What type of WD BB HDD drive do I have?

[Jake the Dog]

i picked up a WD200BB Caviar yesterday. these are a 20GB drive as most of you know. i thought i'd read SR's reviews and compare it to some other drives but they haven't reviewed this drive. no worries i thought, just pick another drive in the family but i found that all the differnet BB series Caviar drives differ in platter density. how do i tell what platter size this drive has? SR's data is as follows:

Drive - platter size
WD400BB - 20GB (reviewed Sep 2000)
WD8000BB - 27GB (reviewed May 2001)
WD1000BB - 33GB (reviewed Aug 2001)

the drive i have was manufactured in August '02. being that's it's only 20GB it would seem logical it uses a single 20GB platter. what i would like to know is, is that logical presumption correct?

 

[NRG = mc²]

I'm pretty sure the original ones had 20gb platters (I had one for a short while) but maybe they've upgraded to 40gb platters meanwhile?

I think Mickey on SR would be your best bet :wink:

 

[yeti]

Check the maximum sequential transfer rate, this is unique for each platter capacity

 

[Buck]

Jake, what is the complete MDL number?

MDL example: WD200BB-00CAB0

 

[Jake the Dog]

yeti: i haven't installed the drive so i can't benchmark it

buck: WD200BB - 00CAA1


i'm trying to choose which is the best HDD to boot XP off from. i want to boot of the fastest drive. my choices are:

40GB Barracuda IV
20Gb Fireball AS
20Gb WD BB

 

[blakerwry]

this is one thing that I think everybody hates about WD... that and they use the 1000 x 1000 x 1000 convention for figuring GB.

 

[Buck]

This is a 40 GB per platter drive. If this is a prime drive, then you are using 1 head on one side of the platter.

 

[Jake the Dog]

thanks Buck! i was hoping that might be the case.

next question; being that it only uses one head, does that mean it only read/writes to one half of the platter and if so, is it likely to be the outer half?

 

[Tea]

One half of the platter, yes. But it's the top half. Or possibly the bottom half. In other words, the single head uses one side of the platter only, and covers that full-stroke.

 

[Jake the Dog]

doh! 'scuse me for not thinking. thanks tony

 

[Tea]

Tis cool, Jake. I'm still your friend. It's only Tannin that is arguing with you. But Tannin argues with everyone.

(Apart from my natural friendliness, of course, I need you to arrange for me to meet that cute orang friend of yours, name of Slo.)

 

[Jake the Dog]

Tis cool, Jake. I'm still your friend. It's only Tannin that is arguing with you. But Tannin argues with everyone.

(Apart from my natural friendliness, of course, I need you to arrange for me to meet that cute orang friend of yours, name of Slo.)

i didn't know i was still arguing with Tannin. i'd like to remain both your friends. i'd much prefer to argue with a friend

as for slo, he can be a bit shy at times so you may to lure him out with a display of chest-slapping and ground-thumping but careul, once you've got his attention he'll be keen for some monkey business!

 

[Tea]

Ohh, don't worry about Tannin, he's just a grumpy person. He even argues with me! But as for monkey business, I'm a little retarded in that department. DB seems to want to teach it too me but I'm not sure I want to lean it just yet. Does it have something to do with lying under the bar and pouring Coopers Pale Ale over your face?

 

[LiamC]

pouring Coopers Pale Ale over your face?

And that's about all Coopers is good for...

 

[Jake the Dog]

Buck, how were you able to verify that my drive has a 40gb platter? is it because WD1200BB drives have a 00CAA1 model # and all 00CAA1's have 40GB platters or do you have a reference page i can look up too?

cheers

 

[Buck]

Sorry, no reference page for you to look up.

 

[Jake the Dog]

sorry to be a pain Buck but i'd still like to know how you verified that my 200BB has a 40GB platter.

 

[Tea]

When it comes to Western Digital, Buck knows all. He has secret, arcane sources of knowledge which he is sworn not to reveal on pain of a particularly elaborate form of death, or the ninth burbon. (Whichever comes first.)

 

[Buck]

When it comes to Western Digital, Buck knows all. He has secret, arcane sources of knowledge which he is sworn not to reveal on pain of a particularly elaborate form of death, or the ninth burbon. (Whichever comes first.)

 

[Jake the Dog]

so it's a guess?

 

[Buck]

When it comes to Western Digital, Buck knows all. He has secret, arcane sources of knowledge which he is sworn not to reveal on pain of a particularly elaborate form of . . .

What she said, and no, it is not a guess.