I got a new white label drive-- no hours from a good cooperative seller.
My goal was to get a 5400 RPM drive.

First I received one marked 5400 but it reported to be a 7200 RPM HDDScan and CrystalDiskInffo.

The seller graciously gave an RMA and I received a replacement. But
on this one, HDDScan or ChrystalDisk show either a blank or 'not reported'
message at rotation speed.

Is there a tool that gets the info off of the operating HD rather than just
some firmware lookup? It's my understanding that this WL is sold
into the always on security cams and whatnot. My goal is to have an
always on quiety drive I sit next to and not hear it.

I told them I'd keep it if no other problems arise within the 1 year warranty
they give.

This sounds like WD's IntelliPower rubbish. Can you show us the PCB? A photo of the label would also be helpful (to identify fakes).

Can you show us HD Tune's read benchmark graph? You can estimate the real RPM from the width of the access time graph.

Victoria for Windows has an RPM test.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Well my goal is to have something quiet and I avoided WD for that reason in favor of Seagate as far as badged drives go. My best ones have been Seagate regardless what is said about them.
I went for the bargain on this, that is on me. I haven't given it a good "listen for quiet' yet.
A good backup HD will suffice that I don't have to use day to day.

I'll look at HD Tune. I haven't used that so I can report back on that or Victoria.

I don't know what WD Intellipower is at all. :-/

thanks for answering.

I am back already. I dl'ed HDTune. Where does it say rpm or rotation speed? I saw
MB per sec but not the other.

Perhaps you could guide me through the benchmark or whatever tab to get the
info.

All of these smart drive screens have the same info or lack of it.

I'm going to try one thing in between since the HD empty...

HD Tune doesn't report the RPM. You need to calculate it from the benchmark graph. The access time is represented by a band of data points whose width reflects the total rotational latency. For a 7200 RPM drive the band is 8.3 msec wide, while for a 5400 RPM it is 11 msec.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.