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

This review is on the 8TB WD Gaming HDD. It is an OEM HDD, so no cables, no Acronis software, and no manuals when you purchase. The Amazon description should be adjusted to match this. You need mounting hardware if you dont already have it. You will also need a SATA data and SATA power cable. Other than that, great drive.

This review is for the 2 TB black hard drive. I have owned several different brands of hard drives and several different versions of WD’s hard drives over the years, including the greens, reds and purples. I have only have had one failure in that time, which happened to be worked hard, operating on a security camera server for a few years before failing. This is my first black as I wanted a reliable drive for backing up my desktop. These hard drives have a great 5-year warranty, which is one of the big reasons, I purchased this. I connected this drive to my Windows 10 computer with no issues. It took less than a minute to get setup and going. It was pre-formatted, so it was quick to a drive letter and get going. File transfer speeds are fairly speedy for a large size drive. I do think the drives are a bit pricey, but have come down in price over the last couple years. I currently have three of the black drives, this 2TB, a 6 and a 8TB....all have been reliable so far. Overall, other than being slightly pricey, these are great hard drives with good speeds and good warranty that I expect to be reliable over the long term. 4.5 stars

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.

I needed a bigger HDD for the huge influx of 4K footage Im working with. Got it in a cardboard box and a non-static/spill-proof metallic sleeve. Two plastic shock absorbers were located at the top and bottom of the drive. Date of manufacture was dated 20 FEB 2022. Looks like theyre pushing in the new stuff now. Installation was easy, just crack open the PC case and slip it into the rack. I knew about the noisy reputation that WD Black Drives had, so I ordered a couple of noise-isolating screws and rubber washer to help mitigate the impending cacophony. After slamming everything together, I shoved it all into the PC. Storage size and transfer rate is top-notch, I can both watch and edit 4K movies with no trouble at all. The only problem (which is honestly a non-issue for me, but maybe not for you) is the noise it makes. Every so often, maybe every 5-10 seconds the disk head moves and you can hear a slight thunk. You get used to it after a while, and this IS a performance drive, so noise like that is to be expected. Might be a bit jarring to people who werent around when your computer sounding like an old muscle car starting up was standard. When going through heavy loads, the HDD spins to a high speed, but thanks to those noise-isolating screws and washers, I barely hear it. And since Im only using this drive for editing, when Im not editing Windows automatically turns off the drive so the thunking isnt around unless the drive is on and in use. No scratching or similar noises have been heard from the drive yet, and Ive been using it heavily since Day-1. Only Whirling of the disks and the every present thunk. This will give you good storage and speed with the only trade-off being noise. Keep that in mind as you eye that Add To Cart button.

Wonderful HDD. Holds plenty and is quite fast.

item is good !

It works like it should. Booted off of the disk I indicated. Just loud is all.

I have my OS on an SSD and files (media, docs, music) on an HDD. This solution allows fast boot times, keeps my costs low, and allows me to work on OS and data separately - whether it is to clean reinstall Windows every year or so, or to replace the HDD with a larger one. Was running out of space on a 1.8 TB Seagate, and decided to jump on this WD Black 6TB. Replacement was relatively easy. I had run out of SATA cables / power cables on my setup. Opened up the ones connected to the DVD drive and plugged this drive in. The first one seemed to be a DoA - did not spin up. Amazon was great as usual and shipped the replacement super quick. The second one worked great. Since this is greater than 2TB, it was not recognized readily by Windows 10. I had to go into My Computer -> Manage -> Disk Management, set up the volume, and make it online. I installed Clonezilla on USB, rebooted using the USB, and followed through with the instructions to clone my existing HDD into the new one. After cloning with CloneZilla, it is important to unplug the old drive before rebooting - since it will copy the same drive ID to the new drive, and the OS will get confused seeing 2 drives with the same ID. That done, reboot was complete. Since CloneZilla clones like for like, I could only see 1.8 TB of the drive. Another visit to the same My Computer -> Manage -> Disk Management, clicking on Actions -> Rescan disks, and I was able to see the rest of the 6TB as unallocated. It was easy to extend the online volume over the entire disk to get to see the entire 6TB. Performance numbers from Crystal Disk Mark are attached as a screenshot. Please note that I reduced the test to 100MB instead of 1GB.

This review is for the 8 TB black hard drive. I have owned several different brands of hard drives and several different versions of WD’s hard drives over the years, including the greens, reds and purples. I have only have had one failure in that time, which happened to be worked hard, operating on a security camera server for a few years before failing. This is my first black as I wanted a reliable drive for backing up my desktop. These hard drives have a great 5-year warranty, which is one of the big reasons, I purchased this. I connected this drive to my Windows 10 computer with no issues. It took less than a minute to get setup and going. It was pre-formatted, so it was quick to a drive letter and get going. File transfer speeds are fairly speedy for a large size drive. I do think the drives are a bit pricey, but have come down in price over the last couple years. I currently have three of the black drives, this 8TB, a 6 and a 2TB....all have been reliable so far. Overall, other than being slightly pricey, these are great hard drives with good speeds and good warranty that I expect to be reliable over the long term. 4.5 stars