Western Digital 4TB WD Black Performance Internal Hard Drive HDD - 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, 256 MB Cache, 3.5 - WD4005FZBX

This is definitely CMR and not SMR (curse those who invented the latter). Id have preferred a 2.5 format, but this was the one on sale. And Im unclear that theres any difference between this and the WD 1TB _Red_ CMR HDD, but that the black is 7200_RPM, and the red 5400; as Im not noticing any excessive heat (I used an _unnecessary_ heatsink thats not worth the trouble to return), and my application doesnt care about the speed boost of 7200/5400, Im entirely satisfied.

I purchased this drive to replace a failing one on a relatives Windows-based system. I also used the Acronis True Image WD Edition Software, downloaded from the manufacturers site to clone the old drive. I was half-way through the installation when I thought, What if I were just a general consumer and not a computer geek? In other words, what if my relative had ordered this drive and tried to replace the old one without calling me? It probably would not have gone well, as it arrives as just a drive in a box, with no documentation or hints of what to do. The documentation on the manufacturers Web site is fair, but maybe not enough for an average person off the street. With that in mind ... The installation went very cleanly. I had a spare SATA cable handy, which I needed during the replacement, and a SATA power Y splitter, which I did not need in this case. Those items do not come with the drive: You will have to purchase those separately if you need them. You may also need to buy 4 drive screws, but I personally did not need them for this installation either. I was going to use different software to clone the failing drive, but decided to use the utility provided by the manufacturer on their Web site. I Read The Friendly Manual and it worked very efficiently. After cloning, I removed the old drive and rebooted with only the new one. Everything was fine. I did not run any extensive diagnostics, but this new drive is relatively fast and quiet with no obvious defects so far. That was just a day ago, so I will leave my rating at 5 stars for now. Other reviewers have had quality and return problems after a few months and have submitted lower ratings. Hopefully, years will go by and I wont hear about any problems. The manufacturer makes kits providing additional documentation, cables and such if you need them -- but for me this purchase was a good option.

item is good !

Perfect

I have my OS on an SSD and files (media, docs, music) on an HDD. This solution allows fast boot times, keeps my costs low, and allows me to work on OS and data separately - whether it is to clean reinstall Windows every year or so, or to replace the HDD with a larger one. Was running out of space on a 1.8 TB Seagate, and decided to jump on this WD Black 6TB. Replacement was relatively easy. I had run out of SATA cables / power cables on my setup. Opened up the ones connected to the DVD drive and plugged this drive in. The first one seemed to be a DoA - did not spin up. Amazon was great as usual and shipped the replacement super quick. The second one worked great. Since this is greater than 2TB, it was not recognized readily by Windows 10. I had to go into My Computer -> Manage -> Disk Management, set up the volume, and make it online. I installed Clonezilla on USB, rebooted using the USB, and followed through with the instructions to clone my existing HDD into the new one. After cloning with CloneZilla, it is important to unplug the old drive before rebooting - since it will copy the same drive ID to the new drive, and the OS will get confused seeing 2 drives with the same ID. That done, reboot was complete. Since CloneZilla clones like for like, I could only see 1.8 TB of the drive. Another visit to the same My Computer -> Manage -> Disk Management, clicking on Actions -> Rescan disks, and I was able to see the rest of the 6TB as unallocated. It was easy to extend the online volume over the entire disk to get to see the entire 6TB. Performance numbers from Crystal Disk Mark are attached as a screenshot. Please note that I reduced the test to 100MB instead of 1GB.

WD drives do not exhibit the HD having to go to the zero stop/HOME on the drive due to losing track of cylinder position. That is what the frequent Knocking sound is even when the drive is Idle. The drive will work BUT is defective. Seagates lose the cylinder position and have to go out to the zero stop position then count back in to where they were supposed to be. I have observed this problem since the 1990s and just had it with a 16TB drive I sent back. I should have known better!

Excellent product. Fast shipping. One informational caveat: Did not initially work for me, due to a power requirement I had not noticed before. I installed this in a 10-year-old Linux-based DVR system, and initially it would not recognize the drive. Learned that my power supply (12V 3A) was under-powered for this drive, in this system. Upgraded to 5A P/S, and drive now works fine.

Wonderful HDD. Holds plenty and is quite fast.

It works as intended so its worth in my opinion.

Great price and good storage. The drive is a little louder than I like. It isnt loud per say, but it is louder than the other components in my computer. You can hear it spin up and it occasionally...clicks...that isnt quite a good description but it is almost like you can hear the head reposition on the drive.