WD 22TB Elements Desktop External Hard Drive - USB 3.0
Thanks to its shock resistance and durability, the WD external hard drive in proven WD quality ensures the security of your data. Compatible with USB 3.0 and USB 2.0. The WD Elements HDD drive allows you to transfer data from your full computer to desktop storage for more performance on your computer. Now store all your pictures, videos, documents and music files in one place. The WD Elements 20TB External Hard Drive gives you a huge storage space for all your data. The WD Elements external hard drive is the perfect addition to your computer. From now on, you will never have to delete your data again if you want to save new data.
Thanks to its shock resistance and durability, the WD external hard drive in proven WD quality ensures the security of your data. Compatible with USB 3.0 and USB 2.0. The WD Elements HDD drive allows you to transfer data from your full computer to desktop storage for more performance on your computer. Now store all your pictures, videos, documents and music files in one place. The WD Elements 20TB External Hard Drive gives you a huge storage space for all your data. The WD Elements external hard drive is the perfect addition to your computer. From now on, you will never have to delete your data again if you want to save new data.
Thanks to its shock resistance and durability, the WD external hard drive in proven WD quality ensures the security of your data. Compatible with USB 3.0 and USB 2.0. The WD Elements HDD drive allows you to transfer data from your full computer to desktop storage for more performance on your computer. Now store all your pictures, videos, documents and music files in one place. The WD Elements 20TB External Hard Drive gives you a huge storage space for all your data. The WD Elements external hard drive is the perfect addition to your computer. From now on, you will never have to delete your data again if you want to save new data.
Thanks to its shock resistance and durability, the WD external hard drive in proven WD quality ensures the security of your data. Compatible with USB 3.0 and USB 2.0. The WD Elements HDD drive allows you to transfer data from your full computer to desktop storage for more performance on your computer. Now store all your pictures, videos, documents and music files in one place. The WD Elements 20TB External Hard Drive gives you a huge storage space for all your data. The WD Elements external hard drive is the perfect addition to your computer. From now on, you will never have to delete your data again if you want to save new data.
in 17 offers
The lowest price for WD 22TB Elements Desktop External Hard Drive - USB 3.0 right now is $813.68 at Playthek.com, compared across 16 retailers.
The all-time low was $714.21 on 7 Feb 2026 — today's price is 14% above the lowest ever. That's a little above the best price we've seen.
Prices last updated 8 June 2026.
Last updated at 08/06/2026 17:06:48
Western Digital WD Elements Desktop 22TB USB 3.0 3.5' External Hard Drive - Black Plug & Play (Australian Version)
Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a small commission for purchases made through this link at no extra cost to you. This helps support our site. Thank you!
WD 22TB Elements External Hard Drive, Desktop HDD Storage, USB 3.0 Compatible, Fast Transfer Rates, Easy add on Storage for All Your Pictures, Videos,
Free delivery
Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a small commission for purchases made through this link at no extra cost to you. This helps support our site. Thank you!
Western Digital / Hgst Western Digital Elements Desktop external hard drive 22000 GB Black
Free delivery
Wd Elements Desktop Wdbwlg0220hbk 22tb External Hdd Black
Delivery $90.99
Western Digital 22TB Elements USB 3 0 Desktop External Hard Drive WDBBKG0220HBK AESN - External Hard Drives
Delivery $23.50
WD Elements Desktop 22TB USB 3.0 3.5" External Hard Drive - Black WDBBKG0220HBK-
Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a small commission for purchases made through this link at no extra cost to you. This helps support our site. Thank you!
WD Elements Desktop 22TB Black USB3.0 3.5" External HDD Drive
7-day returns
Western Digital Elements Desktop 22TB Black USB 3.0 Hard Drive
7-day returns
WESTERN DIGITAL WD ELEMENTS DESKTOP 22TB BLACK AUS/NZ, USB3.0, 3.5'', 2year
Free delivery between Thu – Mon
WDBBKG0220HBK-AESN Western Digital WD ELEMENTS DESKTOP 22TB BLACK AUS/NZ, USB3.0, 3.5'', 2year WDBBKG0220HBK-AESN
Delivery $15
originally posted on westerndigital.com
I've had this drive for a couple of years as a drive that I would occasionally connect for backups. No heavy usage. Sitting on a desk. No drops or power surges. Yesterday, it suddenly crapped out mid-use. I have the 4TB model with less than 1TB of data on it. All my photos and videos since 2009 and some important documents. The drive just stopped working and, when I tried to reconnect, it sounds like it is booting normally then starts to makes an ultra high-pitched noise. It stops, then it sounds like it is booting again normally then it just shuts off (lights and all). It never mounts. And now I'm faced with a massive bill if I want to recover my data, and there is no guarantee that the data can be recovered. I've had it for 2 to 3 years with very light use. As you ... MoreI've had this drive for a couple of years as a drive that I would occasionally connect for backups. No heavy usage. Sitting on a desk. No drops or power surges. Yesterday, it suddenly crapped out mid-use. I have the 4TB model with less than 1TB of data on it. All my photos and videos since 2009 and some important documents. The drive just stopped working and, when I tried to reconnect, it sounds like it is booting normally then starts to makes an ultra high-pitched noise. It stops, then it sounds like it is booting again normally then it just shuts off (lights and all). It never mounts. And now I'm faced with a massive bill if I want to recover my data, and there is no guarantee that the data can be recovered. I've had it for 2 to 3 years with very light use. As you can imagine, I am quite upset.
originally posted on westerndigital.com
I am attempting to swap the 12TB drive out of the enclosure for an Iron Wolf Pro NAS 16TB drive. The NAS drive has 14TB worth of data already on it, works fine internally, but if you put it in the WD Elements enclosure, the drive is not recognized by the NAS server or my laptop (both Debian). Exact same configuration/cables/power supply but with the WD 12TB drive works fine. I tested it out using a Seagate 5TB as well and it was not recognized once placed in the WD Elements enclosure.If this is truly what is happening, that is absolutely unacceptable and I will never again purchase WD products. The USB/SATA standard is supposed to be open and universal, not locked to a specific manufacturer.
originally posted on westerndigital.com
In the last 10 years I have bought more than 20 WD Drives plus Sandisk Drives too (including passport, desktop & wireless types). I had almost no issues with WD Products except this one. I bought a 18T WD Elements Desktop Drive thru B & H Photo and Video for my personal data storage. After I copied 6TB of data & on the next day I heard some gridding sound. That was it! The Drive can't be detected anymore. I used Disk Management software and WD Dashboard to check it. All tells me that this drive is DEAD! I am hesitating to send the drive back for a replacement as the data I copied in this drive pertain some personal information. Of course, the data can be retrieved by sending it back to WD but I don't want to take that chance for someone to access the data. This ... MoreIn the last 10 years I have bought more than 20 WD Drives plus Sandisk Drives too (including passport, desktop & wireless types). I had almost no issues with WD Products except this one. I bought a 18T WD Elements Desktop Drive thru B & H Photo and Video for my personal data storage. After I copied 6TB of data & on the next day I heard some gridding sound. That was it! The Drive can't be detected anymore. I used Disk Management software and WD Dashboard to check it. All tells me that this drive is DEAD! I am hesitating to send the drive back for a replacement as the data I copied in this drive pertain some personal information. Of course, the data can be retrieved by sending it back to WD but I don't want to take that chance for someone to access the data. This drive, to me, is no useful. Reached out to WD Support Team to see if they can send me a replacement one without sending this dead one back. WD confirmed that this one is a defective one. I can destroy it and then show them the video to prove I am not using it or pretend to use it. Waiting for an answer now. If they come back to say "no" I have no other choice but to buy another one, however it definitely is NOT WD Elements. I believe WD My Book is more reliable...
| Digital storage capacity | 6000 GB |
| Hard disk interface | USB 3.0 |
| Connectivity technology | USB |
| Special feature | Shock Resistant |
| Hard disk form factor | 2.5 Inches |
Western Digital WD Elements Desktop 22TB USB 3.0 3.5' External Hard Drive - Black Plug & Play (Australian Version)
Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a small commission for purchases made through this link at no extra cost to you. This helps support our site. Thank you!
WD 22TB Elements External Hard Drive, Desktop HDD Storage, USB 3.0 Compatible, Fast Transfer Rates, Easy add on Storage for All Your Pictures, Videos,
Free delivery
Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a small commission for purchases made through this link at no extra cost to you. This helps support our site. Thank you!
Western Digital / Hgst Western Digital Elements Desktop external hard drive 22000 GB Black
Free delivery
Wd Elements Desktop Wdbwlg0220hbk 22tb External Hdd Black
Delivery $90.99
Western Digital 22TB Elements USB 3 0 Desktop External Hard Drive WDBBKG0220HBK AESN - External Hard Drives
Delivery $23.50
I've had this drive for a couple of years as a drive that I would occasionally connect for backups. No heavy usage. Sitting on a desk. No drops or power surges. Yesterday, it suddenly crapped out mid-use. I have the 4TB model with less than 1TB of data on it. All my photos and videos since 2009 and some important documents. The drive just stopped working and, when I tried to reconnect, it sounds like it is booting normally then starts to makes an ultra high-pitched noise. It stops, then it sounds like it is booting again normally then it just shuts off (lights and all). It never mounts. And now I'm faced with a massive bill if I want to recover my data, and there is no guarantee that the data can be recovered. I've had it for 2 to 3 years with very light use. As you ... MoreI've had this drive for a couple of years as a drive that I would occasionally connect for backups. No heavy usage. Sitting on a desk. No drops or power surges. Yesterday, it suddenly crapped out mid-use. I have the 4TB model with less than 1TB of data on it. All my photos and videos since 2009 and some important documents. The drive just stopped working and, when I tried to reconnect, it sounds like it is booting normally then starts to makes an ultra high-pitched noise. It stops, then it sounds like it is booting again normally then it just shuts off (lights and all). It never mounts. And now I'm faced with a massive bill if I want to recover my data, and there is no guarantee that the data can be recovered. I've had it for 2 to 3 years with very light use. As you can imagine, I am quite upset.
I am attempting to swap the 12TB drive out of the enclosure for an Iron Wolf Pro NAS 16TB drive. The NAS drive has 14TB worth of data already on it, works fine internally, but if you put it in the WD Elements enclosure, the drive is not recognized by the NAS server or my laptop (both Debian). Exact same configuration/cables/power supply but with the WD 12TB drive works fine. I tested it out using a Seagate 5TB as well and it was not recognized once placed in the WD Elements enclosure.If this is truly what is happening, that is absolutely unacceptable and I will never again purchase WD products. The USB/SATA standard is supposed to be open and universal, not locked to a specific manufacturer.
In the last 10 years I have bought more than 20 WD Drives plus Sandisk Drives too (including passport, desktop & wireless types). I had almost no issues with WD Products except this one. I bought a 18T WD Elements Desktop Drive thru B & H Photo and Video for my personal data storage. After I copied 6TB of data & on the next day I heard some gridding sound. That was it! The Drive can't be detected anymore. I used Disk Management software and WD Dashboard to check it. All tells me that this drive is DEAD! I am hesitating to send the drive back for a replacement as the data I copied in this drive pertain some personal information. Of course, the data can be retrieved by sending it back to WD but I don't want to take that chance for someone to access the data. This ... MoreIn the last 10 years I have bought more than 20 WD Drives plus Sandisk Drives too (including passport, desktop & wireless types). I had almost no issues with WD Products except this one. I bought a 18T WD Elements Desktop Drive thru B & H Photo and Video for my personal data storage. After I copied 6TB of data & on the next day I heard some gridding sound. That was it! The Drive can't be detected anymore. I used Disk Management software and WD Dashboard to check it. All tells me that this drive is DEAD! I am hesitating to send the drive back for a replacement as the data I copied in this drive pertain some personal information. Of course, the data can be retrieved by sending it back to WD but I don't want to take that chance for someone to access the data. This drive, to me, is no useful. Reached out to WD Support Team to see if they can send me a replacement one without sending this dead one back. WD confirmed that this one is a defective one. I can destroy it and then show them the video to prove I am not using it or pretend to use it. Waiting for an answer now. If they come back to say "no" I have no other choice but to buy another one, however it definitely is NOT WD Elements. I believe WD My Book is more reliable...
After a week of detailed formatting of one of your 16 Tb machines, I found it operated perfectly. I installed about 5 Tb of my data for the past 20+ years and ran it with no problem.I soon bought one of your 18 Tb units, detail-formatted it in a day (using a faster home computer) and copied the same date to it. I now have two machines which PROBABLY will operate forever without any problem; but, if one fails, the other will compensate. Two machines also allow me to work simultaneously on my two Windows and Ubuntu home computers.I am an experienced WD owned, who previously was using two 5-Tb "Easystore" units for my backups, but they were almost entirely full.Before them, I was using a 2 Tb and a 4 Tb Seagate machine. However, years ago, an older Seagate went ... MoreAfter a week of detailed formatting of one of your 16 Tb machines, I found it operated perfectly. I installed about 5 Tb of my data for the past 20+ years and ran it with no problem.I soon bought one of your 18 Tb units, detail-formatted it in a day (using a faster home computer) and copied the same date to it. I now have two machines which PROBABLY will operate forever without any problem; but, if one fails, the other will compensate. Two machines also allow me to work simultaneously on my two Windows and Ubuntu home computers.I am an experienced WD owned, who previously was using two 5-Tb "Easystore" units for my backups, but they were almost entirely full.Before them, I was using a 2 Tb and a 4 Tb Seagate machine. However, years ago, an older Seagate went dead on me (about 3 months after the warranty expired), costing me some lost data.
Our personal drives have been running continuously in a trying environmet (lots and LOTS of unexpected power outages (costing our power provider over $700,000 in 8 neighborhoods to fix according to their communications to us!) and these drives have been BULLETPROOF!We're here to by two more 8tb drives as another storage-and-mirror combo for our personal use and felt the bad reviews need to be answered. We recommend these to small business as an easy plug-and-play data storage solution and a nice offsite storage choice.There's lots of reviews with computers "loosing connection(s) to PC" and "drives going to sleep" that are from folks who don't understand how PC's work:These PC's are almost certainly (in the case of our work with users) letting some or all of ... MoreOur personal drives have been running continuously in a trying environmet (lots and LOTS of unexpected power outages (costing our power provider over $700,000 in 8 neighborhoods to fix according to their communications to us!) and these drives have been BULLETPROOF!We're here to by two more 8tb drives as another storage-and-mirror combo for our personal use and felt the bad reviews need to be answered. We recommend these to small business as an easy plug-and-play data storage solution and a nice offsite storage choice.There's lots of reviews with computers "loosing connection(s) to PC" and "drives going to sleep" that are from folks who don't understand how PC's work:These PC's are almost certainly (in the case of our work with users) letting some or all of their USB devices go to sleep and/or hibernation. Look this up online and fix your setups and they'll run great!Don't forget to put your main drive on high-speed ("SS") port for best results.
I've been reading through the reviews of these Elements drives and have taken particular notice of the critical ones. All I can say is that I guess I've gotten lucky...4 TIMES! I have 2 My Book 8TB ( purchased in 2019 ), one My Book 4TB ( purchased in 2018 ), and this, my most recent purchase, an Elements 6TB ( 2022 ). I have wondered if I should have just purchased another My Book 8TB as I don't like that Drive Utilities doesn't recognize Elements drives , but the price was very attractive, so I decided to give it a shot. Unfortunately, I started having issues with it a month ago so I contacted WD. Customer service was prompt and attentive. A tech called ME and walked me through some diagnostics ( most of which I had already done ) and it was determined that I ... MoreI've been reading through the reviews of these Elements drives and have taken particular notice of the critical ones. All I can say is that I guess I've gotten lucky...4 TIMES! I have 2 My Book 8TB ( purchased in 2019 ), one My Book 4TB ( purchased in 2018 ), and this, my most recent purchase, an Elements 6TB ( 2022 ). I have wondered if I should have just purchased another My Book 8TB as I don't like that Drive Utilities doesn't recognize Elements drives , but the price was very attractive, so I decided to give it a shot. Unfortunately, I started having issues with it a month ago so I contacted WD. Customer service was prompt and attentive. A tech called ME and walked me through some diagnostics ( most of which I had already done ) and it was determined that I should receive a replacement. The turn around time was 10 days which was a bit of a pain since my other back-up drives were full because of all of those files transferred from the Elements drive before I returned it, but I understand why that can't ship the replacement before inspecting the return first. In any case, the new drive is working well so far, and I by comparison, I can definitely tell there was a problem with the first one from the beginning. It HAPPENS SOMETIMES! And based on my experience with my other WD drives which not only include those already mentioned, but 2 Black internal drives ( 2TB and 8TB ) as well as an Ultrastar 10TB, I must say that I'm extremely happy my products overall, and my only experience with the return process was a positive one.
Drive is large for an upright device. It only has registration software and zero software to backup files or devices, not even an offer to buy some software product. Fortunately, one of my laptops had the WD Smart system and it worked fine. The other had zero options other than the built in M/S System backup. So disappointing. I have liked WD over other brands for reliability. Fortunately, i bought 2 to make a backup of a backup for safety. Disappointing Western Digital .
The drive is nice for the price and meets my needs but transfer speeds are slow. Info states that using usb 3.0 transfer speeds up to 5GB/s are possible. I am not getting anywhere near those speeds. I have a Dell XPS 15 9500 with 32GB of RAM and two SSDs with a total of 3TB of memory. My 1TB ssd is dedicated to the operating system and the 2TB ssd is for everything else. My thunderport USB-C ports are supposed to be capable of up to 10 GB/s transfer. Since the element didn't come with a usb-c cable I had to buy one. The cable I bought is rated the same as the Elements at 5 gb/s. When transfering files from a sandisk extreme pro sdxc card I am only getting 85 mb/s. When transfering directly from my internal ssd or an external sandisk extreme ssd I get transfer speeds ... MoreThe drive is nice for the price and meets my needs but transfer speeds are slow. Info states that using usb 3.0 transfer speeds up to 5GB/s are possible. I am not getting anywhere near those speeds. I have a Dell XPS 15 9500 with 32GB of RAM and two SSDs with a total of 3TB of memory. My 1TB ssd is dedicated to the operating system and the 2TB ssd is for everything else. My thunderport USB-C ports are supposed to be capable of up to 10 GB/s transfer. Since the element didn't come with a usb-c cable I had to buy one. The cable I bought is rated the same as the Elements at 5 gb/s. When transfering files from a sandisk extreme pro sdxc card I am only getting 85 mb/s. When transfering directly from my internal ssd or an external sandisk extreme ssd I get transfer speeds of 200 mb/s.
I have bought two wd externals over the years. I take good cate of my equipment and expect it to last for years. Well we had a plan to stop that. If your gd is still working well as mine were they just end support for it so it no longer works at all. I finally ripped out the hd's, he's, them and just use them as extra HD for other things. I would not recommend spending hundreds of dollars for something that they may stop support on at anytime they want to render it worthless. Besides it was always much slower transfering data than they advertised. Buy a HD and a HD enclosure and plug it into a USB port and you'll have a storage device that will last for almost ever and you won't have to worry about support e ding ND it failing to work any longer.
With Elements Desktop formatted as NTFS I receive very often warning "Dirty file system". Disk becomes unreadable with this warning. I have to disconnect to make disk check and repair in Windows. Very unstable work as a USB HDD. And it is not clear whose fault is this. I would never buy WD or Keenetic after such behavior.Currently I am considering to buy a backup disk for this "backup disk".
| Digital storage capacity | 6000 GB |
| Hard disk interface | USB 3.0 |
| Connectivity technology | USB |
| Special feature | Shock Resistant |
| Hard disk form factor | 2.5 Inches |
