Seagate ST4000VN006 4TB IronWolf 3.5" SATA3 6.0Gb/s NAS Hard Drive

I used to always use Western Digital Red NAS drives, but they have been using SMR technology on their low and mid-range NAS drives. You only get the superior CMR technology on their high-end 'Pro' drives now, and they also cost a small fortune. Seagate are using CMR technology on their standard Iron Wolf NAS drives and they also cost less, especially if you shop around. My last 10x NAS hard drive purchases have all been Seagate Iron Wolf drives and I am extremely happy with them.

Ordered Friday 04/03/22 at 10:04am, arrived by Royal Mail on Saturday 05/02/22 before 12pm – thank you CCL & Royal Mail. Paid a little extra over a global online retailer, being put off them for computer components as I’ve had a retail boxed HDD from them in the past which had some shoddy outer packaging. Also their recent reviews for HDDs showed it’s a bit of a lottery as to how they package their HDDs for shipping. Some customers receiving very poorly packaged drives, dented and broken. My Seagate Iron Wolf 4TB arrived in it’s sealed anti-static bag, inside a thick tubular bubble rap envelope, inside a double thick, snug fitting cardboard box with a grey courier pouch bound tight outer layer. Installed and working perfectly as anticipated. A further 4 weeks later ... MoreOrdered Friday 04/03/22 at 10:04am, arrived by Royal Mail on Saturday 05/02/22 before 12pm – thank you CCL & Royal Mail. Paid a little extra over a global online retailer, being put off them for computer components as I’ve had a retail boxed HDD from them in the past which had some shoddy outer packaging. Also their recent reviews for HDDs showed it’s a bit of a lottery as to how they package their HDDs for shipping. Some customers receiving very poorly packaged drives, dented and broken. My Seagate Iron Wolf 4TB arrived in it’s sealed anti-static bag, inside a thick tubular bubble rap envelope, inside a double thick, snug fitting cardboard box with a grey courier pouch bound tight outer layer. Installed and working perfectly as anticipated. A further 4 weeks later and drive working just fine. I had thought this would be replacing a 4 year old 3TB Western Digital WD30EZRZ (CMR) as my main backup drive in my gaming PC as I was getting errors on that while doing drive image backups. Long story short, the WD drive subsequently proved not to be the culprit (memory/mobo) so I did not really need this new drive. It's quick and quiet enough while still using CMR (not that problematical shingle / SMR) recording method along with other tech alluding to reliability. It has a reasonable 3 year warranty and additional rescue / data recovery service - wouldn't expect to use it but it might show Seagate has some faith in their product. Happy so far.

Bummer! Received TWO defective drives

I am setting up a Synology NAS with 4 x 4tb Seagate Ironwolf drives. As someone wiser than me recommended, I ordered two of the four drives with another vendor to spread the risk of getting multiple drives from a single bad batch -- as unfortunately happened with this order. At first, both of these drives would not start as shown by the indicator lights not coming on. I turned the NAS off and tried again. When they did start, and I did the initial NAS setup, one did not format, having over 18,000 bad sectors. The other did format, but would not initialize. The SMART table would not display, and I could not even make a single drive volume with it for further testing. I tried swapping these two drives to the bays that the other two drives successfully formatted and ... MoreI am setting up a Synology NAS with 4 x 4tb Seagate Ironwolf drives. As someone wiser than me recommended, I ordered two of the four drives with another vendor to spread the risk of getting multiple drives from a single bad batch -- as unfortunately happened with this order. At first, both of these drives would not start as shown by the indicator lights not coming on. I turned the NAS off and tried again. When they did start, and I did the initial NAS setup, one did not format, having over 18,000 bad sectors. The other did format, but would not initialize. The SMART table would not display, and I could not even make a single drive volume with it for further testing. I tried swapping these two drives to the bays that the other two drives successfully formatted and initialized in. These problems persisted with the drive after being moved, so I concluded it was not the NAS bays. These NAS class drives are supposed to be more durable than average. This poor reliability is disappointing! I've been a Seagate user for many years. The 1tb Seagate drive in my PC has been going strong for well over 5 years, with almost daily use. I have gotten good, if not 100% reliable use from various Seagate drives in my first NAS. After this poor experience, in the future I will try HGST or WD drives. For now, I will get a replacement pair of these Ironwolf 4tb drives as I want to have the same drive type for the initial setup. I will thoroughly test them before beginning to use the volume as my level of trust for Seagate quality is not high any more. Thankfully, at least Newegg allows me to return them for a full refund, and I will get another pair from a different vendor in case there are more bad drives in Newegg's current stock -- which is of course, not their fault if so.

Gets Hot

I bought this hoping that it would be a good way to go for an 8TB drive. However, after reading or writing to/from it for over 30 minutes, it gets so hot and the performance drops dramatically. For the first 10 - 15 minutes, it will write small files around 150 MB/s, which I find very impressive. After getting very warm, it slows down to about 10 MB/s. I've tested this more than once, and the drive has plenty of circulation. In fact it wasn't even in a case, but on a mount outside of a case, in a room at about 73 degrees and a ceiling fan that moves air pretty well around the entire room. The mount allows air to move completely around the drive, and it has rubber on it to eliminate any external vibration. On top of that, this drive has a little, not a lot, of ... MoreI bought this hoping that it would be a good way to go for an 8TB drive. However, after reading or writing to/from it for over 30 minutes, it gets so hot and the performance drops dramatically. For the first 10 - 15 minutes, it will write small files around 150 MB/s, which I find very impressive. After getting very warm, it slows down to about 10 MB/s. I've tested this more than once, and the drive has plenty of circulation. In fact it wasn't even in a case, but on a mount outside of a case, in a room at about 73 degrees and a ceiling fan that moves air pretty well around the entire room. The mount allows air to move completely around the drive, and it has rubber on it to eliminate any external vibration. On top of that, this drive has a little, not a lot, of vibration. Maybe that's what leads to it getting hot. The vibration itself though isn't causing the slow performance, because if it did, the drive wouldn't perform well when it's first powered on. This isn't a buffering issue either, because when you write 400 GB of files, the beneficial effect of buffering is gone after about the first minute. This is supposed to be a 24/7 drive with an incredible amount of write cycles per year, according to Seagate's spec sheet. Maybe, but not with the one I got. I would be afraid to put it in an enclosure because I don't think fans blowing air through the drive bays would be enough for the one I got, and it would heat up the enclosure too much. I wouldn't want a drive above or below it. The way it performs, it's about useless, and it's the worst drive I've ever bought. I've never had a drive be this bad when new.

Hot and Noisy Drives

I replaced the 5400 RPM WD RED drives in my Netgear 204 NAS with 4 of these drives. The increase in noise was immediately noticeable. The WD Red drives were nearly silent in operation, while these emit a lot of spindle noise. Seek noise, which was not noticeable with the WD Red drives is present, but the level is below that of the spindle whine. The increased power drain when reading/writing (8W on the spec sheet) causes the inner drives to climb above 48°C unless the NAS fan is set to its highest setting: "cool". To keep the inner drives at 44° C, the case fan now runs at 2750, occasionally increasing to 3250 RPM when one of the inner drives climbs above 44° C in heavy use. Formerly my WD RED drives ran about 37°C with a 1500 RPM fan speed. NAS performance is ... MoreI replaced the 5400 RPM WD RED drives in my Netgear 204 NAS with 4 of these drives. The increase in noise was immediately noticeable. The WD Red drives were nearly silent in operation, while these emit a lot of spindle noise. Seek noise, which was not noticeable with the WD Red drives is present, but the level is below that of the spindle whine. The increased power drain when reading/writing (8W on the spec sheet) causes the inner drives to climb above 48°C unless the NAS fan is set to its highest setting: "cool". To keep the inner drives at 44° C, the case fan now runs at 2750, occasionally increasing to 3250 RPM when one of the inner drives climbs above 44° C in heavy use. Formerly my WD RED drives ran about 37°C with a 1500 RPM fan speed. NAS performance is slightly improved, transferring large files at about 55 MB/s compared to 50 MB/s before. However it's definitely not worth it, considering the noise and heat. I DO NOT RECOMMEND these drives for a residential NAS. Far too hot and noisy. Loudest drives I have heard since the 1990s. I regret purchasing these drives, and may return them, even if I must pay a restocking fee. I should have stuck with WD RED drives, which have served me so well in the past. Don't make the same mistake I did.

Inexpensive and durable

I bought 10 of these 4/2017 and 4 more 1/2018 because they continue to be the least expensive NAS drives. Call me cheap, but I see no sense paying premium price when these are just as reliable as other brands. Some came bundled with the QNAP and others I bought to populate another NAS and to keep some spares on-hand for the eventual drive failure. I've purchased and personally installed/configured hundreds of drives for our datacenter and desktops over the past 20 years and have only had a handful of drives fail. Of these IronWolf drives I've had Zero failures (so far) and I beat the snot out of all my NAS with both virtualization and nightly backup storage, etc. I mean these puppies never get a moment of rest. Zero failure out of 14 drives so far. I'm unsure ... MoreI bought 10 of these 4/2017 and 4 more 1/2018 because they continue to be the least expensive NAS drives. Call me cheap, but I see no sense paying premium price when these are just as reliable as other brands. Some came bundled with the QNAP and others I bought to populate another NAS and to keep some spares on-hand for the eventual drive failure. I've purchased and personally installed/configured hundreds of drives for our datacenter and desktops over the past 20 years and have only had a handful of drives fail. Of these IronWolf drives I've had Zero failures (so far) and I beat the snot out of all my NAS with both virtualization and nightly backup storage, etc. I mean these puppies never get a moment of rest. Zero failure out of 14 drives so far. I'm unsure whether to believe most of the negative reviews for this drive. I mean, look at their brief, vague comments like "They worked great but died in 7 months". Come on, if you can't even describe better than that I can't trust your review. Either users are incompetent, or they're liars, or trying to "downvote" because they forgot to backup their data, maybe they install in an environment the drive was never intended, or they just give off a bad energy vibe which causes any electronic equipment to fail (believe me I have a few of those types in my office, they just walk by a computer and it blue screens like a mobile EMP). My two cents? As long as the price and reliability continues to be like this, Seagate gets my dollars. Also, don't believe the reviews that are obviously false (use your critical thinking skills to weed them out). I'm getting ready to purchase some 8TB versions of these IronWolf drives to replace drives in the RAID arrays on all my NAS devices and I'm confident they'll work. And hey, some tech does die an early death so you just replace and move on.

Not the fastest option but good value

I have spent the past few months putting this drive through the paces compared to it's direct competitors. There have been reports of these drives failing in 12 months or less and I wanted to stress test this NAS HD as much as possible to see how common these failures may be. I'm pleased to report that after a few months of abuse, the drive is working flawlessly. If you have this drive (or drives) in an enclosure, ensure there is adequate cooling as this did tend to run a little warm when being pushed hard. No surprise there though. Overall this a decently fast NAS for a 5900rpm drive however, vs some of it's competitors, it's well behind the 7200rpm spinners. It performed flawlessly in all testing and was 100% reliable with zero bad sectors on thousands of hours of ... MoreI have spent the past few months putting this drive through the paces compared to it's direct competitors. There have been reports of these drives failing in 12 months or less and I wanted to stress test this NAS HD as much as possible to see how common these failures may be. I'm pleased to report that after a few months of abuse, the drive is working flawlessly. If you have this drive (or drives) in an enclosure, ensure there is adequate cooling as this did tend to run a little warm when being pushed hard. No surprise there though. Overall this a decently fast NAS for a 5900rpm drive however, vs some of it's competitors, it's well behind the 7200rpm spinners. It performed flawlessly in all testing and was 100% reliable with zero bad sectors on thousands of hours of use. Reliability is a top priority on a NAS drive used 24/7. That said, the reported number of drives failing in a short period of time is cause for pause. All I can report affirmatively is that the one drive I have has been perfect. For the price is it worth the gamble? Only you can make that call. Measured results: - CrystalDiskMark 4K: 0.528 (Read) 1.347 (Write) Seq: 186.3 (Read) 185.8 (Write) - NAS transfer speeds on a network capable of running close to 115MB/s wide open on faster drives: Read: 102 MB/s Write: 97 MB/s

SeaGate Reliability and a 3YR Warranty.

When I installed this Seagate IronWolf 4TB drive into my existing NAS system it was easy to get up and running. I use it for 3 different sources and even security camera storage. When in a NAS it’s awesome to know it’s reliable not only for 24/7 us, but also has recovery option if you need it. So smooth I you almost forget it’s running. Storing and pulling Data, Movies, Music, Games and it runs perfect across my PC’s and Laptop. Being that it’s storage to review I wanted time to be able to say that it has stayed steady and reliable. I’ll grab music or a Video and run it on either of my equipment as smoothly as if it was from right in that PC and it’s not. The ability to store in one place instead of duplicated across your equipment makes it easier for a one time ... MoreWhen I installed this Seagate IronWolf 4TB drive into my existing NAS system it was easy to get up and running. I use it for 3 different sources and even security camera storage. When in a NAS it’s awesome to know it’s reliable not only for 24/7 us, but also has recovery option if you need it. So smooth I you almost forget it’s running. Storing and pulling Data, Movies, Music, Games and it runs perfect across my PC’s and Laptop. Being that it’s storage to review I wanted time to be able to say that it has stayed steady and reliable. I’ll grab music or a Video and run it on either of my equipment as smoothly as if it was from right in that PC and it’s not. The ability to store in one place instead of duplicated across your equipment makes it easier for a one time save of info. I do have a separate storage for my security camera’s and I was curious to see if I files for that video, how would it go. I don’t plan on keeping my security storage in my NAS. When I pull a stored camera clip, it has been doing a seamless job. Having a NASD setup is almost a set and forget system, I rarely touch have to touch it or do anything but let it run and do its job. I have a do own SeaGate products over many years. Not once have I needed a warranty claim. The 3 Year warranty will assure you that you can count on this IronWolf storage. And when it comes to a NAS and storage, reliability is important. You will have the confidence that your information stored is there, ready to use and with the Data Recovery Services, your safe in the event of Flood, Fire or other corruption should happen. We can write quick reviews or use it for a month and report. To be able to say “Recommend Buying” mine running for apx. a month with no problems. Constant backups, my entire music collection and Videos stored, I have had zero problems. Just does its job in the background like it should. I am sure that you’ll enjoy yours and feel like me that it is a product to buy and enjoy that you have a SeaGate IronWolf protecting your files.

Seagate is my go-to for HDDs!

Seagate has been my go to brand for HDD’s for about 10 years, since I jumped ship from the nightmare that was Western Digital. Seagate drives, both internal and external, 2.5 or 3.5, have been easily more reliable than western digital ever were. I had to get these because one of the WD drives that came with my Synology developed some bad sectors. Ive been waiting a couple of years for these WD drives to die on me and it was finally time to replace them! I bought these Ironwolf drives and to my surprise, one of the drives just didn’t work. I couldn’t initialize it, couldn’t mount it, nothing. It was just locked. The one main thing I really don’t like about Seagate is their customer support. They are pretty useless and very difficult to deal with. So I took the bad ... MoreSeagate has been my go to brand for HDD’s for about 10 years, since I jumped ship from the nightmare that was Western Digital. Seagate drives, both internal and external, 2.5 or 3.5, have been easily more reliable than western digital ever were. I had to get these because one of the WD drives that came with my Synology developed some bad sectors. Ive been waiting a couple of years for these WD drives to die on me and it was finally time to replace them! I bought these Ironwolf drives and to my surprise, one of the drives just didn’t work. I couldn’t initialize it, couldn’t mount it, nothing. It was just locked. The one main thing I really don’t like about Seagate is their customer support. They are pretty useless and very difficult to deal with. So I took the bad drive back to Adorama and they swapped it out, bish bash bosh. Thanks Adorama! Drives have been working perfectly for about a month now, no problems and much faster than the WD Reds that I replaced.

Trying Seagate out Again

I purchased the Seagate Ironwolf 4TB to replace a failing WD Red4TB NASware2.0 from 2012. Drive is for a 1819+ NAS system. They have been installed since Dec 2019. The drive has been working perfecting. It did cause me to freak out a little when I first got it and ran S.M.A.R.T and it desplayed "read errors" dispite SMART saying the drive was "Good". Seagate apparently output differently the most other drives. I haven’t owned a Seagate HDD since 2006 so I decide to give them a shot, and the price was better than a WD Red 4TB. Before installing the Drive into the NAS it tested it out in an USB3.1Gen1 dock. Hard drive Speed Compare: All testing was done with an external enclosure using CrystalDiskMark and a direct file copy (about 4GB) to the disk from an internal ... MoreI purchased the Seagate Ironwolf 4TB to replace a failing WD Red4TB NASware2.0 from 2012. Drive is for a 1819+ NAS system. They have been installed since Dec 2019. The drive has been working perfecting. It did cause me to freak out a little when I first got it and ran S.M.A.R.T and it desplayed "read errors" dispite SMART saying the drive was "Good". Seagate apparently output differently the most other drives. I haven’t owned a Seagate HDD since 2006 so I decide to give them a shot, and the price was better than a WD Red 4TB. Before installing the Drive into the NAS it tested it out in an USB3.1Gen1 dock. Hard drive Speed Compare: All testing was done with an external enclosure using CrystalDiskMark and a direct file copy (about 4GB) to the disk from an internal SSD. (Sorry No Pictures of the test runs): Seagate Ironwolf 4TB (USB3 5Gbps): Seq Read 193 MB/s, Seq Write 190 MB/s, 4GB Transfer to HDD 178 MB/s WD Red 10TB (USB3 5Gbps)(2019 model): Seq Read 207 MB/s, Seq Write 120 MB/s, 4GB Transfer to HDD 186 MB/s WD Red 6TB (USB3 5Gbps)(2016 model): Seq Read 182 MB/s, Seq Write 130 MB/s, 4GB Transfer to HDD 175 MB/s WD Red 3TB (USB3 5Gbps)(2017 model): Seq Read 135 MB/s, Seq Write 128 MB/s, 4GB Transfer to HDD 140 MB/s WD Red 4TB (USB3 5Gbps)(2012 model): Seq Read 147 MB/s, Seq Write 105 MB/s, 4GB Transfer to HDD 144 MB/s