_cycle_count: 954092
power_on_hours: 45933

What do I win?  Haha.

Impressive, to say the least.

Greens from 5 years ago were better made than greens from now days, IMHO. Shoot a note to WD and see if they will put you into a commercial like Toyota does with people who are still driving their cars after 350k miles. ;)
 

pasiz

Explorer
Joined
Oct 3, 2016
Messages
62
So I just found this thread (likely a lot later than I should have) and I wanted to share my WD Green 2TB cycle counts to see if I win some sort of award or something.

Code:
Drive 1 (WDC WD20EARS):
start_stop_count: 6006
load_cycle_count: 1609554
power_on_hours: 43090

Drive 2 (WDC WD20EZRX):
start_stop_count: 34
load_cycle_count: 831309
power_on_hours: 29658

Drive 3(WDC WD20EARX):
start_stop_count: 1615
load_cycle_count: 954092
power_on_hours: 45933

What do I win?  Haha.


Nothing, that is already awarded ;)

Code:
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate	 0x002f 200 200 051	Pre-fail Always	 -	 0
3 Spin_Up_Time			0x0027 187 181 021	Pre-fail Always	 -	 5633
4 Start_Stop_Count		0x0032 100 100 000	Old_age Always	 -	 95
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 200 200 140	Pre-fail Always	 -	 0
7 Seek_Error_Rate		 0x002e 200 200 000	Old_age Always	 -	 0
9 Power_On_Hours		 0x0032 044 044 000	Old_age Always	 -	 41579
10 Spin_Retry_Count		0x0032 100 253 000	Old_age Always	 -	 0
11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 253 000	Old_age Always	 -	 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count	 0x0032 100 100 000	Old_age Always	 -	 94
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 200 200 000	Old_age Always	 -	 60
193 Load_Cycle_Count		0x0032 001 001 000	Old_age Always	 -	 2419361



EDIT:

And still running strong, no reallocated sectors, all test passing. Just curious, is this problem?
 
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