WDBFJK0050HBK-NESN - Does it contain green or blue drive?

WD External Drives External Drives for PC
1

BestBuy has WDBFJK0050HBK-NESN drive on sale today. Considering getting it. This drive is not listed in WDC website so not too sure of the details. If anyone has this drive, can they run CrystalDiskInfo and check what drive is in the enclosure?

Many thanks in advance.

2

Hi there,

I don’t have this drive, but lets see if another user can share information with you on this matter.

3

Mine has a WD50EZRZ drive inside

4

My WDBFJK0050HBK-NESN also has a WD50EZRZ, which is a Blue.

I’m not sure what this means anymore, because WD rebranded all Green drives as Blue. There are almost no references to WD50EZRZ as a Green, so I don’t think it was considered Green before.

5

What’s the catch here? Why is the WDBFJK0050HBK-NESN offered at $119.99 - cheaper than a 4tb My Book? I noticed that both the WD Store and Amazon don’t offer a 5tb My Book. It jumps from 4tb to 6tb.
Is the drive less reliable or inferior in some way?

6

I am thinking it is inferior hardware. I called WD support and they basically told me that this drive was a special release to Best Buy only. It is not listed anywhere on the WD site, nor really anywhere else except Amazon. There is a reviewer on Amazon stating that this drive is giving him slow performance on video files and when transferring the file back to the 3 TB WD MyBook, the performance issue goes away. So I am thinking of returning this to Best Buy and getting the 4TB version for my XBoxOne. All I want is the better performing drive. And I will pay for it. I mean come on, there must be a reason that the 4TB version retails for 189$ on sale for 129$ and the Best Buy special edition retails for 139$ and is 10$ cheaper on sale for a TB more? Something isn’t right. I hate when companies release retailer specific hardware with sub par performance. Hopefully I am wrong but I think that is what’s going on here.

7

Nick - Thanks for the reply and your thoughts. I’m concerned too that
there’s “no free lunch here”. I also can’t find any data as to the
reliability of WD 5tb drives. I think the 4tb is the ay to go:

8

The lack of info is probably due to it not being mainstream, and a retailer special. Why WD doesn’t include it on their website is kinda scary also. I just hate having to copy all my games back to the internal drive, boxing up the external and returning it. I may just buy the 4TB version and hook it up, copy the games to it, then wipe the 5TB and return it. The fact that the 5TB retails for 50$ cheaper than the 4TB isn’t at the good graces of WD. I’m boxing mine up tonight and returning it. I would love to know though what the actual drive specs are though. And compare it to the 3 and 4TB versions.

Here is the drive on Amazon with a whole 1 review. Amazon.com

The good thing is the 4TB version is only 114.99 on Amazon. Best Buy will match that price. So I will save 5$ and get a better performing drive, if that is indeed the case of 5TB being subpar.

9

“My WDBFJK0050HBK-NESN also has a WD50EZRZ, which is a Blue3.
I’m not sure what this means anymore, because WD rebranded all Green drives as Blue. There are almost no references to WD50EZRZ as a Green, so I don’t think it was considered Green before.”

If this is the case, then the 5TB drive has as 5400rpm drive in it. This thing is going back. The whole reason I bought this drive was to get a 7200rpm drive and have increased performance in loading XB1 games. I don’t want a drive that has the same specs as the internal drive. Waste of time if this is true. Does anyone have any specs for comparison of the 4TB vs 5TB?

10

Yes, both according to WD information and smartctl, the drive claims to be 5400 RPM. I don’t mind that though. It’s fine for backup and data storage, and probably uses less power than 7200 RPM.