Review on 💾 Seagate 4TB BarraCuda Internal Hard Drive - 3.5 Inch SATA 6Gb/s, 5400 RPM, 256MB Cache for Computer Desktop, PC, Laptop (ST4000DM004) by Dale Hing

These discs are cost effective because they use SMR technology, which slightly overlaps the disc's tracks to increase capacity. The cost of overwriting is that when you overwrite a portion of the disk, you have to overwrite large areas of the disk, resulting in a significant and painful loss in write performance. My son bought two for use in a desktop mirror for data security that Seagate needs to recognize as a regular desktop configuration (ie not a NAS system). Shame on them for selling these crippled drives for desktop use without clearly labeling them as SMR, even though they knew they were unsuitable for some, even most, desktop use cases. My son said from day one that the performance was terrible. Now we know why as this deceptive marketing practice has become public knowledge.