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[Starhammer]

I am one of the many people who bought two of the Western Digital 2 TB Caviar Green SATA Intellipower 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive WD20EARS to use with my DNS-323.

I only stumbled across this forum and found out that they are not supported by accident.

I am using these drives in non-raid mode in my unit with no problem, but I'd like to both avoid being out a bunch of cash due to D-Link's lack of support on this as well as avoid future issues.

These drives have a jumper setting for OS's that don't support the advanced formatting and Western Digital has realignment software as well.

Can these be used to circumvent any problems?

Is there even a problem with these drives if they are not in RAID mode (as mine are not, they are in standard mode).


I really hope D-L:ink is able to get this problem worked out, it's pretty unacceptable IMHO. 

[dannycalgary87]

Well it's not really D-Link's fault as they came out with the DNS-323 before these drives were created. Also if you read the post at the top of the forum it explains that it is WD's problem and they wont support NAS developers regardless.

In regards, if you arent running RAID you probably wont have an issue.

[Starhammer]

Well it's not really D-Link's fault as they came out with the DNS-323 before these drives were created.

Understood. However, other manufacturers of similar products are adding support for these drives via firmware updates. I don't see why D-Link can't do the same.

Also if you read the post at the top of the forum it explains that it is WD's problem and they wont support NAS developers regardless.

That's pretty standard fare. Every company always points the finger at the other party. Other hard drive manufacturers are going to be coming out with advanced format drives soon, D-Link is going to have to find a solution.


I sincerely hope you are right about me not having a problem in non-raid mode. It really sucks to be unable to use RAID with these drives though.

[dannycalgary87]

Fair enough, are you not able to get the EAD drive from your supplier? I just returned my EARS drive and bought the EAD online just to avoid any issues. There might be a firmware update in the future, but I would rather not wait.

What other manu's have provided an update? I know the netgears are "working on it", same with Drobo. But I haven't heard of any that actually support AFT yet.

[Starhammer]

The drives were bought from Newegg. I'm not sure if they can be returned at this point, at least not without having to pay shipping/restocking fees.

There is also the issue of cost - the 'lesser/older' EAD drives are actually significantly more expensive than the newer/better EARS drives at the moment due to sales that have been going on.

I think I may have a partial solution though:

I have a 1GB Western Digital black drive that does not use advanced formatting which can be used in bay 1. When the drives are being run in standard mode does the DNS-323 only create it's additional partitions only drive 1 or does it do it on both drives?

If it's only on drive 1 I should be able to run the EARS drive in bay 2 with the jumper in place to offset the sectors by 1, thus eliminating any problems for the time being.

[gunrunnerjohn]

Well, the "better" drives are only "better" if they serve the intended function, right?

[fordem]

1. When the drives are being run in standard mode does the DNS-323 only create it's additional partitions only drive 1 or does it do it on both drives?

What additional partitions are you referring to?  As far as I know the DNS-323 creates either three or four partitions (depending on the firmware version) on every drive installed.

[Starhammer]

What additional partitions are you referring to?  As far as I know the DNS-323 creates either three or four partitions (depending on the firmware version) on every drive installed.

That's exactly what I meant.

Given that it does not seem that the Western Digital EARS drives are going to be supported any time soon and that the EAD drives are so comparatively expensive right now I'm going to pick up a couple of SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3EG HD203WI's. They are on sale for a great price right now at Newegg. I know they aren't on the list as having been tested with this unit but they use the standard sector size so hopefully they will be ok.

[gunrunnerjohn]

I have a pair of Samsung 1.5TB drives, they worked fine in the DNS-323.

[Rodent]

I have these drives working fine...

Right    SAMSUNG    HD203WI    S1UYJ1KZ311339    2000 G    
Left    Seagate    ST3500320AS    9QM20C99    500 G

R.