Western Digital Hard Drive Families (Part II)

C) External Hard Drives
Desktop

  • My Book 3.0
    This stylish external hard drive features a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface for the fastest transfer rates available on an external hard drive.
  • My Book Elite
    An elegant, easy-to-use storage solution with WD SmartWare backup software, customizable e-label, and password protection.
  • My Book Essential
    An elegant, easy-to-use storage solution with WD SmartWare backup software, password protection and capacity gauge.
  • WD Elements Desktop
    Simple, reliable, portable storage.

Desktop for Mac

  • My Book for Mac
    An elegant, easy-to-use storage solution with automatic, continuous backup software, password protection, and capacity gauge. Compatible with Apple® TimeMachine™.
  • My Book Studio LX
    A super-fast storage solution for your Mac in a premium aluminum enclosure, featuring a customizable e-label and hardware-based encryption. This Apple Time Machine-compatible drive is the perfect complement for your Mac.
  • My Book Studio
    An elegant, super-fast storage solution for your Mac with automatic, continuous backup software, password protection and customizable e-label.
  • My Book Studio Edition II
    Quad interface, RAID-enabled, about 30% less power consumption, formatted for Mac®. The My Book Studio Edition II treads lightly on the earth and carries big performance for creative professionals.

Portable

  • My Passport Elite
    This ultra-portable USB drive is packed with smart features like automatic, continuous backup, password protection, an illuminated capacity gauge and a convenient grab-and-go dock.
  • My Passport Essential SE
    This stylish, compact portable USB drive now features maximum capacity for all the chapters of your digital life.
  • My Passport Essential
    Our smallest, portable drive ever is also our smartest with automatic, continuous backup and password protection.
  • WD Elements Portable SE
    A portable hard drive with maximum capacity in a compact design for easy plug-and-play storage on the go.
  • WD Elements
    Simple, reliable, portable storage.

Portable for Mac

  • My Passport Studio
    This ultra-portable, Mac-ready drive is packed with innovative features like a fast FireWire 800 interface, customizable e-label, and visual, automatic, continuous backup.
  • My Passport SE for Mac
    This stylish, compact portable USB drive now features maximum capacity for all the chapters of your digital life.
  • My Passport for Mac
    An elegant, easy-to-use portable storage solution with automatic, continuous backup software and password protection. Compatible with Apple® TimeMachine™.
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Western Digital Hard Drive Families (Part I)

Western Digital Hard Drive FamiliesWestern Digital Corporation (often abbreviated to WD) is the second largest computer hard disk drives manufacturer in the world, after Seagate and has a long history in the electronics industry as an integrated circuit maker and a storage products company. Western Digital was founded on April 23, 1970 by Alvin B. Phillips, a Motorola employee, as General Digital, initially (and briefly) a manufacturer of MOS test equipment. It rapidly became a speciality semiconductor maker, with start-up capital provided by several individual investors and industrial giant Emerson Electric Company.

A) Internal Hard Drives

Desktop

Mobile

Enterprise

  • WD VelociRaptor
    The PC enthusiasts’ favorite 10,000 RPM hard drive is still the fastest, most dangerous carnivore around – now with an ultra-fast 32 MB cache and SATA 6 Gb/s interface and twice the capacity of previous generations.
  • WD S25
    The 2.5-inch WD S25 SAS drives offer the powerful combination of enterprise-class performance and reduced power consumption required for demanding high-performance computing and mission-critical environments.
  • WD RE4
    Massive capacity, 64 MB cache, 1.2 million hours MTBF, and a 5-year limited warranty, WD RE4 drives offer an ideal combination of high capacity, optimum performance, and 24×7 reliability for enterprise applications.
  • WD RE4-GP
    WD RE4-GP enterprise-class SATA drives are designed for power-conscious, large-scale data centers.
  • WD RE3
    1.2 million hours MTBF. Best-in-class vibration tolerance. 5-year limited warranty. Just three of the reasons why WD RE3 drives are the world’s most reliable SATA drives.

Audio/Video

  • WD AV-GP
    Power-conserving WD AV-GP drives offer significant power savings and thermally optimized operation resulting in lower cost of ownership and unsurpassed reliability for PVR/DVR, IPTV boxes and media server manufacturers.
  • WD AV-25
    Low power storage engineered to thrive in 24×7 streaming environments.
  • WD AV
    Significant design advances in WD’s hard drive technology, combine optimized AV performance with best-in-class power consumption and thermally optimized operation enabling unparalleled cost of ownership for manufacturers of digital video recording devices.

Solid State

  • WD SiliconEdge Blue
    Solid state drives that will satisfy the most demanding technology enthusiasts and bring a new level of performance and ruggedness to laptop and desktop PCs.

B) Network Products

  • WD ShareSpace
    A high-speed network-attached storage system with capacities up to 8 TB. Perfect for centralizing and sharing data and multimedia files on a small office or home network.
  • My Book Live
    Centralize your photos, music, movies and files on your wired or wireless network for your whole family to access.
  • My Book World Edition II
    Central storage and backup for all the computers in your network and double-safe data protection with RAID mirroring technology.
  • My Book World Edition
    The home network drive that everyone in the house can use, whether they’re on a Mac or PC, to save and share photos, music, and movies on a wired or wireless network.
  • WD Livewire
    Use your home’s electrical outlets to create wired, streaming-ready, high-speed Internet connections anywhere in your home without running wires between rooms.
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Noise related to PCB in WD HDDs (Part II)

2- The Continuous Noise

Sometimes there is a continuous noise come from WD HDDs mainly with L-shape PCBs
with motor ICs ( Smooth 1.3) , (L6278 1.7) & (L6278 1.2).

The noise is like: Trrrrrrrrrrrrrr or Trrrr….Trrrr…Trrrrr

so all we have to do for fixing this problem is:

1) – clean the connection points which connect the head stack pins with the PCB using a pencil Rubber …carefully.

2) – clean the motor IC pins thoroughly using a solvent & Toothbrush then wipe it with a piece of smooth handkerchief to remove the dust & dirt from it.
Note- the two steps mentioned above solve the problem in few cases.

3) – if the two steps mentioned above didn’t fix the problem , you have to replace the motor IC cause it’s damaged.
Note- in case of Motor ICs (L6278 1.7) & (L6278 1.2) first try to desolder them then resolder them again before u decide to replace them with a new ones … this sometimes work , but if it didn’t work … replace them directly.
– In case of Motor IC (Smooth 1.3) you must replace it directly.

The image below Shows you where to clean:

wd pcb

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Noise related to PCB in WD HDDs (Part I)

Now discuss the Causes & Solutions of Two Main types of Noise which is occurred in WD HDDs (Especially Related To L-shape PCBs).

Clicking Noise and Continuous Noise:

1- The Clicking Noise
when you power on the hard drive u will hear a noise like (click,click….click,click…click,click)
this noise may be related to the head stack or PCB, the first thing you have to do is to check the PCB By The following steps:

1)- first you have to clean the Whole PCB With a Solvent & Toothbrush then wipe it with a piece of smooth handkerchief to remove the dust & dirt from it.
Caution: Cleaning of the PCB must be done carefully to avoid removal of any small electronic components.

2)- Check the Resistor (R120), [the right value of this Resistor is (0.12 Ohm)], you may adjust your multimeter to Resistor Measuring Mode to determine its Value, if its damaged you have to replace it. but before that, you have to check Transistor Q3 , it’s a 6 pins transistor , for measuring this transistor you may adjust your multimeter to Diode Mode,[ the right Value will be: (first two pins = 0.000 , second two pins =0.000 , Third two pins = nearly over 600)]
if Q3 is Damaged it will burn ur R120 after u replace it , so be sure that Q3 is ok before replacing R120 & u may also Check Transistor Q6 by the previous method to be completely sure it’s safe to replace R120.
Note: ( to be sure of The right values of these electronic components u may compare the values u have measured with the values of a working PCB’s Components)

3)- Check The Coils (such as L2 & L7) – adjust your multimeter to diode mode then the right value must be ( 0.000 ) for any coil as u all know.

4) – inspect the whole PCB for any removed component (such as small capacitors or Resistors) … the removal of these small components may occurred while forced cleaning of the PCB…. so be careful while cleaning it.

5) – in rare cases the firmware microchip may be damaged.

Read More

WD HDDs Noise related to PCB

The Causes & Solutions of Two Main types of Noise which is occurred in WD HDDs (Especially Related To L-shape PCBs).Continuous Noise & Clicking Noise
1- The Continuous Noise

Sometimes there is a continuous noise come from WD HDDs mainly with L-shape PCBs
with motor ICs (Smooth 1.3) , (L6278 1.7) & (L6278 1.2).
the noise is like : Trrrrrrrrrrrrrr or Trrrr….Trrrr…Trrrrr

so all we have to do for fixing this problem is:

1- clean the connection points which connect the head stack pins with the PCB using a pencil Rubber …carefully.

2- clean the motor IC pins thoroughly using a solvent & Toothbrush then wipe it with a piece of smooth handkerchief to remove the dust & dirt from it.

-Note- the two steps mentioned above solve the problem in few cases.

3- If the two steps mentioned above didn’t fix the problem , you have to replace the motor IC cause it’s damaged.

2-The Clicking Noise
when u power on the hard drive u will hear a noise like (click,click….click,click…click,click)
this noise may be related to the head stack or PCB, the first thing you have to do is to check the PCB By The following steps:

1- first u have to clean the Whole PCB With a Solvent & Toothbrush then wipe it with a piece of smooth handkerchief to remove the dust & dirt from it.
Caution: Cleaning of the PCB must be done carefully to avoid removal of any small electronic components.

2- Check the Resistor (R120) , [ the right value of this Resistor is (0.12 Ohm) ] ,you may adjust your multimeter to Resistor Measuring Mode to Determine its Value ,if it’s Damaged u have to replace it. but before that, u have to check Transistor Q3 , it’s a 6 pins transistor , for measuring this transistor u may adjust your multimeter to Diode Mode,[ the right Value will be: (first two pins = 0.000 , second two pins =0.000 , Third two pins = nearly over 600)]
if Q3 is Damaged it will burn ur R120 after u replace it , so be sure that Q3 is ok before replacing R120 & u may also Check Transistor Q6 by the previous method to be completely sure it’s safe to replace R120.
Note: ( to be sure of The right values of these electronic components u may compare the values u have measured with the values of a working PCB’s Components)

3- Check The Coils (such as L2 & L7) – adjust your multimeter to diode mode then the right value must be ( 0.000 ) for any coil as u all know.

4- Inspect the whole PCB for any removed component ( such as small capacitors or Resistors ) … the removal of these small components may occurred while forced cleaning of the PCB …. so be careful while cleaning it.

5- In rare cases the firmware microchip may be damaged.

——————————————————————————————

-Note- in case of Motor ICs (L6278 1.7) & (L6278 1.2) first try to desolder them then resolder them again before u decide to replace them with a new ones … this sometimes work , but if it didn’t work … replace them directly.
– in case of Motor IC (Smooth 1.3) you must replace it directly.

The image below shows you where to clean.

Read More