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  1. #1
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    MediaMax Hard Drives

    Anyone have any experience with mediamax hard drives? Would you recommend them or should I stay away from them.

  2. #2
    I actually purchased two mediamax hard drives, on EBAY, because of I suspected they were western digtals, and the low "post flood" cost associated for the specific drive.
    Anyway, the reason I purchased the low cost $95 1Tb "new in box" drives, is because I had suspected that they were WD 1Tb RE4 drives (based on the part number and images), which are currently selling for around $260-$300.

    When they showed up at my door, every physical item, down to the plastic tranlucent substance at the motor connector looked identical to my RE4's.
    THe packaging was the typicall WD style ESD bag, that WD bulk OEM drives come in.
    Even the part number shows some similarity (see YX).
    Medimax part number:WL1000GSA6472E-YX
    Western Digital Part Number:WD1003FBYX

    hdparm -i /dev/sda display nearly identical information, aside from silghtly different server specific setups.
    MEDIAMAX:
    Model=WL1000GSA6472E , FwRev=HPG0, SerialNo=WOL240202948
    Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec SpinMotCtl Fixed DTR>5Mbs FmtGapReq }
    RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=50
    BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=0kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=?0?
    CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=268435455
    IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
    PIO modes: pio0 pio3 pio4
    DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
    UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2
    AdvancedPM=no: WriteCache=enabled
    Drive conforms to: Unspecified: ATA/ATAPI-1 ATA/ATAPI-2 ATA/ATAPI-3 ATA/ATAPI-4 ATA/ATAPI-5 ATA/ATAPI-6 ATA/ATAPI-7
    WESTERN DIGITAL:
    Model=WDC WD1003FBYX-01Y7B0 , FwRev=01.01V01, SerialNo=WD-WCAW31046483
    Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec SpinMotCtl Fixed DTR>5Mbs FmtGapReq }
    RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=50
    BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=0kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=?0?
    CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=268435455
    IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
    PIO modes: pio0 pio3 pio4
    DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
    UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2
    AdvancedPM=yes: unknown setting WriteCache=disabled
    Drive conforms to: Unspecified: ATA/ATAPI-1 ATA/ATAPI-2 ATA/ATAPI-3 ATA/ATAPI-4 ATA/ATAPI-5 ATA/ATAPI-6 ATA/ATAPI-7
    Drive performance benchmarks also show nearly identical results.

    smartctl info also shows very simlar data on the different drives.
    Unfortunately I can't seem to get smarctl -l scterc command to function. It says it is unsupported argument, so I am unabel to verify TLER function. With that being said. I have a picky raid controller, and the mediamax drives have not dropped.

    One item that concerns me, is the number of power cycle counts.
    My WD's that have been in a production evironment for over 6months now, show a count of 11, which sounds about right.
    These new mediamax dirves show approx. 63.
    The other item of concern, on the mediamax drive, is the number of Raw_Read_Error_Rates.
    My WD's show 0 on 1 drive, and 2nd one has 3.
    The media max drives show 171 on the 1st drive, and massive 37741 on the 2nd!!
    All other error counts show 0. No seek errors, no sector reallocations, no retries.
    In conclusion, it may be possble that mediamax is purchasing WD's refurbs/returns.

    I have had the drives, running in a test system, for about 30 days now on various different raid configurations, just copying and re-copying, and deleting, and re-writing data 24/7, with no issues. However, I am going to keep and eye on those read error rates and see if they keep climbing. I am not an expert on SMART data, but a number like 37000 error certainly raises a red flag, for me; even though SMART reports no SMART errors.

    SO while I am pretty certain that these drives are WD RE4's, I still don't trust them for any production purposes, due to the high error counts. But as I stated, I am not an expert on reading SMART data. SO if someone out there has any insight, please let me know.
    Chris Walker
    http://www.siterack.net
    Shared Hosting / Master Reseller / Reseller / HostReady cPanel VPS / DynaServer Adjustable VPS

  3. #3
    Further updates on these MediaMax drives....

    I have now put these drives thorugh 7 days of hell, on a Windows machine running Barts Hard Drive Stress test, and rechecked the SMART info.
    On the Windows test machine, I am using Defraggler's built in SMART checking, which is much easier to understand than the raw info provided with linux's smartctl.

    Any errors these drives had before, are now gone. All thresholds are at factory optimal values. Perhaps the errors were due to a crappy testbed setup, when I was testing them on a linux machine. It was less than stable, and the SATA cables were sitting at stressed angles.

    SMART shows 1 drive has been run for 99 days, and the other drive has been run for 55 days. Both these values are much higher than what I have run them for. Further evidence that these are WesternDigital's returns/refurbs.

    Stress testing the drives, have yielded no errors or data corruption within the drives. Data transfer speeds range from 128MB/s to 218MB/s depending on block size written/read.

    SO far, these drives have proven themselves reliable through 37 days of heavy operation. With SMART errors and thresholds cleared up, I am comfortable to try these drives in a production environment. I', not going to put them on a public server, just yet, but will be operating them in a NAS box that stores account and server backups. This way, if one daoes crash, I don;t have a public hosting server going down, just a backup box. I figure a good 6 months in a NAS backup storage unit, will allow enough operation, data passes, and time to get a good solid evaluation on these drives. At any rate, for $100/each, I'm pretty impressed so far.
    Chris Walker
    http://www.siterack.net
    Shared Hosting / Master Reseller / Reseller / HostReady cPanel VPS / DynaServer Adjustable VPS

  4. #4
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    Oct 2010
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    Found them. I might buy a few. You literally just saved me $1,400. Thank you!
    SiFuQi.net - Affordable Dedicated Servers in Los Angeles, California
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  5. #5
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    Are you sure that they're RE4s and not Caviar Blacks?
    SiFuQi.net - Affordable Dedicated Servers in Los Angeles, California
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    Check out our reseller program, with a unique two-tiered discount.

  6. #6
    The one's I have appear to be RE4's, and even work with my RAID hardware. The blacks, I know, do not work on my RAID hardware.
    THe physical construction of Blacks, vs. RE4's is a bit different.
    The lid design is different, the motor connectors are different, and the main casing are all different.
    These drives, say RE4, in all physical aspects, and have same performance results from benchmark testing.

    Here is the link where I got mine...http://www.goharddrive.com/White-Lab...p/g01-0237.htm

    THey have now even added RE4 to the description. The Ebay listing I got mine on, did not have this in the description. So now I am completely convinced
    Chris Walker
    http://www.siterack.net
    Shared Hosting / Master Reseller / Reseller / HostReady cPanel VPS / DynaServer Adjustable VPS

  7. #7
    Further note, the picture they have in the listing, is not the drive you will be getting. THat one does look like a black.
    Chris Walker
    http://www.siterack.net
    Shared Hosting / Master Reseller / Reseller / HostReady cPanel VPS / DynaServer Adjustable VPS

  8. #8
    wow nice review

  9. #9
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    Hey ... really appreciate the review. I am going to go ahead an purchase 4 of them and deploy them on our testing server.

  10. #10
    I would definitely put them in test machine before deploying them, because like I said, they do appear to be refurbs. SO be sure to run thourough testing on them to make sure everything is "hunky dory"
    At this price, who cares if you get 1 of 5 bad? lol. Just RMA the bad one
    Chris Walker
    http://www.siterack.net
    Shared Hosting / Master Reseller / Reseller / HostReady cPanel VPS / DynaServer Adjustable VPS

  11. #11
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    I just bought 11 of these, the model number is WL1000GSA6472E-YX
    They arrived just today. I tried to run WDTLER to scan for TLER function, but it says the model # of the drive does not match any WD model. :/

    The retailer reassured me these are re-labeled Western Digital WD1003FBYX RE4 drives. Physical appearance wise they look identical. I'll be testing them for the next month before putting them into a live server.

    I'm going to deliberately degrade the array and monitor the rebuild.
    I'll keep you guys posted with results.
    Sam Jadali | Host Duplex
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  12. #12
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    So... how is this company able to sell them for so cheap if they're the same drives that can often cost so much more?

    Either WD is marking things way, way up, or there's something fishy about them...

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ivraatiems View Post
    So... how is this company able to sell them for so cheap if they're the same drives that can often cost so much more?

    Either WD is marking things way, way up, or there's something fishy about them...
    Good point... however they have 3 auctions going on ebay for this exact drive and as shown on ebay, they have sold nearly 900 drives (same person is selling it). I paged through and looked over their ebay reviews.... there was only one negative review about this drive which had to do with a damaged box and didn't seem to be related to the drive itself.
    Sam Jadali | Host Duplex
    sam.jadali [@] hostduplex.com
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  14. #14
    I now have my pair in a production machine, and it has been performing flawlessly. I am quite happy with these drives.
    Chris Walker
    http://www.siterack.net
    Shared Hosting / Master Reseller / Reseller / HostReady cPanel VPS / DynaServer Adjustable VPS

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Siterack_net View Post
    I now have my pair in a production machine, and it has been performing flawlessly. I am quite happy with these drives.
    I have about 4 in a test machine right now. They are working just fine and are super fast.

    I might move them to production ... not sure yet.

  16. #16
    Join Date
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    if you get to see WD element, go for it. my experience with those is super

  17. #17
    Not to bust anyone's bubbles or dreams. Siterack thank you for your insightful information, but I have a bit of disturbing news.

    A) We got a batch of these drives for testing purposes at first almost half of them reported the Raw Read errors you have mentioned, and we have sent them back. (Their RMA is great btw).

    B) We tested these drives using RAID5 setup same as the WD Black we use (which work fine btw you just have to set the pins to force 3Gbps on the 6Gbps drives). The performance is pretty bad compared to WD black. WD black RAID5 we would get around ~300-400MB/s on these drives the graphs went up and down but general performance was around 100MB/s which is a bit disappointing.

    In general, yes in this time of crisis use these drives for stand alone, but stay away from RAID setup with them.

  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jigy View Post
    Not to bust anyone's bubbles or dreams. Siterack thank you for your insightful information, but I have a bit of disturbing news.

    A) We got a batch of these drives for testing purposes at first almost half of them reported the Raw Read errors you have mentioned, and we have sent them back. (Their RMA is great btw).

    B) We tested these drives using RAID5 setup same as the WD Black we use (which work fine btw you just have to set the pins to force 3Gbps on the 6Gbps drives). The performance is pretty bad compared to WD black. WD black RAID5 we would get around ~300-400MB/s on these drives the graphs went up and down but general performance was around 100MB/s which is a bit disappointing.

    In general, yes in this time of crisis use these drives for stand alone, but stay away from RAID setup with them.
    Really?

    I get 85 MB/s on Raid 1. I have only tested Raid 1 till now. When i get some time I will test out raid 10 and 5. Will post results.

    The 4 hard drives I got had no errors.

  19. #19
    I've not had any speed issues with mine.
    I average between 80-120 under load. Which would be about right for single SATA drive performance. I'm running mine in raid1, which essentially would give only single drive performance.
    All the errors I reported in the first post are now gone. Those cleared up during my bench testing.
    I'm guessing you were running software raid with the WD blacks? I can't get blacks to remain stable on my hardware raid, and they drop out.
    I could be wrong, and it may not, or even should not, make a difference on performance, but aren't the RE series drives designed for hardware raids?
    Chris Walker
    http://www.siterack.net
    Shared Hosting / Master Reseller / Reseller / HostReady cPanel VPS / DynaServer Adjustable VPS

  20. #20
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    I use the 10k "Velociraptor" drives with no issue, they work great.

  21. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by [CTI] Todd View Post
    I use the 10k "Velociraptor" drives with no issue, they work great.
    What read write speed are you getting on these ... in raid 10?

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