Western Digital 1 TB Western Digital RE SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Enterprise Hard Drive Western Digital1003FBYZ

The WD RE series SATA III drives are outstanding enterprise drives. Designed for long life in server use with a 24X7 duty cycle they are ideal for that environment. Their 5 year warranty speaks to their reliability.With Time Limited Error Recovery (TLER) the RE series drives are well suited RAID based applications which are not suitable for desktop drives which can give false failures with their extended error recovery timings.The RE drives are economically priced with a relatively low cost per gigabyte and a wide range of capacities from 250GB up to 4TB.I recently installed a pair of RE drives in a client server in a RAID1 configuration. As I've come to expect they worked perfectly and with some initial testing are slightly faster than the RE4 drives that were already in this server.I been running dozens of servers for myself and my clients for decades and using the Western Digital RE series of enterprise drives since the RE3 line came out. I've continued throughout the RE4 drives and now the RE (no number) which are the latest and appear to be even better than than the predecessors.These RE series drives have been very reliable with no failures in years. When I want reliable and economical server storage the RE drives are the center of my comfort zone. To improve performance even more I have started using smallish SSD drives for some server applications; using a SSD RAID1 for the OS and RE drives in RAID1 for the bulk data storage. This can really boost server performance while balancing costs.If you put these into a desktop PC don't expect them to be super quiet! They are not very quiet drives which is fine in most server applications.Overall Western Digital has demonstrated continued improvement in their enterprise RE drives. When I want drives I can depend on for solid performance in a 24X7 environment RE is my go to drive.Hope this helps someone!

If you need a fast & reliable hard drive that is capable of virtually any application need, the Re is a solid pick! Despite being a capable choice for mission-critical applications, the Re is surprisingly affordable, making it a good choice for home & enterprise users alike.Whether you are using this as an external single-disk home backup for important data/memories, for the primary or secondary internal desktop drive, as the drives for your RAID setup, or for network storage, the Re (& RE4, the older version the Re replaced) is a drive deserving consideration. It offers very fast data transfer speeds for a hard disk drive (HDD) and it comes from a line known for fantastic durability & reliability.BE CAREFUL WHOM YOU PURCHASE HARD DRIVES FROM ON AMAZON! Due to the prevalence of fake performance hard drives being sold on Amazon, as well as the frequent sale of used hard drives that were advertised as brand new, I strongly caution buyers to be certain they are purchasing from a reliable vendor with good feedback (and a solid return policy), and that they utilize the tools Western Digital provides to authenticate their product as being genuine and new (I will discuss this in further detail later.)I apologize in advance for the length of this review, but I enjoy talking about hard drives and there is a lot to talk about with the WD Re and I want to thoroughly defend my reasoning on why I think the Re is one of the finest hard drives made. My review includes the following sections:1 - Description of Western Digital’s Re/RE4 lineup2 - Comparison of the newer Re (current gen) to the older RE4 (previous gen)3 - A note on making the distinction between the different generations4 - My usage of this drive – what I like5 - My usage of this drive – what I don’t like6 - Long-term reliability (to be updated in 2016-2017)7 - Getting the most out of this as an external: USB 2 and Firewire won’t cut it--you need faster8 - Scam Sellers: Sellers peddling used drives they advertised as new, & authenticating the real deal9 - Closing thoughts – justifying this kind of drive for home-use applications------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1 - WESTERN DIGITAL’S Re/RE4 LINEUPThe Western Digital Re/RE line is Western Digital’s enterprise-grade hard disk drives available in both SATA and SAS interfaces. They are designed for usage in commercial applications where a disk is constantly going through read/write cycles, and where both speed and reliability are of critical importance. Unlike Western Digital’s standard consumer-grade HDD warranty, their enterprise lines (and some of their other flagship & performance lines) are covered by a 5-year warranty of slightly different terms. And unlike many other enterprise drives, the Re/RE4 is reasonably affordable for this type of product. Between the speed, reliability, and affordability, these are absolutely fantastic drives for a RAID setup.----------------------------2 - THE NEWER Re (CURRENT GENERATION) VS THE OLDER RE4 (PREVIOUS GENERATION)The Western Digital Re is the replacement of the Western Digital RE4. The RE4 was a highly successful drive ranging in capacities of 250 GB to 2 TB. I own & manage numerous RE4’s in the 500 GB and 1 TB size, some of which are pushing around 5+ GB of data every day and have ran flawlessly for the past 5 years non-stop. As the service life of some of my 500 GB RE4’s are coming to a close and as I need more space, I will be progressively replacing them with the 1 TB and 2 TB Re models. Within about 3 years I plan to have at least 10 Re’s running in those sizes, possibly many more.Some specs/features have changed or been added to the new Re, where as others are the same as they were with the old RE4. Here is a crude breakdown of the differences and similarities…==What is DIFFERENT or NEW with the newer Re:==--The (newer) Re adds the 3 TB and 4 TB sizes--The Re uses a SATA III (6.0 Gbps) connection (the older RE4 used SATA II)--The Re is rated at <1 in 10^16 Non-recoverable read errors per bits read (the RE4 was 10^15, which is a common rating on enterprise drives, where as 10^14 is more common on consumer drives)--Transfer speeds on the Re improve over the RE4 in 2 TB size, and the 2, 3, and 4 TB Re’s have notably fast speeds (upwards of 165-190 MB per second peak)--The Re adds new encryption capabilities--The Re has a new (dual) processor==What is the SAME or UNCHANGED from the older RE4:==--3.5 inch drive size--7,200 RPM rotational disk speed--64 MB Cache--1.2 million hours Mean Time Between Failures rating--600,000 load/unload cycle rating--5-55 degree operating temp (much wider for storage without operation)--30-35 dB when seeking (this is relatively loud but this type of drive tends to have that)--Considerable shock/vibration protection for a HDD (these can take more shock than most HDDs)--5-year warranty----------------------------3 - A NOTE ON MAKING THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT GENERATIONSAs of 2015, there is still pretty good availability of the older RE4 drives, and many sellers are currently offering both the Re and RE4 (while stock remains.) Because the labels on the Re and RE4 are similar looking, some of the specs are similar, and the model numbers of the Re and RE4 drives are pretty similar, Sellers may occasionally confuse the model numbers. Keep this in mind before buying and be sure to verify when you get the drive that you have gotten the correct generation you paid for!----------------------------4 - MY USAGE OF THIS DRIVE – WHAT I LIKEAs of right now, I am simply using a single 1 TB drive in a basic USB-3 single-drive enclosure. This is giving me the opportunity to play around with the drive, and put it through various stress and performance tests. My usage of this drive thus far has been great and going forward I expect nothing less.The biggest additions to the Re over the RE4 are the size increase, the speed increase, and the improvement in the rating of non-recoverable read errors per bits read. Theoretically, this drive should be equal or greater to the RE4, which is already fantastic. The non-recoverable read errors rating is the best in the business, and one or two orders of magnitude greater than most consumer-grade drives. The robust protection from shock & vibration also contributes to long-term durability if this drive is used as an external. While specifications can only say so much about reliability, they do serve as general guidelines and the Re has all the right specs one wants to see when searching for a very fast & reliable HDD.The speeds I am getting with this 1 TB Re are FAST. I am getting sustained read and sustained write speeds exceeding 140 Megabytes per second, which is spectacular performance for a HDD. This surprised me because it exceeds the advertised speed in the WD spec sheet, and that kind of speed is literally as fast as the previous generation 10k-RPM WD Velociraptor!!! That is impressive and it gives the user a lot of flexibility when it comes to configuring a setup that will offer high-speed transfers.----------------------------5 - MY USAGE OF THIS DRIVE – WHAT I DON’T LIKEThis is a rather ‘chatty’ drive, and I think it is a good bit noisier than the RE4, even though the spec sheets show the two as having similar noise levels. It runs at 7200-RPM (which by default is considerably noisier than the 5400-RPM hard drives) and it was built with the intention for commercial usage, meaning audible sound probably wasn’t given much design attention since speed & reliability are the front-runners. With that said, this doesn’t bother me much as my preference is for optimal performance over optimal sound. Still, this may be an issue for other users.While I do not think the model is made yet, back when the RE4 was still the flagship current model in its class, Western Digital introduced the GP RE4 models. These disks had advanced power management options similar to the technology introduced with the WD Green drives that allowed the drive to use various means to save power. However, this feature considerably reduced reliability, and introducing it to a drive that is made for constant around-the-clock usage wasn’t appropriate because it resulted in expedited wear. The end result would be a huge spike in load cycles and often a shorter service life. So if WD ever introduces a GP version of the Re, I strongly recommend avoiding it.----------------------------6 - LONG-TERM RELIABILITYAs of today, I cannot speak much to the specific long-term reliability of the 1 TB and 2 TB Re because I have not used them long enough. As Google’s hard drive testing has shown, failure rates tend to be much higher at the 0-1 month mark and the 4+ year mark than they do during times in between. The Re has survived the initial stress testing to simulate the break-in time when hard drives with manufacturing issues tend to fail during. Now I need to use the drive for years and then edit this review based on what happens during that time.My experience with the RE4 gives me confidence in the Re’s longevity. During the RE4’s run, Western Digital got a lot of business from people who swore by the RE4’s capabilities and used it for mission-critical applications in which poor hard drive performance or premature failure could come at a tremendous financial or human cost. Western Digital is well aware that the RE4 was their ticket to the enterprise crowd and the only way to keep the brand loyalty that the RE4 has generated means following up with a product of equal or greater design. Anything less would be a very bad business decision.I will update this review every few years to specify the number I am using and failures, if any.----------------------------7 - GETTING THE MOST OUT OF THIS AS AN EXTERNAL: USB 2 AND FIREWIRE WON’T CUT ITThe speed of this drive can be double the theoretical maximum speed that USB 2 supports. If you want to utilize the full read & write capability of this drive and you are using it as an external hard drive, you will need to use a high/super-speed port such as USB 3.0, Thunderbolt, or eSATA (ideally the 3.0 Gbps revision, which is common.)Using a slower port like USB 2 or FireWire 800/400 will result in the connection throttling back the drive speed to only run as fast at the max speed of the connection will allow. Therefore you will need an enclosure, a cable, and a computer that are all capable of using one of these faster interfaces. (USB 3.0 is generally the least expensive and most universal of the above-noted possibilities.)other drives can match. I highly recommend this product!------------------------------------------8 - SCAM SELLERS: SELLERS PEDDLING USED DRIVES THEY ADVERTISED AS NEW, & AUTHENTICATING THE REAL DEALI am sorry to say that many Sellers are either intentionally or unintentionally misleading customers when it comes to hard drives. Western Digital is aware of this, and they have implemented an online tool called the “WD Warranty Checker” in which you can enter the serial number of your drive and confirm it is authentic with a valid warranty (you can with HGST as well, and Seagate has their own authentication system.) I do not recommend purchasing used hard drives from any third party Sellers because there is no way to know how that hard drive was used (and possibly used so much that the service life is almost over.)Because the plain OEM cardboard boxes that Western Digital bare drives are packaged in are easy to replicate (as is the sticker on the outside that says the model and serial number), they are moving in the direction of shipping their OEM/Bare drives in a tamper-free type of packaging inside of the box. The hard drive is SEALED in a magnetic bag with a yellow Western Digital watermark on the bottom, and this bag cannot be opened without being physically torn or cut open. If you get a Western Digital product in a bag sealed only with a sticker or tape, I would be sure to use the WD Warranty Checker to verify it is just in an older/different packaging rather than a repackaging used by a Seller to make a hard drive appear brand new when it is not. I have attached a picture showing this packaging and watermark. If the hard drive you get has had this packaging torn open previously and taped up, reject the shipment as that drive is NOT new.Many used hard drives on Amazon are also sold as “refurbished” but in reality they are simply used drives marketed in a fashion to make it sound as if you aren’t taking a gamble on inheriting someone else’s old problems. Avoid these Sellers; the 10-15% you save isn’t worth the potential loss of reliability. Some Sellers seem to feel that making a few extra pennies at the price of their integrity is worth it, and it’s put a lot of good people into very stressful situations that they didn’t deserve. I am sorry to say that this happens a lot more than you might expect…some of the Sellers who do this are even part of Amazon’s Fulfillment Program. Amazon needs to step up here and take action as this isn’t fair to you and it isn’t fair to me.----------------------------9 - CLOSING THOUGHTS – JUSTIFYING THIS KIND OF DRIVE FOR HOME-USE APPLICATIONSA lot of people opt for a standard consumer-grade external (and internal) hard drive. After all, you can find them everywhere for a pretty affordable price. But if you are reading this review, it means you may be considering a different route: purchasing the hard drive and enclosure separately, putting them together yourself, and making your own hard drive.If that is what you are thinking of, I highly recommend it because you can purchase a much nicer enclosure and a much, much, much nicer hard drive for around the same price. Virtually all hard drive makers produce both low-end and flagship hard drives because they need to produce products capable storing everything from the occasional home backup to the software used to operate a nuclear power plant. This Re drive is built with the intention of it having the capability for both. If you open up most of the pre-packaged external hard drives, you will quickly see that most have the lower-end drives and these drives do not have the best speed nor do they have the best reliability. You shouldn’t have to and you don’t have to settle for that.If you have ever had to pay for data recovery, you know that it’s not always successful but it gets expensive fast regardless (often thousands of dollars.) You also know virtually no hard drive warranties cover data recovery, even if the drive was faulty. By choosing the Re, RE4, or another high-grade or professional-grade drive, you have the option to reduce the chance you ever wind up in that situation (another part is, of course, redundancy…you never want to store any data on one single drive/location if losing it would be a problem…keep at least two copies of any data that you would not be OK with losing permanently. For critical data, consider storing the copies in different physical locations in the event of fire or water damage. In the event something happens to one of the drives you are using to store the data, you are prepared with a secondary copy capable of providing your data, and you should rapidly replace the lost drive without delay.)So whether you are considering this for a main desktop drive, a secondary internal desktop drive, part of a RAID setup, part of a rack system on a server, or just for really reliable single-disk home backup, the Re is a solid choice (as is the older RE4.) Don’t compromise for something cheaper…the Re is surprisingly affordable and you will get to enjoy data transfer speeds and reliability that not many other drives can match. I highly recommend this product!

These are WD original Enterprise Drives.They do the job and do it well, as fast as you are going to get without spending extreme $$$.Its safe to say I have purchased over 100 WD drives, and have had to RMA no more than 3 of their Enterprise Drives.If they fail, they tend to do it early...if you are running Enterprise Drives, then you should be running RAID and have the proper backup procedures in place. These drives make using these procedures a once in a blue moon occurrence.

We ordered two of these hard drives from Beach Audio, one failed withing the return window and the second just after. They accepted the return of the first one but refused to exchange the second. I'm thinking this was probably a bad batch from the manufacturer since they both failed so quickly and am disappointed they refused to exchange the second one. We will not purchase from Beach Audio again.

I've used and depended on WD products for years. They have always been reliable and I trust it to my most sensitive data. However BACKUPS on a regular bases is a MUST for anything that is not replaceable (Documents, photos, music). The unit comes as you see in a static bag and padded box. No screws or documentation, but if your doing a drive replacement / Upgrade you should know what your doing first

Among all the drives I've used over the many years, WD has been the best performer, very reliable and if you ever need to contact support, they are very good. And the drive comes with adequate warranty for its price point. I use these drives in servers that are on 24x7 and they last very long.

Would Recommend, whats to say, quality HDD, I use in consumer grade desktops, this will out live the computer. Quieter than black drives and same performance. You get what you pay for, so make the investment in your data and get the finest available. You won't regret it!