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

I build gaming PCs as a hobby and part time business. This is a massive drive at a great price from a good company. I have my entire Steam library of almost 200 games as well as iTunes library and its not even a quarter full. Quieter than my fans, plug and play. If you can use 8 gigs then its a no brainer.

i get decent performance from this hard drive but at times it can be noisy but most of the time its quiet good harddrive for the value

Western Digital hard drives are my choice when I pick a new hard drive. I used to live near their California HQ and was a former head of a large PC user group and learned WD has good quality. This drive is more expensive than others because i researched which one was good for handling heavy graphic read and writes when using video editing software and the file was on an external drive. This is a SATA drive and runs the faster 7200 RPM with a large cache. You have to either install this an internal drive, or buy an external drive case for this, with cables, etc. This is a do it yourself product and not for novice users. This drive is NOT a consumer product. You have to go to the website to get the instructions on how to format this drive, etc. That is what they mean by Bulk/OEM labels - it lacks any extras included with consumer hard drives in a box. You have to order the cables you need, and download the configuration software from the WD website, which is fairly easy to do. If you dont want to configure a drive like this, find a consumer external drive with the CD, cable, etc. and buy it instead. You need to know if your PC will handle large partitions, ie. 2 TB, or you have to format it with several partitions due to older operating systems. I did not buy a separate external drive box, but bought an Anker external open case with power supply and capability to connect to both USB 3.0 AND eSata connections. I did that because using the eSata port on my old laptop was much faster than 2.0 USB. But, I can move the box and drive to my desktop which has a USB 3.0 add in card. Both eSata and USB 3.0 are much faster transfer speeds than USB 2.0 and this drive can handle it. I have included pictures of the drive working fine in the Anker case so you can see both in use. Note: Hard drives have standard connections to the case or internal slot for power and data transfer. The ability to provide USB 3.0 or eSata connections is built into the case, not the hard drive. Both USB 2.0 and eSata require special cables, so dont forget to get them if you do this. In my case, since I used the external open Anker docking station, I didnt need cables. I just slid the drive into the docking slot and the connection for data and power was made. The Anker unit also has an on off switch. Of course, if you use this drive internally in your system, that is a different process and involves other tasks if you make it your primary drive with an operating system. I did not do that, so mine is used primarily for a video data file drive and has not been setup with booting capability. You cant go wrong with Western Digital. (Unless they sell out to someone,then watch what changes in quality). You can get this drive in 1 TB, 2 TB or 3 TB versions. I got the 2 TB version and it cost about 30% more than WD drives with lower speeds and features.

Perfect

I had no complaints until I found (with CrystalDiskInfo) that there were uncorrectable and pending sectors beginning to build up at an alarming rate after only 4 months of owning this drive. The warranty period is 5 years, so I was shocked it would fail so soon, but WD did agree to an RMA. However, the other reason I would not purchase this (or another WD product in the near term) is their very poor RMA process and support. Not only do they not pay for return shipping or send you a replacement in advance, they will void your warranty if you dont pack it right. Of course I plan to follow the instructions they lay out, but it is not confidence inspiring or a friendly process. Sometimes you can find a 4TB SSD for barely more than this product; I recommend going that route instead.

I have been a big fan of Western Digital and have been using the Black edition since they were introduced. I have several that are probably 10 years old. I have never had a Black edition hard drive fail on me. I could have went with a less expensive model, since this is used for cold storage, but believe its worth the extra cost for data security. I have been using Western Digital hard drives since the 90s and have only had a few failures. Which were a couple Blues and Green. and 2 before they were identified by colors. I use a purple in my Network rack NVR and a Red in a stand alone NVR. Both write 24/7 without an issue.

The WDC hard drive this one replaced analyzed as okay though it kept blue screening on the Windows 10 Pro Core i5 computer it supported. Additionally the older 1TB WDC Black posted at 6 Gbps, but within the Windows environment was at 3 Gbps. No more !!, this 1TB WDC Black posts and presents in Windows with the WDC Dashbord Utiltiy at 6 Gbps and is teamed with a WDC Blue SA510 SSD. Both hard drives have breathed life back into my wifes computer.

The main reasons I bought this: IT was NOT an SMR drive. I needed space. I bought this as a replacement for a Seagate 3TB drive as I had run out of room. The drive runs hot though. So far Ive only run it in an USB interface in a docking station but the drive got as hot as 48C before copying 3.8TB of data to it. I shut it down to allow it to cool down several times just to be cautious. I still think that this number is well within the range of max. temps. In a case with fans I hope not to expect to see those numbers. Fast. Evening using the USB 3.0 interface I didnt see throughput drop below 60MB/s but mostly it was around the 160MB/s which is about 30MB/s than my WD 4TB red drive. 7200RPM vs 5?00RPM. It matters. The 5 year warranty puts my mind at rest on how long this will last. While Ive been working with PCs since 1983 I have only had 2 drives fail before replacing them for larger drives. Those failed within the first year or less. Im confident that the WD Black wont be do that after filling it already with 3.8TB of data.

5/23/14 This WD Black 1TB is used as my primary data drive. I use a Kingston SSD as my O.S. / application drive. Win7 volume creation and format went without a hitch. The xfer of ~500GB data from my WD Red drive to this new WD Black drive went smoothly. This new Black drive has much faster read speed and very respectable write speed compared to other 7200rpm SATA drives I have used thus far. I also noticed that when I booted to win7 from it (I loaded a backup boot partition in case my SSD failed) the speed was impressive. No, not nearly as fast as my SSD but much faster than my backup WDSE and WDRed NAS drives which are also 7200RPM SATA3. Ive had Seagate 7200 RPM SATA3 drives which are not quite as nimble. Alas, it was all too good to be true:( My super speedy Black drive started clicking & chunking after appx. 2.5 mos. Hey ... This happens sometimes with hard drives ... ok, no big deal, the drive came with a 3yr. Wd warranty. This is where the fun started: Went to WD website and spent appx. 1/2hr. in RMA process. Very easy. Sent my RMA drive back via UPS label I printed from WD website (very convenient). After appx. 7 days I checked the RMA status on the WD website. WHAT??? The model# I sent them does not match the model# they are sending me. I looked up the model# they were sending me and it was the slower / cheaper Blue hdd with only 1yr warranty. I called WD to confirm. They answered the call after a few min of going thru the phone tree. The person I spoke to was very polite and spoke with no language accent issues. He said they didnt have any Black drives to send so they sent the Blue. I tactfully let him know this was not acceptable and requested a WD Red or SE drive as a replacement. You would think I was asking the United States Congress to agree on something. I have talked to 3 different reps on 3 separate phone calls with no resolution. I have had numerous business dealings with WD in the past. I was in network I.T. for over 20yrs. I have never gone through this much trouble with WD. Politely offering no resolution after hours of my time does not cut it with me. All this over a $90 hdd. Ill update when the issue is finally resolved. UPDATE 5/28/14 I called the corporate WD cust. svc. line this morning. The operator was very helpful and made sure I was connected to a live person, not voice mail. The Customer Service rep was very polite and sympathetic, but most important he resolved the issue within 30 min. The only reason it took even that long was because we were searching for an appropriate replacement drive I would be happy with since they had no (Black) drives to send me. I couldnt believe he actually offered a very generous upgrade for my time and inconvenience, which I of course accepted. I have always thought very highly of WD products. My faith in WD service is restored. I cannot upgrade the stars on my review because I am not receiving a (Black) hdd. I will give WD as a company a very favorable rating and will not hesitate to purchase from WD in the future. Update 5/29/14 My replacement drive arrived today, ahead of schedule. The drive is installed as my primary data drive and is loading as I write this. The drive is everything WD promised. I am a happy camper:) Update 11/25/14 Since my initial review I have added the following Western Digital hard drives to my systems: (2) 4TB SE NAS enterprise class 7200rpm (1) 4TB Green 5400rpm (2) 1TB Velociraptors 10,000 rpm All my W.D. drives are performing well 24x7. I run full Lifeguard diags on them once per week and have had no issues. The point is: Western Digital hard drives, as a whole, perform very well under very demanding conditions. I am chalking up the initial issue I had with the Western Digital service department as a one time fluke. They really did go out of their way to make it right. UPDATE 6/16/16 Since there are quite a few hits / comments on this review I thought I would supply a quick update All my WD drives from 2014 are still running great:) 24 x 7. UPDATE 4/6/18 Since there are quite a few hits / comments on this review I thought I would supply a quick update Green drive failed last month. WD sent replacement with no hassles and quick ship processing All other WD drives from 2014 are still running great:) 24 x 7. Thank you all for your comments. I am happy to have been helpful:)

This is a GREAT value if you get it on sale, the only problem with it is its only 7.27TB after windows 10 formatting