We Got Served

Earlier this morning, we published a post regarding a HP MediaSmart Server owner who, having had severe issues with his home server after installing two internal Western Digital GreenPower drives, was told by HP’s technical support people that these drives should be avoided due to compatibility issues.

Quite a few HP MediaSmart owners left comments on the post stating that they’d been using GP drives for some time with the HP MediaSmart Server without any issues - so certainly there was a difference of opinion both with MediaSmart Server owners and indeed within HP! We’ve now got clarity on the issue, so rather than hack the previous post apart, I thought it would be easier to pull it and clarify the situation here:

Here’s the lowdown;

• HP have identified a compatibility issue with the first versions of Western Digital’s GreenPower External USB drives and the HP MediaSmart Server. They tell us, “The External USB HDD would spin itself down to save power and then Windows Home Server could not spin it back up. WHS would then report that there was a failed HDD. We were able to duplicate this problem in the lab back in December when this was first discovered and the support agents were informed.”
• HP have fully tested Western Digital GreenPower internal drives on multiple machines in their labs and have found them to be absolutely fine. This is consistent with what many of you have told us this afternoon.
• The working assumption is that some operators at HP Tech Support erroneously believe that all Western Digital GreenPower drives are incompatible with the HP MediaSmart Server - whereas only External Drives are affected. HP are now working to ensure that HP Tech Support have the correct information to pass to owners.

Many thanks to everyone who got in touch with comments - glad we’ve been able to clarify the facts! So,if you’re a MediaSmart Server owner, be wary of fitting a GreenPower external drive on your home server, but internal drives are fine for use.