Fake Western Digital WD2003FYYS 2TB RE4 drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Franc Zabkar
  • Start date Start date
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Franc Zabkar

A WD user posted the following alert to WD's forums:
http://community.wdc.com/t5/Desktop/A-faked-wd2003FYYS/m-p/56320

Here is the original discussion in a Chinese forum:
http://we.pcinlife.com/thread-1496042-1-1.html

It appears that a drive bearing the label of a Western Digital
WD2003FYYS 2TB RE4 model is in fact a 2TB Caviar Green drive. In
China, these sell for less than half the price of an RE4, or an RE4-GP
green drive.

The model number and serial number appear to have been hacked, but the
drive is still reporting a firmware version of 01.00A01, which appears
to be associated with Caviar Green and Scorpio Blue models.

The huge disparity in data transfer rates is obviously suspicious, but
the clincher in my mind is the fact that the fake is spinning at 5900
RPM whereas the RE4 is spinning at 7200 RPM. This is evident in HD
Tune's access time graphs.

http://52web.net/pic/hdtune-50823-1.jpg (fake)
http://52web.net/pic/hdtune3.5-50823.jpg (fake)
http://52web.net/pic/hdtune-2003fyys-true-2.jpg (genuine)

The spread of data points in the fake access time graph is about 10-11
msec wide, whereas the RE4 graph is about 8 msec wide. This
corresponds to the latency for one complete revolution.

At first I thought that the fake may have been an RE4-GP green drive.
According to WD's spec sheets, the WD2003FYYS RE4 drive spins at 7200
RPM and has a maximum sustained transfer rate of 138 MB/s, whereas the
WD2002FYPS RE4-GP spins at 5900 RPM ("IntelliPower") and has a
transfer rate of 110 MB/s. The Caviar Green 2TB is rated at 100 MB/s.

WD RE4 Series Disti Spec Sheet:
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-701338.pdf

WD RE4-GP Series Disti Spec Sheet:
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-701312.pdf

WD Caviar Green Series Disti Specification Sheet:
http://www.wdc.com/en/library/sata/2879-701229.pdf

- Franc Zabkar
 
Franc Zabkar said:
A WD user posted the following alert to WD's forums:
http://community.wdc.com/t5/Desktop/A-faked-wd2003FYYS/m-p/56320
Click to expand...
Here is the original discussion in a Chinese forum:
http://we.pcinlife.com/thread-1496042-1-1.html
Click to expand...
It appears that a drive bearing the label of a Western Digital
WD2003FYYS 2TB RE4 model is in fact a 2TB Caviar Green drive. In
China, these sell for less than half the price of an RE4, or an RE4-GP
green drive.
Click to expand...
The model number and serial number appear to have been hacked, but the
drive is still reporting a firmware version of 01.00A01, which appears
to be associated with Caviar Green and Scorpio Blue models.
Click to expand...
The huge disparity in data transfer rates is obviously suspicious, but
the clincher in my mind is the fact that the fake is spinning at 5900
RPM whereas the RE4 is spinning at 7200 RPM. This is evident in HD
Tune's access time graphs.
Click to expand...
http://52web.net/pic/hdtune-50823-1.jpg (fake)
http://52web.net/pic/hdtune3.5-50823.jpg (fake)
http://52web.net/pic/hdtune-2003fyys-true-2.jpg (genuine)
Click to expand...
The spread of data points in the fake access time graph is about 10-11
msec wide, whereas the RE4 graph is about 8 msec wide. This
corresponds to the latency for one complete revolution.
Click to expand...
At first I thought that the fake may have been an RE4-GP green drive.
According to WD's spec sheets, the WD2003FYYS RE4 drive spins at 7200
RPM and has a maximum sustained transfer rate of 138 MB/s, whereas the
WD2002FYPS RE4-GP spins at 5900 RPM ("IntelliPower") and has a
transfer rate of 110 MB/s. The Caviar Green 2TB is rated at 100 MB/s.
Click to expand...
WD RE4 Series Disti Spec Sheet:
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-701338.pdf
Click to expand...
WD RE4-GP Series Disti Spec Sheet:
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-701312.pdf
Click to expand...
WD Caviar Green Series Disti Specification Sheet:
http://www.wdc.com/en/library/sata/2879-701229.pdf
Click to expand...

Convincing. In my personal view the people doing these fakes
are the most despicable scum. And sometimes they kill people.

I have an SATA power cable here that says 18AWG on the wires
(as it is supposed to), but has about 10% of the copper in
it that it should. With a high-perfomance HDD that can already
be a fire hazard. Came with an ASUS mainboard.

Arno
 
In my personal view the people doing these fakes
are the most despicable scum.
Click to expand...

It's even easier to fake a Seagate ES.2 enterprise drive. All you need
to do is to update a Barracuda 7200.11 with ES.2 firmware. AIUI, the
drives are otherwise mechanically and electronically identical.

I've been told there are plenty of these fakes around, too.

- Franc Zabkar
 
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