Hardware Insights Forum

I'm sure this will prove useful sooner or later, so here it is. Only the post-FDB but pre-unload models are here. While I don't have any inherent problem with the load/unload system (as long as it's properly implemented, and not abused as it is in the “Green” WDs), since those later WDs have four-letter codes in the short model number, you don't need a list like this one to make sure you're getting FDB, if you buy those. The extended part of the model number, at least on the drives concerned, contains two digits, three letters, and another digit – only the letters are important. The concerned drives are split into two "groups": Drives with 2~3 disks, and drives with only a single disk – which have separate casings and are distinguished between.

2—3 × 83GB disks

• BB-GUA/GUC
• JB-GVA/GVC
• JD-GBB
• JD-HBB/HBC
• JS-MHB
• KS-MJB
• BB-RDA
• JB-REA

2—3 × 107GB disks

• BB-KEA
• JB-KFA
• BD-KKB
• JD-KLB
• JS-PDB
• KS-PFB

Single 80GB disk

• BB-JHA/JHC
• JB-JJA/JJC
• BD-JMA/JMC
• JD-JNA/JNC
• BD-LRA
• JD-LSA (these last two are native SATA — 300MB/s, confusingly, so in theory they should've been designated BS-LRA and JS-LSA)

Single 80GB disk, damped cover (otherwise the same as the above group)

• BB-JKA/JKC
• JB-JLA/JLC
• BD-JPA/JPC
• JD-JRA/JRC
• BD-LTA
• JD-LUA

I don't have a huge number of these myself, but have only had one WD400BB-00JHA0 fail to date and that was electronic, not mechanical (a silent failure but I take it that it was the SMOOTH chip). These may have been the finest desktop drives ever made. Other drives struggle in at least one significant area (to elaborate - several competing drives tended to be +5V hungry, Seagate dropped AAM with 7200.7 and lost their reliability advantage with 7200.8, many Maxtors were even more prone to overheating, and as for Hitachi and Samsung…their reliability is debatable), but these did pretty well in all of them (aside from using SMOOTH chips and lacking unload technology). Too bad they came rather late – leaving the Seagate Barracudas as the best choice from 2001 to 2004.

My previous main PC had two WD800JD-00LSA0s. They are very quiet and work perfectly to date. They only report one CRC error each, and that can be blamed on the busted PSU caps in the PCs I got them from.

I always thought the WD800JBs were dual ball bearing. A failed one I have (platters went bad since the reallocated and offline/uncorrectable sector count, as well as S.M.A.R.T. log error count, were way beyond count) is extremely loud and has a whine similar to that of a dual ball bearing drive. It's a WD800JB-00CRA1 that was manufactured in October of 2002 and was made in Malaysia. SMOOTH chips I've usually seen fail go out with a bang, so I think the failure was something else.

Wester547 wrote:It's a WD800JB-00CRA1 that was manufactured in October of 2002 and was made in Malaysia.

Yes, those were ball bearing - I have a WD200BB-00CAA1 which aside from the lower capacity and smaller cache, is the same thing (as far as I know). IIRC it has 1 reallocated sector and 1 reallocation event. The extended models listed are indeed FDB, though. I think the first of them were released in 2004. I have a WD400JB-00JJA0 and a WD800JB-00JJC0 and those two are undoubtedly FDB.

By the way, there's no need to explicitly state that a HDD has dual ball bearings as you can't make a HDD with sleeve bearings.

As for the electronics failure of my WD400BB-00JHA0, I've heard of a WD2000JB-00GVA0 with a similar problem that was temporarily revived by freezing the PCB (well, actually the entire drive, but removing and freezing just the PCB and then reinstalling it while it's still cold would have been safer).

I found the difference between GUA/GUC/GVA/GVC and RDA/REA. The latter has a smaller PCB replacing two separate chips (the MCU and R/W channel) with one performing both functions (being similar to if not the same as the PCB on JHA/JHC/JJA/JJC and JKA/JKC/JLA/JLC).

Those chips, at least those I've seen, are QFP, so no fractured solder joints to worry about. Some post-AAxx drives have BGAs though (probably due to squeezing the electronics onto a smaller (i.e. cheaper) PCB).

The damper mentioned above weighs a fair bit and makes an audible difference to the idle sound level. The easiest way to tell damped from undamped models, apart from looking up the model, is to examine the top cover - the undamped top cover has a shallow dome directly above the spindle, while that area is mostly flat on the damped version (the damper has a hole in that position). [Before they switched to thin stainless steel top covers in late 2006, anyway.] (In case you're wondering, that trick doesn't work for the ball-bearing drives.)