Do I need to upgrade my WD Red Firmware?

elsmandino

Hello.

I purchased a Western Digital 6TB Red, back in November 2015, and have had no apparent issues with it.

I run it in my Openmediavault Server, for recording and playing back files, made via TVHeadend.

Just by chance, I have just come across this thread, that suggests that my hard drive might have an issue that need fixing with a firmware tinkering.

What I learnt from using WD Red disks to build a home NAS | With Blue Ink

Is there any way to tell whether I might actually need this fix?

Rodders53

Download and then run the software from WD to fix the issue if it exists on your drive?  WD Red | WD Support  
It will only update the drive if it needs to be updated.

WD diagnostics might give you a firmware date/version number?

elsmandino

Thanks Rodders.

As the disk is currently in a Linux machine, I shall have to temporarily put it in my Windows Desktop, to run the program.

Will it be an issue that the Disk has been formatted as ext4?

mickevh

Before doing anything with your disc, it would be prudent to ensure you have a backup of the data it contains in case of any problems.

If it contains (say) DVD rips, you perhaps might not bother as if the worst happens you can re-rip, albeit that so doing will cost you some time and effort. But any irreplaceable ought to be backed off somewhere else for safe keeping.

Rodders53

The utility is able to run under Linux 64/32 bit {see more info button}.

I'd have thought getting the Linux server machine to do the update would be the way to go.
Heed WD's warnings:
Important: Please ensure that any important data is backed up from the hard drive and that the drive is removed from the RAID array (the array is offline) before updating the firmware.