Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB

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Western Digital Corp. officially unveiled its first hard disk capacity of 3 TB. This novelty is represented within the family Caviar Green. Also reported the release of the device capacity of 2.5 TB. It is noted that data storage devices intended for use as additional data storage devices in computer systems.

Western Digital Caviar Green already had the 3TB in its My Book external hard drives - installed series and now begins to appropriate internal hard drives for shoring sent. WD Caviar Green drives use less power and support quieter, cooler-running high-capacity desktop PCs and external storage devices. The Advanced format technology that allows hard disk manufacturers, more data on the same place to save hard drive. The technology is WD and other drive vendors introduced to increase the storage efficiency and drive capacity to allow the greater.

The technology enables Advanced Format hard drive vendors, a hard disk space more efficiently use the available so that more can be realized hard drive capacity. The Advanced format technology provides a more effective error correction code method (Error Correction Code - ECC), one 50% improved burst error correction allowed, and thus increases the data integrity. Advanced format drives from WD are also Mac and the latest Windows operating systems like Windows Vista and Windows 7 for re-installation optimized for.

It is acceptable to note that hard disk manufacturers do not abandon traditional magnetic drives in favor of SSDs, which have clear advantages over traditional hard drives. This is largely due to the fact that solid state drives from Seagate and WD hard enough behind the competing solutions. So ordered laws of the market that the manufacturers of RAM are in a better position in the market of solid-state SSD drives, so the traditional suppliers of hard disk is still too early to think about the phasing out of production. It should also be noted that SSDs have a fairly high cost, which turns out to be uncompetitive in the index price of 1 GB of volume when compared with traditional hard drives.

Rules were made to be broken, that whole 55 mph thing happens to be my favorite. Western Digital had larger aspirations, that the kinds considered milestones. Reaching the 750GB per platter mark is definitely in the category milestone and that is what Western Digital has done here. On the surface 750GB per platter does not really sound all that impressive unless you are really into the whole storage technology scene. Those on the outside will be more excited to hear about the milestone this way; 3TB hard drives that upon launch cost just a little over $ 200. Considered a hard disk of a series of WD Caviar Green, which has the lowest power consumption and low noise levels. Everything would have been nice if this was not achieved by reducing the frequency of spindle rotation and loss of productivity.

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Features:

1. Massive capacity: WD Caviar Green SATA drives now deliver up to a massive 3 TB's of storage on a single drive.
2. Reduced power consumption: Reduced power consumption makes it possible to build systems with higher capacities and the right balance of system performance, ensured reliability, and energy conservation.
3. Cool and quiet: WD GreenPower Technology yields lower operating temperatures for increased reliability and low acoustics perfect for ultra-quiet PCs and external drives.
4. Perfect for external drives : External drive manufacturers can eliminate the need for a fan in a high-capacity product by utilizing the cool and quiet operation of WD Caviar Green hard drives.
5. IntelliPower : A fine-tuned balance of spin speed, transfer rate and caching algorithms designed to deliver both significant power savings and solid performance. Additionally, WD Caviar Green drives consume less current during startup allowing lower peak loads on systems as they are booted.
6. IntelliSeek : Calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption, noise and vibration
7. NoTouch ramp load technology :The recording head never touches the disk media ensuring significantly less wear to the recording head and media as well as better drive protection in transit.
8. Advanced Format (AF) :Technology being adopted by WD and other drive manufacturers as one of multiple ways to continue growing hard drive capacities. AF is a more efficient media format that enables increased areal densities.

Specification:

• Buffer Size - 64 MB
• Formatted Capacity - 3,000,592 MB
• InterfaceSATA - 3 Gb/s
• Height - 1.028 Inches
• Capacity of 3 TB (4 plates, 750 GB)
• Interface SATA II (3 Gbps)
• Spindle speed 5400 rpm
• Average access time of 15 ms
• Average latency of 5.5 ms
• Form Factor 3.5 inch

Storage & Performance:

To achieve the capacity of 2,5 and 3 TB used method of formatting Advanced Format and four platters 750 GB each. The presented device equipped with cache of 64 MB and an interface connection SATA2. Novelties have a technology support GreenPower, which helps reduce energy stores, as well as reducing the level of emissions of heat and noise. As a result, the power consumption of these drives is less than 6 watts in read / write mode and in standby mode is only 0.8 Tues Noise level ranges from 24 to 29 dB depending on the mode of operation.

It is noted that at the present time for some computer systems, the maximum available disk space is limited at the level of 2.19 TB for the use of standard LBA (logical block addressing). To resolve this problem, Western Digital Bundle with Hard Drive Caviar Green capacity of 2.5 TB and 3 additional adapters HBA (Host Bus Adapter), having compatibility with the AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface). Using the interface SATA II just want to call it a defect. However, the Caviar Green - economical line: the main spindle speed 5400 rpm - this hard drive cannot be completely "score" channel SATA II. So installing SATA III, which is twice as fast, is impractical.

In addition to Western Digital, similar models were launched by Seagate. And then the company may be suspected of collusion. In any case, new well-bred to segments. Caviar Green - not very fast and efficient storage that can be used to store large amounts of data with an average intensity of the appeals. Seagate vice versa prepares a full working drive. The Barracuda XT will rotate at 7200 rpm, and as an interface selected SATA III.

The 2.19 TB Model Issues:

The main problem that the engineers had to deal with WD was not how to stuff a standard corpus just four plates, and how to overcome the barrier of 2.19 TB. The fact that the table master boot record (MBR), used in the BIOS, coupled with the most common physical sector of 512 bytes cannot address more than 2.19 TB of disk space. Western Digital offered a solution in the form of Advanced Format (AF). The company uses the physical sectors of 4096 bytes, which already allows addressing up to 17.59 TB. True, most programs are compatible with the segmentation of not more than 512 bytes. But for them on the hard disk drive emulation, which uses 512-byte sectors.

Another solution, more appropriate, would change table’s markup to GUID partition tables (GPT). They will address the disk drives to 9,4 zetabayt (billions of terabytes). They should be implemented in the new universal software and hardware interface Extensible firmware interface (EFI), which next year should come to replace the BIOS. At the moment, the specifications of future EFI is only compatible with 64-bit Windows 7. Only it is very likely able to recognize the entire amount. To the hard drive worked correctly under other operating systems will need to install a special driver from the WD, coming complete with a disc. Use the drive as a boot get only under Windows 7 64-bit and a limited number of motherboards from Intel, which are already compatible with future specifications, EFI.

In general, the hard drive showed the results of its adequate spindle speed: is faster than counterparts at 5400 rpm and the order behind the drive running at 7200 rpm. The full set of tests you can find the links. We shall dwell on another aspect. System with the hard drive was almost the slowest, ahead only 2.5-inch Seagate Momentus 5400 rpm. This is partly due to the problem of 2.19 TB. Despite the contrivances WD, OS does not quite work correctly with the hard drive as a boot drive.

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The 3TB Model Issues:

Until the third quarter of this year, the domestic market drives worked only with hard drive capacity of 2 Tb. Popular Windows XP operating system to offer users compatible only with hard drives up to 2,2 TV when formatting the cluster size of 512 bytes, which is chosen in most cases. In this regard, most hard disk manufacturers are actively trying to implement a new technology, Advanced Format (AF), which would solve the problem of the maximum size of hard drives and a long way to push this bar. Its essence lies in the fact that the sector is not formatted hard drives of 512 bytes and 4 KB. This possibility exists for users, but its use is not recommended, because some drivers of the operating system and software faced with conflict are not resolvable situations.

Given this feature of the new technology, the solution is seen as a complete replacement MBR sector of the hard disk that is created when you format. Master Boot Record is used throughout the lifetime of the hard drive, now it should be replaced by a new table is GPT (GUID Partition Tables), which has increased the size. But for this modification is necessary to modify the entire process of loading the operating system. The new table is included in the section on the interface UEFI, device and controllers which are already available on the markets. The interface itself UEFI is supported by most operating systems after installing the appropriate drivers, but it should be 64-bit operating systems.

Conclusion

Some resources does not recommend the use of Western Digital Caviar Green 3 TB as a system drive. It is connected with a possible incorrect operation because of the shortcomings of modern BIOS, and the general low performance of the hard drive. It works more like a notebook, not the desktop CD. However, due to the large volume of it can be a good repository for large files - HD-video, music and photos. Meanwhile, Western Digital delivers its new hard drives with controllers UEFI, which are installed in a PCIe x1 slot motherboard. Application of this additional controller can provide a fully compatible hard drives large volumes, as in the 32-bit and 64 bit operating systems.

Currently, some computer systems, the maximum available disk space is limited at the level of 2.19 TB for the use of standard LBA (logical block addressing). To resolve this problem, Western Digital Bundle with Hard Disks 2,5 and 3 TB extra adapters HBA (Host Bus Adapter), having compatibility with the AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface).

Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB refers to the line-cost drives. The main thing here is not speed, and the combination of high volume with low energy consumption. The fifth generation Caviar Green - enough cold storage, besides still and quiet. True, the characteristics of the device may disappoint some.

Modern motherboards have an updated version of BIOS that supports UEFI. If you update the BIOS has not yet released, it will soon be displayed. This update will work Winchester increased volume in the modern operating systems with the appropriate drivers, if none of this would be - have to use the controller from Western Digital. Among other things, provide support for technology Advanced Format, which increases the speed of the media data through advanced error correction.