Warning: some low quality Molex-to-SATA adapters have been known to catch fire! Please do your research before using the solution at 4:03. For a comprehensive guide on Western Digital's Easystore drives (including the 3.3V issue), you can visit this excellent writeup compiled by u/jppowers at reddit's datahoarder sub: www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/7fx0i0/wd_easystore_8tb_compendium/ Much obliged 🎩 to all my viewers. Like. Share. Subscribe. Enjoy. Support links ☕ BuyMeACoffee: buymeacoff.ee/accessrandom 🐦 Twitter: twitter.com/accessrand0m ► Subscribe: th-cam.com/users/accessrandom
Note for anyone having a hard time getting the tape to stick: You can actually cover up pins 1 and 2 in addition to 3. It makes the tape stick much better, and your hard drive doesn't use 3.3V anyway.
@@accessrandom for some reason i couldnt reply directly however this video saved me a ton of headaches. i just used a molex to sata adapter i had in part bin and the drive is running like a champ internally. thanks for the link to the r/datahoarder reddit too tons of great info there
No it's not. Dude wears an ESD wrist strap, but the clip of it, is fastened to the computer case while it's not connected to the power supply ..... That doesn't deflect any ESD at all.
The 3.3V "issue" is actually an Enterprise Feature - it is used to spin up multiple Disks one after the other instead of all simultaneously This way you can use way smaller PSUs in a Server and/or drive enclosure :)
I agree it is an enterprise feature, but the purpose is not to spin up multiple disks sequentially. Staggered Spin-Up has been around for a long time. According to Western Digital the reason is so you can power cycle a drive to perform a hard reset, saving the long walk out to the rack just do hard reset. It requires specialized, compatible hardware to leverage the feature. documents.westerndigital.com/content/dam/doc-library/en_us/assets/public/western-digital/collateral/tech-brief/tech-brief-western-digital-power-disable-pin.pdf
@@VladdyDaddy45 Actually it's a enterprise hard drive. I even test it. I have WD80EDAZ-11TA3A0 the one you suppose to put tape on. Wouldn't work on my desktop but was able to be detected on my Dell Power Edge T710. :D
Thank you. Honestly one of the best, clearest instructional videos I've come across. Thank you for not having overly loud muzak. Thank you for describing everything so well. Wish me luck on my first shucking.
Hey fellas, thanks a ton for this video. Instead of using either of these solutions listed I used an automotive pick to pull up the third tab on the power side and moved it gently back and forth until it broke smoothly at the base. Now windows/bios sees the drive and works fine.
@@accessrandomi used this guy's tip and lifted the 3rd contact up on a female to male sata extension cable and this also works fine and no setting fire to the house problems that it appears a lot of people have had from the molex to sata extension cables - excellent video and suggestion reply that led me to this solution - Thanks a lot :)
I panicked a little when I shucked my WD Elements and the drive didn't show up and I freaked a bit when you mentioned having to go buy tape, but boy did I rejoice when you mentioned the molex to sata workaround. Actually had one laying around and now the drive is showing up just fine. THANK YOU!
Using an earthed wrist strap can be as dangerous (if not more dangerous) as not using one at all. There's no guarantee that your mains earth is going to be at the same potential as whatever you're working with. You could actually fry the drive BECAUSE you're wearing it. What you should do is make sure everything is at the same potential so no current can flow anywhere. To do this, plug the data cable into the drive while you're doing this and plug the other end into your PC. Then attach your wrist strap to a grounding point on the PC. One of the shields of a connection port would be okay, or to the ground pin of the power plug (the PC shouldn't be plugged in). Then everything is a closed circuit at the same potential.
Note that there are WD white-label drives with and without the pin 3 issue. Easy enough to tell, as you said, because the drive just won't spin up in some environments. Thanks for helping to keep the world informed!!!!
I removed the 3rd pin completely.. i removed the pcb and with a tweezer pulled the pin out and off the pcb and it worked perfectly!! You sir are a legend thank you very much.
@@accessrandom Hey, I have a quick and easy question for you; I found that I have about four sata to sata splitters / extension cables; If I hold it with the female connector(s) facing up; the wires from left to right are: Yellow, Black, Red, Grey, and I just wanted to see if you knew if these adapters also will work or not; because I haven't removed the external drive yet, and would like to be certain I have the correct resources on hand before starting; not sure where to get tape, as that is a new solution I also wasn't aware of; but I would imagine if I cannot find it locally at lowes or home depot, it wouldn't be to hard to find using the correct search term; thank for any info. Peace
Thanks this has been driving me nuts and I assumed it was my motherboard getting a bit old. I removed the pin with a dental pick and works great internally now.
I wouldn't have thought of using a dental pick but now that you mention it, it sounds like the perfect tool :) Thanks for the comment, and glad you found the video helpful.
@@cajunflix1movies728 Others in the comments below have used Xacto knives. I think anything thin and sharp enough to get under the pin should work (sorry I don't have a video on this, but I myself was trying to do it non-destructively).
Alternatively you can also cover pins 1 and 2 together with pin 3. They aren't used either, so it's much easier. Using a Molex adapter can be dangerous, because the low quality ones are getting moulded after the cables are plugged into the plug. This leads to the cables moving and getting close to each other and then burning the whole disk (Molex to SATA, loose all your data). The good ones are crimped and just stuck into an already finished plug without the cables being able to touch each other.
Wow, I can see why you'd go through the trouble for this. It seems the cost of these external drives is about half the cost of a normal standalone 3.5" drive. Just goes to show how inflated the prices are.
@@accessrandom really? how much are the white label drives? The Seagate 3.5" BarraCuda 8TB drives specifically sold for internal storage are $230USD atm.
White label drives generally aren't sold as internals, but they have the same or similar specs as the WD Red label drives. The Barracuda Compute 8TB drives that I've removed from external Seagate Expansions in my other video seem to be different than the Barracuda Pros as they have slightly different model numbers (ST8000DM004 vs ST8000DM0004 respectively). At any rate, agreed there's a lot more bang-for-the-buck with the externals.
thanks, I didn't use either of the 2 options, I cut the cable on the power supply sata connector that corresponded to the 3rd pin (was the first cable in my case) and it worked perfectly. Only drawback is that if you plan on switching out a new hard drive in the future, just make sure it's a schucked one or use a different sata cable .
Mine was a WD Blue drive, from a MyBook 6 Tb. 5400 RPM :((( The pins inside the sata power connector are spring-loaded so I ruined the pins ability to reach the contacts with a tiny screwdriver. Worked perfectly well, thank you very much :)
Unusual to get a video with this many views and no down-votes. Well done a really good video. I've also learned what shucking is and now know what sales to avoid on Ebay.
Kapton tape worked perfectly. Use tweezers and a toothpick to place and smooth the tape. After spending 45 seconds smoothing / pressing the tape into the pin I tested plugging / unplugging the connector a few times and it stayed in place perfectly. Thanks for the guide!
I found that if you can open the SATA power connector, you can pull out the left most cable which is the 3.3V. Great for those with no electrical tape nor the extra power cable (me)
THANK YOU!!! I bought a WD 8TB MyBook (WDC WD80EDAZ-11TA3A0) but it was overheating like crazy in its external case (60c) so I decided to put it in my computer, but of course it wasn't detected. A piece of tape on the 3rd pin did the charm. Now it's idling at 31c rather than 60c :)
Dear, sir! What a fine and excellent tutorial you have generously given to us here on the YT channel! Most clear and pedagogical step-by-step advice you are helping us with installing an HDD from external use to internal use! A very big and warm THANK to you, dear, sir! Stay blessed and safe and healthy in these perilous times with the Coronavirus infection risk! Best Regards and wishes for all good things coming your and your whole family way! (Now subscribing and giving thumbs up!)
Thank you, sir, so very much, for your excellent and perfect tutorial to receive a functional solution to the third-pin-problem! Most amazing facts you share! Wishing you all the very best and please stay blessed and healthy! Best regards, from Sweden!
well explained video I congratulate you, just a note, in my case putting tape on pin 3 did not work, but I read some comment below say that covering the first 3 pins worked and it is, it is easier to cover the first 3 pins so removal of problems.
This is going to sound a bit weird, but you have a pleasant voice for narration. As a British person, I find the American varying regional accent/"tang" distracting when trying to pay attention to technical stuff but your have a "clean" and neutral American accent. Anyhow, thank you for sharing this trick!
I ran into this problem when purchasing a 10TB WD external that I shucked. I ordered the tape and molex adapter and tried to fix today. It still doesn't get recognized in Windows 7 (unless I plug it in via usb and power to wall outlet). I removed the third pin entirely and it still won't show up in Windows (again, unless I use the external case's USB/power board). This is in a rack mount server running Windows 7 and runs through an LSI controller. I was so excited for a fix, but I am confused at what might still be the problem. I will try the adapter eventually, but would rather fix it this way for future drive expansion. Another concern is that it is on a hot-swap back-plane, so not sure how the molex to sata adapter will fit in until I open up the case. Also, it seems like the drive is powering up, as when I remove it from hot-swap it feels like it is still spinning... Any ideas for a fix, or what I might be doing wrong? Thx EDIT: I tried moving the drive around within different bays of my server and got it to work. I have (5) Rows of (4) Bays. It appears that a whole "row" of (4) bays is out. These are all on the same back-plane, so I'll need to investigate later (though I do not need all the bays at the current time anyway). Thanks for the great video!!
Thanks for the update - I was just reading your comment and was a bit stumped as to why it wouldn't work with the tape method (and even when you removed the pin). I guess the failure can happen anywhere along the chain back to the power supply.
Thanks so much for this explanation! I was getting ready to blame WD (and my cheap-ass self) because its budget priced MyBook (which was already a pita to get out of its enclosure) wasn't being recognized as an internal drive on my old pc (which I repurposed as nas). The tape solution already worked like a charm, luckily I had an old sata to molex (only power) adapter lying around, which is an even better solution!
Amazing video. Very clear and direct on solving the problem. I just shucked my first drive and found it worked on my windows computer but not my Linux. After watching this it explained everything and how to fix it. Thank you for the video!
Fantastic video! Very professional. Had a high production quality and feel. More to the point, it provided useful information without the long drawn out routine some multimillion subscriber channels use! which is why I subscribed and will return. Thank you.
Hello! Thank you for the great video. If I understood correctly, if I want to shuck the drive to use it in a NAS, I don't have to put tape over the conector?
Here is another solution. Pulled out the razor knife with a new blade and picked at pin 3 until it pryed up and then broke the pin off. Never have to woory about it again worked perfect. The 3rd pin stciks out a little longer than the rest which makes it easy to get under. Could not have figured it out without this Video.
Say, I just want to say thank you very much. I'm out in the boonies with an 8TB white drive, and I ordered the tape you suggested through amazon and the drive lit right up. I really appreciate your advice and suggestion!
Most SATA to SATA or SATA splitters do not have the 3.3 V pin connected as well. The 3.3 V is Orange, and the SATA to SATA contain Red, Yellow and Black wires.
Thank you so much for this video! I was stuck for so long! I had some thermal tape handy so I tried it out and sure enough it showed right up. I would have never guessed a pin would be the culprit! You saved me. I can't thank you enough! Thank you Thank you Thank you!
Thank you very much, I knew it had something to do with power when my drive was not spinning and not detected in the BIOS. A simple piece of Scotch Magic tape was enough for me !
Btw shucking doesn't always void the warranty on the drive I've had a faulty shucked drive and WD replaced it no issue. FYI I just got 2 year warranty instead of 3 year
Molex to sata power adaptors don't include the 3.3v line, I assume using one of these would get around the issue? EDIT: annndd this is what I get for not watching the whole video ;)
It sounds like a bad physical sector, which is independent of the power being delivered to the disk. You may want to perform a chkdsk /r in a command prompt (started as an admin). If it detects any bad sectors, I would see if you can exchange the drive for another.
@@accessrandom tried that turns out windows 10 2004 update damages SSD's and mechanical Hard drives microsoft has warned people to turn off automatic defragmentation of drives turns out the SSD isnt being trimmed but defragmented instead damaging the hard drive the same thing is happening to mechanical hard drives there getting trimmed instead of defraged
@@johnDingoFoxVelocity Interesting - thanks for the tip. I did hear about SSD problems with the latest update to Windows but I hadn't heard about problems with HDDs.
I have an HP drive that's really a hgst drive. It works fine in my docking station but won't power on from my psu, even with the sata power adapter bypassing the third pin. Any ideas? Thanks for the informative video!
The nail polish doesn't have to be clear. I used blue nail polish on one of my drives (because that's all my daughter was willing to lend me) and it worked fine. The only type I might not recommend is nail polish with sparkles &/or other metallic materials in it. :-)
Been smashing my head against a wall trying to figure out why my HDD was working via USB and not Sata. Tried everything. This video was the fix. Thank you for this valuable information!
Hi, I also have white label discs (WD80EZAZ, WD100EZAZ and WD140EDFZ), which work in the TS131P, in the TS453D, but they do not work in the TS451 + which is currently in production, and is it after the TS451 of your movie? Can you tell us why?
I would have never guessed. Thanks for the heads ups. I have a Netgear ReadyNAS that I just replaced 4 drives in ... meaning I probably blew away my OS, but I was thinking it might be this problem that the drives are not spinning up.
I have been using the molex solution for 2 of my drives no problem, but now I want to add another drive and I am out of adapters, so I bought some Kapton tape to try that method. I tried 5 times and every time I slide the power adapter on, it just shoves the tape down and off the pins! Any advice? I am not using the label backing/cardboard, I am just cutting and applying directly to pins 1-3. Maybe my tape is cheaply made??
The Kapton tape can be a bit tricky to place especially when it's a tiny sliver (like I have it in my video). I would recommend a wider piece that covers pins 1, 2, and 3 (since pins 1 and 2 are not used anyways). Hopefully, that will stick better to the pins.
@@accessrandom yea that's exactly what I have been trying... I specifically bought a very thin roll to begin with... it's the exact width of 3 pins. I have tried at least 5 times on 2 different drives now and it just jams in every time. I also tried regular old electrical tape... same issue. I wonder if superglue would work? It would certainly insulate well, but I just don't know how well that would hold up once heated.
@@mulox1 Maybe you could try different SATA cables or even a different port on the motherboard? It could be anywhere along the chain to the motherboard that could be causing a problem.
Great tip here Unfortunately with my shaky hands and exceptionally failing eye site i will have 1 heck of a time accomplishing this task.i never realized until i looked how small an area i would be working with i need to ask how exact i have to be on the applying it to only that pin? Does it matter if i get a wee bit of overlap on pins to either side? How many pins could actually be covered and it would still work? Would taking a safey pin and just scratching out that 3rd pin work? or cause permanent damage? Thanks
Thank you. I focused on non-destructive ways to solve the problem. What you can do is cover pins 1, 2 and 3 if you'd like - pin 3 is the important one, but pins 1 and 2 can be covered as well.
This saved me several hundred dollars! I was going to go out and buy five new HDD's, but I was like "no, wait, why is this Red drive working, but these two White drives not working...? They all worked in the old system last week without any issues...." I took one of the power supply cables I had purchased previously, with the right-angle plugs, and just snipped the first wire - the one closest to the "L" part of the power cable - and electrical taped it off carefully. Plugged the drives in, and everything worked. It's insane that this is a problem. Wish there were a "switch" or "BIOS" fix, but removing the 3.3 volt line will harm nothing, as this is in a personal computer, and I don't need to "remotely restart" a hard drive. I would like to know more about the transition...why this happened, and why no one seems to care about making drives obsolete with a weird cable/power supply issue. My power supply is a brand-new SeaSonic Prime TX-1600, so I couldn't imagine that being the issue. Nice to know it's that "pin 3" so easy to mitigate. Thank you so much!
Does this apply to Seagate Shucked drives as well? Have some 5TB drives that seem to exhibit this issue (brand new and shucked but only work in USB not on SATA.
Hi, quick question for you; what do you think of the WD Purple Drives? I am thinking of using them for building a Chia Mining Rig. Thanks for any information. Peace
I believe their Purple drives are meant for surveillance. I don't know if they're necessarily better than the White/Red labels, but they were designed for 24/7 operation.
Hello AR I see the warnings about using a Molex to Sata adapters due fire hazards. This may be due to the quality of the Sata connector. If I use a Sata power cable instead of the Molex to Sata adapter don't I run a risk of a fire hazard as well depending on the quality of the Sata connector?
I suppose power supplies may have low quality SATA connectors as well (just like the Molex-to-SATA adapters), but generally you should be safe with those provided by the PSU manufacturer. The dangerous Molex-to-SATA adapters are those that are molded, as opposed to those that are crimped.
Thank you AR. Just to clarify I will always need a data cable connected to the HD but I need to be diligent in find the proper Sata connector to the HD to reduce the risk of fire hazard. If the proper Sata connector to the HD is used does it matter whether it is a Molex/Sata adapter or a Sata power cable? Is there safety tradeoff using one type of cable/adapter versus the other? In other words does the computer or the power supply cause a greater excessive power using one or the other cable type?
@@Globalbye The SATA power cable will be safer as that is coming directly from the PSU. It is the Molex/SATA adapter (the one that joins the Molex from the PSU, to the SATA power connector on the back of the disk) that can cause problems. I hope I've interpreted your question correctly.
@@accessrandom Yes I guess I would aim to use a sata power cable rather than a molex sata adapter. I did not think there would be a difference as the power would come from the same source, the PSU.
Quick question please. I'm a little confused here. Would taping up pin 3 allow ALL drives to power up or just the drives with the affected PSU's? I plan to put some 8TB drives on eBay and would like to tape up pin 3 to cover all PSUs, affected and not affected. Would that work?
Yes - taping pin 3 would allow it to work in both affected and non-affected PSUs (in fact, you can cover the first three pins without any adverse affects). The only thing I would be concerned about is whether the tape will hold if the customer connects/disconnects the cable.
I came up with another solution. I was using the Molex to SATA adapter but it is the molded kind. It was making me nervous. I decided to mod the 3.3V line on the SATA power cable and discovered that the cabling Silverstone included with this power supply actually has removable caps on the backs of the SATA connectors. I pulled off the cap and slid the orange 3.3V wire out of the connector. I wrapped electrical tape on the insulation where it had been sliced by the connector and recapped the connector without putting the 3.3V wire back into it. I don't know if anyone else has this style of connector going to their drives but it's worth a look. Easy to do and easy to reverse if the 3.3V line is ever needed.
@@accessrandom Thank you for the video that got my and a lot of other people's drives working. Thanks also to the commenters that got me thinking about modding the cable.
This is what I always do -- just mod the PSU cables to remove the 3.3v line. Most good PSU's come with crimped connectors anyway, so they are easy to mod.
@@wpyoga Never had to deal with this until I shucked that Easystore. Learned something new. I was going to try pulling the 3.3V line from the PSU side of the SATA power cable but this seemed like a much easier route.
Did this, but didn't have any kapton tape, used electrical tape instead with similar results (obviously the electrical tape was a tad thicker and I believe has adhesive that may leave a residue). I did order some of the linked kapton tape though (curiously the Amazon description does not say kapton tape) and will use that on future drives. Just bought two more 12 TB from Best Buy for $189 USD/each, hoping for a nice holiday sale on 12/14 TB externals and will likely do this again with those. =)
Thanks for the tip - I've tried electrical tape before but I found it was a bit thick and it stretched out the connector slightly on the SATA power connector before I switched to Kapton (not sure of the long term effects of the electrical tape). That's a great price on the 12 TB - hopefully the 14 TBs will drop to $200 as it did last year...
Same here. I thought about cutting it at the end but I decided to just pull the connector and wrap it in electrical tape in case I need to re insert the 3.3v connector.
I am trying to do it other way around. I mean putting regular NAS drives back into previously shrucked WD case and they do not start. No spin, no reaction... any ideas?
This is needed for a Sinology DS220+? I just installed the disk and it starts without problem, but I don't know if this will cause any problems in the future?
thank you for this, i kept looking online but i didnt know the problem was this specific. thought my psu and harddrive were broken. a workaround i found was replugging the power cable seems to work. but it disconnects sometimes.
I had the MOLEX cable and it worked, BUT i HAD SOME OTHER ISSUES and Micro Center said the disk was failing or unreadable. Got it home tried the type. Not sure why it did not work. The tape is so thin. Not sure if covered something or something was uncovered. Wondering if I use a USB HDD Dock if it will read it without the tape on the 3rd pin?
If the problem is with the 3.3V pin, then the HDD Dock will probably work. I haven't had any reports of docks not working with the white label disks (nor has the compendium in the description). If the problem is with the disk itself (as Micro Center says), then that would be a larger problem.
You can cover pins 3,4,5 does not have to be just pin 3, I have done that to my 8TB Ultrastar Data Center, Hey Presto, HDD booted up, and detected on BIOS, previously would work on a USB 3.0 HDD caddy.
Thanks for doing this. Just shucked two Easystores and got whites. They don't work with my Corsair HX 650 PSU :( Can you recommend a brand/model/link of Kapton tape and also maybe a link to a Molex-to-SATA adapter you recommend?
There's a good video on the subject on TH-cam: just search for "How To Spot Molex To SATA Adapters That Won't Catch Fire". For the kapton tape, I ordered from a uline catalog years ago (it's not something I use often, except when I'm dismantling a laptop and putting it back together). But I think any roll of Kapton tape from either uline or Amazon would work fine.
Thank you Access Random! I shucked an 8TB Easy Store which only worked while in the case. I verified that before shucking it. Formatted and assigned a drive letter to it. Once installed inside the case, it was not detected by the PC. It was a white drive. Glad I came across these video's and some others, but yours were the most useful. I ordered both the Molex to SATA cable and the Kapton tape. I've seen the tape used to protect circuit boards while soldering in repair video's so wanted it anyway. I decided to use both while I had the HTPC out again. Worked flawlessly after replacing the existing SATA cable as well as adding the Kapton tape. Got the tape at www.ebay.com/itm/111893269568 and cable at www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=102&cp_id=10226&cs_id=1022604&p_id=5184&seq=1&format there are others there too. It's a little hard to navigate the site, but very reasonable and picked up some other spare cables with it. I've bought cables before from them. Don't let the cheap prices scare you. FYI it did not catch fire. Good luck!
Thank you very very much, I wasn’t able to know why it didn’t power on when used internally, I suspected that it had to do with something in the PSU regarding the SATA connector, because it worked on other external enclosures (and was planning to test it in other PC) my plan was to use a Molex to SATA adapter not because I new it but because I suspected my PSU wasn’t managing all the voltages that its own cage did and maybe with Molex been more powerful and streamlined it may work, it would have worked as I just now seen but entirely from different reasons and was quite inconvenient wait for the Molex adapter. Was quite hard for me to find your video as basically all searches involving the words HDD and no powers was flooded with external hard drives. Luckily in the end the full model plus no power “wd100emaz-00wjta0 no power” clicked and was able to find you, again thank you so much
Thanks for sharing your success story - always good to hear 👍 If you install the disk in a computer case that has good airflow, it should theoretically extend its remaining life because you've moved it from an enclosure that has limited airflow. You are also eliminating the USB-SATA PCB board which is another point of failure.
hi there. quick question. I got 2 RED NAS 8TB that 5400 RPM ( they are Not PRO and are Not Plus. Just plain RED NAS). I got them when I did the SHUCK method for the WD MyEasy External Hard Drive. The same one that you have in your video. As you mentioned in your video, you said that the "White Labels" are becoming more and more common, my question is the following. I have on me a QNAP NAS hardware with a 4 Bay Drive. My goal is to create a Home Network NAS setup. Since I have already 2 of my RED NAS 8TB that are 5400 RPM, the other 2 8TB drives are the White Labels which their RPM I have no idea about. My question is, with this mod/method of yours, will I be able to use the 2 White Label 8TB drives as an equal to the RED NAS as part of my Home Network NAS setup for my QNAP NAS in creating a Raid 5 and making sure that all of them run at the same 5400RPM in creating a total pool of 32TB? Thanks.
Yes, you should not have any problems adding the White label 8TB drives in your QNAP to a RAID 5. I am using them (plus other WDs) in 4 QNAPs myself. The whites are labeled as 5400 rpm, but some in the subreddit that I mention in the description have done some acoustic tests and believe they are actually 7200 rpm. In the worst case, these will be throttled down to the lowest common denominator of your RED 5400's but will work fine.
I'm wanting to shuck 3 18tb discs from WD Elements so i can put in a 5 bay yottamaster enclosure. would this happen with Elements drives? any help would be appreciated thanks
If you get a molex to SATA adapter cable (the better solution in my opinion), make sure you DON'T get the one that was made by injection moulding since those are known to short circuit and cause fires. There are videos about it on TH-cam. Get the adapter which has discretely separated cables/pins on the SATA side.
Warning: some low quality Molex-to-SATA adapters have been known to catch fire! Please do your research before using the solution at 4:03.
For a comprehensive guide on Western Digital's Easystore drives (including the 3.3V issue), you can visit this excellent writeup compiled by u/jppowers at reddit's datahoarder sub: www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/7fx0i0/wd_easystore_8tb_compendium/
Much obliged 🎩 to all my viewers. Like. Share. Subscribe. Enjoy.
Support links
☕ BuyMeACoffee: buymeacoff.ee/accessrandom
🐦 Twitter: twitter.com/accessrand0m
► Subscribe: th-cam.com/users/accessrandom
i wish all videos were like this. no stupid thumbnail, no flashy 30s long intro, straight to the point, calm clear voice. and subtitles! nicely done!
Thank you - I appreciate it!
Note for anyone having a hard time getting the tape to stick: You can actually cover up pins 1 and 2 in addition to 3. It makes the tape stick much better, and your hard drive doesn't use 3.3V anyway.
this is the most helpful post
Confirmed, I covered all first 3 and it recognized the drive, thanks to both of you.
This worked like a charm, thank you
Thank you. That was so much easier to accomplish than a single pin.
This video is so professionally done. Love the instructions/video and voice-over!
Thanks so much!
@@accessrandom for some reason i couldnt reply directly however this video saved me a ton of headaches. i just used a molex to sata adapter i had in part bin and the drive is running like a champ internally. thanks for the link to the r/datahoarder reddit too tons of great info there
You're welcome, and thank you.
No it's not. Dude wears an ESD wrist strap, but the clip of it, is fastened to the computer case while it's not connected to the power supply ..... That doesn't deflect any ESD at all.
Straightforward and to the point!
The 3.3V "issue" is actually an Enterprise Feature - it is used to spin up multiple Disks one after the other instead of all simultaneously
This way you can use way smaller PSUs in a Server and/or drive enclosure :)
Yeah, but clearly this is a workaround for those shucking drives to save moolah.
I agree it is an enterprise feature, but the purpose is not to spin up multiple disks sequentially. Staggered Spin-Up has been around for a long time. According to Western Digital the reason is so you can power cycle a drive to perform a hard reset, saving the long walk out to the rack just do hard reset. It requires specialized, compatible hardware to leverage the feature.
documents.westerndigital.com/content/dam/doc-library/en_us/assets/public/western-digital/collateral/tech-brief/tech-brief-western-digital-power-disable-pin.pdf
Not exactly, staggered spin-up has been around since parallel SCSI, this power disable feature was only introduced with SAS3 and SATA3.
@@VladdyDaddy45 Actually it's a enterprise hard drive. I even test it. I have WD80EDAZ-11TA3A0 the one you suppose to put tape on. Wouldn't work on my desktop but was able to be detected on my Dell Power Edge T710. :D
Can those pins just be removed from the drive or sata plug?
This has to be one of the best instructional videos I've seen. Slow, calming, great camera work. Love it. Thank you for that.
You're welcome, and many thanks 🙏
Thank you. Honestly one of the best, clearest instructional videos I've come across. Thank you for not having overly loud muzak. Thank you for describing everything so well. Wish me luck on my first shucking.
Many thanks 🙏. If you run into any problems, please let me know.
Hey fellas, thanks a ton for this video.
Instead of using either of these solutions listed I used an automotive pick to pull up the third tab on the power side and moved it gently back and forth until it broke smoothly at the base.
Now windows/bios sees the drive and works fine.
Thanks for the tip - I'm sure it will be helpful for others.
@@accessrandomi used this guy's tip and lifted the 3rd contact up on a female to male sata extension cable and this also works fine and no setting fire to the house problems that it appears a lot of people have had from the molex to sata extension cables - excellent video and suggestion reply that led me to this solution - Thanks a lot :)
I panicked a little when I shucked my WD Elements and the drive didn't show up and I freaked a bit when you mentioned having to go buy tape, but boy did I rejoice when you mentioned the molex to sata workaround. Actually had one laying around and now the drive is showing up just fine. THANK YOU!
You're welcome, and thank you for the success story. Always good to have a part lying around that solves the problem 👍
holy crap that was easy. Didn't have kapton tape and used scotch tape on a 8tb and 14tb WD mybook. thank you so much!!!!
Using an earthed wrist strap can be as dangerous (if not more dangerous) as not using one at all. There's no guarantee that your mains earth is going to be at the same potential as whatever you're working with. You could actually fry the drive BECAUSE you're wearing it. What you should do is make sure everything is at the same potential so no current can flow anywhere. To do this, plug the data cable into the drive while you're doing this and plug the other end into your PC. Then attach your wrist strap to a grounding point on the PC. One of the shields of a connection port would be okay, or to the ground pin of the power plug (the PC shouldn't be plugged in). Then everything is a closed circuit at the same potential.
Ahhh I was so lost until I found your video. Hours of troubleshooting and you are my hero! Such a great video, thank you!
This is a life saver! I finally got my easystore external hard drive to work as internal drive!!!
Happy to hear - thanks for the feedback 👍
Note that there are WD white-label drives with and without the pin 3 issue. Easy enough to tell, as you said, because the drive just won't spin up in some environments. Thanks for helping to keep the world informed!!!!
You're welcome, and thank you 🙏
I removed the 3rd pin completely.. i removed the pcb and with a tweezer pulled the pin out and off the pcb and it worked perfectly!! You sir are a legend thank you very much.
You can also use a Sata to Sata power splitter or extension. If the extension contains any orange wires, simply cut them out and remove.
Good idea - thanks for the tip.
@@accessrandom Hey, I have a quick and easy question for you; I found that I have about four sata to sata splitters / extension cables; If I hold it with the female connector(s) facing up; the wires from left to right are: Yellow, Black, Red, Grey, and I just wanted to see if you knew if these adapters also will work or not; because I haven't removed the external drive yet, and would like to be certain I have the correct resources on hand before starting; not sure where to get tape, as that is a new solution I also wasn't aware of; but I would imagine if I cannot find it locally at lowes or home depot, it wouldn't be to hard to find using the correct search term; thank for any info.
Peace
Thanks this has been driving me nuts and I assumed it was my motherboard getting a bit old. I removed the pin with a dental pick and works great internally now.
I wouldn't have thought of using a dental pick but now that you mention it, it sounds like the perfect tool :) Thanks for the comment, and glad you found the video helpful.
@@accessrandom yeah I was wondering why you didn't just use a scribe to remove the pin.
I was focusing on non-destructive ways to prevent contact, but these are perfectly valid (and brilliant) ways to solve the problem.
Any videos on how to remove the pin? Would any other tool work just as well? Thanks
@@cajunflix1movies728 Others in the comments below have used Xacto knives. I think anything thin and sharp enough to get under the pin should work (sorry I don't have a video on this, but I myself was trying to do it non-destructively).
Alternatively you can also cover pins 1 and 2 together with pin 3. They aren't used either, so it's much easier. Using a Molex adapter can be dangerous, because the low quality ones are getting moulded after the cables are plugged into the plug. This leads to the cables moving and getting close to each other and then burning the whole disk (Molex to SATA, loose all your data). The good ones are crimped and just stuck into an already finished plug without the cables being able to touch each other.
Wow, I can see why you'd go through the trouble for this. It seems the cost of these external drives is about half the cost of a normal standalone 3.5" drive. Just goes to show how inflated the prices are.
Yeah, they're definitely targeting a different market with the externals (high-volume, convenience, no need to open the computer).
@@accessrandom really? how much are the white label drives? The Seagate 3.5" BarraCuda 8TB drives specifically sold for internal storage are $230USD atm.
less than $30 a tb seems cheap as anything
@@knifeyonline I bought some easy stores last night that had the same 8 terabyte white label drive as the video for 130 dollars per drive.
White label drives generally aren't sold as internals, but they have the same or similar specs as the WD Red label drives. The Barracuda Compute 8TB drives that I've removed from external Seagate Expansions in my other video seem to be different than the Barracuda Pros as they have slightly different model numbers (ST8000DM004 vs ST8000DM0004 respectively). At any rate, agreed there's a lot more bang-for-the-buck with the externals.
thanks, I didn't use either of the 2 options, I cut the cable on the power supply sata connector that corresponded to the 3rd pin (was the first cable in my case) and it worked perfectly. Only drawback is that if you plan on switching out a new hard drive in the future, just make sure it's a schucked one or use a different sata cable .
Thanks for the tip. I was focusing on non-destructive methods, but yours is a perfectly valid way to solve the problem.
Thank you! After hours of searching for a solution I found this video. A piece of tape saved me $300! Now I can get my Plex sever up and running!
Happy to help - good luck with the Plex server!
THANK YOU SO MUCH! I was driving myself crazy trying to figure out why my drive wasn't being detected. This totally helped.
You're welcome, and thank you 🙏. Glad you found the video helpful.
I don't have this issue, but I had to watch just because this the video is so cleanly made. Well done, very professional.
Thank you kindly - much appreciated!
Bought this drive during black Friday but it wouldn't power on without the USB hub, great video really helpful and informative!
Thanks - glad you found the video useful 👍
I tried Kapton tape today. Western digital elements Desktop 10tb. Actually covered pin 2 and 3 and it works perfectly. Thank you!!!
Really appreciate this, I was going crazy trying to figure out why my drive wasn't being recognized! Quick strip of tape and all is well. Thank you!
You're welcome!
Mine was a WD Blue drive, from a MyBook 6 Tb. 5400 RPM :(((
The pins inside the sata power connector are spring-loaded so I ruined the pins ability to reach the contacts with a tiny screwdriver. Worked perfectly well, thank you very much :)
Holy moley this is such a quality tutorial. If only all youtube tutorials could be this good!
Many thanks 🙏.
Unusual to get a video with this many views and no down-votes. Well done a really good video. I've also learned what shucking is and now know what sales to avoid on Ebay.
Thanks so much. I'm glad you found my other video useful also. I am now expecting a downvote any..... second :)
Well it will not be from me. :)
Kapton tape worked perfectly. Use tweezers and a toothpick to place and smooth the tape. After spending 45 seconds smoothing / pressing the tape into the pin I tested plugging / unplugging the connector a few times and it stayed in place perfectly. Thanks for the guide!
Thanks - always happy to hear a success story :)
I'm pretty sure I've heard you voice over those saftey training videos you have to watch before starting a new job lol.
Well done video btw.
Thanks man. I'll need to look into that for my next career opportunity :)
I found that if you can open the SATA power connector, you can pull out the left most cable which is the 3.3V. Great for those with no electrical tape nor the extra power cable (me)
THANK YOU!!!
I bought a WD 8TB MyBook (WDC WD80EDAZ-11TA3A0) but it was overheating like crazy in its external case (60c) so I decided to put it in my computer, but of course it wasn't detected.
A piece of tape on the 3rd pin did the charm. Now it's idling at 31c rather than 60c :)
You're welcome, and thank you 🙏. Glad you found the video useful.
Dear, sir! What a fine and excellent tutorial you have generously given to us here on the YT channel! Most clear and pedagogical step-by-step advice you are helping us with installing an HDD from external use to internal use! A very big and warm THANK to you, dear, sir! Stay blessed and safe and healthy in these perilous times with the Coronavirus infection risk! Best Regards and wishes for all good things coming your and your whole family way! (Now subscribing and giving thumbs up!)
You're welcome, and thank you 🙏. Very happy to have you here.
Excellent information on fixing a major problem for mega storage enthusiasts that is clear and concise. great job!!
Thanks much! Glad it was helpful.
Thank you, sir, so very much, for your excellent and perfect tutorial to receive a functional solution to the third-pin-problem! Most amazing facts you share! Wishing you all the very best and please stay blessed and healthy! Best regards, from Sweden!
You're welcome, and thank you 🙏.
I con't thank you enough for this video. "fixed" 10Tb Hitachi minutes ago and it works :)
You're welcome. I'm really glad you found it useful.
Çok teşekkürler (Thank you from Türkiye) 2 yıldır bu sorunun çözümünü arıyordum. ( I have been searching this about 2 years )
This was a life saver. First drives I ever shucked and I thought I'd never get them to work.
Thank you! Glad you found the video helpful.
well explained video I congratulate you, just a note, in my case putting tape on pin 3 did not work, but I read some comment below say that covering the first 3 pins worked and it is, it is easier to cover the first 3 pins so removal of problems.
Thank you kindly. Yes, that is easier to do since the first two pins are not really used by any modern power supplies. Thanks.
This is going to sound a bit weird, but you have a pleasant voice for narration. As a British person, I find the American varying regional accent/"tang" distracting when trying to pay attention to technical stuff but your have a "clean" and neutral American accent. Anyhow, thank you for sharing this trick!
You're welcome, and thank you for the kind words.
I had just taped my 3rd pin unpaused video and realised I had a sata to molex adaptor lol..., liked and subbed for the well presented video.
Lol thanks! Always good to have a part laying around.
I ran into this problem when purchasing a 10TB WD external that I shucked. I ordered the tape and molex adapter and tried to fix today. It still doesn't get recognized in Windows 7 (unless I plug it in via usb and power to wall outlet). I removed the third pin entirely and it still won't show up in Windows (again, unless I use the external case's USB/power board). This is in a rack mount server running Windows 7 and runs through an LSI controller. I was so excited for a fix, but I am confused at what might still be the problem. I will try the adapter eventually, but would rather fix it this way for future drive expansion. Another concern is that it is on a hot-swap back-plane, so not sure how the molex to sata adapter will fit in until I open up the case. Also, it seems like the drive is powering up, as when I remove it from hot-swap it feels like it is still spinning...
Any ideas for a fix, or what I might be doing wrong? Thx
EDIT: I tried moving the drive around within different bays of my server and got it to work. I have (5) Rows of (4) Bays. It appears that a whole "row" of (4) bays is out. These are all on the same back-plane, so I'll need to investigate later (though I do not need all the bays at the current time anyway). Thanks for the great video!!
Thanks for the update - I was just reading your comment and was a bit stumped as to why it wouldn't work with the tape method (and even when you removed the pin). I guess the failure can happen anywhere along the chain back to the power supply.
Thanks so much for this explanation! I was getting ready to blame WD (and my cheap-ass self) because its budget priced MyBook (which was already a pita to get out of its enclosure) wasn't being recognized as an internal drive on my old pc (which I repurposed as nas). The tape solution already worked like a charm, luckily I had an old sata to molex (only power) adapter lying around, which is an even better solution!
You're welcome, and thanks for sharing the success story 🙏👍 I've heard the MyBooks with the newer enclosure design can be difficult to shuck.
Amazing video. Very clear and direct on solving the problem. I just shucked my first drive and found it worked on my windows computer but not my Linux. After watching this it explained everything and how to fix it. Thank you for the video!
Yw, and thank you for the kind words.
Fantastic video! Very professional. Had a high production quality and feel. More to the point, it provided useful information without the long drawn out routine some multimillion subscriber channels use! which is why I subscribed and will return. Thank you.
You're welcome, and thank you 🙏. Very happy to have you here.
Hello! Thank you for the great video. If I understood correctly, if I want to shuck the drive to use it in a NAS, I don't have to put tape over the conector?
Here is another solution. Pulled out the razor knife with a new blade and picked at pin 3 until it pryed up and then broke the pin off. Never have to woory about it again worked perfect. The 3rd pin stciks out a little longer than the rest which makes it easy to get under. Could not have figured it out without this Video.
Great solution! 👍 In the video, I was just showing some of the non-destructive solutions...
Say, I just want to say thank you very much. I'm out in the boonies with an 8TB white drive, and I ordered the tape you suggested through amazon and the drive lit right up. I really appreciate your advice and suggestion!
You're very welcome - always happy to hear a success story 👍
Most SATA to SATA or SATA splitters do not have the 3.3 V pin connected as well. The 3.3 V is Orange, and the SATA to SATA contain Red, Yellow and Black wires.
If the splitter has orange wires, just cut them, it doesn't matter which side you can remove them as well, or just cut through with a side clipper.
Thanks for the tip. Going to try the tape. Those molex adapters are only good for one thing, starting fires.
Yeah, I prefer the tape myself (now that I have a whole roll of it 😀).
Thank you so much!, I had tried a 100 things and nothing worked until literally a piece of tape did haha, awesome and quick.
Thanks a LOT. This Video saved me a huge ammount of stress.
You're welcome, and thank you for the feedback 🙏. Glad you found the video useful.
Thank you so much for this video! I was stuck for so long! I had some thermal tape handy so I tried it out and sure enough it showed right up. I would have never guessed a pin would be the culprit! You saved me. I can't thank you enough! Thank you Thank you Thank you!
You're welcome - I'm glad it helped!
Thank you very much, I knew it had something to do with power when my drive was not spinning and not detected in the BIOS. A simple piece of Scotch Magic tape was enough for me !
Are the the VO of the pacer test! You have a great voice for it lmao
I'm not, but thank you for the compliment 😀
Btw shucking doesn't always void the warranty on the drive I've had a faulty shucked drive and WD replaced it no issue. FYI I just got 2 year warranty instead of 3 year
Life saver. I got two of these 8TBs. Working great now.
Fantastic 👍 thanks for the comment.
Molex to sata power adaptors don't include the 3.3v line, I assume using one of these would get around the issue? EDIT: annndd this is what I get for not watching the whole video ;)
😉😀
Molex to SATA, loose all your DATA.
The Molex adaptor solved my problem. Thank You!
what about the hard drive failing or clicking after doing this mod
It sounds like a bad physical sector, which is independent of the power being delivered to the disk. You may want to perform a chkdsk /r in a command prompt (started as an admin). If it detects any bad sectors, I would see if you can exchange the drive for another.
@@accessrandom tried that turns out windows 10 2004 update damages SSD's and mechanical Hard drives microsoft has warned people to turn off automatic defragmentation of drives turns out the SSD isnt being trimmed but defragmented instead damaging the hard drive the same thing is happening to mechanical hard drives there getting trimmed instead of defraged
@@johnDingoFoxVelocity Interesting - thanks for the tip. I did hear about SSD problems with the latest update to Windows but I hadn't heard about problems with HDDs.
Thank you! your method is working!!! My drive is stoped clicking and was recognized and start properly working!
I have an HP drive that's really a hgst drive. It works fine in my docking station but won't power on from my psu, even with the sata power adapter bypassing the third pin.
Any ideas?
Thanks for the informative video!
You can also use clear nail polish, we use it on exposed contacts on the CPU when delidding under the IHS and is really cheap and everyone has it.
The nail polish doesn't have to be clear. I used blue nail polish on one of my drives (because that's all my daughter was willing to lend me) and it worked fine. The only type I might not recommend is nail polish with sparkles &/or other metallic materials in it. :-)
Been smashing my head against a wall trying to figure out why my HDD was working via USB and not Sata. Tried everything. This video was the fix.
Thank you for this valuable information!
idk why, but i like the way you say "tape"
sorry this is a weird comment
Hi, I also have white label discs (WD80EZAZ, WD100EZAZ and WD140EDFZ), which work in the TS131P, in the TS453D, but they do not work in the TS451 + which is currently in production, and is it after the TS451 of your movie?
Can you tell us why?
I would have never guessed. Thanks for the heads ups.
I have a Netgear ReadyNAS that I just replaced 4 drives in ... meaning I probably blew away my OS, but I was thinking it might be this problem that the drives are not spinning up.
I have been using the molex solution for 2 of my drives no problem, but now I want to add another drive and I am out of adapters, so I bought some Kapton tape to try that method. I tried 5 times and every time I slide the power adapter on, it just shoves the tape down and off the pins! Any advice? I am not using the label backing/cardboard, I am just cutting and applying directly to pins 1-3. Maybe my tape is cheaply made??
The Kapton tape can be a bit tricky to place especially when it's a tiny sliver (like I have it in my video). I would recommend a wider piece that covers pins 1, 2, and 3 (since pins 1 and 2 are not used anyways). Hopefully, that will stick better to the pins.
@@accessrandom yea that's exactly what I have been trying... I specifically bought a very thin roll to begin with... it's the exact width of 3 pins. I have tried at least 5 times on 2 different drives now and it just jams in every time. I also tried regular old electrical tape... same issue. I wonder if superglue would work? It would certainly insulate well, but I just don't know how well that would hold up once heated.
@@mulox1 Maybe you could try different SATA cables or even a different port on the motherboard? It could be anywhere along the chain to the motherboard that could be causing a problem.
Great tip here
Unfortunately with my shaky hands and exceptionally failing eye site i will have 1 heck of a time accomplishing this task.i never realized until i looked how small an area i would be working with
i need to ask how exact i have to be on the applying it to only that pin? Does it matter if i get a wee bit of overlap on pins to either side? How many pins could actually be covered and it would still work?
Would taking a safey pin and just scratching out that 3rd pin work? or cause permanent damage?
Thanks
Thank you. I focused on non-destructive ways to solve the problem. What you can do is cover pins 1, 2 and 3 if you'd like - pin 3 is the important one, but pins 1 and 2 can be covered as well.
@@accessrandom Cheers
i did the pins 1-3 and Bobs my uncle
Much appreciated mate
@@leperlord7078 You're welcome, and thank you 🙏.
This saved me several hundred dollars! I was going to go out and buy five new HDD's, but I was like "no, wait, why is this Red drive working, but these two White drives not working...? They all worked in the old system last week without any issues...." I took one of the power supply cables I had purchased previously, with the right-angle plugs, and just snipped the first wire - the one closest to the "L" part of the power cable - and electrical taped it off carefully. Plugged the drives in, and everything worked. It's insane that this is a problem. Wish there were a "switch" or "BIOS" fix, but removing the 3.3 volt line will harm nothing, as this is in a personal computer, and I don't need to "remotely restart" a hard drive. I would like to know more about the transition...why this happened, and why no one seems to care about making drives obsolete with a weird cable/power supply issue. My power supply is a brand-new SeaSonic Prime TX-1600, so I couldn't imagine that being the issue. Nice to know it's that "pin 3" so easy to mitigate. Thank you so much!
Does this apply to Seagate Shucked drives as well? Have some 5TB drives that seem to exhibit this issue (brand new and shucked but only work in USB not on SATA.
Thank you much. Not sure if I bought super cheap kapton tape or what, but I had to put 2 layers on the 3rd pin. Finally it shows!
Fantastic - thanks for the update! Yeah, the tape can be tricky to keep on because it's such a thin sliver. Glad to hear it worked out.
A great thing to know BEFORE troubleshooting your bios and drivers for 20 hours....
But at least I know now. Thnx.
Hi, quick question for you; what do you think of the WD Purple Drives?
I am thinking of using them for building a Chia Mining Rig.
Thanks for any information.
Peace
I believe their Purple drives are meant for surveillance. I don't know if they're necessarily better than the White/Red labels, but they were designed for 24/7 operation.
Hello AR
I see the warnings about using a Molex to Sata adapters due fire hazards. This may be due to the quality of the Sata connector. If I use a Sata power cable instead of the Molex to Sata adapter don't I run a risk of a fire hazard as well depending on the quality of the Sata connector?
I suppose power supplies may have low quality SATA connectors as well (just like the Molex-to-SATA adapters), but generally you should be safe with those provided by the PSU manufacturer. The dangerous Molex-to-SATA adapters are those that are molded, as opposed to those that are crimped.
Thank you AR. Just to clarify I will always need a data cable connected to the HD but I need to be diligent in find the proper Sata connector to the HD to reduce the risk of fire hazard. If the proper Sata connector to the HD is used does it matter whether it is a Molex/Sata adapter or a Sata power cable? Is there safety tradeoff using one type of cable/adapter versus the other? In other words does the computer or the power supply cause a greater excessive power using one or the other cable type?
@@Globalbye The SATA power cable will be safer as that is coming directly from the PSU. It is the Molex/SATA adapter (the one that joins the Molex from the PSU, to the SATA power connector on the back of the disk) that can cause problems. I hope I've interpreted your question correctly.
@@accessrandom Yes I guess I would aim to use a sata power cable rather than a molex sata adapter. I did not think there would be a difference as the power would come from the same source, the PSU.
Quick question please. I'm a little confused here. Would taping up pin 3 allow ALL drives to power up or just the drives with the affected PSU's? I plan to put some 8TB drives on eBay and would like to tape up pin 3 to cover all PSUs, affected and not affected. Would that work?
Yes - taping pin 3 would allow it to work in both affected and non-affected PSUs (in fact, you can cover the first three pins without any adverse affects). The only thing I would be concerned about is whether the tape will hold if the customer connects/disconnects the cable.
You can also take the PCB off and physically cut pin #3.
so the 3.3v pin prevent the drive from spinning i mean complete shutdown the drive? or the drive spins but just the motherboard does'nt recognize it?
Yes, it would actually prevent the drive from spinning up (and would not be detected by the BIOS).
can you just modify the sata power cables and cut out/remove the 3.3v to the drive completely? Its very easy to do for modern power supplies?
I came up with another solution. I was using the Molex to SATA adapter but it is the molded kind. It was making me nervous. I decided to mod the 3.3V line on the SATA power cable and discovered that the cabling Silverstone included with this power supply actually has removable caps on the backs of the SATA connectors. I pulled off the cap and slid the orange 3.3V wire out of the connector. I wrapped electrical tape on the insulation where it had been sliced by the connector and recapped the connector without putting the 3.3V wire back into it. I don't know if anyone else has this style of connector going to their drives but it's worth a look. Easy to do and easy to reverse if the 3.3V line is ever needed.
Awesome - thanks for the detailed description.
@@accessrandom Thank you for the video that got my and a lot of other people's drives working. Thanks also to the commenters that got me thinking about modding the cable.
This is what I always do -- just mod the PSU cables to remove the 3.3v line. Most good PSU's come with crimped connectors anyway, so they are easy to mod.
@@wpyoga Never had to deal with this until I shucked that Easystore. Learned something new. I was going to try pulling the 3.3V line from the PSU side of the SATA power cable but this seemed like a much easier route.
@@ericn7677 From the video, your PSU also uses crimped connectors, you should try this method.
Thanks. Having just spent 2hrs fitting, checking, BIOS check, unfitting, checking, fitting, unplugging, checking, fitting and TH-cam. Boom. Thanks.
You're welcome, and thank you 🙏.
This helped me a ton. Bonus: I even had one of those molex->sata connectors lying around!!!
Glad this was helpful - always good to have those spare parts when you need them :)
Did this, but didn't have any kapton tape, used electrical tape instead with similar results (obviously the electrical tape was a tad thicker and I believe has adhesive that may leave a residue). I did order some of the linked kapton tape though (curiously the Amazon description does not say kapton tape) and will use that on future drives. Just bought two more 12 TB from Best Buy for $189 USD/each, hoping for a nice holiday sale on 12/14 TB externals and will likely do this again with those. =)
Thanks for the tip - I've tried electrical tape before but I found it was a bit thick and it stretched out the connector slightly on the SATA power connector before I switched to Kapton (not sure of the long term effects of the electrical tape). That's a great price on the 12 TB - hopefully the 14 TBs will drop to $200 as it did last year...
@@accessrandom as of yesterday the 14TB are $199.99
This video was very well done, great job on the clear explanation of what the problem is and how to fix it. Thank you.
You're welcome, and thank you for the kind words.
i actually removed the pin from my sata power connectors on all my power supplies so it can be moved to any computer of mine
Very nice. Then you don't have to worry no matter how many white label drives you have in one machine (or any of the computers).
Same here. I thought about cutting it at the end but I decided to just pull the connector and wrap it in electrical tape in case I need to re insert the 3.3v connector.
That's what I thought I would to too even easier than putting the tape on the connector and would me more reliable too probably.
Thank you so much! I just wish I would have found this video about an hour and a half ago. Life saver!
You're welcome 👍👍👍, and thank you for sharing the success story.
I am trying to do it other way around. I mean putting regular NAS drives back into previously shrucked WD case and they do not start. No spin, no reaction... any ideas?
This is needed for a Sinology DS220+? I just installed the disk and it starts without problem, but I don't know if this will cause any problems in the future?
thank you for this, i kept looking online but i didnt know the problem was this specific. thought my psu and harddrive were broken. a workaround i found was replugging the power cable seems to work. but it disconnects sometimes.
You're welcome, and thank you for the info 🙏.
I had the MOLEX cable and it worked, BUT i HAD SOME OTHER ISSUES and Micro Center said the disk was failing or unreadable. Got it home tried the type. Not sure why it did not work. The tape is so thin. Not sure if covered something or something was uncovered.
Wondering if I use a USB HDD Dock if it will read it without the tape on the 3rd pin?
If the problem is with the 3.3V pin, then the HDD Dock will probably work. I haven't had any reports of docks not working with the white label disks (nor has the compendium in the description). If the problem is with the disk itself (as Micro Center says), then that would be a larger problem.
You can cover pins 3,4,5 does not have to be just pin 3, I have done that to my 8TB Ultrastar Data Center, Hey Presto, HDD booted up, and detected on BIOS, previously would work on a USB 3.0 HDD caddy.
Thanks for doing this. Just shucked two Easystores and got whites. They don't work with my Corsair HX 650 PSU :(
Can you recommend a brand/model/link of Kapton tape and also maybe a link to a Molex-to-SATA adapter you recommend?
There's a good video on the subject on TH-cam: just search for "How To Spot Molex To SATA Adapters That Won't Catch Fire". For the kapton tape, I ordered from a uline catalog years ago (it's not something I use often, except when I'm dismantling a laptop and putting it back together). But I think any roll of Kapton tape from either uline or Amazon would work fine.
Thank you Access Random! I shucked an 8TB Easy Store which only worked while in the case. I verified that before shucking it. Formatted and assigned a drive letter to it. Once installed inside the case, it was not detected by the PC. It was a white drive. Glad I came across these video's and some others, but yours were the most useful. I ordered both the Molex to SATA cable and the Kapton tape. I've seen the tape used to protect circuit boards while soldering in repair video's so wanted it anyway. I decided to use both while I had the HTPC out again. Worked flawlessly after replacing the existing SATA cable as well as adding the Kapton tape. Got the tape at www.ebay.com/itm/111893269568 and cable at www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=102&cp_id=10226&cs_id=1022604&p_id=5184&seq=1&format there are others there too. It's a little hard to navigate the site, but very reasonable and picked up some other spare cables with it. I've bought cables before from them. Don't let the cheap prices scare you. FYI it did not catch fire. Good luck!
Thanks for the detailed update! Glad everything worked out for you.
Your welcome!
Interesting that SATA drives don't use 3.3V. Aren't there separate Molex -> Sata Power cables? Surely they'd work also?
Thank you! I only had one Molex adaptor, so the tape trick was very helpful.
Happy to hear it was helpful! Thanks for the comment.
Thank you very very much, I wasn’t able to know why it didn’t power on when used internally, I suspected that it had to do with something in the PSU regarding the SATA connector, because it worked on other external enclosures (and was planning to test it in other PC) my plan was to use a Molex to SATA adapter not because I new it but because I suspected my PSU wasn’t managing all the voltages that its own cage did and maybe with Molex been more powerful and streamlined it may work, it would have worked as I just now seen but entirely from different reasons and was quite inconvenient wait for the Molex adapter.
Was quite hard for me to find your video as basically all searches involving the words HDD and no powers was flooded with external hard drives.
Luckily in the end the full model plus no power “wd100emaz-00wjta0 no power” clicked and was able to find you, again thank you so much
You're welcome and thanks for letting me know. I'll need to figure a way to make my video a easier to find based on search criteria.
You are great, I saved a hard drive that almost throw it away, will affect its useful life somewhat this method?
Thanks for sharing your success story - always good to hear 👍 If you install the disk in a computer case that has good airflow, it should theoretically extend its remaining life because you've moved it from an enclosure that has limited airflow. You are also eliminating the USB-SATA PCB board which is another point of failure.
hi there. quick question. I got 2 RED NAS 8TB that 5400 RPM ( they are Not PRO and are Not Plus. Just plain RED NAS).
I got them when I did the SHUCK method for the WD MyEasy External Hard Drive. The same one that you have in your video. As you mentioned in your video, you said that the "White Labels" are becoming more and more common, my question is the following.
I have on me a QNAP NAS hardware with a 4 Bay Drive. My goal is to create a Home Network NAS setup. Since I have already 2 of my RED NAS 8TB that are 5400 RPM, the other 2 8TB drives are the White Labels which their RPM I have no idea about.
My question is, with this mod/method of yours, will I be able to use the 2 White Label 8TB drives as an equal to the RED NAS as part of my Home Network NAS setup for my QNAP NAS in creating a Raid 5 and making sure that all of them run at the same 5400RPM in creating a total pool of 32TB? Thanks.
Yes, you should not have any problems adding the White label 8TB drives in your QNAP to a RAID 5. I am using them (plus other WDs) in 4 QNAPs myself. The whites are labeled as 5400 rpm, but some in the subreddit that I mention in the description have done some acoustic tests and believe they are actually 7200 rpm. In the worst case, these will be throttled down to the lowest common denominator of your RED 5400's but will work fine.
I'm wanting to shuck 3 18tb discs from WD Elements so i can put in a 5 bay yottamaster enclosure. would this happen with Elements drives? any help would be appreciated thanks
If you get a molex to SATA adapter cable (the better solution in my opinion), make sure you DON'T get the one that was made by injection moulding since those are known to short circuit and cause fires. There are videos about it on TH-cam. Get the adapter which has discretely separated cables/pins on the SATA side.
any chance you have a link to one that will work well?