Western Digital 4TB WD Red Plus NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD - 5400 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, CMR, 64 MB Cache, 3.5 - WD40EFRX

This review is for Western Digital Red 4TB WD40EFRX (64mb cache) and not the newer version WD40EFAX (256mb cache). At the time of purchase, the newer version is the same price as this version but I chose this version as I suspect that the newer version is built with SMR, which would take heavy penalty eventually as my usage involves frequent writing and rewriting of data. For more info, google: 1. “PMR vs SMR” 2. “Western Digital admits 2TB-6TB WD Red NAS drives use shingled magnetic recording” I have purchased two of these for Synology DS218+ NAS and so far they are performing well in Synology Hybrid RAID configuration. Both drives clear the initial S.M.A.R.T. extended test. In terms of write speed, they consistently get 100MB/s to 120MB/s over my gigabit network. They are quiet and the temperature is never in the alarming range. According to the label, these are made in Thailand and they were only a month old from the date of purchase. I had a few Western Digital Green drives that have lasted for over eight years and counting. I hope these Reds will last the same. Since I have these for only a short while, I have yet completely fill up the drive or have the need for a RAID rebuild so I cannot attest their durability or if they are in fact PMR. I will update this review upon the one year mark.

I purchased the WD My Cloud EX4 16 TB in July 2015. Late October 2020 one of the drives due to an unknown fault/error. The EX4 has a 3 year warranty, which means I got an extra 2 years out of the MTBF. WD now has the https://smile.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Network-Attached-Storage/dp/B0842S8HTF/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=t54XZ&pf_rd_p=58f68c27-9bf4-466f-b1c8-101a062bcc82&pf_rd_r=QHREDXZYPYN5PP85XF1C&pd_rd_r=06a3bbe6-2d6a-4221-9cd3-e51b1993cc65&pd_rd_wg=7hWCr&ref_=pd_gw_wish .56 TB capacity(means 42 usable in RAID 5). The EX4 is a decent buy if you are looking for storage. Video (dvd quality) streams smoothly using both PLEX (running on a pi 3) and EMBY (running on a Dell laptop). Just make sure you check the front panel periodically as not all faults throw an error on the dashboard. Keep the firmware up to date with auto update.... check however as a fault will prevent auto update to protect faulty RAID structure for recovery.

I am a big fan of these WD Red NAS drives as I have several synology servers. Ive had pretty good luck with WD Black drives as those are extremely solid (and fast compared to these and the WD Greens), but these run significantly hotter which raises the overall temp of my NAS devices. The WD Green drives run cooler (and just about as fast as these WD Red drives), but are not good for NAS environments due to the TLER issue (they constantly spin up and down which adds needless wear and tear and will ultimately reduce the longevity of your drive). These arent the fastest drives out there, but they offer the perfect balance and are safe for use in NAS systems. I also had a lot of success with Samsung drives, but these were bought out by Seagate and, while I respect Seagates quality control, they are not comparible with SMART diagnostics, which is how synology units (and most diagnostic protocols) monitor the health of your drive. While my one seagate drive in operation has never failed me, I dont appreciate the fact that when and if it ever does, I will have zero warning. Therefore, I stick with WD drives so that I can monitor their health and replace them when and if they start developing bad sectors. Seagate seems to have done away with SMART compatibility so that end users could not diagnose the drives themselves. They probably got tired of people trying to RMA drives because of a single bad sector. So Seagate users are forced to use Seatools to examine their drives, which gives you only a passing (or failing grade) with no gray area in between (i.e. no hints that your drive is about to fail as long as it is still operating within what Seagate considers acceptable parameters). Its a shame too because my one Seagate drive is among the fastest I own and has worked solidly for 3+ years. I just dont completely trust it without the SMART data.

Over the years Ive purchased several WD red drives for my Synology home NAS. I started with the 4TB, then moved up to 6TB and finally 8TB. I havent had a chance to try the 10TBs yet, since the price is still up there unless you REALLY need the space (time of writing is mid-2018). But Im sure Ill get there eventually. Prior to the reds being available, I purchased many of the WD green drives (at least 7 at last count). Unfortunately, the greens were not designed for NAS use, so you had to find a Linux system to plug the drive into to change a firmware setting to disable a 300 second idle timeout... the drives idling repeatedly in a 24-hour environment after many months of use would eventually add additional wear and tear on the greens that would reduce their overall lifespan significantly. The reds were definitely a nice addition to the WD lineup, as they were the first budget drive from WD that were specifically designed for (home) NAS use... no firmware tweaks necessary. OK, enough of the history lesson. I would rate the WD green drives as being very reliable, but not perfect. I believe I received one that was DOA, which was an easy process with Amazon to ship back and replace. During many years of operation (my first green was purchased in 2009 and is still going strong today after continuous use for almost 9 years), I only had 1 drive that failed in my NAS. It disconnected from the array, which immediately degraded the RAID. The drive that failed was not the oldest drive that I owned, so I ran the SMART tests and everything came back A-OK. I let the Synology rebuild the RAID array with the failed drive, and everything seemed to be working for a couple of months... until it disconnected again. This was a good indication that it was time to replace the drive, which I did. OK, so Ive had a pretty good history with WD drives. Getting back to the reds, I own at least 6 of them in various capacities. First, let me say that none have ever failed outright or caused any data loss in my system, so overall their track record is great. However, both of the 6TB reds that Ive purchased have had multiple disk re-identification events in my NAS. These re-identification events have not caused any data loss, nor do they require a rebuild of the RAID array. Synology says that re-identification events are an early warning sign that the drive could fail, so to keep an eye on these events to see if theyre increasing in frequency... if so its probably time to replace the drive(s) to avoid any potential data loss. On both of my 6TB reds, Im averaging about 1 disk re-identification event every 12 to 18 months, so Im not overly concerned. Ive never seen any strange events (re-identification, re-connection, bad sectors, etc.) on any of the 4TB or 8TB reds that I own, so this problem seems to be specific to the 6TB model (or its a huge coincidence). My 6TB reds were purchased in 2014 and 2015, so its possible that whatever was causing the issue was corrected. I have the 6TB reds loaded into a backup NAS, but I will personally not be purchasing any more of them. YMMV. Overall Im giving these drives 4 stars. If possible, Id give 3 stars to the 6TB reds (simply due to the anxiety factor), and 5 stars to the other reds (well, at least the 4TB and 8TB, which Ive had personal experience with), but Amazon does not allow for split review ratings.

I ordered 3 of these back in October of last year to use in my HTPC. Recently I was running out of space and ordered another one along with 3 - 4TB Greens for a backup solution. Upon reading up about the greens, which I had never ordered before, I learned about WDs WDIDLE3 utility that some people are using to set the Head Park timer from 8 seconds to 5 minutes and thus reducing the amount of times the heads park. Since the Greens are only rated at 300k cycles, you could see how quickly those would add up of they are parking every 8 seconds after use. On a whim, I decided to check the new Red drive I just purchased to see what its timer was set to, it was 5 minutes. I then checked the Red drives I purchased here from Amazon back in October of last year, the same 4TB model as the one I just ordered. To my surprise, all 3 were set to 8 seconds and my head park count was already at 18k in a matter of months. I used the utility and set those to 5 minutes as well. Performance of the drive was not really what I bought them for, but they seem to be fine. Their not Black drives and 7200 RPMs, so their not as quick as what I have in my gaming machine, but they work just fine for my HTPC.

Excellent Drives. Ive been running a variety of WD Red, Green, and Seagate Archive Drives for the better part of several years, and I thought that I would share some useful advice for things to watch out for when buying new drives, and detecting infant mortality. First thing to look for is to observe the packaging the drive arrives in. It is industry practice to ship one or more drives in boxes that are made to perfectly fit the drive. Inside the box, the drive should be suspended with two plastic holders. These holders suspend the drive and dampen any drops the package may experience during transit. (Bulk orders (15+) may be shipped in a single larger box with foam cut-out arrays). Secondly, when installing the drives, make sure that your hands are clean. Give them a wash, or better yet, wear gloves. Avoid transferring finger/hand oil to the drives so that hot-spots arent created. Thirdly, once the drives are installed, give them a full, long format. You can run 1, 3, 5, (or even more) passes on the disks. This ensures that every single sector of the drives gets written to. Once the format is complete, look up the SMART data, and check the values for anything alarming. If a drive suffered damage in shipping, now is when it may be noticeable. Compare the values to your other drives. Start-up times, head parks and so fourth may vary slightly so theres nothing to be worried about a little deviation there, but pay attention to failed reads, reallocated sectors, and RUEs. Granted, all of this advice should be taken with a grain of salt since SMART values are not the silver bullet to predict drive failure, but this testing should be a good indicator on whether or not a drive is ready for production use. Above all else, remember that backups are your friend.

I ordered two of the 4 TB WD Red drives to replace 2 2TB WD Green drives in a Synology DS-211J. They arrived with a born-on date of September 2014 and NASWARE 3.0 markings. They were made in Thailand. Drives arrived in decent (not great) packaging--Amazon had the sense to put the two smaller cardboard boxes holding the drives (with plastic wings/collars holding the drives in place) in a larger box with air pillows top and bottom and around the inside edges of the larger box. First drive went into the Synology and a full extended S.M.A.R.T. test was run. This took roughly 8 hours. It passed. A disk group/volume repaid/rebuild was initiated. The volume took around 6 hours to rebuild one side of a RAID 1 mirror onto this drive. The drive was at least as quiet, if not moreso, than the WD Green it replaced, its transfer rate was slightly faster, and it held temps roughly 2 degrees F cooler than the Green did under load (eg, the RAID rebuild). The second green was removed, and the second Red put in the array. A full smart test was initiated. Roughly 3 hours in, the 2nd Red drive started to make sick-sounding clicks and snaps and the drive would spin down, and then start up again. This continued for 10 minutes and the S.M.A.R.T. test failed. A second S.M.A.R.T. extended test was initiated. The drive clicked/snapped/spun down/spun up and kicked out of the test about 15 minutes later. Red came out for return/replacement to Amazon, Green went back in for the 2nd disk in the array and rebuilt in roughly 7 hours. Now, given a choice, I prefer infant mortality in drives because it allows for a return to the retailer and not an RMA process with the manufacturer. However, its slightly disconcerting that one has to bother to run a full test of a drive prior to putting it to use. Moreover, Im really glad it went before I rebuilt the 2nd half of the mirror on it and expanded the logical volume--I would not be able to fall back to one of the 2TB drives and be up somewhat of a creek if a replacement did not beat another failure to my door. Its worth noting that both Red drives arrived with their LCC timer set to 138 seconds. While this is better than the WD Greens used to be, WD supposedly fixed these to not unload the heads constantly. Fortunately, the Synology units running DSM 4.3 (or thereabouts) and later have the necessary WDIDLE utility built in to adjust the LCC timer to 0, which essentially disables head parking. This does take a reboot to accomplish. Amazon should be given kudos for the ease of initiating a return and printing out the prepackaged UPS label to return the defective drive--took 90 seconds. Amazon should be ashamed of the fact that they were prepared to send the replacement via slow shipping even though Im Prime and the originally purchased drives were overnighted. This was also fixable--I went in to the order to adjust shipping speed and set it to two-days, but its the principle of the thing--it shouldve been like that from the creation of the replacement/return order. Pros: Quiet. Low energy utilization. Cool. Slightly faster than a comparable WD Green in a low power (electricity and CPU) NAS. Cons: 1 of 2 DOA. LCC timers not properly set/disabled from the factory. Amazon trying to be thrifty with the replacement shipping. Thoughts: given a DOA and the lack of significant speed differences and the LCC timers being just as screwed up from the factory as a Green, Im wondering if there is anything beyond the extra warranty to merit moving from WD Green to WD Red. TLER. Maybe. Im going with three stars. DOAs happen and Amazons packaging, while not the best, is still not as poor as say, Newegg. I will revisit the review at some point once I have the replacements and the drives have been in service for a fashion.

Lets get this out of the way first, Im kind of a WD fanboy but with good reason I think. Ive been using them for as long as I can remember, and maybe its just my personal luck but I think theyve been better to me than any other brand. The only ones I dont really like are the Green drives, and Im willing to accept that they are perfectly fine as external drives that arent being constantly accessed. The Green is in mega power saving mode and loves to spin down, which means youre looking at longer access times and more wear and tear if you leave it plugged in and access it frequently. I wanted to punch my monitor every time I waited the magical 5 minutes (or whatever it is) before clicking on what I needed, just to wait several seconds on the drive to spin back up. I dont currently use NAS or RAID but considering my options this seemed like my best bet for frequently accessed mass storage, and I was at one point considering RAID (still am kind of). Black is better, faster, and as such costs more, but I couldnt justify it since I have an SSD for things that need to be fast. I bought this 4TB Red to put in my computer and replace a 3TB Green external drive I was using. Ive had it since August of 2014 which isnt that long at this point but its given me zero reason to complain, same as the 3TB Red I bought in October to replace a 1TB Blue. The only thing Ive noticed that was cause for concern at first is these things seem to be a little louder than your standard WD Blue or Green drive on read and write operations, and I thought I may have gotten one with a defect. Im not sure why that is, but I was much less concerned about it when I got the second drive and it sounded about the same. They seem to have quietened down some with use, and again they have given me no issues whatsoever. Ill definitely be buying more of these when the time comes. UPDATE 6/30/2015 Just wanted to say I am still running a 4tb and a 3tb WD Red in my computer and theyve been absolutely trouble free. One of them seems to make a short quiet buzzing noise every now and then that sounds out of place if youre used to diagnosing bad drives by sound like Ive had to do on many occasions, but every test Ive run comes up clean and Ive had no issues whatsoever out of either drive. Chkdsk, SMART, and benchmarks are clean and consistent and I use these daily as secondary drives for all my storage and most of my games. I really cant recommend these highly enough. That being said, I always feel the need to tell people KEEP BACKUPS. Any drive can fail and its always painful when it happens if you dont have regular backups. Its not cheap to match storage space for backups but trust me... That one day you need it -- and you will one day or one year unless you replace your drives regularly -- its money well spent.

If you can still find one that they are not gouging for, buy it. Its not that quiet but it its better than the 7200 RPM drives, spins up fast and runs cool. Fast enough for my home media server and would be really fast in a striped RAID. Time will tell how long it lasts.

Its a very good hard drive for NAS, just as described. so far it has worked great. I have only noticed that over time the noise level has increased when uploading to the NAS.