I'm sure these drives are great. After all WD has a decent reputation and up until recently I have used nothing else. Unfortunately though, there are rumours going round that despite the 5 year guarantee that comes with the drives, some drives (when installed in a Synology NAS) might flag up an error requesting replacement in case of failure.So although I bought these drives and installed them, I had to return them after I saw that they were not supported by Synology.I think this might in part be also an issue with Synology pushing their own brand of drives.Ebuyer were as understanding and amazing as ever. So although I only gave these drives 4 stars, Ebuyer get 5 stars once again.

3rd time's a charm

I had to order this 18TB drive 3 times before I actually received the 18 TB size. Twice I received an 8TB drive inside the 18TB box. The WD seal was intact but on my second time opening of the WD box I noted that it appeared someone had opened the 18TB box from the bottom as the tab was sligtly bent and replaced the drive with an 8TB drive. Both 8TB drives were sealed in anti static bags.WD does not seal both ends of the device box but they should.It was frustrating wasting so much time returning the drives and ordering a new one.Best Buy at Chesapeake Square in Virginia was very helpful and expedited my last and final attempt at ordering the 18TB drive.For the record I recorded myself opening the second shipment from Best Buy so that they didnt blame me for ... MoreI had to order this 18TB drive 3 times before I actually received the 18 TB size. Twice I received an 8TB drive inside the 18TB box. The WD seal was intact but on my second time opening of the WD box I noted that it appeared someone had opened the 18TB box from the bottom as the tab was sligtly bent and replaced the drive with an 8TB drive. Both 8TB drives were sealed in anti static bags.WD does not seal both ends of the device box but they should.It was frustrating wasting so much time returning the drives and ordering a new one.Best Buy at Chesapeake Square in Virginia was very helpful and expedited my last and final attempt at ordering the 18TB drive.For the record I recorded myself opening the second shipment from Best Buy so that they didnt blame me for the deception. I mean there's no way it could happen twice right?

Both drives failed in less than 30 days

Both drives suffered failures within 48 hours of each other. Day 27 and 29 after I ordered them (Feb 29, 2024). Came home on Wednesday March 27 and one 14 TB drive showed "unformatted". Good Friday, March 29 I was transferring files from my MacBook Pro to the other 14TB drive when suddenly files started disappearing and my transfer stalled.I spent my long weekend trying to salvage files. A call to WD Support ended up a waste as they simply told me - nothing to do but reformat. Luckily, I searched online and found a solution other than reformat. I used Chkdsk to find issues on the drive showing unformatted and at least salvaged some files. The other drive failed to recover so I cloned the one I salvaged to the other and then stored both away, afraid to use them ... MoreBoth drives suffered failures within 48 hours of each other. Day 27 and 29 after I ordered them (Feb 29, 2024). Came home on Wednesday March 27 and one 14 TB drive showed "unformatted". Good Friday, March 29 I was transferring files from my MacBook Pro to the other 14TB drive when suddenly files started disappearing and my transfer stalled.I spent my long weekend trying to salvage files. A call to WD Support ended up a waste as they simply told me - nothing to do but reformat. Luckily, I searched online and found a solution other than reformat. I used Chkdsk to find issues on the drive showing unformatted and at least salvaged some files. The other drive failed to recover so I cloned the one I salvaged to the other and then stored both away, afraid to use them until I create space on another working drive to copy the files over - just can't trust the two 14TB drives not to repeat the disaster so until I get space on existing drives, I won't use the 14 TB drives again. Maybe in a few months I can test it.

Fast enough, good cost to capacity, but noisy.

Wouldn't recommend for home use due to noise. Can't fault the cost for the capacity and it is sold as an SME drive hence still 4 stars.Bought this to upgrade my home NAS setup (unraid). Fortunately I just got the one to start with. Its fast enough on sequential writes - but its quite noisy. The whine from the rotation is audible in a quiet room, and the head movements are very noisy - they can be heard some way from the device. In addition, the heads move every 5 seconds even when the drive is idle by design.I've changed my config by adding the Samsung 8Tb SSD, and now only use this for a weekly rsync backup.

I sent mine back due to noise (click of death)

I got these because they should be the best possible drive for My Cloud Expert Series EX2 Ultra, it came with two 4TB Red drives at 5400 RPM, absolutely silent but not the fastest. So based on the capacity, speed, and CRM vs SRM I was sold and these were on sale for 200 or so. Got the drives and removed one of the 4TB drives and rebuilt the RAID1 mirror. I quickly noticed how much louder the pro drive was than the regular and that it had almost a rythmic thud, made me think click of death. Kept moving forward hoping it was something about the RAID build process. Replaced the other 4tb with the second 12tb, expanded the drive and I had a 12tb mirror just like I wanted. Extreemly fast in comparison with the 4TB WD Red drives but was hot and extremely loud, across the ... MoreI got these because they should be the best possible drive for My Cloud Expert Series EX2 Ultra, it came with two 4TB Red drives at 5400 RPM, absolutely silent but not the fastest. So based on the capacity, speed, and CRM vs SRM I was sold and these were on sale for 200 or so. Got the drives and removed one of the 4TB drives and rebuilt the RAID1 mirror. I quickly noticed how much louder the pro drive was than the regular and that it had almost a rythmic thud, made me think click of death. Kept moving forward hoping it was something about the RAID build process. Replaced the other 4tb with the second 12tb, expanded the drive and I had a 12tb mirror just like I wanted. Extreemly fast in comparison with the 4TB WD Red drives but was hot and extremely loud, across the room loud. Lived with it for a week and decided that I deserver better for what I pay. Initiated a return and picked up two 12tb Red Plus drives, these are almost as good but dead slient in my NAS. They are not as responsive or do not move as much data but the are certainly an upgrade from the 4tb WD Red that the NAS came with and to be honest they were not bad either, just lower capacity and a bit slower. Disappointed as I really wanted to Red Pro drives but simply could not deal with the noise they made nor the risk to may data.

Quiet and fast in my Synology NAS

I loaded up a bunch of competitor's 12TB drives in my Synology 1522+ NAS and used it for Apple Time Machine. At that time, I didn't understand that if I had a hot spare, I only needed to implement SHR and not SHR2 RAID, and I wasted an entire drive's worth of space.Fast forward and I found a cheap DX517 expansion module on an auction site, which I stocked with Western Digital 12TB WD Red drives. I stopped the SMB file services, moved the shared folder to the expansion module, re-formatted the base unit's drives, the moved them back.No errors and everything is now running again, letting me use the DX517 with the WD Red drives to hold my music and video libraries. Unlike the other brand of drives, the WD Red were verified and are running properly in a minimum of ... MoreI loaded up a bunch of competitor's 12TB drives in my Synology 1522+ NAS and used it for Apple Time Machine. At that time, I didn't understand that if I had a hot spare, I only needed to implement SHR and not SHR2 RAID, and I wasted an entire drive's worth of space.Fast forward and I found a cheap DX517 expansion module on an auction site, which I stocked with Western Digital 12TB WD Red drives. I stopped the SMB file services, moved the shared folder to the expansion module, re-formatted the base unit's drives, the moved them back.No errors and everything is now running again, letting me use the DX517 with the WD Red drives to hold my music and video libraries. Unlike the other brand of drives, the WD Red were verified and are running properly in a minimum of time with a minimum amount of fuss. Will buy again!

Solid

Third one bought. With Plus 14tb being priced similarly (discounts excluded), it is a no-brainer since Pro comes with 5 vs 3 year warranty. We dont use it in a NAS, rather as JBOD disks for Plex and thus far zero complaints. Hopefully that trend continues. And prices of larger drives drop, lol. Great service from Galaxus, also zero complaints. Recommended.EDIT: Finally managed to register them with WD and 2 out of 3 show only 3 years of warranty. All were bought within a span of 6 months. Clearing it up with WD at the moment, surely it is a glitch on their end since I have a few Red Plus' bought in 2023 and WD website displays warranty until 2028 which is clearly wrong since Red Plus comes with 3 year warranty Thought maybe WD changed policies, but Galaxus stil ... MoreThird one bought. With Plus 14tb being priced similarly (discounts excluded), it is a no-brainer since Pro comes with 5 vs 3 year warranty. We dont use it in a NAS, rather as JBOD disks for Plex and thus far zero complaints. Hopefully that trend continues. And prices of larger drives drop, lol. Great service from Galaxus, also zero complaints. Recommended.EDIT: Finally managed to register them with WD and 2 out of 3 show only 3 years of warranty. All were bought within a span of 6 months. Clearing it up with WD at the moment, surely it is a glitch on their end since I have a few Red Plus' bought in 2023 and WD website displays warranty until 2028 which is clearly wrong since Red Plus comes with 3 year warranty Thought maybe WD changed policies, but Galaxus stil claims 5 years of warranty. Weird. Will update as WD replies.

WD DRIVES ARE MY FAV

I’ve been buying and using Western Digital Drives since the 90s and they are STILL running. Bought (4) 3TB Drives about 10 years back and wanted to build a new NAS to replace them. I wanted to get a couple more but the Black Friday sale ended so I’ll wait for now. Only been about a month but they are running great 👍🏽 it’s crazy to think when I was a kid in the late 90s that the largest drives were about 1GB to 3GB and now 20 years later we have single drives that are well over 6,000x larger. I’ve used 100s of hard drives over the years for myself, friends, family and customers and Western Digital are the most reliable IMO. It’s even better being able to order straight from the source. Only thing that bothers me about these drives is they don’t have all the screw ... MoreI’ve been buying and using Western Digital Drives since the 90s and they are STILL running. Bought (4) 3TB Drives about 10 years back and wanted to build a new NAS to replace them. I wanted to get a couple more but the Black Friday sale ended so I’ll wait for now. Only been about a month but they are running great 👍🏽 it’s crazy to think when I was a kid in the late 90s that the largest drives were about 1GB to 3GB and now 20 years later we have single drives that are well over 6,000x larger. I’ve used 100s of hard drives over the years for myself, friends, family and customers and Western Digital are the most reliable IMO. It’s even better being able to order straight from the source. Only thing that bothers me about these drives is they don’t have all the screw holes on the bottom like my old 3TB drives and my old Quit Case Trays they sit on only line up with 2 of the screw holes. Something to consider. Other than that working good, much quicker, pretty quiet and tons of storage, I should be good for another decade 😉

WESTERM DIGITAL DOES NOT STAND BEHIND THEIR DRIVES

I wrote reviews above after 5 of 14 Red Pro NAS 16TB drives failed wihin 2 months. The most recent warrant replacement drive failed after only 2 weeks. The response to my last review suggested that I create a incident report.I also spoke to a support person by phone who said that she would look into alternatives the repeated replacements and asled that I submit receipts and photos of the drives. This was a pain difficult as it required shutting down my NAS and removing each drive.I did this and offered to pay any difference required for something more reliable than the 16TB Red Pro drives have been. The response was simply "Please be informed that under our warranty replacement services we only offer like to like replacement." If that is the case, WHY DID THE ... MoreI wrote reviews above after 5 of 14 Red Pro NAS 16TB drives failed wihin 2 months. The most recent warrant replacement drive failed after only 2 weeks. The response to my last review suggested that I create a incident report.I also spoke to a support person by phone who said that she would look into alternatives the repeated replacements and asled that I submit receipts and photos of the drives. This was a pain difficult as it required shutting down my NAS and removing each drive.I did this and offered to pay any difference required for something more reliable than the 16TB Red Pro drives have been. The response was simply "Please be informed that under our warranty replacement services we only offer like to like replacement." If that is the case, WHY DID THE SUPPORT AGENT ASK for all of the serial numbers, photos, and receipts?The drives are NAS rated, approved for the Synology enclosure, and set to hibernate when not active. This is most of the time, since the system is only accessed once each night to receive backup copies from our main server. THis worked reliably for 2 years using Red Pro NAS 12 TB drives.I replaced the 12 TB drives (to increase capacity) and the problems began. So, I do believe the problem is the Red Pro NAS 16TB drives.Western Digital, PLEASE STAND BEHIND YOUR DEFECTIVE PRODUCTS. REPLACING THEM WITH REFURBISHED DRIVES THAT WORK FOR ONLY 2 WEEKS IS NOT SUFFICIENT.

Work flawlessly in my Synology NAS.

I have had three 16TB drives in my synology NAS for 9 months now and the three drives are working great. They are a bit of an overkill and expensive for my home NAS. Wife has thousands of hi resolution photos and videos from our world travels, so thought big to start with for thousands more.Reason I chose WD hard drives: After 40 years of building my own computers and using WD drives of all kinds and sizes, I have never had one fail.They do make s slight chuckling noise when doing a write operation such as a full computer backup, but even sitting on a shelf 4 feet from my ears, they are not annoying and run with minimal cooling fan operation without getting even warm. An ethernet connected network to my computer retrieves stored files faster than my hard drives ... MoreI have had three 16TB drives in my synology NAS for 9 months now and the three drives are working great. They are a bit of an overkill and expensive for my home NAS. Wife has thousands of hi resolution photos and videos from our world travels, so thought big to start with for thousands more.Reason I chose WD hard drives: After 40 years of building my own computers and using WD drives of all kinds and sizes, I have never had one fail.They do make s slight chuckling noise when doing a write operation such as a full computer backup, but even sitting on a shelf 4 feet from my ears, they are not annoying and run with minimal cooling fan operation without getting even warm. An ethernet connected network to my computer retrieves stored files faster than my hard drives in my computer. So the whole system is working great.