Need to locate WD RE4 drives in 1TB, any suggestions?

[MCHR]

Looking for two RE4 drives in the 1TB size. The Western Digital site shows they manufacture them in the 1TB size, however every vendor indicates they are either sold, out, on order, or can be available in 4-6 weeks.

I contacted WD on their availability, but haven't gotten much response except they don't carry them on their online store, and to do thorough web search (which I did).

Any pointers of suggestions on where to locate either more information on their availability or where I could get two drives?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Joovilhar]

I am in the same position

I was looking for several 1TB RE4 drives, and nobody seems to stock them. I can find the 1.5 and 2.0 TB drives, at extortionate prices of course, but no 1TB models.

To add insult to injury, WD also disabled the firmware ability of its Caviar Blacks to use TLER, so that scuppers my chances of building a RAID array with those - even though WD still cheekily advertises the Caviar Blacks as being suitable for use in RAID configurations (they updated the firmware, but not the advertising, it would seem!) WD don't want you to use 1TB Blacks for RAIDing, but on the other hand, they won't make the 1TB RE4 equivalents available!

Think I might just forgo RAID this time (having just a 120GB RevoDrive, I'm now seriously considering the idea of going back to JBOD), and picking up some Samsung F3s...

 

[27.teeth]

I think the 1TB are called RE3, unless that model has been updated recently. It's a platter count thing? They're widely available.

 

[Joovilhar]

I think the 1TB are called RE3, unless that model has been updated recently. It's a platter count thing? They're widely available.

Nope. The RE4 is current 4th-generation technology, much like the current Caviar Black, just with RAID support. The RE3 is yesterday's technology - 3 platters for 1TB, as opposed to 2 platters (with the cut in areal density and raw speed that brings). I'm not interested in that.

The WD RE4 1TB is the WD1003FBYX:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=799

The WD RE3 1TB is the WD1002FBYS:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=503

The now-useless for RAID WD Caviar Black 1TB is the WD1002FAEX:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=792

(Note that WD still - erroneously - state that the WD1002FAEX is tested and recommended for desktop/consumer RAID environments, such as Intel Matrix RAID. Go with this advice, and you'll be sorry, though - WD removed the TLER switching functionality that prevented drives dropping out of RAID volumes.)

Supposedly, Amazon.com has had the 1TB RE4 listed since the 17th of June, 2010. That's well over 3 months ago - you'd have thought they would now be on the shelves.

 

[MCHR]

Nope. The RE4 is current 4th-generation technology, much like the current Caviar Black, just with RAID support. The RE3 is yesterday's technology - 3 platters for 1TB, as opposed to 2 platters (with the cut in areal density and raw speed that brings). I'm not interested in that.

The WD RE4 1TB is the WD1003FBYX:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=799

The WD RE3 1TB is the WD1002FBYS:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=503

The now-useless for RAID WD Caviar Black 1TB is the WD1002FAEX:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=792

(Note that WD still - erroneously - state that the WD1002FAEX is tested and recommended for desktop/consumer RAID environments, such as Intel Matrix RAID. Go with this advice, and you'll be sorry, though - WD removed the TLER switching functionality that prevented drives dropping out of RAID volumes.)

Supposedly, Amazon.com has had the 1TB RE4 listed since the 17th of June, 2010. That's well over 3 months ago - you'd have thought they would now be on the shelves.

I contacted WD via email and chat to no positive result. Unless an item is in their online store, their contact personnel can't verify any ETA for availability. In short, this was inexcusable for a manufacturer (not willing to cross check with their production department).

Anyway, I couldn't wait any longer and got two RE3s instead. I don't agree that it's 'yesterday's technology' and would have preferred an RE4. But it is certainly a step up from the Blacks for setting up a simple RAID array.

 

[Eric-PTEK]

WD must not be producing them right now.

My wholesaler, who also supplies to Newegg, CDW, etc shows no stock and no ETA.

The 1.5 and 2 TB's are in stock and ready to ship.

There are 3 major whole salers, I'm a customer of 2 of them, both show the same thing.