GreenPower TechnologyWith GreenPower technology, the Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EARS yields lower operating temperatures for increased reliability and low acoustics for ultra-quiet PCs and external drives.
Reduced Power ConsumptionCombined with WD's IntelliSeek, NoTouch, and IntelliPower technologies, the Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EARS has reduced power consumption by up to 40 percent compared to standard desktop drives.
SATA 3.0 Gb/s InterfaceThe Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EARS features the SATA II interface supporting up to 3.0 Gb/s data transfer rates, Native Command Queuing (NCQ) and hot-pluggable point-to-point connections for optimum performance, efficiency, convenience and flexibility.
Perpendicular Magnetic RecordingPerpendicular Magnetic recording technology enables industry-leading capacity in existing standard form factors and improves performance by increasing data density while reducing moving parts for enhanced reliability.
StableTrac technologyThe Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EARS features the StableTrac technology to secure the motor shaft at both ends, reducing system-induced vibration and stabilize platters for accurate tracking, during read and write operations.
Learn more about the Western Digital WD20EARS
Model
Brand
Western Digital
Series
WD Green
Model
WD20EARS
Packaging
Bare Drive
Performance
Interface
SATA 3.0Gb/s
Capacity
2TB
RPM
5400 RPM
Cache
64MB
Features
Features
Erased (DoD 5220.22 M Compliant) and tested good (Not formatted, partitioned, or allocated). Sold as used and in working condition. There may be drives that have up to 25 bad sectors. There may be writing or markings on the drive or the drive may vary slightly (color and/or label may differ) from picture but the model numbers will be the same.
Great drive for the price. Large cache makes the difference.7/11/2011 2:05:35 PM
Pros: This drive for being 2 TB and 64mb cache, you would think this is too good to be true. The price and the drive are great.
The best name in hard drives is Western Digital.
Cons: A bit slower than other drives
1 of 2 ordered was defective - not recognized, could not format.
Overall Review: Purchased 2. One was defective and had to RMA. Shipping cost of around $14 to return the item defeated the cost benefit from ordering through Newegg. I knew this was risk purchasing this item, but it shouldn't be such a gamble. Newegg gets dinged on this review because they put the cost back on the consumer. Can't the manufacturer pay for the return shipping?
WD needs to fix it's QC issues with these drives.
The slower speed is a compromise that is hardly noticed when you factor in the lower power, heat, and noise. Replaced a Samsung drive (non-green) that was in my HTPC and generating 45 degrees C of heat. These generate around 33 degrees C.
Pros: Runs as expected. Using as main storage (DVR) drive for HTPC. For the most part, drive access time seems comparable to the 7200 RPM it replaced. Haven't monitored temps, so can't comment on that.
Cons: Sometimes access is slightly slow, but overall, I don't notice much difference between the WD 7200 RPM 1TB drive that I had been using before. Time will tell.
Pros: Price was really good on sale. Works well as external e-Sata storage. Quiet. Runs cool even when transferring large files.
Cons: Not a 7200 RPM drive, but fast enough for an external enclosure for storing Video files.
Overall Review: This isn't a bad drive for storing files. Like any hard drive, you have to test it first using your favorite disc utility, then format and go from there. I find usually that if it passes an initial test and you don't beat them to death, you can get at least a year out of most hard drives, sometimes more. Remember, BACKUP....BACKUP..... BACKUP..
Pros: -Large capacity, formats to 1.81TB
-Very quiet, I can't hear it at all
-64MB of cache, which is great for multitaskers
Cons: As expected with a power saving hard drive, the performance is lacking when compared to 7200rpm drives.
Overall Review: Here are my HD Tune 2.55 results on this HD.
Access Time = 19.2ms
Burst Rate = 149.7MB/s
CPU Usage = -1.0%
Average transfer rate = 84.8MB/s
Minimum transfer rate = 48.3MB/s
Maximum transfer rate = 119.8MB/s
Pros: High capacity, virtually silent, produces almost no heat, and impressive speed: sustained 100MB/s on both read and write.
Cons: Doesn't make coffee in the morning?
Overall Review: These drives are not slow! The reviewers claiming so have likely messed up the partition alignment - EARS drives are advanced format with 4k blocks, and you have to make sure that your partitions are aligned with the 4k blocks.
If you don't align them properly (and most disk partitioning software fails at this), you will be spending over 1/2 of your write speed compensating for the poor alignment.
Western digital has a tool available from their site to help get alignment right, but I recommend just using GNU's parted (available for download on the excellent UBCD), and specifying the partition start in sectors, making sure to use a multiple of 8 (4k physical blocks / 512byte logical blocks = 8).
For instance, to format the drive with a single large partition, leaving space for a GRUB boot loader at the start of the disk, you would run:
bash$ parted
>> mkpart primary ext4 64s -1s
Anonymous
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
Verified Owner
Bad Sectors, Bad Sectors, Bad Sectors7/16/2010 4:59:59 PM
Pros: Runs slightly quieter, cooler and more energy-conserving than other models such as the Western Digital Caviar Black WD2001FASS 2TB.
Cons: Slower than other drives such as the Western Digital Caviar Black WD2001FASS 2TB and this "Caviar Green" series seem to have some major problems...
Bought 2 drives:
Drive #1 had massive bad sectors.
1. A full/complete format could not complete in Windows.
2. Windows CHKDSK reported lots of bad sectors.
3. Western Digital's own software "Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows" could not finish it's scan and gave the message "too many bad sectors".
(Unfortunately, bad sectors seem to be the theme for many Western Digital hard drives these days. Example: I purchased 5 different models of the Passport Elite portable hard drives, tested all and all had bad sectors!)
Drive #2 failed to report SMART info and the serial number in the "Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows" software after about a week or two.
BOTTOM LINE: If you discover your drive has even 1 "tiny" bad sector, return it! If you don't, you'll likely "pay for it" later on.
Overall Review: Whenever you purchase new hard drive:
1. ALWAYS do a full/complete format and NOT a "quick" format on it.
2. ALWAYS run a CHKDSK with surface test/scan on it.
Go to the drive in Windows, right click while pointing to it with the mouse then go to:
1. Properties
2. Tools
3. Error Checking
4. Click on "Check Now" button
4. Make sure both options are checked; "automatically fix file system errors" and "scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors".
On this drive, a full/complete format and a CHKDSK with surface test/scan will take about 6 hours each. To me, it is an absolute MUST!
Read the CHKDSK report. If you cannot find it, search for "find chkdsk report" to find out how.
When bad sectors appear, it means the beginning of problems for a hard drive and possibly even it's death.
It's better to invest several hours (just leave it there by itself) to test like this rather than to waste your money and to get more headaches later when you need to salvage and save y
Pros: This drive for being 2 TB and 64mb cache, you would think this is too good to be true. The price and the drive are great. The best name in hard drives is Western Digital.
Cons: NONE