White Label on Black Drive - WTF?

[RhoXS]

In another thread I discussed a series of four WD drives that failed, all at the same time. Two were brand new black drives shipped by Newegg and two were blue drives I was using for the past year or so in an older NAS.

Newegg immediately replaced the black drives with good ones. Both replacements tested sat (WD Lifeguard extended) and are now in use without any issue in a new Synology DS212 NAS.

WD replaced both blue drives under warranty. One replaced drive arrived last week and is an almost identical blue drive (EALS replaced with EALX). It tested sat (WD Lifeguard extended).

The second blue replacement arrived today, The original drive was a blue WD10EALS The replacement is WD1001FALS with an all white label. It also does not have the "WD Caviar color" with the globe logo printed at the bottom of the label. I looked up the FALS series and they are black drives so why is the label all white and slightly different than the labels on the other black drives I have? It has a July 20, 2012 date on it so it appears to be a new (maybe refurbished) drive.

Worse, this drive failed both the WD Lifeguard Quick and Extended tests so I am trying to understand exactly what they shipped before I call WD to replace the replacement.

 

[BFG10K]

I’ve heard of these things. They’re rebranded Caviar Blacks so they have a white label.

 

[RhoXS]

Thanks. What does "Rebranded" mean?

Does rebranded imply this drive once had another brand name on it other than WD? Although the label states a July 20, 2012 date I suspect this is not the manufacture date but the date the drive was checked and relabled so it might indeed have had some history behind it.

 

[46664]

I would guess that they are for OEMs so the label doesn't matter since the owner will probably never see it. Just a guess tho

 

[Plimogz]

I've seen a number of these white labels, always on refurbished drives.

It's pretty sad that they sent you a drive that fails their own testing application.

 

[BFG10K]

Does rebranded imply this drive once had another brand name on it other than WD?

No, it means it was a WD drive but now it's called something else. It's probably refurbished too.

 

[Elixer]

I've seen a number of these white labels, always on refurbished drives.

It's pretty sad that they sent you a drive that fails their own testing application.

While I haven't had that happen yet from WD, I had that happen many times on Seagate drives. Back-to-back RMAs direct from Seagate. Ugh.

 

[midwestfisherman]

I don't have any idea on the label thing, but how do you like that DS212 NAS?