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The rpm rating of this drive doesn't seem to be listed anywhere. Not on the box, not in the manual, not online, not even on Western Digital's website. I even called them but they were evasive, insisting that an external drive's rpm was not an important factor and that they didn't have that information anyway.

Finally I got an answer and, according to the supervisor, it is 7200 rpm. However, understandably, I would still like to verify this before I begin using the device. I've hooked it up to my MacBook but System Profiler doesn't list the rpm rating in the drive's specs. I'd pry it open to check the manufacturer label, but that would obviously void the warranty. Any ideas?

Model #: WDBC3G0020hal-00 (from the chassis)

fixer1234
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Nathanael
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Yes opening the case will void warranty, of course. However, most likely the drive inside is a Green Drive. I have opened MANY of the 1TB Mybooks, and they were all Green Drives. The bare drives in the 2TB range in the Green series are most popularly classified as "Intellipower" on the spin speed. This is a technology used to vary rpm and read speed for best performance to power consumption ratio. From the WD site on intellipower:

A fine-tuned balance of spin speed, transfer rate, and caching algorithms designed to deliver both significant power savings and solid performance. Additionally, WD Caviar Green drives consume less current during startup allowing lower peak loads on systems as they are booted.

I did find a listing for a WD20EARX bare drive, which is one of the 2TB Green drives, and it lists 7200 RPM. So it seems there is mixed information out there, though there is a chance it is 7200 RPM. Take it as you may.

Paperlantern
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Use something like Argus Monitor, which can access SMART drive attributes of a USB-connected hard drive. It will list the model number of the hard disk inside the USB enclosure. Look that model number up on WD web site, read the specs and you'll know the RPM speed.

Please note that the model number of the hard disk inside has nothing to do with the model number of the enclosure. Moreover, I wouldn't be surprised if same enclosure has different model hard disks inside depending on manufacturing date, factory, etc. In order to find the speed of the disk, you need the model number of the disk, not the enclosure.

haimg
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