WD 20TB Elements External Hard Drive, Desktop HDD storage, USB 3.0 compatible, Fast Transfer rates, Plug-and-play storage for all your pictures, videos, music and documents, Black

I have been using the 20TB WD hard drive in my Unraid server for several months and it has been a reliable and efficient storage solution. The drive runs cool and quietly, which is a key factor for me.One additional benefit of this drive is that it is easy to shuck, which allowed me to use it in my server without any issues. I have not experienced any heat issues with this drive, even during extended use. Additionally, the lack of noise is a significant benefit in my setup, as it allows for a quieter computing environment.Overall, I would highly recommend the 20TB WD hard drive to anyone in need of a high-capacity storage solution. Its reliability, ease of shucking, cool operation, and low noise level make it an ideal choice for those seeking a dependable and efficient storage option.

Nice big drives and totally worth it if you can get them on sale.They do make a noise every 4.8 seconds when they are connected and idle. It's a feature called PWL (Preventive Wear Leveling) that stops the reading needle from sticking and apparently prolongs the drive's life. On the 10tb or lower drives you might not notice it unless you are actually holding the drive. Larger drives (16GB+) have a much stronger vibration and it is quite audible if the drive is placed on a hard surface, like your desk, due to resonance. It can actually be quite annoying and they really haven't done anything to try dampen it's effect on these larger drives with better casing, insulation or anything.So, if you are getting the larger versions and plan to have it connected all the time next to you I highly recommend you put something soft under it, like an insulation pad or even just a folded cloth. That will reduce the effect of the PWL ticks quite a lot.You can allow windows to turn off the drive when it's not in use too if you find the right USB Mass Storage Device in Device Manager. That will stop the noise when it's not in use but obviously it needs to spin up again when you want to use it. The noise the large drives make when spinning up is also quite loud and grindy.Excluding the drive from Windows Defender checks, if you use it, will also reduce how often the drive spins up randomly from time to time. You just choose exclude folder, select This PC and then select and exclude the entire drive. Only do that if you are happy with it being excluded from all virus checks though.

So far, so good! Pre-formatted in NTFS, which if you want for videos and connecting to your TV is the format you want. It allows the TV to write thumbnails to the disk so doesn’t have to load them every time. Also it allows you to delete videos from the TV. Not noisy, and fast to load and transfer files onto. I transferred 10 tb of videos and it took around 6 hours which I think is OK. It does go idle sometimes when connected to PC but does not do this with the tv, it responds well. Slight delay loading very large video files (>50gb) but it does load them unlike some other HDs. Very good product and happy with purchase!

WD is a market leader with this type of device. 20Tb is a good size for an external drive and for a very very reasonable price. I use it with Acronis and it easily has enough capacity to keep several backup versions of the two main 4Tb drives on my PC. USB 3 means it’s quick and it’s on 24/7 with no problems - thus far. I have several WD products including several bare 10Tb drives in a NAS and find WD drives to be very reliable and great value for money.

Bought the drive to sort out my too many drives with duplicate content on.And for that it is perfect, not that fast at transferring, but may be my machine and it got the job done.Bought for £305 was lucky I guess as it has gone up £70. No idea what the WD drive is inside, will likely take apart and add into my PC. I’m happy with it

The drive was poorly performing from the very start and in completely failed within few months. Got a replacement under guarantee. The new one was poorly performing also ( very slow) and within few months started to disconnect from the PC on its own. Putting the data at risk of being corrupted. I own few external WD HDDs all of them work quite well, but this model for what ever reason is complete trash. Don't waste your money on it.