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
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.
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.
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.
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).
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!
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 .
@@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
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.
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.
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)
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 :)
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!
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.
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, 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!
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!
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!
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!
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.
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!
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.
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 :)
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.
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
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 !
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.
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. :-)
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!
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!)
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 ;)
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.
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...
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!
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.
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?
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.
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
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!
Thanks for the shucking lesson. I’m planning in the future to expand the storage in my WD PR4100 NAS. Right now 14TB Red Drives are going for $500 a pop. No thanks... 😅 I wonder if I’ll need to bother w/ the 3rd pin since it’s going from from one WD inclosure into another?
Thank you for a clear and informative video, could electrical tape be a substitute for the kapton tape? Edit: it works, I’m going to use electrical tape until my kapton tape arrives in the mail.
Thanks for the update. Yes, I did try an experiment with electrical tape before I made the video, but I found that it was a little too thick (it expanded the spacing in the connector) so I took it off. I'm not sure what the long-term effects would be, but you should be ok if it's short term. Another problem was that there was a black residue when I took the tape off (at least with the tape that I used).
I've got two WD Whites from the same batch. One needs this fix, the other works fine without it in the same system. Strange things happen in the world of computer hardware.
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.
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!
Really well made tutorial, great work! But what about the quality of shucked drives vs standard internal drives? I currently use 3TB Toshiba P300's and am somewhat concerned about higher failure rates of shucked white label WDs...
Thank you. I can only speak from experience, but my 2 red labels and 2 white labels 8TB disks have been going strong 24/7 for 3 to 4 years. My shucked Seagates, on the other hand, have needed RMAs (2 5TB disks).
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!
Thank you so much for making this video. I too have a Qnap and feel confident these drives will work with it. Since it's been 1.5 yrs since u made this video, how are the drives holding up in the server? Do the white ones perform just as well as the red ones? Thanks
The two Reds and two Whites are still going strong. This is just anecdotal, but I've had to RMA a shucked 5TB Seagate in the same time period, whereas I've had no problems with all the Easystores.
Yw! Make sure you're using a good quality one though, as some adapters have been known to cause fires (there are some TH-cam videos out there that show this)...
the 3.3v pin is used to power down the drive completely in case of it not being used at all by the pc (host) so it saves power and also prolongs the life of the drive by not running non stop and overheating in that plastic case
Just ran into this with a 8tb HGST drive and a EVGA Supernove PSU, molex to sata fixed it for me. I just don't trust the tape, Im more worried about the tape comming off inside the plug after in ages and you remove the plug from the HDD.
Thanks for the video. Its such an annoying issue, I spent like an hour last night switching sata ports cables and sats power cables etc in various ways to try to solve this.
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.
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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 🙏
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.
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.
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.
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).
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 👍
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.
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
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.
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 👍
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.
Ahhh I was so lost until I found your video. Hours of troubleshooting and you are my hero! Such a great video, thank you!
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)
Holy moley this is such a quality tutorial. If only all youtube tutorials could be this good!
Many thanks 🙏.
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 :)
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!
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!
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 tried Kapton tape today. Western digital elements Desktop 10tb. Actually covered pin 2 and 3 and it works perfectly. Thank you!!!
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'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 :)
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.
idk why, but i like the way you say "tape"
sorry this is a weird comment
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! 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!
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. :)
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.
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, 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 🙏.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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 👍
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.
Thank you! your method is working!!! My drive is stoped clicking and was recognized and start properly working!
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.
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.
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
The Molex adaptor solved my problem. 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 !
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.
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. :-)
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.
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.
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.
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 😀
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.
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 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.
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
Life saver. I got two of these 8TBs. Working great now.
Fantastic 👍 thanks for the comment.
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!
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 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.
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.
Would recommend adding a close up of the tape over pin 3
Thanks. I probably could have used a closer shot at 3:22.
Çok teşekkürler (Thank you from Türkiye) 2 yıldır bu sorunun çözümünü arıyordum. ( I have been searching this about 2 years )
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?
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.
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 🙏.
You can also take the PCB off and physically cut pin #3.
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.
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 so much!, I had tried a 100 things and nothing worked until literally a piece of tape did haha, awesome and quick.
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!
Thanks for the shucking lesson. I’m planning in the future to expand the storage in my WD PR4100 NAS. Right now 14TB Red Drives are going for $500 a pop. No thanks... 😅
I wonder if I’ll need to bother w/ the 3rd pin since it’s going from from one WD inclosure into another?
You're welcome, and thank you. You shouldn't have any problems at all if you're going from one enclosure to another.
A great thing to know BEFORE troubleshooting your bios and drivers for 20 hours....
But at least I know now. Thnx.
Thank you for a clear and informative video, could electrical tape be a substitute for the kapton tape?
Edit: it works, I’m going to use electrical tape until my kapton tape arrives in the mail.
Thanks for the update. Yes, I did try an experiment with electrical tape before I made the video, but I found that it was a little too thick (it expanded the spacing in the connector) so I took it off. I'm not sure what the long-term effects would be, but you should be ok if it's short term. Another problem was that there was a black residue when I took the tape off (at least with the tape that I used).
I've got two WD Whites from the same batch. One needs this fix, the other works fine without it in the same system. Strange things happen in the world of computer hardware.
The 4 pin molex to sata connector is a much more elegant solution
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!!!!
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 :)
Thank you This helped me out. I used a Molex to SATA adapter.
Great! Glad to hear it was helpful.
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?
Does this issue exist for NAS storage bays?
As far as I know, there have been no reports of issues with NAS units (I have four QNAPs with no problems, for example).
The first time when i meet a device what is using 3v. Thanks for the tips!
You're welcome, and thank you 👍
@@accessrandom Quality videos get my appreciation!
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!
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 🙏.
Really well made tutorial, great work! But what about the quality of shucked drives vs standard internal drives? I currently use 3TB Toshiba P300's and am somewhat concerned about higher failure rates of shucked white label WDs...
Thank you. I can only speak from experience, but my 2 red labels and 2 white labels 8TB disks have been going strong 24/7 for 3 to 4 years. My shucked Seagates, on the other hand, have needed RMAs (2 5TB disks).
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!
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.
Thank you so much for making this video. I too have a Qnap and feel confident these drives will work with it.
Since it's been 1.5 yrs since u made this video, how are the drives holding up in the server? Do the white ones perform just as well as the red ones?
Thanks
The two Reds and two Whites are still going strong. This is just anecdotal, but I've had to RMA a shucked 5TB Seagate in the same time period, whereas I've had no problems with all the Easystores.
Thanks for the Molex-to-SATA tip!
Yw! Make sure you're using a good quality one though, as some adapters have been known to cause fires (there are some TH-cam videos out there that show this)...
@@accessrandom I'm using the one that came with the PSU/motherboard. I'm not 100% sure which.
@@neojp Usually, the ones that come with the PSU or MB are fine.
the 3.3v pin is used to power down the drive completely in case of it not being used at all by the pc (host) so it saves power and also prolongs the life of the drive by not running non stop and overheating in that plastic case
if I am covering up the pin, will my PC be able to power off the drive though?
No, it's a data center feature to easily reboot an unresponsive drive. It does not effect normal ALPM states.
Ended up using electrical tape but it worked perfectly, thanks!
Fantastic 👍 - thanks.
Great video. Clear and concise.
Very detailed, love it. Sounds obvious but first try to make it work without this fix as it might work straight away
Just ran into this with a 8tb HGST drive and a EVGA Supernove PSU, molex to sata fixed it for me. I just don't trust the tape, Im more worried about the tape comming off inside the plug after in ages and you remove the plug from the HDD.
Thanks for the video. Its such an annoying issue, I spent like an hour last night switching sata ports cables and sats power cables etc in various ways to try to solve this.
Yeah, this has been causing headaches for a lot of people. Hope everything worked out...
@@accessrandom I have a few molex adapters on the way. Hopefully that will be the end of the issue.