WD RED - No other drive is designed specifically for home and small office NAS systems. Our exclusive technology, NASware, makes WD Red thrive in the demanding small-NAS environment.
WD RED - No other drive is designed specifically for home and small office NAS systems. Our exclusive technology, NASware, makes WD Red thrive in the demanding small-NAS environment.
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The lowest price for WD HDD 3.5in Internal SATA 3TB Red right now is $254.90.
Prices last updated 9 Nov 2024.
WD HDD 3.5in Internal SATA 3TB Red
WD RED - No other drive is designed specifically for home and small office NAS systems. Our exclusive technology, NASware, makes WD Red thrive in the demanding small-NAS environment.
WD RED - No other drive is designed specifically for home and small office NAS systems. Our exclusive technology, NASware, makes WD Red thrive in the demanding small-NAS environment.
Last updated at 09/11/2024 20:45:10
originally posted on scan.co.uk
I bought this drive for an array with relatively light write demands, knowing full well that it was an SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) drive so would trade some write performance for higher data density. However I did not expect the performance to be as horrendous as it is.Like most SMR drives this one has write-buffer written using CMR (Common Magnetic Recording) for speed, and writes into this area at a respectable 90-100mb/sec, before moving data to the SMR areas behind the scenes later.However, I've determined that this CMR area is a pathetic 2gb in size (which Western Digital does not mention anywhere) meaning it fills quickly with even modest write activity, causing write performance to fall off a cliff to a barely usable 2-5mb/sec. It can then take ... MoreI bought this drive for an array with relatively light write demands, knowing full well that it was an SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) drive so would trade some write performance for higher data density. However I did not expect the performance to be as horrendous as it is.Like most SMR drives this one has write-buffer written using CMR (Common Magnetic Recording) for speed, and writes into this area at a respectable 90-100mb/sec, before moving data to the SMR areas behind the scenes later.However, I've determined that this CMR area is a pathetic 2gb in size (which Western Digital does not mention anywhere) meaning it fills quickly with even modest write activity, causing write performance to fall off a cliff to a barely usable 2-5mb/sec. It can then take 10-15 minutes of extremely low write activity before the disk frees up this buffer again for re-use.2gb on a 4tb drive is nothing, and well below expectations; I had expected 8gb at a minimum for a drive like this, especially one intended for a NAS which is typically going to be used for back-ups.I just don't know who this drive is actually supposed to be useful for, as even an array of several of these will struggle to saturate even a slow 100mbps network connection once those buffer areas fill. It would need to be some kind of use-case where you know you're never going to write more than 2gb in a 15 minute period, which I'm struggling to think of any uses for.In short, the drive is not really fit for purpose as a NAS drive, nor for any other purpose I can think of, and it's all thanks to this most basic and fundamental design flaw. A CMR write buffer of 8gb or more would have made this drive so much more usable, as its performance is otherwise quite good (read performance is in line with other drives, CMR write performance is solid) but with only 2gb it is, as I say, barely usable.I took a punt on this being refurbished and therefore cheaper, but the £10 saved compared to a 4tb Ironwolf just isn't worth it, as that roughly 10% saving just hasn't been good value for money at all as after more than a month of using the drive I'm already looking to replace it.
originally posted on westerndigital.com
I build custom computers for artists, and they absolutely MUST have reliable, long-term data storage for their art work. WD Red and Gold are the best for their purpose.I purchased two of these in 10TB for in internal RAID 1 array, as these are excellent for long-term, heavy use storage. One of them was bad, with very slow data transfer and loud clicking. WD Customer Service replied quickly with an RMA for a refund and supplied the UPS return label. Problems with WD products are very rare, but when one does occur, their customer service is the best that I've encountered. I've dealt with CS at three of their larger competitors, and it's due to WDs superior response to a problem that their HDDs and SSDs are the only products that I will now use for data storage and ... MoreI build custom computers for artists, and they absolutely MUST have reliable, long-term data storage for their art work. WD Red and Gold are the best for their purpose.I purchased two of these in 10TB for in internal RAID 1 array, as these are excellent for long-term, heavy use storage. One of them was bad, with very slow data transfer and loud clicking. WD Customer Service replied quickly with an RMA for a refund and supplied the UPS return label. Problems with WD products are very rare, but when one does occur, their customer service is the best that I've encountered. I've dealt with CS at three of their larger competitors, and it's due to WDs superior response to a problem that their HDDs and SSDs are the only products that I will now use for data storage and transfer.My customers appreciate the reliability of these drives.
originally posted on westerndigital.com
These are by-far the most vibration-laden drives I have ever worked with in the 25+ years I have been building PCs. Even with being installed in a grommeted caddy, and having that caddy suspended in my drive cage, so much vibration still gets transferred to my case and can be heard two rooms over. Significant vibration is even transferred through the power and sata cables and into my case's side panel. I've never seen drives this poorly built in my life! These are rated to be spinning 24/7, but they are by far the loudest thing in my home whenever they spin up. I regret my purchase every single time they power on. I wish I had installed these prior to my return date so I could have sent them back. There is no way my data will last very long with how bad these ... MoreThese are by-far the most vibration-laden drives I have ever worked with in the 25+ years I have been building PCs. Even with being installed in a grommeted caddy, and having that caddy suspended in my drive cage, so much vibration still gets transferred to my case and can be heard two rooms over. Significant vibration is even transferred through the power and sata cables and into my case's side panel. I've never seen drives this poorly built in my life! These are rated to be spinning 24/7, but they are by far the loudest thing in my home whenever they spin up. I regret my purchase every single time they power on. I wish I had installed these prior to my return date so I could have sent them back. There is no way my data will last very long with how bad these vibrate. These drives are SUPPOSED to be a higher class of product, the price tag confirms as much.Note: The drives in question are the 8tb red+ with 256mb cache (WD80EFBX). Of course they just spun up again while confirming the model number with hddscan, and I'm even more displeased.
I bought this drive for an array with relatively light write demands, knowing full well that it was an SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) drive so would trade some write performance for higher data density. However I did not expect the performance to be as horrendous as it is.Like most SMR drives this one has write-buffer written using CMR (Common Magnetic Recording) for speed, and writes into this area at a respectable 90-100mb/sec, before moving data to the SMR areas behind the scenes later.However, I've determined that this CMR area is a pathetic 2gb in size (which Western Digital does not mention anywhere) meaning it fills quickly with even modest write activity, causing write performance to fall off a cliff to a barely usable 2-5mb/sec. It can then take ... MoreI bought this drive for an array with relatively light write demands, knowing full well that it was an SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) drive so would trade some write performance for higher data density. However I did not expect the performance to be as horrendous as it is.Like most SMR drives this one has write-buffer written using CMR (Common Magnetic Recording) for speed, and writes into this area at a respectable 90-100mb/sec, before moving data to the SMR areas behind the scenes later.However, I've determined that this CMR area is a pathetic 2gb in size (which Western Digital does not mention anywhere) meaning it fills quickly with even modest write activity, causing write performance to fall off a cliff to a barely usable 2-5mb/sec. It can then take 10-15 minutes of extremely low write activity before the disk frees up this buffer again for re-use.2gb on a 4tb drive is nothing, and well below expectations; I had expected 8gb at a minimum for a drive like this, especially one intended for a NAS which is typically going to be used for back-ups.I just don't know who this drive is actually supposed to be useful for, as even an array of several of these will struggle to saturate even a slow 100mbps network connection once those buffer areas fill. It would need to be some kind of use-case where you know you're never going to write more than 2gb in a 15 minute period, which I'm struggling to think of any uses for.In short, the drive is not really fit for purpose as a NAS drive, nor for any other purpose I can think of, and it's all thanks to this most basic and fundamental design flaw. A CMR write buffer of 8gb or more would have made this drive so much more usable, as its performance is otherwise quite good (read performance is in line with other drives, CMR write performance is solid) but with only 2gb it is, as I say, barely usable.I took a punt on this being refurbished and therefore cheaper, but the £10 saved compared to a 4tb Ironwolf just isn't worth it, as that roughly 10% saving just hasn't been good value for money at all as after more than a month of using the drive I'm already looking to replace it.
I build custom computers for artists, and they absolutely MUST have reliable, long-term data storage for their art work. WD Red and Gold are the best for their purpose.I purchased two of these in 10TB for in internal RAID 1 array, as these are excellent for long-term, heavy use storage. One of them was bad, with very slow data transfer and loud clicking. WD Customer Service replied quickly with an RMA for a refund and supplied the UPS return label. Problems with WD products are very rare, but when one does occur, their customer service is the best that I've encountered. I've dealt with CS at three of their larger competitors, and it's due to WDs superior response to a problem that their HDDs and SSDs are the only products that I will now use for data storage and ... MoreI build custom computers for artists, and they absolutely MUST have reliable, long-term data storage for their art work. WD Red and Gold are the best for their purpose.I purchased two of these in 10TB for in internal RAID 1 array, as these are excellent for long-term, heavy use storage. One of them was bad, with very slow data transfer and loud clicking. WD Customer Service replied quickly with an RMA for a refund and supplied the UPS return label. Problems with WD products are very rare, but when one does occur, their customer service is the best that I've encountered. I've dealt with CS at three of their larger competitors, and it's due to WDs superior response to a problem that their HDDs and SSDs are the only products that I will now use for data storage and transfer.My customers appreciate the reliability of these drives.
These are by-far the most vibration-laden drives I have ever worked with in the 25+ years I have been building PCs. Even with being installed in a grommeted caddy, and having that caddy suspended in my drive cage, so much vibration still gets transferred to my case and can be heard two rooms over. Significant vibration is even transferred through the power and sata cables and into my case's side panel. I've never seen drives this poorly built in my life! These are rated to be spinning 24/7, but they are by far the loudest thing in my home whenever they spin up. I regret my purchase every single time they power on. I wish I had installed these prior to my return date so I could have sent them back. There is no way my data will last very long with how bad these ... MoreThese are by-far the most vibration-laden drives I have ever worked with in the 25+ years I have been building PCs. Even with being installed in a grommeted caddy, and having that caddy suspended in my drive cage, so much vibration still gets transferred to my case and can be heard two rooms over. Significant vibration is even transferred through the power and sata cables and into my case's side panel. I've never seen drives this poorly built in my life! These are rated to be spinning 24/7, but they are by far the loudest thing in my home whenever they spin up. I regret my purchase every single time they power on. I wish I had installed these prior to my return date so I could have sent them back. There is no way my data will last very long with how bad these vibrate. These drives are SUPPOSED to be a higher class of product, the price tag confirms as much.Note: The drives in question are the 8tb red+ with 256mb cache (WD80EFBX). Of course they just spun up again while confirming the model number with hddscan, and I'm even more displeased.
The 3TB versions of these drives have been running in my home NAS for some time now. They have been excellent in use, more than fast enough to provide streaming and quick storage. The NAS software has not recorded any issues with any of the drives; they perform really well and are completely reliable. Consequently when I found these two WD Red NAS drives with low time on them, for the price they were offered at it was a no-brainer. I'll be substituting these larger WD Red 4TB drives into my NAS for daily storage, and put the 3TB drives to use for sporadic storage in my outboard drive dock. You can never have too much storage space and WD Red NAS are an excellent way to do that.
I have been using wd red drives in my servers for quite a while now, while my coworkers prefer Seagate drives I have held to my ways. I have 8 of these drives in a server used for archive and backups in a climate controlled server room with several other backup servers. They are in double parity raid to be able to rebuild from 2 drive failures It pulls light duty with only a small amount of data being written to and from it daily. About 1 year after install the first drive failed, I thought nothing of it, replaced the drive and rebuilt the array, sometimes drives fail. Now about a year later two more drives failed at almost the same time. I took the array offline in order to safely rebuild the array, installed two new drives and began the rebuild. Rebuild failed, ... MoreI have been using wd red drives in my servers for quite a while now, while my coworkers prefer Seagate drives I have held to my ways. I have 8 of these drives in a server used for archive and backups in a climate controlled server room with several other backup servers. They are in double parity raid to be able to rebuild from 2 drive failures It pulls light duty with only a small amount of data being written to and from it daily. About 1 year after install the first drive failed, I thought nothing of it, replaced the drive and rebuilt the array, sometimes drives fail. Now about a year later two more drives failed at almost the same time. I took the array offline in order to safely rebuild the array, installed two new drives and began the rebuild. Rebuild failed, array lost, data lost. Turned out that some of the other drives were having health issues as well that weren't encountered until rebuild. Bad sectors caused the array to be corrupted. After running some tests on the drives individually I found that only 3 of the original 8 drives were still good, 3 total failures (1 replaced early on) and then 3 more with bad sectors failing the self health check. Not sure if I ordered from a bad batch or just incredibly unlucky. I have similar drives in this environment that have been running hard for 5+ years without any issues including an array of Seagate sata drives that has been pulling daily duty for 7 years without a failure. Granted these reds are not enterprise level SAS drives.. but I expected a lot more from them. Sorry WD but in light of these events and your poor business practices of pawning off those inferior smr wd red drives on me last year (look it up) I will no longer be purchasing from you. Looks like I will be researching Toshiba mg and Seagate ironwolf or exos drives for the next build
Two WD40EFRX were put into PLeX server 7-3-15.Now they still run but along side eight WD80EFAX drives. Each drive has a MyBook B.U. drive.I have not lost a single drive or had a single problem.As with ANY electronic device the first thing I made absolutely sure of was the presence of a Power Supply that has 33% more GOLD power than the power requirements of the whole of all the parts that make up the Device, in this case a Server. I also back that Power Supply up with clean power that only a quality U.P.S. can provide, less ripple, less brown outs (the real killer/not black outs) less PROBLEMS!☆Second I make sure that proper amount of + AND - CFM flow drains the heat from the server....anyone can just slap some fans in a P.C. and say they have proper heat ... MoreTwo WD40EFRX were put into PLeX server 7-3-15.Now they still run but along side eight WD80EFAX drives. Each drive has a MyBook B.U. drive.I have not lost a single drive or had a single problem.As with ANY electronic device the first thing I made absolutely sure of was the presence of a Power Supply that has 33% more GOLD power than the power requirements of the whole of all the parts that make up the Device, in this case a Server. I also back that Power Supply up with clean power that only a quality U.P.S. can provide, less ripple, less brown outs (the real killer/not black outs) less PROBLEMS!☆Second I make sure that proper amount of + AND - CFM flow drains the heat from the server....anyone can just slap some fans in a P.C. and say they have proper heat management and many will slap a few extra fans in and say they REALLY have proper heat management. NO, bad user, BAD!! This is not how heat management worx! Read a book or a forum post from someone that does understand proper heat management and get that heat soak out of your drives!With just these two important steps well taken care of my hard drive longevity has made insane increases.Just like any "Review Collection" many people don't seem to take into account that you have absolutely no way of verifying the credentials or even just experience or wisdom of the post's owners.In my R.C. touring car Racing career and P.A./Home/Auto Audiophile hobby/second biz experience i ALWAYS started with fantastic power supply and heat removal! Amplifiers should provide MORE watts than the speakers they drive and the gains turned down to achieve zero THD for example.No one does this anymore, everyone just follows the person in front of them with blinders and blames anyone and everyone else they can when a problem arises.
Recently I set up a home network NAS server, two actually; one new and one purchased used on ebay. The used one is a 4-bay unit that arrived with 3 of these WD30EFRX 3TB NAS drives, in a Raid-5 array. That left the fourth bay empty, and as the the 3 WD drives were all matching I opted to find another drive to match them and set up a new array with all four bays in use. These older drives are not the WD Red drives being sold today. The specs appear to be the same, but there's a major difference between these older Red's and today's drives: These drives use CMR technology, while today's Red's use SMR. I'm not going to waste the space defining these terms, but I recommend you research them as to how they differ. If you want the superior CMR in a WD Red NAS drive today ... MoreRecently I set up a home network NAS server, two actually; one new and one purchased used on ebay. The used one is a 4-bay unit that arrived with 3 of these WD30EFRX 3TB NAS drives, in a Raid-5 array. That left the fourth bay empty, and as the the 3 WD drives were all matching I opted to find another drive to match them and set up a new array with all four bays in use. These older drives are not the WD Red drives being sold today. The specs appear to be the same, but there's a major difference between these older Red's and today's drives: These drives use CMR technology, while today's Red's use SMR. I'm not going to waste the space defining these terms, but I recommend you research them as to how they differ. If you want the superior CMR in a WD Red NAS drive today you must buy WD Red Plus. There's a big difference in price. Since the 3 WDs I inherited with my NAS server were not new, but in perfect condition with no errors and great specs, I purchased a used drive here on ebay. The price was excellent, shipping was quick and the drive checks out perfectly. Of course, used is used, but let's be real here. I'm running a home network for my pleasure, and to create adequate storage for tons of media and information on all kinds of subjects I've been collecting since the1980's. TheseWD30EFRX drives are perfect for this! Remember, NAS is for storage, not for backup, so I backup my storage. I'm also watching the drives' conditions for deterioration. You cannot beat the quality of these drives for the prices they are being sold at!
I got the 10TB version. It comes with 256MB of cache, so the performance is quite good even though the rotational speed is low. The thing I like best about this drive is the noise level. I have had WD Black drives in the past and they are LOUD. If you're getting a big drive for storage, this is the one to get. The added performance from the Black drives just isn't worth it. Go for an SSD for speedy storage and then get a big Red drive for storage.
My old circa 2007 Dell Precision T7400 Workstation Windows PC's BIOS and Motherboard Bus will not allow more than a 2TB Format, so I had friend format it on her PC. Properties shows it formatted at 7.27TB, but still all I can use is 2TB, and I have 1.47TB of that used already after copying files to it. I went over 2TB a few times and the PC locked up each time. So I used an old 1TB for some of the files and got the size down to 1.47TB for the 8TB Drive with about 358GB left.5 Stars overall, but it gets a ding of only 3 Stars on "Ease of Use." It may not be the WD 8TB Red Drive's fault and you'll get the whole 8TB with SOME newer PCs, but NOT ALL OF THEM. I know because I tried with a few friends' PCs before trying it in this friend's Newer Gaming PC. There are ... MoreMy old circa 2007 Dell Precision T7400 Workstation Windows PC's BIOS and Motherboard Bus will not allow more than a 2TB Format, so I had friend format it on her PC. Properties shows it formatted at 7.27TB, but still all I can use is 2TB, and I have 1.47TB of that used already after copying files to it. I went over 2TB a few times and the PC locked up each time. So I used an old 1TB for some of the files and got the size down to 1.47TB for the 8TB Drive with about 358GB left.5 Stars overall, but it gets a ding of only 3 Stars on "Ease of Use." It may not be the WD 8TB Red Drive's fault and you'll get the whole 8TB with SOME newer PCs, but NOT ALL OF THEM. I know because I tried with a few friends' PCs before trying it in this friend's Newer Gaming PC. There are brand new Windows 11 PCs and Laptops which absolutely cannot format above 2TB and some max out at only 1TB.I could return it, but I'll be building a powerful and fast Gaming Tower before much longer and I can use it for storage in that one at its full 8TB capacity.Therefore, I recommend this Hard Drive ONLY if you know what your computer is capable of and what it is not. I found out the hard way, but that's not Best Buy's fault.
I bought this hard drive to expand the storage capacity of my NAS server and I am very pleased with it. It is a high-quality hard drive that offers 8TB of space and 5400 rpm of speed. It is designed for NAS systems and it supports RAID configurations and 24/7 operation. It also has a low noise level and a low power consumption. The hard drive is easy to install and configure, and it works flawlessly with my NAS server. The hard drive is durable and reliable, and it comes with a 3-year warranty. I think this hard drive is a great choice for anyone who needs a large and fast storage device for their NAS system.
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