WD's Velociraptor I/O connection issue resolved with design update

Remember those uber-fast VelociRaptor drives that had the hardcore (and IT dwellers) in a tizzy? Turns out they had some inexplicable design flaw that put the power and serial connections in the wrong spot, rendering some 3.5-inch backplane server installations basically useless. WD has announced a new solution that fixes this, and the new drives are now shipping. No word on returns and exchanges, but we have a feeling WD will be making good on this. Oops, and good job on the quick fix, WD.

UPDATE: Official word from WD on this is as follows: "WD knew they would have the WD VelociRaptor drive ready for PC/WS (Wintel apps) months ahead of the enterprise versions because of the firmware/system validation required in our ESG labs across the thousands of enterprise slots. We decided to come out with GLFS as "Wintel only" and put together a simpler mounting frame for the cabled systems which dominate the PC/WS market. The backplane sled requires the design of an interposer card and extensive signal integrity testing (anyone who has dealt with enterprise applications knows that interposer cards can create nightmares). Instead of delay the introduction of WD VelociRaptor all together, we decided to go with the simple mounting frame while we did our backplane validation along with the firmware, vibration, etc... type validation we do for enterprise."

[Via Crunchgear]

[Techie @ Aug 14th 2008 6:41AM]

Does WD still have that media protection software inside it's HDDs? I would be pissed if they control what kind of stuff you download even though it's your own HDD.

[Wwhat @ Aug 14th 2008 7:47AM]

That's the most ridiculous nonsense I heard in a long time, 'media protection software' on a HD, the one that told you that is making a fool of you.
If something prevents you from storing media it's not the HD, it's either vista or some rootkit software sony happily installed for you while you weren't watching.

Also it should be "its" in that line not "it's", but that's an error we all make all the time.

[Continuities @ Aug 14th 2008 9:06AM]

No, Wwhat, "it's" was right.

"even though [it is] your own HDD."

[kr @ Aug 14th 2008 9:26AM]

No no no... the first "it's" is wrong in that case...
Possessive = its
Contraction of it is = it's

[Kukawaki @ Aug 14th 2008 9:43AM]

The media protection software you heard about is on some of their external hard drives (the ones with ethernet)

[Continuities @ Aug 14th 2008 11:04AM]

I totally missed that one. Man, now I feel silly.

[Continuities @ Aug 14th 2008 11:06AM]

Right... I totally missed the first one. Now I feel silly.

[Nogami @ Aug 14th 2008 12:24PM]

The software you're thinking of is only on WD's "world edition" external NAS drives. And it's not even written by WD, it's from a third party vendor that WD has bundled in.

[Wwhat @ Aug 15th 2008 1:46AM]

That's not in the HD, that's in the enclosure software, that has nothing to do with a normal HD.
Not that MS would not happily make it a windows7 requirement of HD's to not be able to store media that didn't have a special encryption and approval.....

[Wwhat @ Aug 15th 2008 1:47AM]

It's good to mention such shenanigans though, don't let them get away with such crap.

[Techie @ Aug 15th 2008 2:38AM]

Thanks for clearing up the mishap for me guys and improving my grammar too. ^.^ "awesome grammar ftw"

[zomg0t @ Aug 14th 2008 6:50AM]

It seems like the flawed placement is due to the fact that the drive is actually 2.5" placed within a 3.5" heatsink, so the connectors can't be placed as far to the edge as standard SATA hard drives. I may be wrong though: I thought I read about a 3.5" velociraptor that did not have the heatsink, but all I saw on Western Digital's site was a 2.5" drive without the heatsink.

[zomg0t @ Aug 14th 2008 7:02AM]

After looking up backplane, it seems the position of the SATA connections is irrelevant as the backplane drive would have it's own interface.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=495

What's sort of annoying is that the 360 degree view doesn't allow you to see the connectors for the drive from a head-on position which might help people notice the issue. It looks very similar to a normal SATA hard drive though; does anyone know what the actual difference is between this drive, standard backplane drives, and normal SATA drives?

[George Payne @ Aug 14th 2008 9:20AM]

If you strip the casing off it mounts properly in a 2.5 hot swap bay, so the connectors are correctly positioned for its size. What doesn't work is when it is mounted in that casing, which you don't need if you have proper cooling anyway. This is really a 2.5 drive. My guess is that we'll see more and more drives moving down to this form factor and that it will become the standard in the future.

[sam @ Aug 14th 2008 9:25AM]

velociraptors are now available in 74gb and 150gb sizes now, they both have 150gb single platters, the 74gb is short-stroked (made 1/2 of it unusable), so they are just as fast as the 300gb version but alot cheaper £96, £125 compared to £188 for the 300gb version.

Also wd has released a 2.5" version which you could use in servers or laptops assuming they can fit the 15mm drive in.

[kal326 @ Aug 14th 2008 9:32AM]

I/O interface FAIL!
Redesign WIN!

I still wonder how this one initially got out the door as an enthusiast/low end enterprise drive without supporting the industry standard interface for a 3.5" drive.

[Andrew @ Aug 14th 2008 10:19AM]

My only complaint about the redesign is they changed the direction of the fins. Most hard drive cooling configurations have fans at the front of the fans blowing towards the rear.

[linuxamp @ Aug 14th 2008 10:24AM]

So as long as you're using separate power and SATA connectors there's no problem right? Would be nice if WD dropped the price on these "basically useless" drives.

[Laron @ Aug 14th 2008 3:39PM]

Does this mean it can fit in the Mac Pro now?