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Review on 18 TB External HDD Western Digital WD Elements Desktop, USB 3.0, black by Adam Adam ᠌

Revainrating 3 out of 5

Performs its functions, nothing unusual.

Purchased for use as poppy's data repository. Prior to that, there was a 4TB Seagate external drive and a 4TB HGST internal drive. Currently, your only real options are Seagate or WD. Excellent linear read-write speed of 160Mb/s. Unlike HGST, the volume level is relatively modest here. Following the recommendation in one of the reviews, I placed it on a book to dampen the vibration and hum when it was not in use. It came as a shock when Seagate stopped working after only three years. For the past six years, HGST has reliably operated in continuous operation. While it's difficult to make any claims on dependability, let's see how long this one lasts. The key information has been copied and backed up. I will explain the most serious problem with it. This issue has been discussed at length before, and it is a genuine time bomb. There is a built-in power saver that does not shut off the device. Disks attached to always-on computers experience hundreds of on/off cycles daily. The energy savings are negligible, but it's simple to destroy a disk that has frequent inclusions. I deeply sorry that this show was selected. You might also try repacking the disk in a different container. There will be a review added. In preparation for adding them to the shared storage system, I went out and bought a second disk of the same model. One was a rebranded Hitachi gel WD80EDAZ, while the other was a WD air analog RED, two entirely distinct devices (WD80EZAZ). Hitachi is significantly quieter (albeit it cannot be termed silent) and cooler than any other brand (7 degrees difference in operation).

Pros
  • Low operating temperatures despite prolonged usage, high capacity at a reasonable price
Cons
  • Built-in power-saving mode that cannot be disabled. The contents of the CDs appear to be highly inconsistent between batches.