Seagate BarraCuda, 8TB, Internal Hard Drive, 3.5 Inch, SATA, 6GB/s,, 5,400 RPM, 256MB Cache, for Computer Desktop PC, FFP (ST8000DMZ04)

Product Information

Having a single drive storing potentially important data is always something of a gamble since physical mechanisms can, and do, go wrong. Therefore, we wouldn’t recommend putting any files on the My Book that you don’t store elsewhere, in case of failure. If you're looking for a large amount of storage, faster transfer speeds, and are okay with a large form factor and higher cost, an external drive is the best option.

In considering the non-enterprise drives, we note that the 'Unrecoverable Read Errors' metric is 10x worse for the WD and Toshiba drives compared to the Seagate ones. The MTTF metric for the IronWolf Pro is slightly better than the other drives (at 1.2M vs. 1M hours).The BarraCuda Pro strikes a nice balance across many metrics, but it is rated only for 300K load / unload cycles. It also doesn't have the RV sensors present in the rest of the drives (other than the Toshiba X300 / X300 Pro). Mainstream hard drives of 8TB capacity generally can’t fit into a portable size, but the WD My Book is still a reasonably compact unit that houses a 3.5-inch hard disk drive (HDD). It stands upright and measures 6.7 inches tall, 1.9 inches wide, and 5.5 inches deep. You must plug it into the wall with a power adapter, so it’s not easy to tote around different places. There’s a third option in the SSD vs HDD conversation as well - hybrid drives (SSHDs) offer the speed of an SSD and the capacity of a traditional HDD in a single drive. An option like this would be great if you don’t have space for multiple hard drives and want the best of both worlds. Is HDD or SSD better?

The Seagate Skyhawk AI HDD is designed with “AI'' firmware to improve the drive’s ability to handle recording, video analysis, and GPU analytics workloads. This includes up to 64 HD video streams and 32 AI streams with zero dropped frames. This is combined with a robust warranty, including a high workload rate and Seagate’s three-year data recovery service. We suspect the next generation of My Book will have this feature and offer USB 3.2 Gen 2 connectivity, but this model works for the broadest possible selection of customers right now, critically. Whether you want to build your own home theater or just learn more about TVs, displays, projectors, and more, we've got you covered. Based on these metrics, it is clear that the enterprise drives (Seagate Exos Enterprise and WD Gold) are rated to be more reliable in the long run over a big sample set. However, most consumer use-cases do not need a 550 TB/yr workload rating. 180 - 300 TB/yr workload rating is plenty reasonable for most users when the drives are going to be used as part of RAID arrays. The IronWolf Pro has larger caches for many of its models with the same storage capacity, including 20TB, and also a corresponding workload rating increase, from 300 to 550 TB/year.This hard drive has very similar specifications and pricing as the Seagate IronWolf Pro, which has the advantage of a slightly higher maximum sustained write speed and Seagate’s three-year rescue plan. The Red Pro has a larger DRAM cache, though, and its OptiNAND technology gave better 4KB results, so its better for workloads that have small I/O. And, in the UK the best value per TB is the 6TB and 14TB models, where stateside the 8TB and 14TB hold those honours.

Western Digital is one of the most trusted names in data storage, and trust is vital for a device that will hold so much of your valuable memories, media, and information. WD’s My Book external hard drive comes in an 8TB size and includes all the reliability, performance, and convenience you could want in a personal storage solution. Testing hard drives isn't that much different than testing an SSD. Typically, this involves running file copy tests to measure the transfer times of very large files and folders, but it also includes testing the hard drives with benchmarking tools like CrystalDiskMark. The price differential is so small that the Elements drive might only be for those who might be buying in bulk, but there are cheaper options available elsewhere. SSDs are incredibly popular, and it’s not hard to see why. But, if you need a lot of fast storage, and you don’t have a vault of cash, hybrid hard drives are a great option, especially for gaming.Western Digital is about as established an HDD brand as it gets, and even today, it is putting out incredibly solid hard drives for long term storage at great prices. Nowhere is this more the case than with its line of WD Blue hard drives. So how do you know which hard drive is best for you? There are a lot of things to consider, so it's not as simple as just buying the "best" hard drive. Which hard drive is best? After filtering out models that don't apply to your use-case (as an example, for usage in a 4-bay NAS enclosure, one could rule out the Toshiba X300 straight away), we can then take a look at how the specifications of various drive families compare. Hard Drive Families - Metrics of Interest