Western Digital 8TB WD Red Plus NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD - 5640 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, CMR, 256 MB Cache, 3.5" - WD80EFPX

I recently added the Western Digital 14TB WD Red Pro NAS Internal Hard Drive to my home NAS system, and it has proven to be a stellar addition to my storage setup. The drive lives up to the "Pro" in its name, providing reliable performance and ample storage capacity for my needs.First and foremost, the drive itself operates quietly, a feature that is appreciated in any home setup. While the housing I chose for the drive could use a bit of improvement, the internal workings of the WD Red Pro drive are where it truly shines. It seamlessly integrates into my NAS system, delivering consistent and efficient performance.Setting up a home NAS system with these drives was a breeze, even for someone with basic knowledge of storage systems. The user-friendly nature of the WD Red Pro series makes it accessible for those looking to establish emergency backups for crucial family information or simply expand their storage capabilities.Having opted for a total of 4 drives for my NAS, the storage capacity has proven more than sufficient for my data needs. The reliability and consistency of WD drives have been a constant in all my systems over the years, and the WD Red Pro series is no exception. It's a trusted brand that excels in the field of storage solutions.In conclusion, the Western Digital 14TB WD Red Pro NAS Internal Hard Drive is an excellent choice for anyone seeking a high-capacity, reliable storage solution. With the ease of setup and the brand's proven track record for quality products, it's a solid investment for both enthusiasts and those looking to secure their family's crucial information. I highly recommend WD Red Pro drives for anyone in need of professional-grade storage performance.

These took under a minute each to install into my Synology DS920 NAS. Since it was all new gear, I let it do a through drive check as part of initializing which took a long time. I think it may ave been about two days. In theory, I could have used it during this time, but I just started it and ignored it.During installation, the 920 whines about any accessories (memory, drives) that aren't Synology's own and that included these. On the 922, they change from whining to much more obnoxious contrived incompatibilities, but this combination was chosen because exactly once, during insteallation, it warns you that its not a supported combination and that's that. Probably if there were a support issue involving data loss, they'd remind you of that oath you took to not complain, but in reality this is a very common combination that works quite well.Fan and normal noise is quite minimal. There was a noticeable clunk during a head seek. I reduced this by offlining the unit so I could remove power then applying the fuzzy half of a hook-and-loop fastener to the bottom of the bottom rail. That gave it support and a little bit of padding so the metal cage didn't serve as a drum skin for the oh-so-tiny motion that got amplified when transferred to the sheet metal.I'm looking forward to getting many, many years from these drives, like I did from the 4TB WD these are replacing. Those drives have no reading errors. Size grows and no drives are infallible, so I opted to replace them on my schedule (OK, and on Amazon Day special. :-) ) instead of letting the drive pick its own replacement day, taking my data with it.

I bought two units of the 20TB version of this WD Red Pro drive for my new storage system. I particularly went with the 20TB version, because - according to the datasheet on Western Digital's website - it is less noisy than some of the lower capacity models.I tested one of the units, not in my storage system, but in my open bench USB 3.0 to SATA Adapter (with a max transfer rate of over 500MBps). It performed well, the sequential read and write speeds as high as ca. 270 MBps and ca. 130 MBps on the low-side. This is typical of all HDDs: on the outside of the drive they can pack more data on one track than on the inside, so on each rotation they can write and read more data on the outside area of each disk platter. The write and read tests were also successful, no bad blocks were reported. For some performance figures, please see the attached screenshots (which have the serial number removed/redacted). Please note that the CrystalDiskMark results are performed on an empty HDD, so they seem to be executed in the "fast" section of the drive. The other graphs were taken from HDSentinel, relevant there are the bottom graphs, which show transfer rates across the surface of the drive.The sound of my test unit was also pleasant enough, the clicking wasn't too bothersome. But since I will move this drive into the case of my storage system very soon, the clicking will be a lot less noticeable than it is already.One action I always perform, BEFORE opening the product box of an HDD or SDD is to check the serial number on the box against the manufacturer's warranty website to ensure that the item is covered by the manufacturer's warranty. I do this both when amazon is the seller and when a 3rd party is the seller and amazon is just the fulfillment party. (I do not buy HDDs from a 3rd party seller that does not have fulfillment with amazon.) This is to avoid OEM/gray-market units that aren't covered by the manufacturer's warranty. A store warranty by a 3rd party seller is of no use to me, since these sellers come and go and I also don't want the hassle of dealing with them. Since the Red Pro series offers a manufacturer's warranty of 5 years, and HDDs fail frequently enough to make such a warranty very valuable, I always insist getting the manufacturer's warranty and even will query 3rd party sellers, if their stock with amazon is covered by such a warranty.As it turned out, the serial number of second 20TB HDD that I ordered (from a 3rd party seller, since amazon themselves were out of stock) did not show up in the manufacturer's database for U.S. warranty, so I can only assume that it is a gray-market unit and I immediately returned it. (I can only hope that the 3rd party seller will have to bear the full cost of this return, since I emailed them and asked about the manufacturer's warranty, before the item ever shipped, but they didn't answer my question.)One more tip: There has been some research that failure rates of HDDs from the same batch are somewhat correlated, so I always try to space out my purchases (either in time or by using different vendors) to increase the chance that I will be getting units from different batches. That's why I bought from two different 3rd party sellers on amazon (one of which apparently sold a grey-market unit), without disclosing that fact ahead of time.