Thinking about buying the Western Digital Caviar Green WDBAAY0020HNC-NRSN 2TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

does this drive work?

I'm afraid we're going to need some more information. If you plug it in and it powers on, you can make the argument that the drive works.

All joking aside, we need to know where you plan to install the drive, and which operating system will be used with it. In theory, yes the drive should work with any Windows OS. If the drive is an advanced format drive (if it was manufactured on or after January 1, 2011 then it is for sure), and you want to use it with WHS v1 (based on Server 2003), then you've got some special considerations to address since WHS v1 doesn't correctly lay down the partition. Western Digital puts a special jumper pins on most (if not all) of its AFDs -- these pins must be terminated (slide the jumper onto them) when the disk is to be used with a legacy operating system (WHS v1 is considered legacy). If you plan to use WHS 2011, then such a jumper should NOT be used.

What kind of server will this drive be used with? I've got a hodgepodge of disks in my EX487 and EX490. The EX490 is loaded with 4 x 1 TB disks, none of which are AFDs although the OS is WHS 2011 so it doesn't really matter. The EX487 has 2 x 1 TB and 2 x 2 TB, the latter two are AFDs -- again, it's WHS 2011 so a non-issue with the OS. A key takeaway here is that the EX4xx servers (at least the 48x and 49x) can handle AFDs.

Let us know what gear you've got and how the disk will be used and we can give you additional assistance if needed.

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Matt Sawyer
Owner, Dojo North Software, LLC

HP EX490, 4GB, E5300, 15TB - Server 2012 - Sharing and Streaming
HP EX487, 4GB, E5300, 13TB - Server 2012 Essentials - Backups

My 2 cents is I would not use any green drive.
I have read to many bad reviews on newegg on green drive failures and poor preformance.

The idea of green drives in the home server is a good idea, don't need super fast drive most of the time and using less electric and having less heat all good ideas, but, in the real world it just don't work.

SSD drives will out pace green drives for the future.

List:
HITACHI Deskstar 7K3000 HDS723020BLA642 (0f12115) 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard / http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822145473
Next would be a western digital black, but I only use the above.

In my 30 plus years the drives I have seen fail were:
Seagate at least 5.
Maxtor, at least 2.
Western Digital, at least 2.

Others will have their choices. I bought 6 of the HITACHI before the prices went up and I have used the HITACHI refurbs with good luck as well.
Hope this helps.

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[X510 CPU/RAM/All 2 TB Red's] [X510 CPU/Sync'ed Backup/All 2 TB Hitachi's]
[X510 /2 in box]
[X710 LIAN LI DIY W2016E] Stablebit Drivepool [EX-503 LIAN LI 5-bay USB3 External]
Fear the Cloud

Well, I'll disagree with the green drive comment. I use WD Green Drives exclusively in my server (including as my system drive) and currently have 4 of the WD EARS units running. 3 of them have been up for over a year with zero issues. The key to using Green Drives (or any new drive these days) is to make sure you configure them correctly. Some of the Green Drives are advanced format units and often need some tweaking before using in a legacy OS like WHS v1. In addition, some of the energy saving features such as disk parking benefit form being modified for a server environment. I wrote an article last year that walks you through the process of installing fresh WD Green Drives. You can find it here: http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2010/12/22/using-advanced-format-hard-drives-with-windows-home-server/

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X510 w/7 TB (100% WD Green EARS)
Stock Processor, 4 GB Memory Upgrade

I just swapped out a failing Seagate 1.5TB 7200rpm system drive in my EX495 with a Samsung 1.5TB F2 green drive, I think it's slightly slower at files copies (38-42MB/sec now, I recall it being 45-50MB/sec on the old drive) but I'm fine with that performance.

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Alex Kuretz
Remote Notification: Monitoring and alerting for your Home Server via email, Twitter, text message, RSS, push notifications, and on your Mac desktop
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I'm with TechVet on the green drives. Both my EX487 and EX490 have at least one green drive in them, and I've not had an ounce of trouble with them. I've also got green drives in other computers, as internal and external SATA. It is true that green drives in general tend to perform slower than others, but it's like buying an automobile. If you're buying a Prius, then don't expect blazing fast performance; by the same token if you buy a full size Ford F-150, you might get solid performance but your fuel economy is going to be less. Green drives sacrifice performance to save power. Of course, if they're used for backup purposes and file shares, they should do you proud.

I've got 4 x 2 TB Hitachi Deathstars in a Rosewill RSV eSATA enclosure on my EX490 which I use for streaming. That yields blazing, rock solid performance, even when configured in a software-based drive pool (Drive Bender for WHS 2011). I want fast drives for streaming (for obvious reasons); for things like backup then green drives are great, as are USB 2.0 based drives where speed isn't an issue.

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Matt Sawyer
Owner, Dojo North Software, LLC

HP EX490, 4GB, E5300, 15TB - Server 2012 - Sharing and Streaming
HP EX487, 4GB, E5300, 13TB - Server 2012 Essentials - Backups

Which is the biggest reason I avoid them. While I'm for tinkering, it's quite clear Western Digital is playing games to artificially stratify their hard drive lines and push people to their most expensive drives for use in servers.

That's their right - it's also my right to chose to not play their games and just buy drives from other manufacturers. I've had great luck with Hitachi and Samsung drives - and I've had rotten luck with WD Green and the power saving Seagate drives too - tweaked configurations or not. I no longer buy "green" drives from any manufacturers - especially for servers, Tivo's or other always on appliances.