The Basics:

The plastic case the drive came sealed in is shown in the below left image, and an unobstructed view of the drive is provided in the below right image. Various bits of information regarding the specifications, manufacturing data, and installation instructions can be found on the data label.



The information that I was most interested in was the manufacturing date. The RE2 series of drives carried a 5-year warranty when purchased brand new, and as "new pulls" Geeks.com is selling them with a 3-year warranty. The manufacturing date is listed as September 2007, meaning they should be in warranty until 2012. Plugging the serial number from the drive into the warranty information page at the Western Digital website confirms that the warranty will be valid until 2012, and all the way until October of that year. So, while Geeks.com is selling them with a 3-year warranty, there is actually closer to 3.5 years left on the original 5-year warranty.



The below left image shows the base of the drive, as well as the SATA data and power connections. The PCB is just the way I like it, featureless, so there can be no damage to exposed controller or memory chips like you might experience on other drives. A set of jumpers near the SATA connections are worth checking out, as pins 5 and 6 come with a jumper across them. This jumper is labeled to "enable 1.5GB PHY", and digging around the Western Digital website confirmed my guess that it caps the transfer rate at 1.5Gbps. Testing later confirmed that leaving this jumper in place greatly reduces the drives burst speed on a 3Gbps SATA controller.



The above right image shows an angled view of the drive. There isn't anything special to see, but as a "new pull" I wondered just how gently it might have been handled. Considering the outer surface of the drive is in perfect condition (no scratches from drive rails was my main focus), I guess it was treated well.