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

I love WD drives (I must: in the 3 desktop and server machines Im sitting next to as I write this I have 16 of them ranging in size from 3 to 8 TB). And in the room across the hall (my wifes study) her machine has 2 WD Black drives,1TB and 3TB, and neither of them runs hot, but they are both over 5 years old FWIW). Years ago I stopped using a (then) much more popular and slightly cheaper brand and singled in on WD. Why? Because the other brand ran hot and the WDs dont - or at least until I got this one they didnt. The drive sitting next to it is a WD 6TB (red, not black so not 7200 RPM) drive and it has a curremt temp of 30C (86F). And it - as well as the other 4 drives in this drive cabinet have never shown a temp higher than 37C (98.6F). (My Secret: lots of fans and a direct connection to the houses A/C - they have their own duct which keeps fairly busy machines comfortably cool. Before buying this drie I did read reviews but I missed the ones where the people talked about this drive getting really hot. (Ive found and read several of them in the last hour however...) The drive is already installed in the coolest part of the cabinet, and although the (very busy) drives surrounding it are at 36C (96.8F) right now, this one shows up at 57C (134F). Thats too hot to hold in your hand without gloves BTW. Id add another fan to give that a try, but this cabinet already has pre-cooled air (62F at the moment) and 7 coolng fans (3 4 and 5 5) and I dont think it would help. Ive shut that machine down and once the drive cools off so that I dont have to wear gloves to touch It Im going pull it and then returning it. Now maybe the heat problem doesnt sound bad to you, BUT.... Heat leads to drive failures. Not good. What initially caught my attention was that the drive started giving errors - so many so that the system took it off line and warned me. So I guess Ill be going back to a cooler 6TB drive after this, and Ill stick with a WD or HGST with which Im familiar. This the first WD product that Ive ever owned for which I could not give a good recommendation .. and perhaps i just got a lemon. But I cannot recommend this drive to anyone who works in a room with an ambient temperature above 10C (50 F). OK - Im kidding - I dont think the room temperature would help much. I just cannot recommend it to anyone, period.

I build computers and servers for a hobby and I repair the computers for my friends and family. In my experience the highest failure items on a computer is the mechanical hard drive and then the cooling fans. Based on that I try to purchase higher quality drives to avoid the time and money wasted troubleshooting and replacing defective drives. This Western Digital Black drive is one of the good ones. I use the 2 TB versions in servers and I have had a good experience with them. I just purchased 4 more of these and I think they are a good drive. They also are one of the few that still have a 5 year warranty on them. Many drive makers are lowering the warranty period on their drives and at one time many of them had 5 year warranties. Now I am seeing 1 to 3 year warranties. I gave these drives a 5 star rating. That doesnt mean they will not fail as they all do. They just seem to last longer. I have used hundreds of Seagate, Toshiba, Western Digital and other brands of drives. The best last 5 years and the worst didnt work out of the new box. These drives came nicely packaged and sealed in the box and inside of a factory sealed static discharge bag so you know you are not getting someones returned drive. You can download Acronis True Image WD Edition for free from the WD site to clone your current system drive. You can also download the Data Lifeguard Diagnostic software for free from WD to test you drives. These are good drives and I like the quality. I rated them 5 stars.

This drive replaces the older WD model: WD6002FZWX. Im satisfied with the performance and speed. Highly recommended for gamers

I use these drives only for digital file storage. Very Happy, Pricing was great for a 4TB drive

I recently lost a PC, and am going through a technology upgrade cycle, and wanting to have data redundancy and convenient clones of hard drives to test under various scenarios (different PCs, docks, cloning hardware and software, OSs, etc.) So, I recently bought four of these (One from Amazon, and three from another PC vendor). All four worked as expected right out of the box, taking nearly a 1 TB of Windows 7 OS and user data from other PCs via various drive cloning processes, and then showing up as expected and letting me acess and update the data just fine. The drives seem to run reasonably cool, and are fairly quiet (considering Im running them in external open SATA docks for now), and the speed is fine. Just what Id expect from a modern WD drive. I dont take chances with my data, so am happy to pay the premium for the WD black technology and reputation vs., say the WD blue. I cant report on reliability/durability yet, since Ive had these drives less than a week. If I have problems worth noting, Ill plan to post updates. In my experience (from memory), over the past 20+ years, Ive had a LOT of experience with roughly 30 WD drives. All consumer drives, size ranging from about a GB to 4 TB. Ive had only two problems. One was completely my fault. Back in the day when they sealed the drives with some kind of rubber gasket, I tore a small section of that removing a drive from a desktop case the first time. (Not a HW guy -- didnt know what I was doing). That drive crashed in a few days -- which again was COMPLETELY my fault as air (with hair, dust, etc) got in there for awhile. I had another drive start making noises and refusing to accept a full hard drive clone via Partition Magic version 8.X -- probably in the early 2000s. Again, not wanting to fool around with my data, I quit using that drive. The main reason Ive stuck with WD is the drives seem to be very solid and perform consistently. Ive use lots of both bare OEM and full retail kit WD drives, depending on prices/convenience.

UPDATE 3/26/15: This drive will make audible noises when accessing the data on the drive, but it gives pretty good speed. Even with the third replacement, it makes noises, so Ill just have to deal with it. The speed is pretty great. I wish this wasnt as loud as it is now. It sometimes bothers to hear the drive making access noise whenever I launch Adobe After Effects, but I can live with it. ~Simon. UPDATE 3/17/15: I received the replacement drive to find out that it has a similar (ticking sound while accessing data) symptom. I resorted to calling the WD Customer Support. The customer service representative was really helpful. He told me that the problem might be the bad cable. I switched the older SATA cable with a newer SATA cable I happened to have on the computer to find the problem still existing, so I told him about it. The support said he will send me a third replacement drive since both of the hard drives are giving me the same problems. I was a little conflicted because that meant I will have to pay for an extra return label. I voiced my concerns to the support, and the support said he will make me prepaid shipping labels--two labels--for the two (maybe not-so defective) drives I have to return. Also, the some complicated and strict return instructions happened to be for the people returning hard drives in a bulk. Im just an end-user, so the support clarified that I can just return the hard drives in the original packaging. So, people, web replacement support may sound more convenient, but calling the tech support proved to be much better. At least for me and my situation. If any of you have some noisy drives, try switching the SATA cable to a newer one. Apparently, this drive works better and tolerably quieter with a newer SATA cable (thus, the two drives I have to return may not be defective). ~Simon End of update. Old review below. == Edit Start == Well, I think I gave a horrible rating at the beginning, but bad start is a bad start, I guess. At least the clicking drive worked. The shipping fee I have to pay for returning is around 7 dollars, which was what threw me off. Also, the billing address have to be the same as replacement shipping address. That also threw me off, deducting one whole star. Anyways, I hope no more problem exists with this new drive they sent me. == Edit End == This drive works, but its making abnormally loud clicking noises whenever it is reading off or writing on the disk. Its so much louder than my other (regular) hard drives I dont feel safe using Adobe After Effects with this drive. I submitted a replacement request through WDs website, but the steps there is just horribly laid out. Its not easy navigating through the website for support. Also, you have to pay the shipping fee for replacing the already defective product with WD. Also, WD is practicing some complicated and strict return instructions. I mean, come on! You shipped the clicking drive at the first place!

This is for the 8TB WD Black hard disk. I have used Seagate, Hitachi, and Western Digital hard disks. They all last a long time for me. I have no problem with any of these brands. One thing good about WD hard disks is that you can tell the hard disk is about to fail. WD hard disks will make noises, and start to run slow. So, you know it is time to replace it. On the other hand, Seagate will just fail in an instant. No noise no nothing. However, if Hitachi is still in business, my first choice is a Hitachi. I have a bunch of Green and Blue. This is my 2rd WD Black. I have a 4TB for 6 years and it is still working without any problem. The 4TB is loud. This 8TB is even louder. If you are in a quiet office, do not get the WD Black. Get a Seagate instead. I have no problem cloning my 4TB to the 8TB with the Acronis WD Edition software. The Amazon package is ok. The hard disk is in the original thick OEM cardboard box with the 2 black plastic packing materials. I tried to catch the Amazon driver to let him hand over the box. But I was too late. He already threw the box on the ground. I have the hard disk for a month now. Looks like it survived the Amazon driver. Running Crystal Disk Mark 6, the 8TB is faster than the 6-year-old 4TB. 223/214 vs 138/131. I have some Crystal Disk Mark screenshots with my Samsung 850 EVO for comparison. Hope this help.

In general, an 8TB hard drive for $150 is a good value considering the amount of storage it provides. However, the quality and performance of the hard drive can vary depending on the brand and model. When considering a hard drive, it is important to look at factors such as the rotational speed (measured in RPM), cache size, and interface (such as SATA or NVMe) to determine its performance capabilities. Additionally, it is important to consider the reliability and durability of the hard drive, as well as any warranty or customer support options offered by the manufacturer. Overall, if the hard drive has good performance specifications and is from a reputable brand with a track record of reliability, then it could be a good investment for storing large amounts of data. However, it is important to do thorough research and read reviews from other users before making a purchase to ensure that the hard drive meets your specific needs and expectations.

Working for intended use, moved from 5tb to 8tb… drive is almost full… black line needs some larger sizes.

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.