Question 1

Silly question, these DON'T have to be used for NAS/RAID.  Can be stand alone?

Accepted Answer

Not using mine for NAS or RAID. I have one in my desktop as the secondary drive and an NVME SSD as the primary. Mainly for all of my pictures, videos, and other large space consuming objects. I never turn my PC off so this HDD is ideal. 5400 vs 7200 is a non-issue in this configuration. FYI this drive uses CMR (Google it) which is FASTER than the SMR in a typical HDD desktop.

Question 2

how long is the warranty?

Accepted Answer

Western Digital will no longer honor the warranty on these devices. I just purchased 2 and WD indicated that they were sold in 2014 and the warranty has expired. I've contacted Amazon and asked them to remove the "3-year manufacturer's limited warranty" detail on this listing.  WD even had me send them the Amazon invoice and pictures of the drives and still denied any warranty coverage when I tried to register them.

Question 3

Can you use this drive as a media storage in a HTPC but not necessarily in a NAS/Server configuration?

Accepted Answer

You could, but it's really designed for a NAS/Server setup!!!  For a HTPC, I'd look at once of their Green Drives!  The Green like the Red arn't the FAST HDD.  They are slower, but for streaming Media in a HTPC type setup, that's what I would go with.  It's slower, but it's more Energy Efficant and more quite and less heat.  If you need the Speed of loading files up fast, the Black drive is the version to get.   You can also go with a combination of a Black drive for all your normal programs, and a green drive for your Media.   Even go with a 120 or 240 Gig SSD drive for Windows and a few programs, and have all your Media on a large 3TB Green drive!!!  You don't need a fast HDD to stream Media!!!  I have a NAS with 3 WB RED 3TB HDD installed in RAID 5 config for a total of 5.4TB of storage.   I just built my new PC which I have 2 SSD drives installed, my older 120 Gig one and a almost new 240 Gig one.  Plus 2 3TB HDD which are another brand, but basically Black drives.  One I keep most of my software on and the other I use for Media Center.   The 240 Gig SSD I use for Windows 7 and a few other programs I want to load quick, and my 120 Gig SSD I use for the PLEX Database files.   It's a ton faster on a SSD then on a HDD even a fast HDD with the fastest SATA connection!!!  I could of went with just a Green 3TB HDD for Media Center and it would have been just fine!  I'm a Cable Cutter, so I record all my Broadcast TV channels using Media Center to play in any room in my house.   Works out great and very flexable.  Same with PLEX and using my ROKU boxes for that.  I'm a huge user of PLEX.   Ripping my huge Movie collection and putting it all on my NAS has been great.  No more hunting around for the movie I want.  I don't even have to get up.   I can watch them in any room in the house and they look great.  I take all my discs out of the cases toss the cases in the garbage and put the discs into CD/DVD Disc Binders.  Ones that hold like 300 discs.  It saves huge amounts of space.  using PLEX, it's like my own personal Netflix service!!!  Except no monthly fee's and it's all content I like.  it also never comes and goes.  There's none of that crap you have to skip or not allowed to skip before the movie like Movie Advertisements and FBI warnings, etc.  All Gone, starts right up.I've been using my 3 WB 3TB Red drives for over a year now and have been problem free.  My NAS shows zero errors.  It's important for these things to run slower and produce less heat and be more energy efficient for what their intended use is for. That's for a Home or small business NAS!  I have mine in my small Closet up on a top shelf with my other hardware.  It can hold 4 drives and I currently have the 3 in it and down just just over 1 TB of space left so I'll be popping another drive in soon.  maybe delete some other content.  Let me tell you, those drives are packed together very close and in a small case with a single fan!!!  It's a hot day out today.  I don't have the AC on, the doors are open.  My Netgear ReadyNAS is showing 38 degrees right now, my HDD are showing 38/39 Degrees, that's Celsius.  So around 100/102 degree's F.   It powers down to sleep mode when it's not used for 10 minutes.  So another way to conserve power!!!  I'm up to 11071 Power On hours and 17157 Start/Stop Count currently on #1 WB 3TB Red Drive.  Still showing a ATA error count of 0.  Just some of the stuff I can log into my NAS and look up simply.   I got my first one at Newegg and the second one and third one here at Amazon back May 21 St, 2013.Again, there's a reason why WB is making different types, more Specialized HDD's!!!!   If you're not going to put the RED into a NAS, I'd go with the Green drive instead.  Still get the slower speed, Energy savings, less heat and less noise because they're running slower.   Instead of 7200 RPM, they're around 5400 RPM.   With faster speed like the black drive, well it requires more power, more power means more heat and more noise.  But software loads up faster.  So there's Pro's and Con's to anything and everything.   You CAN use the RED, but really, if it's not going in a NAS, why would you want to?   It has some extra features for use with a NAS, that the Green drive doesn't, but your PC is not going to use them like the NAS will.

Question 4

Is it possible to use this drive as a normal desktop drive for storage?

Accepted Answer

Yes, it is certainly possible.  But there are tradeoffs to consider.  This drive is designed for 24/7/365 operation, but is NOT designed for speed.  If you want really fast access to your data (say, if you're a gamer or if you're doing CAD work) this isn't the best choice for your drive, and you'll be paying a lot for features you won't be using.In my own cases, I've been migrating my 5-bay Synology Network Attached Storage system from 3TB drives to 6TB drives.  The older 3TB drives are NOT going to waste, however.  I'm installing them into other systems, as "local software repositories" and the like.  I'm not actually running any software off of them.Realistically, these drives are designed to run in RAID configurations (where the "striping" effect gives you plenty of speed, as you're reading and writing not to just one drive but multiple drives, dramatically reducing your wait time for "seeking" from any given drive.  They are designed to spin constantly, at a pretty low power cost, versus standard desktop drives which are designed to spin up as you access them, and then spin down when you stop using them.If you want a fast desktop computer, your best bet is something along the lines of the WD "Black" line.  If you want a cheaper "general purpose" drive, the WD "Blue" line is what you want.  If you want a low-energy consumption drive (with significant performance compromises) you want the WD "Green" line.  And if you're running a drive perpetually, in a RAID configuration, you want the WD "Red" line.  (There's also an "enterprise drive" line which is designed for larger NAS applications which only make sense for large business server farms, but these are typically SAS-interface drives and can't really be used in a standard home application anyway.)I refer to the WD drive lines here, but Seagate and the other players in this market all do similar "tweaked versions."That last line is key.  We're talking about what the drive is OPTIMIZED towards...  what "tweaks" have been made to the hardware and the internal software (ie, "firmware").So... yes, you can run these in any system with the appropriate interface.  Your system capabilities might limit the portion of the drive you can actually SEE (you may only see 2TB unless your system is pretty new)...  that's not a shortcoming of the drive, it's a shortcoming of older hardware and, to a certain extent, older operating system variants.  If your system can see 2TB+ drives, and has a SATA interface, you can use this drive.Whether you'd be better off with some other "tweaked and optimized" version is another story entirely, though.  You're tossing away money buying one of these rather than a desktop-optimized drive (black, blue, or green) if you're just going to put it into a normal PC.

Brand	Western Digital
Product Dimensions	14.73 x 10.16 x 2.54 cm; 730.28 g
Item model number	AU-44LB-F32X
Manufacturer	WESBX
Series	WD20EFAX RED
Color	Red
Form Factor	3.5-inch
RAM Size	2 GB
Computer Memory Type	DDR3 SDRAM
Hard Drive Size	2 TB
Hard Disk Description	Mechanical Hard Disk
Hard Drive Interface	Serial ATA-600
Hard Disk Rotational Speed	5400 RPM
Voltage	240 Volts
Wattage	4 watts
Hardware Platform	PC
Operating System	Yes
Are Batteries Included	No
Lithium Battery Packaging	Batteries contained in equipment
Item Weight	730 g

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Western Digital2TB WD Red Plus NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD - 5400 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, CMR, 64 MB Cache, 3.5" - WD20EFRX

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