WD HDD naming obsfucation?

[Telos]

It appears that WD has stepped away from EFRX/EFAX and now offers a new naming convention for retail NAS (red) drives. For example,

WDBMMA0040HNC-NRSN

... where the highlighted digits represent the nominal capacity.

Internal Drives for Retail | Western Digital | Western Digital

Any word on this @jeyare ?

 

[jeyare]

internal drives for Retail, also known as Retail kit = disks packaged in special heavy paper box with warranty provided directly by WD (independently from resellers)
From my side the main difference (except the warranty) is in just a plastic thin bag (OEM disk) and heavy packed (retail) box.
Use google with mentioned PN and you will understand it.
correct list of internal HDDs for NASes - Red & Red Pro series - is still waiting for you here

 

[Telos]

So... it's likely that the retail kits will yield SMR drives, depending on capacity. Eh? Because at the retail sites I visited, there is no description of the drive type that comes with a retail kit.

 

[jeyare]

So... it's likely that the retail kits will yield SMR drives, depending on capacity. Eh? Because at the retail sites I visited, there is no description of the drive type that comes with a retail kit.

there isn’t clear answer for such consideration.
since WD hides official document- Model Number Format for WD Products - it’s just unclear and next point to “don’t purchase“ decision for me
last searchable document is from 2009, but it’s too old and without such Model number codes explanation. Also official WD e-shop doesn’t have listed retail versions. Also they have a bug in the e-shop filters, because when you need find NAS drives with SATA III you wild find just:

there is just one possible action to find the RED/Pro lines= don’t use SATA III filter option , even don’t use filters.

 

[jeyare]

just for a comparison here is OEM disk codes explanation table, but of course w/o mentioned SMR, because they unhide such information just last week.

 

[fredbert]

Gotta say that this issue will probably be the deciding factor that stops me getting that updated DS920+ that I'd been hankering after.

With SHR allowing mixed disk sizes then I won't feel comfortable purchasing WD.

 

[jeyare]

Look for the Seagate

 

[jeyare]

I have opened ticket in WD for an explanation

 

[jeyare]

so, Retail package is a specific product line mainly prepared (more PNs) for region outside EMEA.
for EMEA is available this short PN list only:

PN	Product Description	Warranty	Capacity	UPC (EAN)
WDBMMA0010HNC-ERSN	WD RED DESKTOP 1TB EMEA	3 year	1000	718037815640​
WDBMMA0020HNC-ERSN	WD RED DESKTOP 2TB EMEA	3 year	2000	718037815503​
WDBMMA0030HNC-ERSN	WD RED DESKTOP 3TB EMEA	3 year	3000	718037815510​
WDBMMA0040HNC-ERSN	WD RED DESKTOP 4TB EMEA	3 year	4000	718037822525​
WDBMMA0060HNC-ERSN	WD RED DESKTOP 6TB EMEA	3 year	6000	718037829913​
WDBMMA0080HNC-WRSN	WD RED DESKTOP 8TB WORLDWIDE	3 year	8000	718037861623​
WDBMMA0100HNC-WRSN	WD RED DESKTOP 10TB WORLDWIDE	3 year	10000	718037861586​

then you can't purchase Retail version from other regions, because you will lose the warranty. As you can see in Product description column, there isn't clear info, what exact OEM disk PN will be delivered in Retail pack.