I never use anything other than Seagate drives, whether internal, external or portable, I've always found them to be reliable and incredibly long-lasting. This 6TB drive was bought to replace its predecessor, a 5-year-old 3TB model that had become too full to add any more media files to it. Oddly enough, I wanted 5TB, but it was more expensive. Simple to set up of course and pretty quick at transferring files through the USB 3.0 connection to the mobo. The drive, like the old one, is designed to be operated standing on its edge (so to speak), as the rubber feet are solely placed on one side, as a result there is only one 'operating' LED on the back end of the opposite side to those feet. Personally I never use it in this configuration, I always put rubber bumpers on ... MoreI never use anything other than Seagate drives, whether internal, external or portable, I've always found them to be reliable and incredibly long-lasting. This 6TB drive was bought to replace its predecessor, a 5-year-old 3TB model that had become too full to add any more media files to it. Oddly enough, I wanted 5TB, but it was more expensive. Simple to set up of course and pretty quick at transferring files through the USB 3.0 connection to the mobo. The drive, like the old one, is designed to be operated standing on its edge (so to speak), as the rubber feet are solely placed on one side, as a result there is only one 'operating' LED on the back end of the opposite side to those feet. Personally I never use it in this configuration, I always put rubber bumpers on the side which corresponds to the bottom of the disk inside which, because of the ventilation grilles on both narrow sides and the rear, is easily discernable. The only complaint I have is that there is no 'off' switch on it, which is a necessity in my case as it is only used to store a secondary backup of all my media. It means that it runs all the time that the PC is turned on, even if it's been ejected. My solution, as was with the prior drive, is to use a toggle switch which is spliced into one of the wires of the power supply. This shouldn't null the warranty as it cannot possibly affect the drive in any way as it is exactly what a built-in switch would do.So basically, because I've had to make a switch when for this price, and it's not cheap, there should be one on it, it loses one star.

Awful Experience

Seagate makes awful drives, which, while a bit cheaper than WD and the others, are not worth the savings. I will never use them again based on the recent failed drives and poor technical support.I have had only a few problems with drives; all of the ones I had that died were this brand. The most recent was awful; they don't have phone support and offer a chat with associates who are very difficult to communicate with.My problem was with a 16TB drive I had for a few weeks. Suddenly, the 10TB of video files turned into 5TB, and many files turned into 0KB for no reason. After support told me they could try and restore the drive and, if not, send me back the original, they sent me a 5TB drive with just that data on it and said it was restored. I reached out and told ... MoreSeagate makes awful drives, which, while a bit cheaper than WD and the others, are not worth the savings. I will never use them again based on the recent failed drives and poor technical support.I have had only a few problems with drives; all of the ones I had that died were this brand. The most recent was awful; they don't have phone support and offer a chat with associates who are very difficult to communicate with.My problem was with a 16TB drive I had for a few weeks. Suddenly, the 10TB of video files turned into 5TB, and many files turned into 0KB for no reason. After support told me they could try and restore the drive and, if not, send me back the original, they sent me a 5TB drive with just that data on it and said it was restored. I reached out and told them the mistake. They said they would try again, and, then there was no response, and they said the lab got rid of the original drive. PLEASE don't let this happen to you.

Can't believe how quiet this is...

So far so good. I bought this to use with MacOS and it worked right out of the box. Reformatted to MacOS Extended Journaled. The hard drive is REALLY quiet, especially for a conventional hard drive. I am currently transferring 4TB of data onto the drive, and I occasionally hear a small sound from it, but most of the time it is almost as silent as an SSD!One weird thing, when I opened the box, there was a slight rattling sound as if a pebble was inside the enclosure. I turned it over multiple times and I believe the object fell out (though I cannot locate it). Hopefully that wasn't a crucial piece that operates the fan - and that's why the drive is so quiet!We'll see how this thing holds up in the long run. If there are issues, I will update my review.

Definitely get one when they are sale

Typically this have enterprise drives. My last two had ST14000NM0121 drives. Those are labelled as Mach 2 16x Exo drives. Since taking these drives out of the enclosure voids the warranty, if you plan on doing so, test like you would a refurbished or used drive first to minimize your risks.The USB enclosures are average at best. You will get additional failures and errors because of the enclosures. And since they don't have adequate cooling disipate heat the drives won't last as long in the enclosures. But if you are really using them as a desktop expansion then they are adequate for the task.I also recommend when they go on sale check on the web what drives they are shipping with. As it can save you time and effort if it is a drive model you are not interested in.

Good but could use improvement

I bought the 16tb version but I have not tested it yet. I would however, like to explain my experience with the 14tb version. I have had this for the last 2 years. It works well but I have to say it is very noisy. I live in a studio and if I leave it plugged in overnight I cannot sleep. I can hear it refresh and the spinning sound of the drive or the fan is just so loud. It seems to go off every like 20 minutes all night.I also had an issue with my initial purchase. The first one I ordered kept disconnecting even though I wasn’t touching it so I had to get a replacement. The replacement has been doing fine ever since. It is now full which is why I had to buy a new one. The price is really good but I hate the noise.I would not leave it on for longer than it needs ... MoreI bought the 16tb version but I have not tested it yet. I would however, like to explain my experience with the 14tb version. I have had this for the last 2 years. It works well but I have to say it is very noisy. I live in a studio and if I leave it plugged in overnight I cannot sleep. I can hear it refresh and the spinning sound of the drive or the fan is just so loud. It seems to go off every like 20 minutes all night.I also had an issue with my initial purchase. The first one I ordered kept disconnecting even though I wasn’t touching it so I had to get a replacement. The replacement has been doing fine ever since. It is now full which is why I had to buy a new one. The price is really good but I hate the noise.I would not leave it on for longer than it needs to be because the spinning is where drives tend to have issues. Every time it starts up is an opportunity for the drive to fail or for a file to become corrupt which is why SSDs are preferred but the price is very high.I use this more for long term storage and lecie for short term files. I work directly off of the Lecie and after a few months I will offload those files to the segate.If you have the money get an SSD, go for a better brand like lecie, but if you don’t have a lot of money to spend and have a ton of files to store this is the best cost effective version.

Good drive from a known company

What I liked about it:This drive is a beast in terms of capacity... 12 TB!!!For an HDD the speed was pretty good. Using the Blackmagic Speed Test it gave me around 230 MB/s on both, read and write.I don't see myself using it for editing videos but definitely for archival.If you are a photographer you can probably use it as your main media drive.What I didn't like so much and ultimately made me remove a star:It comes with a USB-A cable. Everyone is transitioning to USB-C so I had to use an adapter for my Mac.The paperwork points you to a Seagate.com/rescue page that doesn't exist. I'm not sure if it's to download additional software or if it's for the recovery service they offer.Overall I think it's a very good drive if you're looking for a lot of storage ... MoreWhat I liked about it:This drive is a beast in terms of capacity... 12 TB!!!For an HDD the speed was pretty good. Using the Blackmagic Speed Test it gave me around 230 MB/s on both, read and write.I don't see myself using it for editing videos but definitely for archival.If you are a photographer you can probably use it as your main media drive.What I didn't like so much and ultimately made me remove a star:It comes with a USB-A cable. Everyone is transitioning to USB-C so I had to use an adapter for my Mac.The paperwork points you to a Seagate.com/rescue page that doesn't exist. I'm not sure if it's to download additional software or if it's for the recovery service they offer.Overall I think it's a very good drive if you're looking for a lot of storage and decent speeds for most office/home stuff.

Good drive lousy enclosure

You would think over the years Seagate would improve the drive enclosures. They haven't. My best advice, rip the drive from the enclosure and install in a good quality NAS or DAS. Terramaster has been running good prices lately. In the enclosures you will see bad blocks. Not at a very high rate, but it only takes one to corrupt a file.History has shown in the enclosure I am reformatting the drive after two years to fix unrepairable corruption, and then every year after that. In a proper NAS you can easily get 3x as long. The biggest issue is one failed drive on your USB bus of these individual drive can fail multiple drives, and the boot to recover typically results in some corruption.Of course with the size of these drives there is no reason you shouldn't use a ... MoreYou would think over the years Seagate would improve the drive enclosures. They haven't. My best advice, rip the drive from the enclosure and install in a good quality NAS or DAS. Terramaster has been running good prices lately. In the enclosures you will see bad blocks. Not at a very high rate, but it only takes one to corrupt a file.History has shown in the enclosure I am reformatting the drive after two years to fix unrepairable corruption, and then every year after that. In a proper NAS you can easily get 3x as long. The biggest issue is one failed drive on your USB bus of these individual drive can fail multiple drives, and the boot to recover typically results in some corruption.Of course with the size of these drives there is no reason you shouldn't use a self healing filesystem like btrfs or zfs with redundancy Then with a weekly scrub you probably will have a healthy file system until you replace the drive with a higher capacity.

Top end SATA HDD inside, mediocre USB-SATA bridge

Top notch SATA HDD inside, mediocre USB-SATA bridgeThe 16TB Seagate Expansion Desktop (STKP16000400) external drive with USB interface contains an internal 3.5" SATA drive inside its enclosure. The enclosure also contains the electronics for converting SATA to USB. I have tested it fairly thoroughly with Seagate's SeaChest tools and also with third party SMART control utilities.Warranty: One immediate issue is that the retail box outside claims a 3 year warranty, but that seems incorrect: When I enter the serial number printed on the case in the Seagate warranty checking website, it shows a 14 month warranty.The drive inside is a top-end internal 3.5" 7200RPM Seagate 16TB Exos X18 series CMR SATA drive (with a different serial number than the one printed on ... MoreTop notch SATA HDD inside, mediocre USB-SATA bridgeThe 16TB Seagate Expansion Desktop (STKP16000400) external drive with USB interface contains an internal 3.5" SATA drive inside its enclosure. The enclosure also contains the electronics for converting SATA to USB. I have tested it fairly thoroughly with Seagate's SeaChest tools and also with third party SMART control utilities.Warranty: One immediate issue is that the retail box outside claims a 3 year warranty, but that seems incorrect: When I enter the serial number printed on the case in the Seagate warranty checking website, it shows a 14 month warranty.The drive inside is a top-end internal 3.5" 7200RPM Seagate 16TB Exos X18 series CMR SATA drive (with a different serial number than the one printed on the external case of the Expansion Desktop drive). I had bought that same model bare internal drive for $20 more a few weeks ago, also from Best Buy, and it came with a full 5 year warranty (verified again with Seagate website). OTOH, when I enter the serial number of the internal 3.5" Exos SATA drive that is inside the external Expansion drive case, Seagate says no warranty.Shucking considerations: People needing only SATA (not USB) may buy this cheaper external drive and then shuck the internal SATA drive out to save $20, but the trade off is in the warranty: The enclosure cannot be opened without damage and it will void even the 14-month warranty. So the additional cost for the bare internal drive can be viewed as the price for purchasing a 5 year warranty. OTOH, while this external USB Exapansion drive has very little warranty, it comes with a USB enclosure if you need USB.Performance and management: Sequential read and write speeds were ~245MB/sec under the uas driver in linux. However, the USB/SATA bridge chipset that Seagate is using is not the greatest. If you use the uas driver in linux, then it seems "ATA pass-through over scsi" does not work, and so SMART and EPC cannot be viewed or configured. To use SMART or EPC, I have to use the vanilla usb-storage driver without uas (via a quirk), which is a little slower with sequential R/W at ~230MB/sec. This has been a problem with all Seagate external USB HDDs (I have seven, Backup Plus/Slim, etc). When I use my other bare internal 3.5" Seagate Exos drive (the same model and size that's inside the external Expansion case) with a better quality USB/SATA chipset (ASM1153), ATA pass-through over scsi works with the uas driver and I get even better speed, sequential R/W at ~280MB/sec.Power management: The drive has EPC and a 2min timeout from Idle_A to Idle_B. Timed standby seems to be disabled and I could not enable it, even with Seagate's SeaChest tools. Manually putting it to standby (spin-down) works.Power consumption (at the AC wall adapter): Drive starting/spinning up = ~23W, Actively reading/writing = ~10W, Idle_A (heads loaded) = ~6.5W, Idle_B (heads parked) = ~4.5W, Spun down to Standby_Z or in Sleep = ~1.8W, USB cable unplugged from host = 0W.Bottom line: If you are happy with the limited warranty and USB is what you need, then this is a good purchase at less than $16/TB.

plain and simple external hard disk drive

No fancy features, no extra software necessary. If you don't want a hardware password, then buy this Seagate "Expansion Portable" USB 3.0 drive instead of the "One Touch" model. Average continuous write speed is around 29 MB/s and average read speed is somewhere over 34 MB/s. There were no errors when filling the drive with pseudo-random data and reading it back to verify, which is about two days of testing. If you have Java on your computer, you can run the same test program: https://github.com/kwfenske/erase-disk-javaNote that 4 and 5 TB models are almost twice as thick as the 1 and 2 TB models. The smaller sizes fit nicely in a shirt pocket. To keep the drive and the USB cord together when not in use, pick up a high-tech accessory from the grocery store: ... MoreNo fancy features, no extra software necessary. If you don't want a hardware password, then buy this Seagate "Expansion Portable" USB 3.0 drive instead of the "One Touch" model. Average continuous write speed is around 29 MB/s and average read speed is somewhere over 34 MB/s. There were no errors when filling the drive with pseudo-random data and reading it back to verify, which is about two days of testing. If you have Java on your computer, you can run the same test program: https://github.com/kwfenske/erase-disk-javaNote that 4 and 5 TB models are almost twice as thick as the 1 and 2 TB models. The smaller sizes fit nicely in a shirt pocket. To keep the drive and the USB cord together when not in use, pick up a high-tech accessory from the grocery store: medium-sized heavy-duty zipper freezer bags (plastic, 18 cm wide or 7 inch).