Features:

  • Specifically designed for use in NAS systems with up to 8 bays
  • Supports up to 180 TB/yr workload rate Rate is defined as amount of user data transferred to or from drive. Workload Rate is annualized (TB transferred times (8760/recorded power-on hrs)). Workload Rate will vary on hardware/software components
  • NASware firmware for compatibility
  • Small and home office NAS systems in a 24/7 environment
  • 3-year manufacturer's limited warranty
Replacement for failed 6TB EFRX model (so far so good)

I bought this one as a replacement of an EFRX model. I have read a few negative reviews and comments about the EFAX models not being the same in terms of resilience and NAS RAID functionality. This disk took about the entire day to fix the raid5 volume but had no issues. So far. One thing that surprised me is the fact that SMART reports its temperature to be about 4-5 Celsius LESS than the rest (EFRX models, seven of them). Wow. That’s super great as long as it doesn’t report any raid errors due to “slower” performance. Will keep an eye on that disk but so far I have no complaints. I have set up the NAS to perform rapid tests on all disks and it passed. I also added a full test for this disk once every month. So far it’s 90% with no errors.... 18 days up and healthy.

Happy NAS

Purchased this when a 2TB drive was dying in one of my Drobo FS NAS units - had been steadily replacing the 2TB with 6TB as necessary and WD Red is about the best you can get. The drives are fast, quiet, easy on power and have a good quality component standard. Since RED is designed for a NAS environment, they have a tendency to run a bit cooler than drives that are not NAS specific. While there are faster drives on the market (7200RPM), for most home or even SOHO users that own a NAS the 5400 RPM is perfectly fine for most cases. Western Digital has been the workhorse of disk drives for the last 20 years, and they haven't given me a reason yet to change to another brand.

Going strong after the first year.

I bought two of these a bit over a year ago to run in a RAID in my Synology NAS. Mostly holding video files, I've been upgrading and adding to my collection consistently since I set up the system. These drives have seen many large writes and erases as I've changed my mind on huge files or found better files to replace older ones. They play via the NAS to multiple Plex servers. They contain over 15 thousand video files. As of this writing, they are working perfectly and the NAS reports them to have no errors or issues. I'll update if that should change. As always, remember, that you'll loose a lot to overhead which will make the space available to you closer to 5 gigs... but that's the same with any brand.

Short Term - They are in and working. Long Term - these are SMR drives (not PMR)

I purchased these drives with a discount because I needed to expand my Synology NAS. I found out afterwards that these are SMR type drives and not PMR. While they are effectively working right now - I'll circle back if I encounter any drive failures, etc.

Installed in Synology NAS (Working great, tests fine)

Drive is a little slower than 7200rpm drives, but also a little quieter as well. I installed some of these in my Synology NAS and haven't had an issue with any of my WD Red drives to this point. They run relatively cool, quiet and are fast enough for my needs (Plex). Ran these drives through extended S.M.A.R.T. tests on my Synology before installing, drives came back without errors. Catch these guys when they go on sale, you can really get them for a great price.

Great for my NAS

I have four of these in my synology NAS with two running continuously for the last two years. Not a single problem. I selected this storage capacity based on reviews I read about the low ambient noise and I am not disappointed. I can barely hear the disks running from two feet away. I sort of wish I would have bought 8tb drives but I’m very satisfied. I’ve always had great reliability with WD products over the years.

Very reliable HDD

I purchased these HDD to put in my Synology 5-bay NAS which is configured in a RAID 5 fail over protection. I've used many different manufacturers/models and the WD RED 3.5in HDD line seems to be the most reliable drive compared to other manufacturers. I've kept my NAS powered 24/7 for 10+ years and have not had any problems with the WD RED drives. This drive is more expensive than the desktop line. What you are paying for is reliability of the drive. I would highly recommend this drive for your home office server.

It arrived, was quite.

Had the drive for a week now. So far so good. I heard tales of noisy drives. I think the higher capacity drives with more platters may be noisier. It was one reason I selected a 6TB drive. It is not noisy. Going to try and register it for warranty next. I will update my experience if I have any issues. The seller delivered as promised.

Great drive for QNAP NAS RAID

After a few years, one of the WD Red4TB drives on my QNAP finally indicated "bad". This was the same line I was using, and I'm just bumping up to 6TB to get more capacity as the remaining drives wear out. The drive swap was just as easy as QNAP advertised...all you need to do is hot swap, and about 24 hours later the RAID has done its magic and you're good to go.

I'm impressed

My 2TB WD Green runs faster and cooler than my 2TB BarraCuda, and this runs ~30% faster than my WD Green and about 5C cooler. Plus it's a NAS so I'm assuming it'll be more durable long term. I wasn't expecting much performance wise, but I'm very happy with it for media server use.

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