Windows 10: WD HDD Colour codes - confused -- any help

Hi there
Looking at WD HDD's these days I feel one needs to be a member of The Rainbow Coalition to make any sense of them.

Anybody know what the difference is between BLACK, GREEN, RED, BLUE, PURPLE etc HDD's from WD.
I'm sure some are for servers / enterprise quality, other consumer stuff but I haven't a clue on what the various designations are.

Any help or decent UNDERSTANDABLE links please.

Thanks

Cheers
jimbo

:)

 

WD USB HDD failing in Windows 10 Storage Spaces

This is just a general info post for anyone else having problems with WD USB HDDs in Windows 10 Storage Spaces. I had problems with my WD Elements USB HDDs failing in SS. Over the past several months, WD first replaced and then upgraded all my WD USB HDDs
to WD My Books USB HDDs. For some reason, the WD USB HDDs work perfectly fine in SS for a period of time, and then one day they don't. SS will automatically mark the drive as bad and reallocate the data to other drives in the pool (if you have enough unused
storage space). WD is aware of the problem with their USB drives in SS, but they have not been able to find the cause/solution. In the end, I had to remove ALL my WD USB HDDs from my SS pool because of these failures.

Early warning signs of impending WD USB HDD failure in SS included computer lock up on rebooting with the WD drives attached to the SS pool, and also random reboot/crashes while SS was running on the computer. Eventually, on my system, SS just reports that
the WD has failed and tell you to remove it. Once I took my WD USB HDDs out of the SS pool, I no longer had these other problems.

Mind you, all these WD USB HDDs work fine as standalone drives and all passed the WD Lifeguard Diagnostics testing both before, and after, their failures in SS. In the end, I had to remove all my WD USB HDDs from the SS pool of drives and use them as offline
backup only. I replaced all my WD USB HDDs in my SS pool with other brands. I have never had these SS problems with any other brand USB HDD. Until/If WD is able to find the cause/solution to why their WD drives, and ONLY their WD drives are failing in SS,
then I would strongly recommend you get some other brand drives for your SS pool.

If you have similar problems with your WD USB HDDs in SS, PM me for the name of the WD Tech Level II support that I worked with over several months. Although they were not able to find the cause/solution to my problem, reporting similar failures to the same
Level II tech rep might save everyone time and trouble, and hopefully they will be able to find out what is causing these problems with their WD USB HDDs in SS.

This post is not intended to flame WD. They were good enough to replace, and then even upgrade, all my WD USB HDDs that failed in SS - even though the drives all passed the WD Lifeguard Diagnostics testing both before and after the SS failures. However,
the bottom line is that they have a problem with their WD USB HDDs running in SS pools and they have not yet been able to find the cause/solution to the problem.

 

Windows 10 Home will not boot or restart with USB Storage Spaces pool drives attached

This is George, the original poster on this thread. I don't know what MS will say, but I can tell you that I have spent months dealing with WD and their USB HDDs failing in Storage Spaces. I don't know why, but my problems all came back to the WD drives
in my Storage Spaces pool. Eventually, every one of my WD drives was finally detected as bad by Storage Spaces and then automatically the data was reallocated to other drives, then SS would tell me to remove the WD drive. WD tech support Level 1 was not very
helpful, and they completely avoided any responsibility for problems with their WD drives in SS.

However, I keep pressing the issue and got passed up to a WD Level II tech support. They remote desktop controlled my system and were able to verify that of my 16 USB HDDs in the SS pool, only the WD drives were marked as failed. They replaced my WD Elements
USB HDDs with WD My Book USB HDDs, which is an upgrade model. The new WD My Book replacements worked for a short period of time in SS, but also failed in SS after only weeks. I know for a fact that WD Level II tech support is aware of the problems I have had
and reported with their WD USB HDDs in my SS pool. They said they cannot reproduce the problem in their SS setup at WD.

Although WD Tech Level II support was outstanding in their customer service and working with me to resolve the issue with their drives in SS, in the end, they still don't know why their drives are marked as failing and automatically removed from the SS pool.
Mind you, all my WD USB HDDs work perfectly fine as standalone drives and all passed the WD Lifeguard Diagnostics tests both before and after their failures in the SS pool.

Unfortunately, I have had to replace ALL my WD drives in my SS pool and replace them with other brands. I have resorted to using my WD USB HDDs as offline backup only. Until/If WD ever figures out why their drives are failing in SS, I will not buy WD anymore
for my SS pool. NONE of my other brand drives (Hitachi, Samsung, Seagate, Toshiba, etc) have ever had any problems in SS.

To your original question, my problems with the computer not booting and/or crashing after running, all stopped when I removed the WD USB HDDs from my pool. SS does not like these WD drives and WD knows of the problem. PM me if you want the name of the contact
I worked with in WD Tech Level II support. Maybe talking to the same tech rep with your problems will save you time and frustration that I have going through for months. At least he knows the problem is there and WD still has not found a cause/solution. But
like I said, my final solution was just to replace all the WD HDDs with other brands. Good luck.

 

Are these of any use jimbo?

Western Digital WD HDD Colors Difference Ultimate Systems blog


http://www.htxt.co.za/2014/03/10/wd-...drives-colour/