Eunice Wanjiru Kibanya

Western Digital (WD) Hard Drive Colors WD Blue, WD Black, WD Green, WD Gold, WD Red, WD Purple. If you walked into a shop and saw hard drives displayed in all these colors you would be forgiven for thinking that they’re “just colors” or a way to make the product look appealing to the eyes so that you can buy it. We live in a colorful world and just like many colors would mean different things, in the tech-world, Western Digital (WD) hard drive colors mean something too. Let’s journey into technology, shall we? The world of technology keeps growing. Vastly so. It is important to keep abreast with the latest in these devices that come to in many ways make life simpler – or do they? The hard drive disk is one of those gadgets and in this we look at the Western Digital Hard Disk Drive (WD HDD). Western Digital (WD) has risen to be among the crème in as far as data storage solutions is concerned. They have a wide range of products from (HDD)-Hard Disk Drives to Solid State Drive, abbreviated as SSD - and everything in between that would help a customer in capturing and storing important data. Let’s not even belabor how agonizing it is to lose data. It is good to get a hard drive – and one that is suitable for you or the kind of “load” or data you need to store. When you purchase a HDD, it should not really be on the basis of your favorite color or what color matches your walls. It should be one that you can call “the perfect partner”. This gadget in many cases holds a lot of vital information and in order to save your money and peace of mind, acquiring the right one is key. How do you know what’s good for you? Read on. This piece decodes most of what might look to a layman like gibberish when it comes to the WD HDDs. What then does this “WD rainbow” – this array of colors mean? Western Digital Blue (WD Blue) This here is practically the basic hard disk drive and can be used mainly for the purpose of general storage. This is a good starting point for any average user and should be their color of choice. You can’t go wrong with blue. It is the standard internal hard drive – and has been for a long time. With a capacity of about 250GB to 6TB, this is a great option for everyday computer use. Whether it is for internet purposes, general work use or even just gaming use, this hard drive is a great choice especially because current models are a hybrid and come with SSD as well. While its performance will vary from one machine to another, it is suitable to use for storage of games, music and even pictures. Western Digital Black (WD Black) This one is a “beast” – so to speak because of its capacity, performance and even cost. It is one of the most expensive hard drives. It has high usability and is perfect for “creatives”. Content creators, media, gaming stations and as a workstation computer. It has the capacity to work fast and has a drive range of 1TB - 6TB. The WD Black has a higher cache of 128 MB compared to the blue which has 64MB. The WD Black comes with a warranty of 5 years. Western Digital Green (WD Green) This one was very much like the WD Blue but is said to be the cheaper and “eco-friendly” version of the two. The WD Green is said to save power in comparison to the blue. It however fails greatly when it comes to performance capacity. Across the board, consumers still prefer the WD Blue. WD Green has since been faced out as a HDD but in its place, the SATA (Serial AT Attachment) SSD is now available. Western Digital Gold (WD Gold) This is the most premium of the WD HDD brands. It is also the most expensive. When it comes to performance, the WD Gold has the capacity to handle enterprise-class storage and would work perfectly in servers or where there is need to handle several sophisticated systems at the same time. This particular HDD boasts of ratings such as 550TB and the ability to handle more than 2 million hours MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures). It comes loaded with additional technology features such as Multi-axis shock sensor, Dynamic fly height and StableTrac. It has a 5 year warranty. Western Digital Red (WD Red) These are built for compatibility with NAS Systems. They are versatile and have a capacity range of between 1Tb and 14TB. They excel in reading performance more than writing performance which make it quite the perfect tool for NAS systems. The WD Red is good to use in business computer systems or networks because you can access data locally or through the web and be able to share the same with others. Western Digital Purple (WD Purple) This is the best drive for CCTV surveillance and 24 hour video recording which would be a great load or demand for a HDD. The WD Purple is built using the cache algorithm AllFrame technology which ensures minimal errors while saving and storing the video coverage. This particular drive has a storage capacity that ranges from 1TB to 14TB. This is sufficient for the kind of performance it needs to have. It is also excellent in writing performance as opposed to the reading performance which the WD Red excels in. For the use of smaller more portable surveillance and coverage devices like body-cams, drones and what have you, you can find the WD Purple in SD and micro SD cards which make these smaller gadgets work as effectively as the larger ones yet with ease. In conclusion, whether it’s for extra performance on your device, your business or premise surveillance or just everyday use, the WD Colors offer a solution for everyone. With their precise build and technological accessories, these hard drives become the perfect partner you need for data storage and exceptional performance of your devices. Their speeds of 7200rpm or higher are key in order to have high performance at all times. They also come with long lasting warranties as a boost to their quality assurance and the confidence the manufacturers have in them. It is small wonder that there are so many great reviews about this HD range – which just goes to show how awesome they are. Armed with this knowledge, how about you get the one that suits you best!