Hacking WD Greens (and Reds) with WDIDLE3.exe

[joeschmuck]

I know this isn't the thread for this but I'd like to know if the WD drive lineup is really the same hardware and just a firmware difference and label or if there are real mechanical differences. Of course warranty is also a difference that we pay for. I'm not saying I'd purchase Blue drives even if someone told me they were the same as the Red drives, not unless I know what the firmware differences were. Of course I'd change the head parking timer to 300 seconds but would the read/write attempts be different, what makes them different is key to me and ensuring my data is reasonably safe.

 

[Yatti420]

What would be even better and if they are indeed identical is that if you could hack up the firmare to get a red out of a blue :)

 

[joeschmuck]

That would be dreaming but a good dream.

 

[Ericloewe]

I know this isn't the thread for this but I'd like to know if the WD drive lineup is really the same hardware and just a firmware difference and label or if there are real mechanical differences. Of course warranty is also a difference that we pay for. I'm not saying I'd purchase Blue drives even if someone told me they were the same as the Red drives, not unless I know what the firmware differences were. Of course I'd change the head parking timer to 300 seconds but would the read/write attempts be different, what makes them different is key to me and ensuring my data is reasonably safe.

All evidence points to them being, at least, very similar. I fully expect them to be the same thing.

There are some pictures floating around, showing Reds and Formerly-Known-as-Greens having somewhat different boards, but they never seem to get drives from the same production run - they always seem to compare drives a year or two apart in production date, where different revisions are to be expected.

What would be even better and if they are indeed identical is that if you could hack up the firmare to get a red out of a blue :)

They are, to an extent. You don't get TLER, but you can change the idle timer. If you don't care about TLER, Greens/New Blues are a viable alternative.

 

[solarisguy]

I think I responded some months ago, that Red version seemed to have more accelerometers.

However, nowadays, I would now think that the laptop versions would have the highest count of accelerometers ;)

 

[Gulitza]

Hi guys,
Just joined the community to thank the OP for his help.
I did this to two brand new greens. The thing is that after I did it I tried the /R switch to double check, but the command halts at Configure Idle3.
It does the same for both drives. Any ideas why?
Thanks

 

[1ex]

Hello.
There is no need in wd5741 or wdidle3.exe for check/change idle3 timer on FreeBSD (and on FreeNAS, accordingly), it can be done by tool in base system called camcontrol.
To see current value of idle3, for example, on device ada0, run this set of commands:
Enable vsc (vendor specific commands) on device:

Code:

camcontrol cmd ada0 -v -a "80 45 00 44 57 40 00 00 00 00 00 00"

Send read key:

Code:

camcontrol cmd ada0 -v -a "B0 D6 BE 4F C2 40 00 00 00 00 01 00" -o 512 "2a 00 01 00 02 00 0d 00 16 00 01"

Read idle3 time value:

Code:

camcontrol cmd ada0 -v -a "B0 D5 BF 4F C2 40 00 00 00 00 01 00" -i 512 "i1"

Disable vsc:

Code:

camcontrol cmd ada0 -v -a "80 44 00 44 57 40 00 00 00 00 00 00"

To change value of idle3 on ada0:
Enable vsc:

Code:

camcontrol cmd ada0 -v -a "80 45 00 44 57 40 00 00 00 00 00 00"

Send write key:

Code:

camcontrol cmd ada0 -v -a "B0 D6 BE 4F C2 40 00 00 00 00 01 00" -o 512 "2a 00 02 00 02 00 0d 00 16 00 01"

Write new value of idle3 timer, for example 192 (C0 in hex):

Code:

camcontrol cmd ada0 -v -a "B0 D6 BF 4F C2 40 00 00 00 00 01 00" -o 512 "C0"

To disable idle3 timer - write 00.
Disable vsc:

Code:

camcontrol cmd ada0 -v -a "80 44 00 44 57 40 00 00 00 00 00 00"

More information about possible timer values you can find at bottom of http://idle3-tools.sourceforge.net/
After changing of timer value you must off/on power of your device to apply new settings (reboot is not help).
Works well with my WD Red (WD20EFRX).

 

[Bidule0hm]

That's a very great post, thanks ;)

 

[yourmate]

There is no need in wd5741 or wdidle3.exe for check/change idle3 timer on FreeBSD (and on FreeNAS, accordingly), it can be done by tool in base system called camcontrol.
More information about possible timer values you can find at bottom of http://idle3-tools.sourceforge.net/

Probably this is worth mentioning in OP... Thanks a lot

I know this isn't the thread for this but I'd like to know if the WD drive lineup is really the same hardware and just a firmware difference and label or if there are real mechanical differences.

I think this is just marketing bullshit as it was with the painkillers [normal/for women during those rough days/etc - with the very same ingredients and even with the same license number] But that's just my thoughts how would I know ;)
I have a CCTV background so it was a clear choice - after reading the specs on WD's site - to buy the cheaper 4TB Purple ones so I now ended up with 3 x 4TB Reds [two were in my Windows media player mirrored for a couple years] and 3 x 4TB Purple. They are mixed some were new but the rest I've bought used [although I needed to RMA two of them so those are new now as well]
As I've just literally finished my badblocks a few hours ago and I am running the long SMART test right now so I won't pull those data right now but I already have some interesting facts after running the dd and monitoring the temps.

I was aware this 'problem/feature' for quite a long time but since I haven't used my drives in a server environment I could not be bothered to change the setting. I will check the park settings on all drives and report back. As they are quite far apart in manufacturing date it will be interesting to see the results. Even if purples are not welcome here ;)

 

[LIGISTX]

So, I have posted on here before and have lurked sparingly for a year or two, is this still the "route to go" for buying new drives? I just purchased a used X8 based supermicro 4U server and need to fill it with some drives! If greens are still flashable to Reds and still recommended, I think I will end up with ~8 4TB's.

 

[joeschmuck]

Greens are not flashable to Reds but you can set the idle timer to disable the parking if you like or first check the timer and maybe it will be set to 300 seconds (5 minutes) and you will most likely be a happy camper. If you are only using the drives periodically, I'd recommend the 300 second setting, if you are using the drives all the time (the drives are being accessed very frequently and the delay in loading the head is an issue) then I'd recommend disabling the timer. I can't think of many people who need to disable the timers. Mine have been disabled and I'm running well over the warranty period. No complaints from me.

 

[LIGISTX]

Greens are not flashable to Reds but you can set the idle timer to disable the parking if you like or first check the timer and maybe it will be set to 300 seconds (5 minutes) and you will most likely be a happy camper. If you are only using the drives periodically, I'd recommend the 300 second setting, if you are using the drives all the time (the drives are being accessed very frequently and the delay in loading the head is an issue) then I'd recommend disabling the timer. I can't think of many people who need to disable the timers. Mine have been disabled and I'm running well over the warranty period. No complaints from me.

Thanks!


Sent from my jailbroke iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Yatti420]

I always disabled mine when I had greens and have left them disabled as they are now in Windows machines.. The stock drives are still racking huge LCC regardless of OS versus the disabled..

 

[ale321]

Hello. Very good topic, very useful information, thank you, cyberjock.
I have a question. I have NAS Synology ds212 and 7200Rpm server HDD (TLER enabled). I want to use wd30EZRX for raid1 with existing disk. Correct me if I am wrong. I can use Green in RAID1 of my NAS. First of all I should turn off head parking (so that my Green hdd will not be dropped from the raid array). The second moment is TLER. Green has no support of TLER. But TLER makes sense in hardware raid. In my case Synology has software raid (mdadm), so I am unaffected by this issue. Am i right? I understand that my system will work on a lower (wd green) speed, but as it was said in topic, in 1Gbit/s network it is not a big problem.

 

[joeschmuck]

Correct me if I am wrong. I can use Green in RAID1 of my NAS. First of all I should turn off head parking (so that my Green hdd will not be dropped from the raid array).

The head parking has nothing to do with your drive being dropped from the array.

The second moment is TLER. Green has no support of TLER. But TLER makes sense in hardware raid. In my case Synology has software raid (mdadm), so I am unaffected by this issue. Am i right?

You are wrong. There is no difference between hardware or software RAID when it comes to how long a drive waits to say it can't post good data, that is what TLER is for, to make it report the issue quickly.

I believe you need to read this entire thread.

 

[Sonik]

Just a bit of feedback to let everybody know that I bought 2 of the new
2TB Blues/re-labelled Greens. Both model WD20EZRZ and both manufactured 26th June 2016.

Successfully changed the head park timer to 300 seconds. Both drives functioning fine.

Decided not to disable the timer, as they won't be in constant use. I'll only be using these as backup drives connected to external docks and only powered up when doing the backups.

 

[vmsio]

I haven't had too much time to mess with this, tried to change parking on a drive out of the 'box', but unfortunately I do not have any luck with it. It is a 6TB 'Blue/re-labelled Green' model WD60EZRZ Date 08 AUG 2016.

With wdidle3 v1.05 it would give 'VSCSendKey Still Bsy' when bootup right into MS-DOS/Free-DOS. If I waited a bit longer for the drive before sending the command it would stall after displaying the Serial Number.

With ide3 tools under linux, I also get some kind of error when I try to get the value. Sorry, I cannot recall the exact error.

I don't believe it's user error (unless something change recently) as I've done this multiple times with greens and have tested this setup on a old WD60EZRX GREEN labeled, and a WD50EZRZ 'Blue/re-labelled Green' with Date 02 NOV 2015. Both of these drives worked.

I also did spot a Chinese BSS where a individual was able to set this WD60EZRZ drive in wdidle3, so I'm not sure what the deal is with my drive. If someone has any advice or success with these more recent date code I would appreciate a reply.

 

[Sonik]

I haven't had too much time to mess with this, tried to change parking on a drive out of the 'box', but unfortunately I do not have any luck with it. It is a 6TB 'Blue/re-labelled Green' model WD60EZRZ Date 08 AUG 2016.

With wdidle3 v1.05 it would give 'VSCSendKey Still Bsy' when bootup right into MS-DOS/Free-DOS. If I waited a bit longer for the drive before sending the command it would stall after displaying the Serial Number.

With ide3 tools under linux, I also get some kind of error when I try to get the value. Sorry, I cannot recall the exact error.

I don't believe it's user error (unless something change recently) as I've done this multiple times with greens and have tested this setup on a old WD60EZRX GREEN labeled, and a WD50EZRZ 'Blue/re-labelled Green' with Date 02 NOV 2015. Both of these drives worked.

I also did spot a Chinese BSS where a individual was able to set this WD60EZRZ drive in wdidle3, so I'm not sure what the deal is with my drive. If someone has any advice or success with these more recent date code I would appreciate a reply.

Might sound like an obvious suggestion, but did you make sure the SATA Mode was set to IDE in the BIOS before running WDIDLE3? I've read that can cause issues. And all other drives removed? Did you run it from the latest UBCD?

 

[vmsio]

Might sound like an obvious suggestion, but did you make sure the SATA Mode was set to IDE in the BIOS before running WDIDLE3? I've read that can cause issues. And all other drives removed? Did you run it from the latest UBCD?

I have tried putting it on IDE mode today, I get a 'VSCSendKey CMD Error' when running wdidle3.
I'm not running UBCD, I'm just simply running a MS-DOS boot drive and running wdidle3 v1.05 that I used in the past. I have redownloaded wdidle3, checked hashes, and tried it on FreeDOS as well. No other drives are connected.

I think there are just some drives that are not compatible for whatever reason. There's a similar error in this thread from user Trophy with their 4TB Green. (CMD Error in IDE mode, and freezes after Serial Number in AHCI mode)

Hoping to grab another drive from a different retailer, but I'm a bit discouraged at the moment.

 

[9C1 Newbee]

Hoping to grab another drive from a different retailer, but I'm a bit discouraged at the moment.

Did you happen to try a different computer? If not, fire up an older computer you have stuffed in a closet somewhere. Did the trick for me.