IronWolf 4TB NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD – CMR 3.5 Inch SATA 6Gb/s 5900 RPM 64MB Cache for RAID Network Attached Storage – Frustration Free Packaging (ST4000VNZ08)

I rarely write a review but decided to. First, I am old, like dirt. Retired as a system, network, cyber engineer a long, long time ago. How old? I started with Assembly language and the OSI model. LOL. I still enjoy playing with computer stuff though. I don't use these drives in a NAS but do use the IronWolf drives for my media server (recently rebuilt on a mini pc) from the old tower which I keep as a backup. I really like these drives. They can run 24x7 or on/off, depending on the system. I use them as my backup media across my desktops, laptops and servers via 6e wifi and also direct attached. They hang off external USB to SCSI enclosures and run like a charm. Well, so much for the background. The first three I bought in 2021. The next in 2022, another in 2023 as a replacement and now an IronWolf Pro just ordered as another replacement (7200RPM!) a few minutes ago. Real world experience is simply this. As of today, the last one bought in 2021 is showing signs of file corruption. Nothing major, but definitely getting some bad blocks. I scanned the drive and repaired it, but in my world, it is either perfect or replaced. Sure, they could probably go for another year, but I don't want the hassle. And for a few extra details. The drives did all not get the same usage. Some have one year, other three years. The one-year usage ones are running great, the three-year ones are showing errors. My conclusion? The IronWolf drives are great for the money. Whether in an on/off environment or 24x7, they give a solid three years of great performance and reliability. I decided to buy the IronWolf Pro 4TB running at 7200RPM for a little extra spin for those Ultra 4K movies. It was only 20 dollars more. They get my vote, just plan a three-year endurance unless you are running a NAS. Then it is not that big a deal. Enjoy! PS: I was going to buy SSD's, but with the crazy price increases since the first of the year, I'll stick with HDD's. They work great for my purposes.

I held off on submitting a review until I had a chance to put some time and usage on this hard drive. I ordered 3 of IronWolf 4TB hard drives in January 2021 and use them in a RAID 5 configuration on an Asustor AS4004T NAS. They have been in use for about 13 months. It is used in a home office setting with me as the sole user. I also use the Asustor Surveillance Center app to record 24/7 security camera footage to these hard drives. After 13 months of use, the drives have performed with no issues. The drives run quiet and cool, but keep in mind that this is due to the disks only spinning at 5900 RPM. Consequently, you'll need to manage your expectations on the read and write speeds to these disks, even if they are in a RAID configuration. I did check the serial numbers on the drives that I received on the Seagate website to confirm if these drives are covered by Seagate, and my drives had warranty periods as follows: Drive #1, Date of Manufacture: 3DEC2020; Warranty valid until 28MAR2024 Drive #2: Date of Manufacture: 2DEC2020; Warranty valid until 28MAR2024 Drive #3: Date of Manufacture: 2DEC2020; Warranty valid until 28MAR2024 Considering that I bought these drives in January 2021, these drives are practically fresh off the manufacturing line and haven't stayed in Amazon's inventory very long. However, those warranty periods don't appear to be in line with Seagate's claim of a 5-year warranty for these drives. Just wanted to point this out for those who are expecting a 5-year warranty on this particular model. Overall, there have been no issues with these drives. Expectations just need to be managed, considering that these disks only spin at 5900 RPM. Otherwise, they have performed reliably under the workload conditions I described.

Bought 2 initially. Been using for a few months for storage of large media files in a NAS. No issues so far. Since these drives are supposed to last for years, can't say much on reliability which honestly is the MOST IMPORTANT thing in a hard drive. Couple of things: These drives "sleep" and can take a few seconds to spin up and start to read/write and you can hear them when they do. It's not like they are bad or anything, but just know they can make some noise and if you don't do anything on them, they sleep. After they wake up, they are quiet and work nicely. It's not an NVMe SSD. Don't expect that kind of performance but they are pretty fast.. These drives are for reliability and capacity and are able to stay on and read/write for years. They are perfect for a small NAS. I will be buying more soon so I can start to do RAID and increase capacity as well.

Running for 3+ years and SMART status still acceptable.

I had to replace one of the drives in my RAID1 NAS due to a hard drive that went bad. When searching I found this as a suitable replacement for it and immediately replaced it into my enclosure. Once replaced and after the RAID re-assembled itself I was able to get back to my work unimpeded. The only issue I've experienced with this is slow seek times when mounting the NAS in Windows and noise. Granted I don't expect hard drives to be silent, but with drive failures in the past, I've become wary about hearing much noise with hard drives and keeping my NAS powered off periodically to attempt keeping it stable and healthy. Great drive, especially if you're using them internally in a PC or in a NAS environment.

This is the 10th 4TB drive I have gotten from Amazon. The Ironwolf line of NAS specific hard drives are always just what I expect and pay for. I have only had one drive fail and it wasn't purchased from Amazon but rather came with the NAS I salvaged from the clinic my wife worked at. Let's talk about availability first. These drives are available at the fulfillment center in Shakopee MN. That is 5 hours away so depending on the day I order they almost always make it in two days. They come in excellent packaging that is minimal and still provide solid protect for the drive. The drives themselves install quickly and easily in my Synology system. I recently purchased a 5 bay expansion unit for my DS1019. Both units use tool less trays with snap in pieces to hold the drive in place and then slide into the unit. I then expand my volume and let it go to work. There are always question about noise level and so on. To tell the true I never think about it. My Synology units are setup in the basement the coolest area of the house and as I continue remodeling down there the set up will get cooler and any noise is low. I chose the 4TB because of the below $100 dollar price point and because it fits my storage needs. While 8, 10 and upwards of 20TB drives have more space the price point is a hit if you are on a budget. The 4TB is the sweet spot. I will continue to purchase this product as I will always need more drives and they are just what I need. I highly recommend them.

I have two of these that I use in my desktop PC for long-term storage. So far, neither have failed, nor shown any signs that they are going to. They are dead reliable. They're a bit slower than desktop hard drives, but that is to be expected as these are intended to be NAS drives. Overall, if you want slow storage, these work great.

very good