I bought 3 of these to put into an external USB 3.0 enclosure to run Windows Storage Spaces in parity mode. Installation & operation has been effortless. Before loading files I ran WD's comprehensive surface test...no flaws. I'm storing media files..

Plug & play

Wish they were cheaper

I needed a good, reliable and spacious drive for backup of my media. My previous drive died and took my data with it. Fortunately, I backed it up to tape before it stopped working. I had purchased WD drives before, and knew their reputation for quality and longevity.

The hard drive works ok but I agree with many other people that is a little bit noisy. I can't judge speed wise or lifespan yet but I will update as soon as I have more information. The noise is only produced when working so unless it's in your bedroom it's good

Better, reliable and good speed. Longer warranty period.

Faster than Seagate 8TB Archive HDD Helium filled; for lower work temperatures Good for NAS and Desktop use Hitachi Quality! (HGST

If it crashed then difficult restore data from it

Works well in a synology NAS. I have 3 western digital red drives of various sizes in NASes. I like to have a mix of drives and drive manufacturers, and these REDs keep running for years without issues.

I run two WHS2011 servers each with 17GB onboard and progressively upgrading storage space. Currently have one of these drives in each server and they have been great. Fully intend to replace smaller drives with these over time.

Paired it with a DiskStation DS216+II, makes 30-50 mbps on gigabit ethernet. You will trade speed for energy consumption and less sound than a 7200 rpm drive.

Bought a pair of these to upgrade my RAID array from 2TB. They are only 5400 RPM so the transfer speeds aren't that impressive (only a pain when moving data to the array) but they run cool and quiet.

-Runs cool and quiet; -Decent performance; -Fast RAID rebuild time

Pricing

Western Digital has expanded their Red line to include an 8TB model, increasing the maximum capacity of 8-bay NAS units to 64TB so that SOHO users can get even more out of their initial server investment.

Lower energy usage than a traditional drive; Optimized for NAS use; Good performance overall

Trailed slightly behind compeititve drive in most tests

As time progresses, sometimes I wonder how far we have come. For me personally, I still remember when I was still in high school, wondering what I should study in university just like it was yesterday.