Seagate BarraCuda 2TB Internal Hard Drive HDD – 3.5 Inch SATA 6Gb/s 7200 RPM 256MB Cache – Frustration Free Packaging (ST2000DM008/ST2000DMZ08)

Nicely packaged and well built. Really easy install. Was back up and running within a few minutes.

I have a 2TB hybrid disk that was starting to fail-- it has been a great disk, but the price for replacing it seemed kind of high (hybrids, versus mechanical). Because I was already doing disk caching using PrimoCache, I opted to take a risk and buy this 5400 RPM mechanical, hoping that my caching strategy would compensate for the raw performance. I was right! This lets me have the benefits of much more storage and a longer service life, while correcting for the otherwise slow performance. Briefly about caching: in the simplest terms, caching is storing things that are more-often used in a place thats quicker to get to. For example, your refrigerator is a cache for the grocery store-- it doesnt hold as much, but if it has the stuff you want, its waaaaaay faster to get to. If it doesnt, then you have to go to the store to get it (longer), but then you keep it in the fridge. When the fridge gets full, you start throwing out what you dont need anymore to make room. (The analogy breaks here, because you dont return things to the store when youre done with them). Windows 10 already does some caching in memory (that is, it stores in RAM things that might later be read from the disk, making it super-fast), but it doesnt do it strategically, and doesnt use a Level 2 (L2) cache. In cache terms, the lower the number, the faster it is, but the less it holds. You see this kind of info on CPU specifications, too. Anyway, in this case, I am using a 500GB Samsung EVO 970 M.2 NVMe SSD (~$100) on my motherboard as the cache device (L2), and have allocated 8GB of my 32GB of RAM to the cache (L1). Im using it for this 4TB disk, as well as a 1TB SSD, a 500GB SSD, and a 2TB hybrid. It makes sense for the SSDs both because the EVO out-performs my SSDs, and also, it reduces writes to those larger SSDs-- and an eventual failure of the cache device isnt a big deal, as it contains no unique data. I ran a bunch of Crystal Disk Marks on several of my disks to see the caching improvements, but also happened to capture the RAW performance of this drive. The tests were run in v8.0 of Crystal, and using the Real World preset. I ran tests with 16MiB and 4GiB of data. I will definitely get another one of these disks if I have to replace my other 2TB hybrid.

I purchased this product for extra storage for MP4 files. The product worked well for about 6 weeks then when I would try to save to the drive it would lock up. Checked for errors and I would have to repair the drive and it would work for one save then crash again . It locks up when doing CHKDSK. I have never had a problem with Seagate in the past so I assume I received a dud but my next purchase will not be from the same manufacturer.

Ive had several of these fail in one of my servers but to be fair the airflow and cooling in that machine is less than optimum. After jury rigging an additional fan Ive had no more failures. But they do run quite hot so plan accordingly. Otherwise they are fine and perform about as expected for their specs. They are not high performance but are not intended to be, whaddaya expect at this price?

Very hesitant on Seagate but cheap and for original xbox. So far so good

Not much to say.. If you need more storage for your PC, just buy it!

Ive relied on Seagate drives for decades. Whether thats in a home environment, a small office setting, or a large corporation they have always been drives I trust. You can use them for your OS, your data, or as part of a RAID array and feel confident they will serve you well. I still build my own desktop machines so my machines might be easier to access than say a store bought one, as I have easily removable and toolless drive bays but even if you have to use screws to insert these, they arent anything that an average user cant install themselves (NOTE these do NOT come with the screws which are a very specific size - so buy a pack of those separately if you need them) I have 3 of these; one that is 2 years old and has been in the case since day one powered on 24/7 for data storage, another I just installed to hold larger files like videos, and another that gets swapped in and out once a week for backup purposes. I like the 2TB size as Im not storing massive files like 4k video or such (in which case I would most likely be using a different class of drives altogether) as they hold enough for the average user and day-to-day operations without taking forever to backup like the larger drives can. Also, its much easier on your heart and mind in the case that a drive does go bad (it will eventually) and you were relying on say a single 8TB drive where not only was your data stored but also had your operating system and programs on it... My suggestion is get a couple of these (great price) to store/backup your data and run your OS and programs off of an SSD. They arent the fastest drives around and there are other options if you need whizbang tech specs but they are super reliable and affordable

I installed these in a Pegasus Pro 4 model, to provide 12TB of data storage capacity for my system. Periodically, one will be rejected by the Pegasus box, so I need to replace it.

This 2TB Seagate BarraCuda is replacing a 7 year old 1TB Seagate BarraCuda with Win7 in an old Dell Inspiron. There was nothing wrong with my old one. I always run error checks on the disk & it was healthy. But, 7 to 10 years is the average life expectancy on an HDD. I have my files backed up on an external Seagate Drive just in case it ever failed. But, I do NOT want Win10 & I did NOT want to lose my Win7. I also needed more space. Im a music fanatic & I have a lot of WAV files. They eat up most of my HD. So I bought this new one & cloned it from my old one. I had to purchase a SATA cable & power cable to connect this to my motherboard. When I connected this on my motherboard & turned on my PC, I could feel it humming along. I opened Disk Management. I named it, but forgot to assign it a letter. Dont forget to assign it a letter or you cant use it. I did a full format in Disk Management to check the new drive for errors. It took hours. But, I would recommend a full format instead of a quick format when installing a new drive. Just make sure you format the NEW drive & NOT the OLD one or youll wipe everything out. (There is no need to do this from the Command Prompt.) Once I formatted it, I used Clonezilla to clone it in the BIOS. You need a flashdrive to use Clonezilla & its FREE! There are a few good tutorials on YouTube on how to use Clonezilla. If youre cloning an HD, I would NOT recommend using cloning software that clones from your desktop. How are you supposed to clone your Windows OS when its being used? Ive never understood how this works. And a lot of people that use these programs complain that they cant boot up from the new cloned drive. You need to clone from the BIOS. It took me a little more than 2 hours to clone 500Gs with Clonezilla. It was fast. Faster than doing a backup. Once the new Seagate drive was cloned, I removed the old drive & swapped the SATA cable from the old drive to the new drive. I didnt need to change anything in BIOS. Presto! The NEW drive booted right up. CLONING NOTE: This is how cloning works. It clones everything including the empty space from the old drive to the new drive. When cloning a smaller 1TB drive to a bigger 2TB drive, it will partition the new drive & separate the extra 1TB on a NEW partition. (Always go from smaller to bigger when cloning.) You can leave the new drive partitioned, name that separate partition & give it a new letter designation & it will show up as a separate drive on your computer. I didnt want this. (If you named your new drive before cloning it & gave it a new letter, as soon as you swap it with the old drive, Windows will automatically change it to the primary C drive.) So going back into Disk Management, I right clicked on the OS (C:) partition and checked expand volume. (Dont worry about adjusting the numbers. Windows will figure out how much space is left and expand it all the way.) So everything in the C drive is on a SINGLE partition with lots of extra space. Its that simple. I took my old Seagate HDD & put it in my fireproof safe in case the NEW drive fails. Now I have a backup of everything including my OS. So far the new Seagate is humming along. And its whisper quiet. Its like having a NEW computer with that good old Win7, but with more space. I hope this helps!

Ive had one of these for literal ages and bought another two for extra storage. They came well-packaged, work out of the box, and work well.