Western Digital Gold appears to go to sleep minutes after last use

[c627627]

As both WD Gold and WD Red were priced exactly the same at time of purchase, I started threads trying to figure out which one to buy, I thoroughly researched it on multiple forums.

Nobody suggested one or the other conclusively.
I opted for Gold because Western Digital claimed it to be measurably more reliable than Red. Their marketing painted a picture of Gold being the ultimate choice for reliabilty.
And what do we buy a 16TB drive for? Why it's for massive amount of storage! So reliability is Key.

Gold has a MTBF [Mean Time Between Failures] figure that is much higher that any other drive.
2.5 Million hours for Gold and 'only' 1 Million hours for Red Pro. 250% higher for WD Gold.


Therefore, I think I am more upset about the fact that not a single soul noticed WD Gold operational behavior all this time, and that WD is not clear about this. When I am done with this thread, I'd like to ask reviewers about this, there are sites, right? Like Storage Review? How did they miss this?

Personally, I am actually having second thoughts about going in myself and changing the Firmware, I mean think about it... why would WD have it go IDLE C!? It's so they can claim reliability figures. Right?

There is no other reason why they would cripple performance by having it go Idle C in X minutes?
So by messing with it, I feel like I will reduce the expected time before failure.
I am however very interested in which 16TB+ drives do NOT go to Idle C, if any.

As for WD lines, when WD answers my question soon, we will know if WD Red and WD UltraStar behave the same, judging by how long it takes them to go to IDLE C, if they do that like WD Gold does.

 

[EarthDog]

When I am done with this thread, I'd like to ask reviewers about this, there are sites, right? Like Storage Review? How did they miss this?

As a reviewer who has reviewed storage in the past, this wasn't something anyone complained was missing or wanted to see tested. People want to know how the drive actually performs (Reads and writes, power use, noise - all critical functions to how a HDD works). Few users consider the time from sleep to active as a performance metric (and the issue here isn't how fast it comes out, but that it's doing it and ignoring windows in the first place). That said, the manuals do state what idle modes do what and what their expected time frames are, so if that's an important metric for a use case, the information is there....though GL figuring out what idle mode you're in...

.... really, as I see it, the problem is that nobody knows the Gold drives don't listen to Windows (until now). This begs the question... is it only their "enterprise" drives that behave that way (I'd guess your question to WD about the Red would answer that)?

The fact that a spinner isn't instantly available as you want it, isn't on most people's radar. I'm not trying to minimize the issue...it's real for you, but rather your surprise that this wasn't captured in the past. But I'd gather most users don't want their drives spinning constantly in the first place (you literally have to adjust power profiles to prevent it on almost every other drive - I'd bet most enthusiasts don't touch it). These days, it's SSDs for OS and spinners for warm/cold storage, so few would complain about the rust taking a moment to be available after being idle.

Personally, I am actually having second thoughts about going in myself and changing the Firmware, I mean think about it... why would WD have it go IDLE C!? It's so they can claim reliability figures. Right?

Indeed... that's the same logic we used when you asked the question of us. It just depends... do you want to bork your warranty for this niggle?

 

[c627627]

WD replied, but the response was written by the same lower level support tech, not the escalation department who brought first mention of IDLE C.


Q1. After how many minutes does WD Gold enter Idle C mode?
A1 - We support additional idle conditions, but the drive does not enter these lower power conditions such as Idle C mode. (idle_c/standby_y or standby_z) except by explicit command from the host.


Q2A. I understand that WD Black never enters Idle C mode, but WD Gold does, can you tell me if WD Red also enters Idle C mode and after how long? Also, can you also tell me if WD UltraStar also enters Idle C mode and after how long?
A2 - The Drive heads are parked on the ramp and lower RPM aprox 6xxx. This will say there until the Host issues a media access command. This works on Gold and UltraStar, does NOT work on WD Red or Purple as there is no Idle C for Red and Purple.

Yes, the UltraStar and Gold work with Idle mode and will drop to Idle mode 4 after 200 minutes.
"IF" the host doesn't make any changes to the timers Idle 2 would be 3 seconds, Idle 3 in 10 minutes and idle 4 in 200 minutes.


Q3. I understand that you are saying that Windows setting telling all Hard Drives to NEVER turn OFF is irrelevant, as WD Gold entering Idle C mode after X minutes is mandatory, regardless of Windows settings - is this correct?
A3 - Idle 3 as mentioned above is controlled by the Host so if the drive is going into Idle C model, you may want to check with the host and Windows on this inquiry.

WD also sent this screenshot to me:




==========================================================


Draft 1 of my reply, not sent yet:
May I kindly ask my case to be escalated.
The reason I asked after how many minutes WD Gold enters Idle C mode is because after my question was escalated, the escalation department said that "it's in Idle_C and not actually spun down or in Sleep/Standby."


==========================================================

I mean where to start. Answer to question 1 specifically says that the drive itself can never enter IDLE_C mode, by itself.
That right there made me stop, and consult with you before I send my draft reply above.





I specifically already sent this ↑ screenshot at start, asking if there is ANY other place where Windows could possibly tell one individual drive what to do, seeing as WD Black on the system is not affected.

Plus WD Black [and now we know also WD RED] can never enter IDLE_C.

Which means:
SHOULD HAVE BOUGHT WD RED PRO!!!
---------------------------------------------

 

[Janus67]

I wonder if you'd be having the issues if the drive was part of a storage array in a purpose built OS instead of just in Windows.

If you'd like you can see if you can get a hold of any of the editors/reviewer at StorageReview.com and see if they had similar issues. But they reviewed it well it seems. They are a great site with good info (not always storage either).

WD Gold 22TB HDD Review

Initially announced back in May, the WD Gold 22TB is the company’s newest CMR HDD with OptiNAND technology.

www.storagereview.com

 

[c627627]

EDIT: I re-read what I wrote below, and it all sounds headache-inducing complicated.
If anyone of you takes time to understand it... I will push this with WD for a while, it would just be faster with your help.
--------------------------------------------------------------


The purpose of this is to educate myself, and post on ocforums what I find out, so that others can educate themselves.
At the very least, there are things here which are unclear, and which are important.

I said "like" StorageReview, but it sounds like you also recommend them, yes I will do that, but before I do that, I would like to arm myself with more knowledge about what is going on. To that end, I would like my reply to WD to include requests for clarification from you, if things are unclear. From ocforums members reading this thread. If things are unclear at this point.


Let me first give you some more information from my research from the time PRIOR to purchasing WD Gold:
Here is a warning against me buying WD Gold:

"WD Gold is ... a higher quality drive than WD Black - but it is not as suitable for desktop use.... since the Gold... drives have TLER-Time Limited Error Recovery - which limits the amount of time a drive will attempt to recover an error. TLER is necessary for drives used in RAID to reduce the chance a drive will drop out of the RAID due to excessive time being taken to recover form an error. Desktop drives, like the WD Blacks, have no need for TLER and thus are less prone to losing data due to errors..."


It took me a while to figure out what the heck that even meant, and finally concluding to buy WD Gold because WD Gold is supposed to be THE most reliable drive Western Digital has! Who wants to lose 16TB of data!? Yes I have backups, but it's not like they are made at the same time as I am adding data.
So if WD Gold is THE most reliable drive... 250% more reliable than WD Red Pro... that was my thinking.

It was difficult for me to find good info because reviewers KEPT using PRICE as argument against buying WD Gold, completely missing the point that I can wait for a Super sale, which WD did have when I bought it, I bought this directly from WD, and in addition to various promos, like Paypal 12% Cashback, the PRICE was no longer an issue. Gold and Red were priced exactly the same at time of purchase.

More tech info:

"Drives with TLER are specifically designed for redundant RAID arrays. TLER is a drive function, where if the drive has difficulty accessing a portion of data, it will give up quickly and report an unreadable condition to the host controller. This timing is usually around 6-7 seconds maximum. The reasoning for this is that in a redundant array, all the data can be accessed or reconstructed from parity using other drives. The host controller then uses the remap function on the hard drive to mark those sectors bad, and writes the reconstructed data to spare sectors. This whole process happens seamlessly and without interruption or degradation of the RAID array. If it happens so many times that it runs out of spare sectors, the drive will be dropped from the array and marked as bad.
 
 If you use a drive configured with TLER in a non-redundant configuration, such as a single drive or in a RAID0, the drive still acts the same - it quickly gives up reading the data. This will usually cause CRC or other errors to display in the operating system, and the data will not be able to be read. Naturally, this results in a loss of that data.
 
 In contrast, a drive designed for use in desktop systems as single drives don’t have this timeout. Without TLER, the drive will literally try forever to get that data (and more often than not will eventually succeed). The operating system will appear to be extremely slow or frozen at this time, as it is waiting for the drive to become responsive again. If a drive without TLER is used in a redundant RAID, it will essentially cause the RAID to be degraded immediately upon hitting a single unreadable sector since the drive will appear to have become unresponsive to the host controller.
 
 The short answer of it is…
 To avoid unnecessary down time and headaches, don’t use a drive without TLER in a redundant RAID array.
 It’s OK to use a drive with TLER in a non-redundant configuration, just be aware it will be more difficult to recover data from sectors that develop issues."

I have always liked super fast computing, when I double click on WD Black link, it appears in a FLASH, instantaneously.
We are not talking transfer speeds here, we are talking about WD Black file or folder instantaneously appearing before me on my PC.

WD Gold, you double click, you then WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT and then it appears, according to the screenshot from WD, it takes 4 seconds if it is in IDLE_C mode, and I don't care what you call the mode, but it takes seconds... it is not an instantaneous flash appearance.

Now, to say that doesn't matter? To say WD Black's operational behavior is no better than WD Gold's?
It absolutely 100% matters. It is absolutely better than WD Gold.


So only now, as of my last post above, do we know that WD Red also never enters IDLE_C.
Therefore from that information, it is better to buy WD RED Pro than WD Gold.
Since there is a WD Red Pro in 16TB size but there is no WD Black 16TB.


Is it your understanding that WD escalation department said that WD Gold entered IDLE_C state!? Here is their complete quote:

"From the description you provided, you mention “a couple of seconds” this sounds like it’s in Idle_C and not actually spun down or in Sleep/Standby. Coming out of this idle state only takes a few seconds to get back to full speed and then load the heads. If the drive was spun down or in sleep/standby it could take up to 30 seconds to get to speed. Black does not support Idle_C which is why you see the difference. Unfortunately we do not provide a way of preventing the drive from going into this idle state."

Now, the lower level tech then said:

"We support additional idle conditions, but the drive does not enter these lower power conditions such as Idle C mode. (idle_c/standby_y or standby_z) except by explicit command from the host."


So what are the facts, according to WD?

WD Gold entered IDLE_C mode, which requires 4 seconds to pass from IDLE_C to instantaneous.
WD Gold cannot enter IDLE_C mode without specifically being told to.


OKAY, told by which Windows setting!?

Because I am telling you, it enters some kind of a mode fairly quickly after last activity, that REQUIRES seconds to pass before it is instantaneous again.


What causes the REQUIREMENT for seconds to pass before WD Gold offers instantaneous access again, if my Windows setting is set to NEVER TURN HARD DRIVE DISKS OFF?


So in conclusion, I would be grateful if you helped me word my reply to WD so that things are cleared up for you based on facts from WD, and then maybe you can explain them to me.

 

[Zerileous]

I mean it seems obvious to go by the reply from the higher level tech. Unfortunately these people are probably dealing with a lot and don't have the time to offer continued dialogue to a customer purchasing individual drives. It seems pretty clear that this drive is not meant for the application that you've put it in. I'm not sure when or where you got the snippet labeled as "tech info", but based on that as well as the text quoted above it, the drive is less reliable than a red or black unless it's used in RAID, and yet already knowing some of this you chose it while also stating that reliability was your primary concern. Also if you take away the C state, as mentioned, it probably will no longer have the hours rating of a gold.

You have a very niche use case here, and I love to hear / learn about it, but I don't feel like anyone has done wrong by not identifying the niche condition in a use case which the drive was not designed for. I think its awesome that you were able to get this level of information, but I'm not sure what benefit there is to pressing WD further, calling for more escalation etc. It seems like you got your answer, with one exception that a low level tech seemingly contradicted the high level tech. That said, we don't know if there isn't something in the SATA controller or the PCH code, or an obscure windows setting, but it doesn't sound like it's WDs responsibility to support your hardware or software outside of the drive, especially when using it in an implementation for which it was not designed.

I know you tried swapping SATA ports, but if your board has SATA ports from both the chipset and a stand alone controller, you could try switching to a port that is on the controller instead of the chipset, or vice versa, although I doubt that will do anything. I think it's much more reasonable to just accept the higher level tech's explanation that, " Unfortunately we do not provide a way of preventing the drive from going into this idle state." and disregard the contradicting statement that "We support additional idle conditions, but the drive does not enter these lower power conditions such as Idle C mode. (idle_c/standby_y or standby_z) except by explicit command from the host." I think what was stated is true for the standby modes but probably not for Idle C.

If you did want to pursue further line of questioning, I would just say, "can you please clarify, as the previous tech stated that 'we do not provide a way of preventing the drive from going into [idle c].' which contradicts the response idle c requires an explicit command from the host." It's not that complicated IMHO. This sounds much more reasonably like an automated feature to extend the lifespan and decrease the power consumption of enterprise drives by giving them a middle ground between being fully standby (long delay for information) and being spun and ready to go all the time.

 

[c627627]

Thank you for posting that. Yes, I look around and I am lost in a forest of complexity now.
I am going to step back and really try to simplify things..

What do I want?
Just to understand the way the most reliable model in existence from one of the main HD manufacturers works operationally, as a single storage drive on a PC. I will completely revise my approach. I will eventually contact other places, it's all about gaining knowledge for me. I feel I just need to really simplify my questions, and approach.

I am reading your post and yes, I hear you, one of the theoretical answers is that WD Gold cannot be used as a single storage drive in a PC. To me that *was* just simple, normal use that every hard drive could be used for.. should be capable of..

I am now open to the possibility that no WD Gold can be used on a PC as a single storage drive [in the same way that other drives are].
I will try to get a confirmation of that through more careful wording in my future communications.


First, I will start by doing some tests.
I will wait one hour after initial access to a WD Gold folder to see if the drive is still instantaneously accessible or if it has already gone to IDLE_C.
I do believe that highest level tech was correct when he called it IDLE_C.

It is basically WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT [hear the audible noise of HD starting to spin] then DISPLAY.
Now immediately thereafter EVERYTHING is instantaneous.

So is it 60 minutes, or more or less - but it is measured in a relatively short time, I suspect less than 120 minutes.

So then I will know the time to IDLE_C.


Then I will formulate questions based on your suggestion, to WD.
Then later contact whoever you guys think I should, Storage Review? Whoever.

I mean it's my time, and I would rather use it doing experiments like this.
Other people spend time drinking and gambling and miscellaneous, what's wrong with me spending my time figuring this out, gaining knowledge... right?

 

[Janus67]

Yep so in a similar meaning with Zer, in my previous post. I'd be curious to know if the issues happen on another computer, using an external drive dock, or on another OS (Ubuntu live CD or whatever).

Otherwise, like we stated, unfortunately it looks like you found a use case for the product that it isn't designed for.

 

[Zerileous]

I just want to clarify, the Gold certainly can be used as a single drive in a regular PC, with the following caveats
1. The higher risk of data loss as the drive will not persistently try to recover an error.
2. IF the user wishes the drive to never spin down into the standby state, it may still enter an idle state which can cause a few seconds of delay in accessing it.

Neither of these things means that the drive cannot be used in that way, just that the features of the drive are more suited to a different purpose. I think that many users would gladly accept and not notice the idle C state as most users prefer their drives to enter standby mode when idle anyway. I would assert that the ability to use the drive "normally" in a desktop application is not impacted by idle C in any significant way, and rather your preferred use is the outlier here. Again we are all enthusiasts and we love to nerd out over the outliers, but I would encourage you to avoid making too strong of generalizations.

 

[c627627]

Yes.
But so the 'niche use', that the product was 'not designed for' is a single storage drive on a PC.
The simplicity of that use is what gets me..


Results of Test #1:
After 62 minutes from last access - WD Gold 16TB did *not* enter IDLE_C state. It is still providing instantaneous access.

Next Test: 120 minutes.

EDIT: Actually when I tried accessing other folders, there was a delay after which everything was instantaneous.
So re-doing the test in 45 minutes from last access next.

 

[Zerileous]

No the niche use is never letting the drive enter standby and expecting instantaneous response from a spinner. Maybe we should have a poll lol, since I actually haven't used a spinner in years.

 

[c627627]

No the niche use is never letting the drive enter standby and expecting instantaneous response from a spinner. Maybe we should have a poll lol, since I actually haven't used a spinner in years.

...we are all enthusiasts and we love to nerd out over the outliers, but I would encourage you to avoid making too strong of generalizations.

I thank you for bringing this up. You make an excellent point.

It is unreasonable to expect never.
In other words to expect instantaneous response, always.
That is unreasonable, so we, between us, need to clarify that.


I would say the expectation is less than 3 hours.
So again, you brought up an excellent point. But let's establish what WD Gold is actually doing.


I just completed Test#2: After 47 minutes since last use, WD Gold 16TB DID NOT enter IDLE_C.

So the IDLE_C may be 60 minutes, I need to retest. I think it is 60 minutes, let me confirm, but even if it is 120 minutes, that is still within reasonable parameters of expectation of an instantaneous response, by user choice.

 

[Zerileous]

Maybe I'm reading into things too much here. But in this case, "never" is the parameter on a setting. The setting itself is of course "turn off hard disk after" which we've established is non-technical to a point to create a remarkable level of ambiguity. That said I believe that idle C would not fall under a condition which I would associate with being "off."

I'm not even trying to say you're wrong or unreasonable for wanting this behavior. "Niche" is not intended as a judgement against your use, I am only trying to point out that of a low volume of people using such a drive in such a configuration, it is likely even fewer have set the drive to never turn off and even fewer are bothered enough by a four second delay. Its not unreasonable to want this out of your drive, just unusual.

 

[c627627]

Test #3: WD Gold 16TB went to IDLE_C after 60 minutes passed!

I'd be curious to know if the issues happen on another computer.

You know, in the back of my mind, I also had thoughts about my system. But two things:

My WD Black is unaffected.
Higher-level WD tech introduced me to the notion of IDLE_C which, he said, exists on WD Gold, but not on WD Black [or WD Red].

So yes I can go where tests take me, but a counter-suspicion is just as strong:

What if all the WD Golds in the world go to IDLE_C after 60 minutes!?

...even fewer are bothered enough by a four second delay.

Yes, there are _plenty_ of users, who would look at this as "what's just a few seconds!?"
"You can *still* use it as a storage drive."


When SSDs were science fiction for every day use, and CPUs were s-l-o-w...
I was having similar discussions over my attempts to save a few seconds.


I would do the math and present things as time wasted over the lifetime of your use of a product.

Two seconds four times a day is 49 minutes wasted in a year.
If that's too much... what if only 25 minutes were wasted in a year?
What if it's five minutes?
What if it's two or more hours wasted in a year? What is acceptable?


Exactly the same question is applicable today in 2023 when it comes to WD Gold.

WD Gold appears to go to IDLE_C mode after sixty minutes.

 

[c627627]

I am glad I stuck to the tests because I wanted to narrow everything down, to one single least complicated sentence. So I simply asked that the escalation department confirm that WD Gold going into IDLE_C mode is normal, after 60 minutes of last activity.
That's it.



Here's the relevant math of why this is important, please correct if wrong:
If Western Digital Gold is used every day about once an hour, every 61 minutes, then the four second wait for every 61 minutes translate into 9 hours and 44 minutes per year of lost time.

Ten hours a year. It's ten hours of productivity lost every year. Per one drive.
An entire 24 hour day lost every couple or so years.

 

[EarthDog]

...how much is your time worth?

Supermicro (Samsung) 15TB U.2 PM9A3 NVMe PCIe 4.0 TLC Internal Solid State Drive (HDS-SUN0-MZQL15THBLAA7)

Samsung 15TB U.2 7mm NVMe PCIe 4.0 (1DWPD) SSD 5200 MBps Read / 4000 MBps Write Best-in-Class Energy Efficiency Supermicro Certified

store.supermicro.com

...instant access, orders faster read/write speeds playing with files vs spinner (saving even more time). 16TB 2.5" SATA SSDs exist too (also pricey!).

Here's the relevant math of why this is important, please correct if wrong:
If Western Digital Gold is used every day about once an hour, every 61 minutes, then the four second wait for every 61 minutes translate into 9 hours and 44 minutes per year of lost time.

Ten hours a year. It's ten hours of productivity lost every year. Per one drive.

Is that math assuming some user is attempting to access their HDD every 61 minutes 24/7/365?

If we're being realistic about lost productivity, my math would look like this:

Let's say a worker robotically accesses their single Enterprise-class 16TB WD Gold every 60.1 minutes on the nose to make this true...it's a 9-hour work day 5 days /week...

9 (hours) x 4 (second delay /occurrence = 36 (seconds /day) x 5 (days) = 180 seconds/3 minutes per week and 2.6 hours annually... or 0.001% of their work hours for the year.

 

[c627627]

Got a new reply.

Western Digital specifically said that WD Gold is "going into Idle_C because... this is by design."


From the previous time they did escalate it, I learned that WD Gold appears to be entering a state consistent with what WD calls IDLE_C mode, which I tested to be kicking in every 60 minutes, under Windows which is set to NEVER turn off hard disks. From the one time they escalated it before, I also learned that my WD Black is not capable of entering IDLE_C mode, which went a long way in explaining why my WD Black is ALWAYS instantaneously accessible.

Most importantly, I learned that WD Red [which is available in 16TB and higher drive sizes] also never enters IDLE_C mode, which goes a long way in assuming that WD Red, just like WD Black can be accessed instantaneously, at all times.

Now, this information is important information, which is not available when doing an internet search on any forums, or elsewhere... Being able to instantaneously access a hard drive every couple of hours is a big deal to me, and I would argue, a big deal for more people than just me.



I am going to go ahead and cut away the rest of it and once again ask them to confirm that WD Gold enters IDLE_C by design after 60 minutes and that WD Red does not.

Since those are the *only* two things that really matter to a user looking to buy 16TB+ hard drives, if they are looking at instantaneous access.



Here's the reply in full:

We apologize but by default the only idle/power save conditions that are enabled in the drives are idle_a. Idle_B and Idle_c. None of these idle conditions spin down the drive. We support additional idle conditions, but the drive does not enter these lower power conditions (idle_c/standby_y or standby_z) except by explicit command from the host.


The drive will enter idle_a after 2 seconds of idle time (no host activity). The drive will enter idle_b after 10 minutes of idle time (no host activity).

idle_a = Drive Ready, but not performing IO, drive may power down selected electronics to reduce power without increasing response time

idle_b = Spindle rotation at 7200 RPM with heads unloaded

Idle_c=Drive heads on ramp and lower RPM aprox 6xxx. This will stay there until the Host issues a media access command.

With the above being said, if the drive goes to sleep in 60 minutes, that would be from the Host. I believe its going into Idle_C because the recovery time is just a few seconds. and this is by design.

If you have any further questions, please reply to this email and we will be happy to assist you further.

 

[c627627]

The plot thickens. Western Digital called me. We had a conversation where the conclusion was that it was necessary to escalate my case even further.
I was asked to provide the model number of my WD Black, since my WD Black [in stark contrast to WD Gold] is coming up straight away, regardless of how much time has passed since last activity.

Western Digital objected to my use of the word "instantaneous."
I immediately agreed and withdrew my use of that word and from now on, we are saying "comes up straight away". I mean, 3-4 seconds is a noticeable, measurable amount of time delay. Not noticeable amount of time, to me, was instantaneous. That's what this is all about.


They asked that I provide the model number of my WD Black in writing, so I took the opportunity to once again summarize the case.
Not one person posting on any forums when I did the search, not one person working for WD, has so far done anything other than repeat ALL the operational modes WD Gold is capable of. This is not about listing every single operational mode of a hard drive. That's the point, the source of my continuing to push this issue.

So the big picture here is that not one person knows basic operational behavior of Western Digital hard drives.


To me, knowing about basic operational behavior, means here's a WD Black, files come up straight away after one hour of inactivity, or X hours.
Or here's WD Gold, you need to wait good four seconds if 60 minutes have passed since last activity, or X minutes.
Not one person has that knowledge so far. Anywhere.




To: XXX
Thank you for calling me earlier today 30 Mar 2023 about delayed access to my WD Gold Drive.
My Windows is set to turn hard disks NEVER as is evidenced by my WD Black drive coming up right away whenever I try to access it. My WD Black drive model is WD2003FZEX. Both my WD Gold and WD Black are used as storage drives with no programs installed on them.

I have observed my WD Gold needing good 3-4 seconds to display folders, if more than 60 minutes have passed since last activity. If less than 60 minutes have passed, links to WD Gold folders come up straight away, just like with WD Black drive.

My two questions are:

1. After how long since last activity does WD Gold go into a mode which requires about 4 seconds of time to display files/folders?

2. Is the operational behavior of WD RED different, in other words, is WD RED similar to my WD Black which requires no delay when displaying linked folders/files, even if several hours have passed since last activity?

The operational behavior requiring 3-4 seconds of time is consistent with IDLE_C mode.
From that, it appears that WD Gold is entering IDLE_C mode after 60 minutes, which requires a few second wait if 60 minutes have passed since last activity.

My question is important because I was told that WD RED is not capable of IDLE_C mode, which may mean that WD RED's operational behavior is similar to WD Black, which then means that people should buy WD Red and not WD Gold, if they want their files to come up straight away after more than one hour of inactivity has passed.





I said the last part because WD Black is not available in 16TB or larger sizes whereas WD Red is.

 

[c627627]

I talked to a Level 3 Western Digital Engineer whose name I have who worked for WD for 27 years.
He had me run this program

WeTransfer - Send Large Files & Share Photos Online - Up to 2GB Free

WeTransfer is the simplest way to send your files around the world

we.tl

with this command
wdckit getlog -l 8h disk3

since my WD Gold is disk3


It returned the above screenshot.
Which shows default timer setting of 0 for IDLE_C - proving my WD Gold never enters IDLE_C.
It also shows IDLE_B is 6000 which is WD speak for 600 seconds which is 10 minutes.
It also shows IDLE_A is 20 which is WD speak for 2 seconds.


The same program does NOT work with my WD Black.
As for WD Red, they can only speak to me about WD Red if I send them a picture of a WD Red with serial number and model number.


I concluded that we have proven that IDLE_C mode is not to blame for these symptoms.

Then I said could IDLE_B be responsible? They did not know.
I said could IDLE_B take 3-4 seconds to get WD GOLD to display info initially?

They didn't know.


So if anyone has a WD Gold drive out there used for storage only, with no programs installed on it, with no Windows pagefile.sys files on it, does your WD Gold take four seconds to get going, if it is not accessed for more than an hour?

That's it.

 

[EarthDog]

You go!

My question in this......how the hell do they "not know"? You're getting phone calls, and they......."don't know"?