I have read way too many 1 star reports about different brand 2TB HD not working. Can anyone recommend a good HD for this unit that will not go bad after a year or so. WD green drives do not seem to be as reliable as they used to be. I have read way too many 1 star reports about different brand 2TB HD not working. Can anyone recommend a good HD for this unit that will not go bad after a year or so. WD green drives do not... » Read More I have read way too many 1 star reports about different brand 2TB HD not working. Can anyone recommend a good HD for this unit that will not go bad after a year or so. WD green drives do not seem to be as reliable as they used to be. « Show Less
459697
I've been running a Seagate drive in this unit for over a year without issues.
1830766
Graham, In my experience, I have good luck with the Seagate drives in that model. Their reliability seems to be fairly good, in my estimation.
799929
for everyone this data will be of interest: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/best-hard-drive/these are big samples, 2014 data, and the models of HGST 4TB drives are outperforming others in terms of reliability as well as price/perf
96349
Dr. Bozarth, I take all reviews with a grain of salt of course. I also noticed the disparity in the ratings between the two sites. I usually frequent thehomeservershow.com. Many of the forum members are I.T. Professionals, or like myself, a medical professional with a keen interest in technology. The Western Digital Green Drives were the go to drives in the past, but were not ideal for NAS/RAID situations. Many of the members have had good luck with the RED drives, but still recommend a program such as SpinRite or HD Tune Pro to evaluate the drive before putting it into service. I can only recall one situation where a member reported a DOA Red Drive, and many more situations where the Green drives presented problems. The recommended drives for your scenario would be the WD Red drives or the Seagate NAS drives. RAID-1 would be a good solution, and a cloud backup such as CrashPlan on top of that. I have personally purchased two 3TB Red drives and have had no problems with them in the 6-12 months I have owned them. Hope this helps.
1120024
I have a "very old" External Hard drive...not this make/model...I turn it on once/quarter to backup recent files...it's probably over 3 years old. Recently, I bought one of these WD Elite 500GB models...my plan is to backup on two externals...in case one fails. I know this seems lame, but it is the only way to ensure everything sticks around. Seems like its worth the extra $100.
697990
Thank you for contacting us. I am not sure so I looked at other posts about this. It seems they are very close in performance but this stood out: "The other thing to keep in mind when choosing a drive is that Western Digital?s enterprise drives are meant to be constantly in use, 24/7. The consumer drives are rated for 300,000 load/unload cycles, whereas the enterprise drives are are rated for double that at 600,000 load/unload cycles. This means the enterprise drive is guaranteed to have a longer use-life than a consumer drive under identical conditions." Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.
252679
I have a variety installed - mainly used for storage of movies/music and vmware. If you want reliability, stick with the reds. I went for cost - so have WD, Seagate and Hitachi. Have only had 1 WD give me an issue in 3 years (10 3 Tb drives) - so when the 3 Tb drive failed, I replaced it with a 4 Tb and let the hybrid raid expand..
1819658
I have two, one for the laptop and one for the desktop. I've had both for about 8 months, and not a single problem. These things can take more of a beating than regular HDDs (not like you should be beating them:( )but alas, as with all technology, some do fail. I'm good so far though! Not packing them full of files helps.
897453
i have it for 2 months, and all my drives are ok, i have 4 , one 4tb wd green, 2tb wd green, 256gb seagate, 750 wd green.
2080494
The best answer is that my WD unit liked it. If you have a newer model/version - then I can not answer but I know they would not want to mess with something that is working for now. Besides, it is cheep and if it doesn't work your only out a few bucks.
860402
I "third" Robin V.'s comment. A few years ago, I installed four Seagate consumer drives equivalent to WD green line HDs in a Drobo and had 2 single drive failures followed by 3 simultaneous failures that resulted in a lot of downtime and some data loss. WD Red drives are built for NAS use and have not failed me yet (multiple years in, now!) And for those counting, yes, that was 5 failures with 4 (purchased) Seagate 1.5TB drives -- the first drive that failed was replaced under Seagate's warranty, and then that replacement failed. All failures happened between 6 and 18 months after purchase/deployment. I "third" Robin V.'s comment. A few years ago, I installed four Seagate consumer drives equivalent to WD green line HDs in a Drobo and had 2 single drive failures followed by 3 simultaneous failures that resulted in a lot of downtime and some data loss. WD Red drives are built for NAS use and have not failed me yet (multiple years in, now!) And for those counting, yes, that was 5 failures with 4 (purchased) Seagate 1.5TB drives -- the first drive that failed was replaced under Seagate's warranty, and then that replacement failed. All failures happened between 6 and 18 months after... » Read More I "third" Robin V.'s comment. A few years ago, I installed four Seagate consumer drives equivalent to WD green line HDs in a Drobo and had 2 single drive failures followed by 3 simultaneous failures that resulted in a lot of downtime and some data loss. WD Red drives are built for NAS use and have not failed me yet (multiple years in, now!) And for those counting, yes, that was 5 failures with 4 (purchased) Seagate 1.5TB drives -- the first drive that failed was replaced under Seagate's warranty, and then that replacement failed. All failures happened between 6 and 18 months after purchase/deployment. « Show Less
1128742
I bought a Seagate 1tB about two years ago. I've had to have it replaces twice already and I'm looking for a third replacement. I still have a 150Gb WD drive that I bought nearly a decade ago. In my experience, I would go with the WD... I'm about to buy this one.
1502980
It's hard to say. I've had varied experience with Seagate drives. Some have lasted 7 or 8 years; and one lasted only 2 years. I've only had this one for a few months. I don't take chances. I back up my computers daily to this drive; and I back it up monthly to another large drive that I keep away from the house.I hope this helps.
1817586
Coincidentally, my WD Caviar Green 2TB HDD with the same PCB failed about 3 weeks ago and am also looking for a replacement with the same PCB# as I need to swap to grab the data.
2253050
I have two of the 2TB drives and also 4 of the 1TB drives, and can only say that all 6 have worked fine for me. Performance wise, the 2TBs seem identical to the 1TBs, although my 1TBs are shock-proof, while the 2TBs are not. I store a lot of video on the Buffaloes and back up my other files, too. So far, I see no reason why I would not buy another one.
2182826
Bare oem drives are quite different when it comes to warranty. Either buy the extra warranty offered or get the retail package. WD will not replace a bad OEM drive. TRUST ME, personal experience everyone.
629560
Seagate vs WD. I've used them both over the years, along with Maxtor. For myself and some people Seagate=good and WD=bad, and for others, just the opposite. What's interesting in these comments is that the usage habits are not known, i.e., how intensely is the hard drive being accessed (applications, pro versus consumer, etc), and, in what environment is the hard drive being used (air quality, room temperature, humidity, appropriate case cooling, physical vibration, etc.). Those are the useful comparatives that would help in these reviews. Otherwise, it's just comparing one's FOTD (flavor of the day). Seagate vs WD. I've used them both over the years, along with Maxtor. For myself and some people Seagate=good and WD=bad, and for others, just the opposite. What's interesting in these comments is that the usage habits are not known, i.e., how intensely is the hard drive being accessed (applications, pro versus consumer, etc), and, in what environment is the hard drive being used (air quality, room temperature, humidity, appropriate case cooling, physical vibration, etc.). Those are the useful comparatives that would help in these reviews. Otherwise, it's just comparing one's FOTD (flavor... » Read More Seagate vs WD. I've used them both over the years, along with Maxtor. For myself and some people Seagate=good and WD=bad, and for others, just the opposite. What's interesting in these comments is that the usage habits are not known, i.e., how intensely is the hard drive being accessed (applications, pro versus consumer, etc), and, in what environment is the hard drive being used (air quality, room temperature, humidity, appropriate case cooling, physical vibration, etc.). Those are the useful comparatives that would help in these reviews. Otherwise, it's just comparing one's FOTD (flavor of the day). « Show Less
513138
I would use nothing BUT these drives in anything I built or upgraded. They're a bit pricier, and no one ever thinks about it, but the warranty on THESE hard drives, the WD Black series, is a full 5Y. VERY few other mfrs even offer a 5y warranty. And WD drives earn that warranty reputation, I haven't had a WD drive fail, EVER. In each case -- over a dozen -- they've become useless through increasing capacity, never mechanical/electronic failure. That is, I probably have an 80gig WD drive that's still functioning. It's just not worth plugging in and taking up a SATA channel when I can get that capacity on a freaking flash drive nowadays... Yes, they're that good. You can "save money" by buying something cheaper. But you'll pay in the long run with headaches from lost data, or time spent rebuilding your windows/software/os and tweaking it back to the way you had it. The HD is the soul of your machine. Everything else fails, you can practically swap a part back in and you're up and running. But the HD fails and you've got a multiday to longer term headache to get things back to "normal". And, for general purposes, they're among the best drives in performance terms, too. Tom's Hardware may rate something else marginally faster, but not by much. And not by enough to drag you away from WD Black. As the old saw goes, once you go Black, you'll never go back. :-D