Western Digital 16TB WD Red Pro NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD - 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, CMR, 256 MB Cache, 3.5 - WD161KFGX

I have fifteen of these drives installed in three separate NAS devices. I purchased two of these 8 TB drives to upgrade my memory capacity in one of my Digital Robotics (Drobo) NAS devices. These two drive units have been in use for about three weeks. As I understand it WD began offering these RED PRO drives specifically for a RAID application (my Drobos are) From the WD information - Since your NAS system is always on, a reliable drive is essential. With an MTBF of up to 1 million hours, the WD Red Pro drive is engineered to tackle 24/7 environments. I am a small tax practitioner and need reliability for all of my backed up files. I do have one important consideration. WD warrants these drives for five years. Unless their warranty policy has changed, a customer would be expected to return a defective drive to WD for testing and evaluation to confirm that the failure was within their warranty clauses. However, I am NOT going to send in one of my drives with some extremely sensitive tax client information just to have it replaced under warranty. However, I did have had one fail several years ago. I contacted Western Digital Customer Service and explained the situation. I was provided with a Confidentiality Waiver to complete. I submitted it to WD and the drive was replaced under warranty.

Great drives for the Synology NAS DS220+. Have a good warranty and are designed to be used with a NAS.

Ordered 6 6TB drives for a new QNAP NAS. So far they are performing very well. Unfortunately Amazon shipped the drives loose in a large box with only a bunch of air pillow packing filled in on top. Drives were in sealed mylar, but as can be seen in damaged mylar, the drives were banging around while the box was being shipped. installed them and was able to get the NAS online, but one drive immediately started giving bad block errors, is going back for replacement.

Still think the price could be better on these but the storage density is great

AFTER NOTE: Finally, resolution...It took several (at least 5) interactions with Customer Service, none of which were possible by phone, but the issue is finally resolved. Western Digital replaced the drive (finally agreeing to pay shipping back the bad drive to them). It took additional attempts for acknowledgement of my return of the bad drive shipment back to them, which then finally activated the full 5 year warranty on the replacement drive. Their default is 120 days, seriously, so if you do buy this and have to return it, be diligent! They just seem overwhelmed in Customer Service. ORIGINAL Which is worse? A hard drive with a 5-year warranty that dies after 33 DAYS, or the company that makes them --in this case Western Digital -- responding unreasonably with rigid rules that are far from appropriate. From my point of view, for a business, the purchase of the hard drive is not just the sheet metal and magnetic discs needed to put them together, it is the company backing the drive, ensuring its reliability. To be fair, I have owned 3 Red drives used previously for three years without a problem. This specific purchase was for 4 drives to be used in a Synology DS918+ NAS. I moved up to these Pro drives because I was concerned with the period AFTER 3 years, not the first month! The drives installed easily, seemed (on the outside) to be constructed well and were packaged appropriately for shipment. Yesterday, the NAS reflected significant degradation in one of these 4 drives, to the point of not being usable. I figured even good companies have a few buggy drives so I went to the WD website, which was buggy in and of itself and incapable of processing an RMA. So then I called the company this morning. I was informed that I could ship the drive back to them (AT MY EXPENSE) and they would ship me another drive (re-certified) upon receipt. 10-15 business days (thats two-three weeks, folks). The alternative was I could get premium service, if I gave them my credit card number:They would reserve the full retail price of the drive on my card, ship me a NEW drive now, and release the amount on hold when they got the drive back. Again, shipping on my dime. When I pointed out that it was 33 days (the drive had itself only actually been at work for about three weeks), they said that they would escalate the case, and try to get free shipping, but that if I wanted a NEW drive, they would still need my credit card...even though I explained to them that I was happy to return the drive and wait for them to get it before shipping me the new drive (I bought another drive as a standby for the NAS). They said they would escalate and see. That was about 12 hours ago...still waiting to see. As a business person, I rely on machines...but more importantly I rely on the good faith of the companies producing those machines. When the machine fails -- which happens -- I expect the company to back them up, and do what is right. Right now, I cant even get a straight answer from WD. As some in Washington are known to say SAD!!! Two stars in respect of the WD drives that have worked for me in the past.

Bought the 18 TB variant, definitely not the best packaging for a $400 hard drive. The drive works but I hate the occasional loud clicking noise from head parking or some advanced power management (APM) feature that I couldn’t disable. APM resets minutes later after I disable it. I tried several disk management softwares with no luck. It must be the firmware. Why put APM on a NAS drive that is meant to run 24/7??

Drives are fine as long as they are consistently running, but they get noisy going from sleep mode and back. I am using in a personal raid 1 archive and they work great, but these drives are made more for a server array.

Affordable Price

Having a synology NAS, I know to test drives first before installing now as it creates a nightmare if you get a bad drive when trying to rebuild an array. Arrived sealed, although not a tight seal, so who knows but it gives a little bit of peace of mind.

Over the past 2 years I have bought 8 of the WD Red Pro and 4 of the WD purple drives off Amazon. Of the 12 in total only one has been DOD. Checking my cameras the one that was dead on delivery was found to have been chucked 10ft across my porch to the door by the Amazon driver. My advice to you, make sure you can be home to greet the driver and you will have some great drives.