I've bought several Toshiba 3TB hard disks over the last few years. I have some which run 24/7 in a server and others which serve as desktop storage in daily use, or in backup devices used intermittently. Some are in RAID and some are in LVM (logical volumes). I have had zero issues with reliability. The disks are not silent but are about as quiet as a hard disk can be. I'm completely satisfied with the Toshiba disks and will not hesitate to buy more if required. They also have the benefit of being extremely good value.

EggXpert Review: Toshiba P300 3TB Hard Drive

I tested it both using a benchmark tool and a 3GB test folder filled with various files and images and such. Benchmarking showed average read speeds very comparable to a 3TB Seagate drive I have; 137.5 -141.1 MB/s Sequential reads and 1.013 MB/s Random 4KQD32 , 0.633 MB/s 4K reads. It didn't do so well with write speeds, however. ~35MB/s Sequential writes and 0.23 Random writes ... it's not pretty at all. With the 3GB folder, my Seagate handled it in 33 seconds at about 98MB/s. The Toshiba drive was significantly slower took nearly 2 minutes and averaged 27.4 MB/s. I can't recommend this drive to anyone. Look for a brand with better reliability, even if you spend a little more or get a little less capacity. It will be worth it in the long run. Read MB/s Write MB/s ... MoreI tested it both using a benchmark tool and a 3GB test folder filled with various files and images and such. Benchmarking showed average read speeds very comparable to a 3TB Seagate drive I have; 137.5 -141.1 MB/s Sequential reads and 1.013 MB/s Random 4KQD32 , 0.633 MB/s 4K reads. It didn't do so well with write speeds, however. ~35MB/s Sequential writes and 0.23 Random writes ... it's not pretty at all. With the 3GB folder, my Seagate handled it in 33 seconds at about 98MB/s. The Toshiba drive was significantly slower took nearly 2 minutes and averaged 27.4 MB/s. I can't recommend this drive to anyone. Look for a brand with better reliability, even if you spend a little more or get a little less capacity. It will be worth it in the long run. Read MB/s Write MB/s Seq Q32 137.5 35.83 4K Q32 1.013 0.231 Seq 141.1 35.43 4K 0.633 0.257 3GB Test file - 1:58s - 27.4 MB/s

Great drive for a budget, and better warranty than most in it's class

I ran this drive in my I7700K @4.73GHz with 32GB of RAM in my Gigabyte Z270x-Designare MB to test it. Read speeds in real world applications are about 120MB/s with a 13.4ms Access time. Large files (730GB of movies being copied from my 2TB SSHD) the drive was running 100% usage and writing an average of 102MB/s with an average access time of 1685ms. My SSHD was reading the files at 45% usage with a 2.0ms access time as fast as it could take the DATA. Small Files (640GB of Music from my 2TB SSHD again) The drive was running 100% usage and writing at an average of 89MB/s with an access time of 2123ms on average. While my SSHD was reading at 55% usage with a 3.2ms access time average. This drive won't be living inside my PC as I have much faster drives available, but ... MoreI ran this drive in my I7700K @4.73GHz with 32GB of RAM in my Gigabyte Z270x-Designare MB to test it. Read speeds in real world applications are about 120MB/s with a 13.4ms Access time. Large files (730GB of movies being copied from my 2TB SSHD) the drive was running 100% usage and writing an average of 102MB/s with an average access time of 1685ms. My SSHD was reading the files at 45% usage with a 2.0ms access time as fast as it could take the DATA. Small Files (640GB of Music from my 2TB SSHD again) The drive was running 100% usage and writing at an average of 89MB/s with an access time of 2123ms on average. While my SSHD was reading at 55% usage with a 3.2ms access time average. This drive won't be living inside my PC as I have much faster drives available, but it will live in a budget machine for some one. It is a great drive for users that need tons of storage, but do not require a lot of speed, (Those Access times though.....) With the access times I listed I would not suggest attempting to place this drive in a RAID array, no way any controller would go very long without dropping the drive like a hot box of rocks.

Great value, quiet disk for storage and backups

I bought this for its size, not its speed. It's installed on my home server, debian with multiple disks concatenated on LVM and no RAID. I've been using Toshiba disks for a few years and have not yet had any issues with them. I knew this one is SMR technology and unsuitable for RAID and possibly a bit slower than a 7200 RPM CMR disk, but in practice it's absolutely fine as a big storage disk. Write speeds were fine and read speeds very good too. It's also extremely quiet. I wouldn't install an OS on it but for storage and backup its ideal and good value too.

Large capacity, fast, quiet operation

The drive has been working well so far. I've had it for about 3 weeks now. Downloaded about 400GB worth of games onto it in the first couple days and it gave me no problems. I was worried about these new models since they're no longer made by HGST/Hitachi but it has been fine. This was the only affordable 7200RPM drive I could find in 3TB, and it's also not SMR like a lot of other high capacity drives which is a positive.

Reasonable drive for the price

This isn't the fastest 3TB HDD, nor does it sport a long warranty. For a budget build, the P300 gives reasonably quick storage. The only comparably priced drives have a 1 year warranty. On the warranty front, I have direct experience with the 2TB version of the P300. It failed after less than 2 months of infrequent (an hour or two a week) use. I'm not dinging the 3TB drive based on my experience with the 2TB variety - just trying to set straight some of the information in earlier reviews. Toshiba's warranty process isn't as painless as Western DIgital/HGST but there certainly are worse (Samsung, here's looking at you). You must have proof of purchase - e.g. a copy of your order receipt email or an invoice downloaded from Newegg's order history. Toshiba is adamant ... MoreThis isn't the fastest 3TB HDD, nor does it sport a long warranty. For a budget build, the P300 gives reasonably quick storage. The only comparably priced drives have a 1 year warranty. On the warranty front, I have direct experience with the 2TB version of the P300. It failed after less than 2 months of infrequent (an hour or two a week) use. I'm not dinging the 3TB drive based on my experience with the 2TB variety - just trying to set straight some of the information in earlier reviews. Toshiba's warranty process isn't as painless as Western DIgital/HGST but there certainly are worse (Samsung, here's looking at you). You must have proof of purchase - e.g. a copy of your order receipt email or an invoice downloaded from Newegg's order history. Toshiba is adamant that only the original purchaser can obtain warranty service; most other vendors will simply use the date of manufacture if you do not have proof of purchase. The drive needs to be shipped to Toshiba. After a couple weeks, they send out a replacement. No pre-return replacements or cross shipments here.

Solid Performance

Received the P300 drive for review. It arrived undamaged and well packaged. The P300 offer good value by offering good space of 3TB and good performance. The drive has been used as my main steam drive for over a month, it has been quiet and performed with no issues. The drive been tested under HD Tune a few times. During any tests the hottest the drive got was 38C but for the most part during benchmarking temps were between 34-36C in a case without any extra fans. So in a proper well ventilated case temps should be much lower. I copied 2.7TB worth of steam games to it, and been using it non stop. For overall performance the drives showed average data rates of 170 MB/sec. Minimums in benchmarks were 130MB/sec with maximums of 195 MB/sec. Burst rates where up to a ... MoreReceived the P300 drive for review. It arrived undamaged and well packaged. The P300 offer good value by offering good space of 3TB and good performance. The drive has been used as my main steam drive for over a month, it has been quiet and performed with no issues. The drive been tested under HD Tune a few times. During any tests the hottest the drive got was 38C but for the most part during benchmarking temps were between 34-36C in a case without any extra fans. So in a proper well ventilated case temps should be much lower. I copied 2.7TB worth of steam games to it, and been using it non stop. For overall performance the drives showed average data rates of 170 MB/sec. Minimums in benchmarks were 130MB/sec with maximums of 195 MB/sec. Burst rates where up to a maximum of 280MB/sec with averages of 250-270 MB/s Overall the performance for the drive is solid, and getting 3TB for the current price of $75 USD its a great buy. I've used this drive heavily on my steam box as the data drive and haven't had any issues. Id recommend this drive for anyone who needs good amounts of storage at a good price.

Terrible SMR drive, very slow writes

Bought this drive to use a backup for my NAS, replacing a smaller capacity WD Blue (which was excellent). Immediately I was aware that the write performance was very poor, and it seemed to get slower as the backup progressed. I aborted the backup and that had to wait 15 - 20 mins for the drive light to stop flashing (no write caching is enabled on the NAS). Not fit for purpose and returned for refund.

The mech HDD is dead; long live the mech HDD!

Seriously good performance for a platter based storage solution! I recently tested copying a 5.45GB file from a 970 Pro Evo 1TB M2 drive to the P300 3TB and the initial burst speed was close to 2.5GB/s and this slows down to a very decent ~190MB/s and the whole file transfers in 13.62secs. Not bad at all. This is my second of these and I will continue buying these Toshiba P300 3TB's as long as they are produced as they are brilliant value for money and easily affordable for using as back up drives.

Very good 3.5 hard drive.

- The sale package contains only a hard drive, there are no extras (bulk drive). The hard drive is rated “for everyday desktop computing” by the manufacturer. The drive is fine for normal use in desktops computers. However, that means, the hard drive in not really meant for continuous use. I would not have used it in NAS or NVR setups. - I installed the Toshiba P300 3TB in my tower, and Windows 10 had no trouble initializing, formatting and partitioning the drive for use. I then simultaneously copied copied a total of 1.4 TB of data to P300 from my other 3 internal drives. The average write speed over internal SATA was between 110 and 130 MB/s. During the process, the internal temp rose slowly from 28 C to 34 C at the end of the transfer. - I then copied some data ... More- The sale package contains only a hard drive, there are no extras (bulk drive). The hard drive is rated “for everyday desktop computing” by the manufacturer. The drive is fine for normal use in desktops computers. However, that means, the hard drive in not really meant for continuous use. I would not have used it in NAS or NVR setups. - I installed the Toshiba P300 3TB in my tower, and Windows 10 had no trouble initializing, formatting and partitioning the drive for use. I then simultaneously copied copied a total of 1.4 TB of data to P300 from my other 3 internal drives. The average write speed over internal SATA was between 110 and 130 MB/s. During the process, the internal temp rose slowly from 28 C to 34 C at the end of the transfer. - I then copied some data from P300 over SATA connection to an internal SSD drive. The transfer rate was 150 to 170 MB/s. - I then performed chkdsk on the drive and there were no issues. No bad sectors. - When not in use, the internal temp of the P300 drive stays at about 31 C. - Toshiba is a known brand in mechanical hard drive business. They have been around for a while and their drives are generally reliable. However, mechanical drives, regardless of brand, do fail at various rates. Valuable data should always be backed up or duplicated in RAID setup. - I have used this drive for 2 weeks and I have not encountered any issues. No clicking, freezing, whining, excessive heat or data errors. With that in mind, I would recommend P300 drive for a casual use as a PC drive. The P300 arrived well insulated, in a well cushioned package from newegg. P300 is inexpensive, it’s a bare drive, so no extras included. The performance (read/write speeds) is quite good, and falls within the range of similar mechanical drives. Toshiba brand is known. The warranty is acceptable at 2 years.