Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB drive - anyone using these in internal bay

Just a side thread to a current discussion I've started (http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1125&start=0) to try to see if anyone can report positive results using a Western Digital Caviar Black in their Mac Pro, especially if they're doing so as the Startup Disk.
I have horrible performance with a new one and want to see if others have had good or bad experience.

Out of curiosity did you prepare the drive properly? Most new bare drives have not been partitioned for use on the Mac and also are formatted FAT32. Consider doing the following;
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder. If you need to reformat your startup volume, then you must boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger or Leopard.)
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the number of partitions from the drop down menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (only required for Intel Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
I have seen elsewhere some mention that WD drives have some configuration jumpers. You might check the information about the drive's configuration at the WD support site to be sure that the drive is correctly configured (if there is a need to do so, that is.)

Similar Messages

Is a western digital cavier black 1tb, 64mb compatible mith my 2005 quad core G5 power mac

Hi can anyone tell me, if I can use a western digital 1TB cavier black hard drive in my Power Mac 2.5 G5 quad core please.

You can check here to see what if any WD drives are compatible with your Mac:
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1787&p_c reated=1203707437&p_sid=dO9DFidk&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_srch=1&p_lva=&p _sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MjQ4LDI0OCZwX3Byb2Rz PSZwX2NhdHM9JnBfcHY9JnBfY3Y9JnBfcGFnZT0xJnBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9Ym9vdGFibGUgb24gbWFj &p_li=&p_topview=1
Using a WD drive with Time Machine running Lion:
http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1694/related/1/session/L2F2LzEvd GltZS8xMzE4NDM1NTg0L3NpZC91WDcxWW5Haw%3D%3D
A few basic facts to consider when buying a hard drive:
http://macs.about.com/od/peripherals/bb/exthd.htm

After formatting Western Digital 4 TB hard drive to Mac OS extended (Journaled) 1.11 TB of space has been used. Number of folders 11 number of files 59. I am running lion Is this a normal use of space?

After formatting Western Digital 4 TB hard drive to Mac OS extended (Journaled), 1.11 TB of space has been used.
Number of folders 11. Number of files 59.
I am running lion10.7
Is this a normal use of space?

Wait.... can the BIOS on your machine support greater than 3TB?
Most cannot.
4TB drives, from what I've read, require an all new drive controller. As older drive controllers would max out at 3TB's.

Difference between two Western Digital 640 GB SATA drives?

Does anyone know what the difference is between the below two Western Digital 640 GB SATA drives?
WD6400AAKSA: [http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Western%20Digital/WD6400AAKSA>
WD6400AAKS: [http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Western%20Digital/WD6400AAKS>
The top one is referred to as "Serial ATA 3G" and also as "Apple Rom Caviar".
The bottom one is referred to as "SE16 SATA-II" and also simply as "Caviar".
The top one has a 1-year warranty, while the bottom one has a 3-year warranty.
Otherwise, they appear similar. For example, they both have 7200 RPM rotation speeds, 16 MB of cache, and 8.9 ms read seek times.
Is the "SATA-II" of the bottom one significant?

Great news John, thanks!
But normally the Caviar "Blues" have a 1 year warranty, the Caviar "Blacks" a 3 year warranty.
Should've read...
But normally the Caviar "Blues" have a 3 year warranty, the Caviar "Blacks" a 5 year warranty.

Cannot boot from 750GB Western Digital Scorpio Black

I just installed a new 750GB 7200rpm Western Digital Scorpio Black in my early 2008 15" MacBook Pro (last pre-unibody). I can boot the computer from the Scorpio Black when it's in an external enclosure, I can boot another computer, a MacBook, from the Scorpio Black via firewire while that's installed in my MacBook Pro, but what I cannot do is get the MacBook Pro to boot off the Scorpio Black as the internal drive. It will recognize it and show the main and recovery partititions, but it won't boot the OS (10.7.1.).
Here's a rundown of the installation and troubleshooting steps I've taken:
1.) Installed the drive in an external USB enclosure, formatted GUID partition table (GPT), file system HFS+ extended journaled.
1.b) Downloaded and installed Lion (10.7.1) from the App Store, used migration assistant to transfer accounts from my (now former) internal drive, and then booted from the Scorpio Black in the external enclosure to ensure everything worked fine.
2.) Installed the drive via iFixit instructions. Everything fit properly and I double checked the SATA connector was seated correctly.
3.) Booted computer for the first time with the Scorpio Black. It stuck at a spinning wheel on a grey screen.
4.) Held down option key at startup -- the computer showed the main partition and the recovery partition on the Scorpio Black as the startup drive options.
5.) Tried the recovery partition -- spinning wheel on a grey screen.
6.) Tried safe verbose boot (command - shift - v) -- it interleaves "still waiting for root device" with "SATA WARNING: Enable Drive PHY PM failed" and "SATA WARNING: auto-activate failed".
7.) Reset PRAM & NVRAM -- no joy.
8.) Connected the MacBook Pro via firewire to a Core 2 Duo white MacBook also running 10.7.1. The MacBook recognized the drive and in Disk Utility, I could see all the partitions on it.
9.) Ran repair volume (for the drive) and repair partition (for my main partition) from disk utility on the MacBook -- it said everything's fine with both.
10.) In system preferences, set the Scorpio Black as the startup drive for the MacBook.
11.) Astonishingly, the MacBook booted up just fine off the Scorpio Black in the MacBook Pro. I logged in, opened a few photos and played a video. Everything worked just peachy.
12.) Booted the MacBook Pro off my old internal hard drive, now in an external enclosure.
13.) Disk utility sees the internal Scorpio Black, and reports everything is fine with the volume and the partition.
14.) System profiler says everything is fine when I check under SATA. SMART status is verified.
Which brings me to step 15: admit defeat and ask for help. Any suggestions? The exact model number of the drive is WD7500BKPT. I purchased it from Other World Computing.
Thanks for any help.
Cheers.

I actually first replaced the stock hard drive with a Western Digital 500 GB Scorpio Blue (i.e., a 5400 rpm drive). Here's what I can tell you about all three.
First, I didn't notice any difference in noise, vibration or power consumption between any of the drives. The computer felt stock with both of the Western Digital drives.
In terms of speed, my understanding is, all other things being equal, a larger drive is always faster than a lower capacity drive (I believe that's because more of the data is on the faster rotating outer areas). That being said, the step up to the 750GB 7200 rpm Scorpio Black was a bigger one than to the 500 GB 5400 rpm Scorpio Blue -- it gave a noticeable bump in performance. Opening my Aperture library and browsing photos went from sluggish and borderline unusuable to acceptable, or even good.
Bottom line, it's not a solid state drive, so don't expect MacBook Air levels of responsiveness, but I can wholeheartedly recommend the Scorpio Black.

Can i use exfat format for my external western digital harddrive so that i can use in both windows and mac?

can i use exfat format for my external western digital harddrive so that i can use in both windows and mac?
thanks in advance.
<Email Edited by Host>

Yes you can. OS X version 10.6.6 and later can read/write exFAT. Windows XP SP3 and later can read/write exFAT. As posted by Radiation Mac, you can do it from Windows or from OS X.
However, I've noticed Windows to be somewhat picky about drives formatted on a Mac. So, if Windows can't read it, try formatting it on the Windows machine, and see how it works on the Mac.
Posting your email on a public forum isn't a very good idea. It will likely be harvested by spambots and used as the reply-to address for spam it sends out.
Also, most people are not going to send an email to you for similar reasons. Nobody knows who you are, so sending an email to you could be giving a spammer a valid email address.
The forum is set up to automatically notify you when there are responses to your questions. When you get one, you would log back into this forum and check to see what the answer was.

Western Digital USB3 external hard drive (attached to new MBP Retina) seems to randomly "eject" itself when I'm trying to back it up via time machine. When this happens, I can't even shut my machine down properly. Ideas?

The backup process will run for sometimes 30 minutes or more. But, it's as if, at some point, the drive just can't be found. I get the message "this drive was ejected improperly". When this happens: my machine won't shut down, disk utility won't run. I have to press and hold the power button to force a shut down. Any ideas what's going on here? A MBP Retina issue? A USB3 issue? A western digital issue (although this drive has been functioning fine on old MBP)?
Thanks!

When you say that you've applied the latest 'patch,' I'm assuming that you mean the latest (July 18) software update for mid-2012 models? It was supposed to address some of the problems with the USB 3.0 ports. I don't think that, in most cases, it's a problem with the drives themselves (USB 2 or 3), rather it seems to be a port problem.
If it wasn't fixed for you using the July 18 Software Update the only thing I can recommend at this point is to see if Mountain Lion - soon to be released - will be able to fix the problems. If not, I would take your unit back to the Apple Store and let them know that you are continuing to have problems with the USB 3.0 ports. They may offer to switch out your logic board, etc.
Good luck,
Clinton

Cannot Erase/Format External Western Digital "My Book" Hard Drive

I have a brand new Western Digital "My Book" Hard Drive that I would like to use for SuperDuper clone backup. I am attempting to format the disk for Mac-OS Extended first.
When I connect the HD to my MBP via USB, an error message pops up saying "Disk Insertion - The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer." I then enter Disk Utility. The Western Digital HD is shown in the left pane as a 596.2 GB External Media. The Volume Format is shown as MS-DOS (FAT).
I attempted to erase/format for Mac-OS Extended (Journaled). Selecting the volume in the left pane and then clicking erase returns the error message "Disk Erase Failed with the error: File System Formatter Failed." Just for kicks I tried to erase/format for regular Mac-OS Extended, same result. It will let me erase/format for MS-DOS (FAT), but that's how it's already formatted and doesn't help me.
I tried to erase/format on my wife's MBP, exact same results. Am I doing something wrong or do I have a problem with the external hard drive?
Any help appreciated.
Thanks,
Barry

Thanks for the feedback. Good computing and welcome to the Mac world. Since you're new, see these:
Switching from Windows to Mac OS X,
Basic Tutorials on using a Mac,
Mac 101: Mac Essentials,
Anatomy of a Mac,
MacFixIt Tutorials,
MacTips, and
Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition.
Additionally, *Texas Mac Man* recommends:
Quick Assist.
Welcome to the Switch To A Mac Guides,
Take Control E-books, and
A guide for switching to a Mac.

Hi, I have an early 2008 24" iMac, I need more storage space and was wondering if I could fit a 3TB Western Digital Caviar Green HDD into it with out any problems? This is the one I've seen, Western Digital Caviar 3TB SATA 6 GB/s 64MB Cache 3.5 inch

Hi, I have an early 2008 24" iMac, I need more storage space and was wondering if I could fit a 3TB Western Digital Caviar Green HDD into it with out any problems? This is the one I've seen, Western Digital Caviar 3TB SATA 6 GB/s 64MB Cache 3.5 inch

My bad?
You're original response was questions/post about an iMac. Now you've edited it to ask about a Mac Pro?
You can more easily add internal drives in a Mac Pro.
Not too terribly easy to add/replace drives in an iMac.
If younhave questions about a Mac Pro, try posting in the Mac Pro forums.
Much more knowledgeable users there.

MSI 915GM Motherboard + 'Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB'

Hello.
Quick one.
I have an MSI 915GM Motherboard .
Will a 'Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB (7200rpm) SATA 6Gb/s 16MB 3.5 inch Hard Drive' work on my m/b.
Cheers.

it should but my may have to jumper the drive at the rear to work at sata 1.5gbps speed

Hp (compaq) mini 110c - no boot with Western Digital Scorpio Black WD5000BEKT

Dears
I just bougth Western Digital Scorpio Black WD5000BEKT plug in and no boot
I have black screen, HD is alive because i hear is started and the HD led blink in same frequency so looks like Bios cannot read HD firmware to do initialization.
Motherboard version should be 308f if not mistaken, AMI BIOS has not been upgrade yet, actually i saw only one BIOS update which fix some Bluetoth issue.
Could anybody can confirm that disk is running OK on that model ?
Is there any quick workaround ?
I would like to avoid editing(moding) the BIOS if possible.
I am looking forward for your answer
Link to the HP mini
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&dlc=en&docname=c01894558&lc=en&jumpid=reg_r1002_us...
Any support will be highly appreciates.

No problem maiki83. I am glad you got it running.
I believe however, that the processors are all fixed to the system boards in the Compaq Mini 110c series. Not having your exact model number, I will show you first how to find your exact model number, and then where to find the information (if it exists).
<How Do I Find My Notebook Model Number>: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us&docname=c00033108
Go to HP's support page and "Enter your product name/number".
HP Consumer Support:
http://support.hp.com/
When you are on your products support page go to the 'User Guides' section
Look for the "Maintenance and Service Guide"
In the guide locate the "Removal and replacement procedures" then the "Component replacement procedures"
If there is a "CPU" or "Processor" category then it will have a list of supported CPU's.
If you can only locate "System Board" then the list of boards will show the processor that comes on the boards. The latter will most likely be the case.
Good luck.
TwoPointOh
I work on behalf of HP
Please click “Accept as Solution ” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.
Click the “Kudos, Thumbs Up" on the bottom to say “Thanks” for helping!

Has anyone tried a Western Digital SATA RAID hard drive on a non-RAID controler?

Because of a compatability problem, I want to try a different brand of SATA II drive on my non-RAID motherboard. The WD RAID drives have great specs but I don't know if they will work. WD says they are ONLY for RAID and not to put them on a non-RAID board. My theory is that they will be more reliable over the long term because they are a heavier duty drive.
Has anyone tried this and if so, what were the results?

I think there was some confusion about what I am asking. It is definately not a duplication of my other post and some of the information in that other post is incorrect because I JUST found out that my motherboard controller IS a RAID controller even though I am not using it as one. I will correct that when I am finished with this post.
The other post was about a specific model of Maxtor drive that doesn't work on my motherboard. This post is about Western Digital. The only reason that I even mentioned the word RAID in my previous post is that there is a known compatibility problem with RAID controllers and that drive. I wanted to emphasize that my problem was not the one of that known compatibility problem, but because it is a RAID controller, it might be that problem.
When you use the motherboard's controller as a non-RAID controller, you do format the drives individually, not as a RAID. I know that because I did it that way, not realizing I even had the option of using RAID on this board. That works fine on one model of Maxtor hard drive and does not work at all on the other model of Maxtor hard drive.
What I want to know now is: Will the Western Digital RAID drives will work on a non-RAID controller. The controllers on my add-in card is not RAID. Also, will that drive work on my motherboard's controller even though it is not being used as RAID.
Here is a link to the WD site's description of one such drive. There are several other WD RAID drives, this is just one example... http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=238&Language=en It does not state whether or not they will work well in a non-RAID environment.

Western Digital Caviar Drives

I'm looking at WD Caviar drives for my Mac Pro. I think the 640 GB models will be good enough for me, but I'm not sure which to get. Is the "Black" model (XL320M) much better than the older one (SE16 )? I've read a little about each of them, but I'm not sure whether or not there's a substantial difference in performance between the two. I compose/record music using Logic, and would be using this drive for sampler instruments, so it's important that it run pretty smoothly. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

the Caviar Black i believe most of them anyways, have 32mb cache so the latency and read/write should be very sufficient.
the SE16's all have 16mb cache which is still good, but 32mb is definitely a boost and helpful for apps like logic and consistent access.
the 640GB is a perfect drive actually in regards to price and performance, operating with 2x320gb platters (2 physical plates inside the drive itself) less seeking, faster performance and less issues.
the 16mb shouldnt be much of an issue with that drive.
but i do believe they make a 32mb version of it aswell.
the 750GB caviar black are phenomenal drives as i recently got into logic and final cut, and with protools they were outstanding.

Something to say about Western Digital Caviar 250 Gig?

I want to add a second drive to my 1,8DP G5 (PCI-X) and I can find available locally this disc:
WESTERN DIGITAL- WD2500JS
Western Digital 250GB SATA II 7200 RPM 8MB
I wanted to check that nobody had problems with this kind of disk. I'll get it from a PC parts supplier and wanted to know if there is something I'd have to switch or configure to make it works fine in Mac.
Thanks in advance

Hello all,
I have a Power G5 dual 2Ghz and have recently bought and installed a second HD. It happened to be a WD Caviar 250 GB, SATA-II, 16MB 7200 rpm, and it only lasted one month: it soon started to make metallic noises (as if the head was falling on the disk) and then crashed.
I first thought the disk was defective so I had it replaced with a new one, same model. As soon as I installed it (upper bay) this second disk also started to have the same problems as the first one and crashed after 4 days.
I was wondering if there is any known incompatibility. In particular, the disk is labelled as SATA-II, while the manual I got with my Power G5 talks about SATA disk: are they the same thing? Or do I have to set some jumpers/switches etc.?
I hope someone can help, I am desperate, I dont't know if my Mac has a problem or I'm just not using the right disks or the correct settings.
Any suggestions on some tests or anything I can try?
Thanks a lot in advance
/Andrea
PowerMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.2)

Ipod with Western Digital 160 gb External Drive

What do I need to do with the Itunes configuration to use the Western Digital External Drive. I have so much music that I want to use the external drive to store all of my music files. The Music Files on my lap top were taking up to much space on my Laptop....I have copied all of my music files onto the External Drive......I am not sure aht to do next.....
ANY IDEAS OUT THERE
Bernard
Dallas, Texas

To move your iTunes music...
Quit iTunes.
Move the entire iTunes folder including music to the external drive.
Click on the iTunes icon to start it, then immediately press an hold the Shift key in Windows, Option key in Mac.
iTunes will ask to Create new library or Choose existing library. Select Choose existing library and select the library in the folder you just moved.
Move the old iTunes folder to the trash but do not empty it.
Restart iTunes normally and verify the songs work. If they do, empty the trash.

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB drive - anyone using these in internal bay

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