[Help] D6-320 Not Recognising WD Gold Drives

[Enverex]

I have 2 D6-320 DAS units, both connected to different machines. They both work fine, one has two disks in it (2x14TB) and one has 4 disks in it, a mix of SSDs and large normal spinning disks including a 20TB white-label WD drive. This all works fine.

Recently I purchased a 20TB WD Gold drive - it didn't work in either of the DAS units. I assumed it was faulty and sent it back. I now have a new 24TB WD Gold drive which behaves exactly the same way - when connected to either DAS, the power light comes on (only the first of the two green lights) but the disk does not spin up and isn't detected/seen by the host operating system the DAS is connected to. This is the same for both systems.

I thought the disk may somehow also be DOA but that seemed very unlikely. This time around I had space to test it on an internal SATA port on one of the machines and I found to my surprise that the disk actually works fine when connected to a normal motherboard port and SATA power cable. So the issue isn't the disks, it's the DAS.

So the question is, why do these disks not work inside the D6-320 DAS chassis?
The DAS units are both using their original power supplies and cables and, with the exception of these specific disks, work fine.

Here is the disk info from the replacement drive for reference:

Code: Select all

Device Model:     WDC WD242KRYZ-01CMSB0
Serial Number:    <removed>
LU WWN Device Id: <removed>
Firmware Version: 01.01H01
User Capacity:    24,000,277,250,048 bytes [24.0 TB]
Sector Sizes:     512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate:    7200 rpm
Form Factor:      3.5 inches
Device is:        Not in smartctl database 7.5/5706
ATA Version is:   ACS-5 (minor revision not indicated)
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.5, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Mon Mar 30 13:52:13 2026 BST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

Any help would be nice as this is a major issue for me and has cost me a lot of time and money so far.
Thanks.

[EriChan]

The D6-320 does not support and does not recommend using WD Gold series hard drives. Please refer to our DAS hard drive compatibility list to select a suitable hard drive.

[Enverex]

The D6-320 does not support and does not recommend using WD Gold series hard drives. Please refer to our DAS hard drive compatibility list to select a suitable hard drive.

What is different about the WD Gold series of drives which makes them incompatible with the D6-320 enclosure? I'm not aware of any special aspect of them that would stop them spinning up.

Given the current environment, "whatever I can get my hands on" is typically what I buy and I've never had to strictly adhere to a compatibility list before for drives because they are normally highly incomplete. For example only 2 of the 7 disks I'm using in D6-320 enclosures right now are actually on that list.

Additionally, if you explicitly know it doesn't work with those drives (and they are quite common) then it really should be listed somewhere.

[EriChan]

We fully understand the difficulties you encountered when using WD Gold series hard drives on the D6-320. Our engineering team has been continuously monitoring the situation. To further assist you in diagnosing and attempting to resolve this issue, please cooperate by trying the following troubleshooting steps:

Installation method: Before installing the hard drive into the D6-320 drive bay, please ensure that you properly use the black PVC isolation pad provided in the accessory kit to physically separate the hard drive circuit board from the bracket.

Wait for the disk self-test cycle: After powering on, please be patient and wait for about 35 seconds to see if the host system (Windows or Mac) can detect the hard drive normally.

If the above physical checks still fail to recognize the hard drive, please take a photo of the label sticker on the front of the hard drive and send it to us. We will submit your specific hard drive model and firmware (FW) version to WD’s original factory for technical verification.

We will update the official "Hard Drive Compatibility List" based on the verification results. Thank you for your patience and cooperation; this is of great value to us in improving product compatibility!