If you did it right you should feel the tool mov… The Western Digital (WD) Easystore 8TB is an external hard drive sold exclusively by Best Buy. it is tied to the controller board and the data cannot be read without it. Get the best of STH delivered weekly to your inbox. Performance is great. I use Hard Disk Sentinel, because my PC is convenient to run it on, and it’s backed up. You will need to slip the tool between the matte plastic on the I/O side and the glossy plastic on the sides. Have 5 of the 8TB Easystores and 2 of the 10TB Easystores. The WD Blue and WD Black Series come in the 2.5" form factor. data via something like SmartmonTools, even before shucking and search the model numbers to see what the drive actually is. 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). That’s a cool $160 savings over the standalone bare drive, nearly a 50% discount. At this point, the outer shell can be slid off. He eats potato chips with chopsticks so he doesn't get grease on his mechanical keyboard. The limit is 5 per customer so I've got to figure out a way to get that 6th drive I need. Don’t be a muppet about this. Model and Specs. 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. This allows for cheaper NAS builds. You can get some insane deals near US holidays. 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 … Undo the cross-head screw holding the interface to the drive. You just need to cover up the 3rd pin of the SATA power connector with some kapton tape, as shown in this video. How to shuck (or remove) the internal hard drive from a Western Digital Easystore 8TB External Hard drive. He posts his personal ramblings here. D. digital_adhd New Member. 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. C. Churchill Admiral. More infos about ID the drives inside, shucking, etc. As it regularly goes on sale it is a very cheap method to pickup large amounts of reliable storage. 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. Newsletter. We are going to curate a selection of the best posts from STH each week and deliver them directly to you. 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. 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. Over the last 8 months, only one of the 8TB models died. Some of these white label drives use SATA revision 3.3, which includes a new feature that can disable power to the hard disk. After removing the outer shell, we find a WD100EMAZ 10TB white label HDD inside. I verified the 256mb cache on my Thailand drive (WD80EFAX-68LPHN0). 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. Thread starter Jailer; Start date Nov 24, 2018; Jailer Not strong, but bad. A+ would shuck again. It seems less likely to uncover Western Digital Red drives in these enclosures, presumably thanks to Western Digital catching on to the practice. Joined Sep 12, 2014 Messages 4,431. Sidenote, I just shucked two of these. 30 Jun '18. I already own 3 WD 8TB red drives and 2 WD 8TB white drives. 2 contained WD WD80EFAX Red label drives, Firmware 83.H0A83 Checking the drives before taking them apart means you can more easily send them back. 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. 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. 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. 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 can buy 8TB external for $230, the cheapest non-shingled internal is $100 more. Being able to buy cheap 3.5" externals and shuck them is a major cost advantage to me. 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. I have an iFixit Pro Tech Toolkit for just such occasions. 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. Best Buy is a US firm trading in the USA, Canada, and Mexico. However, I do NOT want a drive that has hardware encryption, e.g. I used a guitar pick and some iFixit tools for the job. WD80EMAZ is another model we are seeing that seems to be the same drive, the Ultrastar HC320 Datacenter drive. That's major cost savings even if you figure in shorter warranty. There’s a whole subreddit pretty much about this, r/DataHoarder (of course there is). If in doubt, stop. Probably not. Just did the RMA with WD and only sent the drive in. 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. Whitson Gordon is a writer, gamer, and all-around tech nerd. 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. 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. Born naked, helpless, and unable to fend for himself, Toby eventually overcame these handicaps to become a tinkerer, scuba diver, and musician. 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. 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. There are four tabs, two on each side. I've hard of … This allows for cheaper NAS builds. The video shows how to open the enclosure without breaking it and shuck the drive in great detail. “Shucking” refers to removing the drives from external HDDs, because often it’s cheaper than buying the drive directly. The Western Digital Easystore is the most popular drive for shucking. Advertisements. WD 8TB Easystore And even if there wasn’t a sale, the 14TB WD Easystore regularly sells for $260—still a healthy markdown. Here’s a little secret: you can get similar high capacity disks much cheaper by “shucking” them from Western Digital’s external drives. You can read more about the white label drives, and which power supplies are known to work, in this thread at /r/datahoarder. This is why I run them using a PC that I can easily restore. Now the hard part, you will need to get some pieces of thin plastic or metal to use as a pry tool. To do this, place the between the two pieces of plastic over a tab, angle towards the matte plastic side and push down. WD 8 TB My Book USB 3.0 Desktop Hard Drive with Password Protection and Auto Backup Software, Black. 3.5" drives are completely different matter. 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. The only remaining step is to remove the rubber bumpers, which are held in place by Torx T10 screws. Then, continue to remove the drive with an up/forwards movement. WD 10 TB Elements Desktop External Hard Drive - USB 3.0, Black. I do not plan to shuck it, but if the controller dies I want to be able to recover the data without a fuss. Once you do, the drive should work normally on any power supply, with no ill effects. 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. 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. These are basically the same thing as the Element drives, but have an exclusive branding for Best Buy. Go slow, be patient, and try not to break anything. 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. 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. 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 … 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. 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. That all sounds complicated, but it’s actually pretty simple. To remove the USB and power interface, first rotate the transparent plastic rod and then pull forwards to remove it. Are there any SMR Western Digital 8TB drives? You can feel the positions by inserting about a centimetre, and then rotating/wobbling it around. 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. Many others reported the same. 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. Commerce Content is independent of Editorial and Advertising. I verified the 256mb cache on my Thailand drive (WD80EFAX-68LPHN0). - WD 8TB Easystore on sale at Best Buy $130. Practically every other week the drive is on sale at Best Buy for ~$170 and contains a Western Digital Red drive. “Shucking” refers to removing the drives from external HDDs, because often it’s cheaper than buying the drive directly. Shuck AWAY! The economics of this elude me, but as a result, drive shucking became a common practice among savvy NAS users. Could be worse, could be Australia. Nov 24, 2018 #1 Just snagged 5 of these for a storage upgrade. The whole process will take over 30h for 8TB. 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. If you enjoyed this video and want to support me please leave a LIKE, write … This comes as a blow to anyone buying these drives to shuck. Thanks for the guide. They are positioned asymmetrically. 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. 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. Your email address: By opting-in you agree to have us send you our newsletter. The Western Digital Easystore is the most popular drive for shucking. Easystore WD 10TB Drive Shuck #2. 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. This item Western Digital 8TB EASYSTORE External HDD (WDBCKA0080HBK-NESN) WD 8 TB Elements Desktop External Hard Drive - USB 3.0, Black. Jan 6, 2016 793 185 43. I find the Easystore disks run quite hot, so I usually have a fan to force air into them. 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. 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. It seems WD is moving to white label drives in these enclosures; however, that does not mean these are generic, lower-spec drives. Easystore WD 10TB Drive Shuck #1. But do not fret—there is an easy fix. To start with, the WD Easystore range of hard drives are only available through Best Buy. Easystore WD 10TB Drive Shuck #3 All the others previously were Reds. 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. 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. 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). This means that the Easystore isn’t officially available outside of these countries, as the product is exclusive to Best Buy. These days, things are a bit more complicated. Maybe I'm lucky? Now it’s time to get the drive out of the inner shell. 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. Spudgers or plectrums work well, if you don’t mind damaging the plastic you can also use a screwdriver. My last purchase of an 8TB Easystore yielded a "white label" WD80EMAZ drive. A couple months with the new Synology DiskStation DS1618+ has demonstrated one thing above all: I…. A+ would shuck again. It’s not a bad way to save $100. Triple check the disk name/ID. 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