Seagate Skyhawk Surveillance 2TB 3.5in SATA HDD, ST2000VX008

Seagate "SkyHawk" 2Tb CCTV HDD...Bought to replace a failing WD of similar type after only 28 months service.Read all the usual reviews and those within the CCTV industry and decided to give this Seagate model a try.Fare too soon to give a review as only been fitted and running for a little over 2 weeks but needless to say it installed as expected and the system formatted the drive as it needed and away it went.Delivery from CCL Bradford was as quick as ever, would have been even quicker if I had been able to collect with them been local to me but came exceptionally well packed to cushion the drive on it's short travel.Time will tell!

I have an Ubiquiti UniFi OS UDM Pro Dream Machine, and recently purchase an Ubiquiti Doorbell camera. The UDM has an HDD slot, but no HDD, so I contacted PB-Tech on advice for what was recommended. Got excellent advice. Ordered, it arrived, powered down the UDM, inserted the HDD into the cradle, started UDM and it found the HDD and initialised it, and hey presto can now go back and see recorded video from the doorbell. Excellent outcome.

Guy's review of SKYHAWK 2TB SURVEILLANCE 3.5IN 6GB/S SATA 64MB

Pros: The packaging was impressive: no plastics, but recyclable cardboard in an intricate form that protected the drives well. The drives themselves were well finished, screw threads clean and free of swarf, all excellent. I've only had them for a few months, but they have been quiet and fault free.Cons: I changed policy from 7,200 drives to these. The difference in speed is not noticeable in normal use, but it certainly was when transferring 2TB data to each one. Faster NAS drives would be something to look forward to in future.

I bought this to replace a failing drive in my Tivo (Roamio Plus). I've always had good longevity...

I bought this to replace a failing drive in my Tivo (Roamio Plus). I've always had good longevity with Seagate drives, and perhaps this one would last. However, I could hear this drive head seeking even while watching TV, and I could even hear the comparatively loud noise of its platter rotation with the TV off. Got a replacement from Home Essentials Direct, thinking the drive was faulty. How could a drive be this obnoxious? Well, the replacement was just as bad. I purchased a WD purple instead, and it is as quiet as the old WD DVR drive in the Tivo--which lasted six years. I still like Seagate for the desktop, but forget buying this class of drive from them for your Tivo.

I purchased the 4 TB drive. I was slightly concerned having a lower spin rate as well as a 64 MB ...

I purchased the 4 TB drive. I was slightly concerned having a lower spin rate as well as a 64 MB cache. I am running eight cameras in a Samsung/Wisenet system. This system came with 1 TB and four cameras. But after I added four more to the system the 1 TB was no longer sufficient. I purchased this for terabyte drive, because it was the exact model of my 1 TB. This Is a 3.5 drive, so be sure that it will fit your console or whatever you are placing it in. It's important that people know this is not a standard drive and is made for surveillance cameras, or something that is access to an overridden on a regular basis. Unlike a standard hard drive in your PC that has correction control most of these drives for the surveillance systems do not have correction. Meaning ... MoreI purchased the 4 TB drive. I was slightly concerned having a lower spin rate as well as a 64 MB cache. I am running eight cameras in a Samsung/Wisenet system. This system came with 1 TB and four cameras. But after I added four more to the system the 1 TB was no longer sufficient. I purchased this for terabyte drive, because it was the exact model of my 1 TB. This Is a 3.5 drive, so be sure that it will fit your console or whatever you are placing it in. It's important that people know this is not a standard drive and is made for surveillance cameras, or something that is access to an overridden on a regular basis. Unlike a standard hard drive in your PC that has correction control most of these drives for the surveillance systems do not have correction. Meaning once it copies the data there is no verification that the data was copied correctly. Why this is not usually a problem on a system is a good hard drive and a smooth running operating system it could result in data loss. That is why it is advised to buy a surveillance hard drive, something that is specifically made to run off and and to keep copying the files without correction. I found a hard drive to be very efficient, and for some reason works faster than my 1 TB of the same maker and brand. It is also quieter than the 1 TB that my system came with. In fact the fan on my DVR makes more noise than a hard drive does and I have a quiet fan. Keep in mind why this may fit the majority of DVR's that are out there formats do vary from Linux, Windows or their own proprietary software. And formatting the drive may vary. Generally speaking most surveillance hard drives are compatible with buried systems but keep in mind that your hard drive may need to be formatted either by the DVR system, or possibly externally done to make it compatible with your DVR. I have seen more people have problems with DVR hard drives when they do not realize that the system they are installing in a have a proprietary format system and may not be compatible with the drive you purchased. That is why it's important to find a hard drive that has a wide range of compatibility as well is something that's been around for a while. Your surveillance cameras are expensive investment for most people. And the data that we have on these hard drives is why they are valuable. Anybody can purchase DVR, and cameras are pretty similar across the board improving with each year. But hard drives are the core operating systems bread-and-butter of you will. When you need the hard drive to work you need to work, this is barely second two cameras being of high quality because you have a high-quality camera but if your hard drive is a standard drive or of a low quality you may have issues. So if you've invested the camera system it's wise to buy a compatible high-quality hard drive that is built for surveillance systems and has a decent warranty. Overview: I highly recommend the drive. At this time it installed quickly, was able to format on my DVR with no issues. Is extremely quiet and accessing data to copy to another hard drive, or to use for fast search was extremely fast with no issues whatsoever. Check on Home Essentials Direct as the the prices vary from size to size. The 4 TB seemed to be about the best deal because it was slightly more than the 1 2 and 3 TB, but considerably less than the 6 TB, making this the best choice and value. Running at 4K, my cameras have enough room to record for approximately 2 1/2 to 3 weeks. Depending on whether you have motion or straight recording this can vary and your quality of cameras. I am guessing if you have a 1080 P camera system this may last you up to a month possibly depending on your settings.

Jack's review of SKYHAWK 2TB SURVEILLANCE 3.5IN 6GB/S SATA 64MB

Pros: Great drive, very fast transfer speeds in both read and write and cost effective for the capacity.Cons: Enterprise/NAS drives are much louder than standard consumer drives which can be a small annoyance when installed in a desktop computer. However this is a trade off for the capacity and performance.

Michael's review of SKYHAWK 2TB SURVEILLANCE 3.5IN 6GB/S SATA 64MB

Pros: Ability to get up and running fairly quickly and easily but takes a while longer to understand and set up more complex reqiuerements.Cons: CPU processor for DS218 is underpowered for video resulting in juddery playback on some videos.

Noisy, but great performance

Installed this in an older Core i7 tower to record security cameras with TrueNAS. After running exclusively SSDs for so long, this is a noisy drive, but it's working very well. Several high-bitrate cameras are recording to it simultaneously without write issues. It struggles to read the recorded data while it continues to record the camera feeds, but that's expected given the number of cameras I'm sending to a single drive right now.

R D's review of SKYHAWK 2TB SURVEILLANCE 3.5IN 6GB/S SATA 64MB

Pros: NAS seems faster to me than previous 5TB Red (but then again maybe I'm just wishing it to be faster). Its fast, huge and should be reliable. Oh and it's a disk drive, what else do you want ?Cons: 10TB still too expensive for an amateur but 8TB coming down in price as these things always do (early 2017). Had to doctor my Synology NAS disk tray to accommodate the drive - the central screw hole + certain indentations required by the disk tray are missing on this (super high capacity) disk design. After removal of the tray lugs there are now just 4 screw mounting points albeit they have high quality rubber shock absorbers. All seems secure but disk mounting is important in a high capacity NAS. Easy enough to fix but if you're less mechanically minded then this ... MorePros: NAS seems faster to me than previous 5TB Red (but then again maybe I'm just wishing it to be faster). Its fast, huge and should be reliable. Oh and it's a disk drive, what else do you want ?Cons: 10TB still too expensive for an amateur but 8TB coming down in price as these things always do (early 2017). Had to doctor my Synology NAS disk tray to accommodate the drive - the central screw hole + certain indentations required by the disk tray are missing on this (super high capacity) disk design. After removal of the tray lugs there are now just 4 screw mounting points albeit they have high quality rubber shock absorbers. All seems secure but disk mounting is important in a high capacity NAS. Easy enough to fix but if you're less mechanically minded then this might tax your grey matter.

This is an excellent surveillance camera drive. As an IT technician, I cannot count how many time...

This is an excellent surveillance camera drive. As an IT technician, I cannot count how many times surveillance systems fail, right when you need them, just because you're not using the right drive. Also, using a desktop hard drive or NAS for surveillance will waste the cop's precious time. Have you ever tried scrubbing through days of video while simultaneously recording? I have, and I will tell you it's not fun! Unfortunately, this drive failed after just a couple months of use, but Home Essentials Direct (and Seagate) are good on sticking by the warranty. So 5 stars on that end. I've had good success overall with these Skyhawks in surveillance applications and would use them again.