Shucked 12 or 14TB Hard Drives any good (for a NAS)?

Soldato
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10 Apr 2004
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what this pin thing we need to do ?

As am also thinking of buying one the xbox black 8TB or 12TB ext 7200rpm drives for putting in my PC

Have a google. Essentially above a certain standard Pin-3 is a 'host' disable pin. I.e. If the drive sees 3.3V at this pin it does not power up. Hence you either need to modify your SATA power connector as all 'old' standard connectors have this as 3.3V permanently, or do like I've done, put a very small bit of electrical tape over the pin.


How have you found them performance wise?

Slightly limited in performance in my case as the two 10TBs in the array slow it down, but otherwise I have no concerns - they run very cool. Plus can't complain given the price difference....!
 
Soldato
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I went the Xbox route for the HC DC520 drives but the 14TB WDs are frequently used and not seen many complaints.
Thanks for the reply
Have a google. Essentially above a certain standard Pin-3 is a 'host' disable pin. I.e. If the drive sees 3.3V at this pin it does not power up. Hence you either need to modify your SATA power connector as all 'old' standard connectors have this as 3.3V permanently, or do like I've done, put a very small bit of electrical tape over the pin.
Am guessing you could also just cut the 3.3 volt cable that leads into the sata power connecter
 
Associate
OP
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I have been using my "shucked" Elements 14Tb in my Odroid HC2 for a couple of years now - no problems at all.

Quiet and temperatures seem pretty low as well.
 
Soldato
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Hi there.

I am on the look out for a new 12TB hard drive and have just come across "shucking".

I could get a 12TB WD My Book and save quite a lot - could even go for a 14TB.

However, it seems that the hard drives are Whites as opposed to Red.

I am going to be using the drive, on its own, in my server (and Odroid HC2).

Are the White labels reliable enough to take the risk?

I've had 3 12TB WD My Book drives in my Synology 1019+ for around 2 years, 0 issues. Dreives are recognised by the NAS as WD Reds, they're just less than half the price :)

Didn't have to do the pin mod for NAS use either, that's only for ATX power supplies I believe.

About to add another 2 drives actually. Go for it!
 
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Associate
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WD Elements is easy to shuck if you mean that.

Also WD-Hitachi has been doing well in reliability.
https://www.hardwaretimes.com/wd-ha...n-2021-seagate-had-the-highest-failure-rates/

I bought two of the elements 12tb in the black Friday sales.

One is shucked in my pc for internal backup.

The other I left in the caddy for external backup.

They work well and I get 100mb/s write on both.

You can hear the drive but it's not particularly loud in the case. I power it down when not in use.

No need to cover a pin or anything on the shucked drive (using the HDD caddy inside the pc011d XL)

I did slightly damage the caddy when removing the drive, you need to take care not to damage the clips. If I need to RMA I'll have to swap the drivers over.
 
Soldato
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I bought two of the elements 12tb in the black Friday sales.

One is shucked in my pc for internal backup.

The other I left in the caddy for external backup.

They work well and I get 100mb/s write on both.

You can hear the drive but it's not particularly loud in the case. I power it down when not in use.

No need to cover a pin or anything on the shucked drive (using the HDD caddy inside the pc011d XL)

I did slightly damage the caddy when removing the drive, you need to take care not to damage the clips. If I need to RMA I'll have to swap the drivers over.

Good news.
If you don't mind me asking. What price did you pay?

Just want to get a reference to where prices are now. Just so I can get the best deal.

I have a Synology NAS running a 5 disk SHR-2 array. There's 4 4TB CMR Reds and a 4 TB Iron Wolf. The reds are around 5 years old so I'm going to start swapping them out for something bigger. Go down 3 disks plus backup
 
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