If you don't know what an SMR HDD is then don't buy any hard drives until you learn how tell them from safe HDDs. I had a reliable RAID array that had a HDD fail. I replaced it with a SMR drive not being aware of them and how bad they were. The system become extremely unreliable. This drive was used to replace that SMR drive and now I have a reliable trouble free system again.I know that the WD Red series was considered the gold standard for HDD but they killed that reputation by add undocumented SMR to their Red series. Given that there is no good reason to consider WD a better choice Seagate is a valid alternative. Some Seagate drives, such as this particular model are a good choice.Buy this model and be happy or buy another model only after you have done your ... MoreIf you don't know what an SMR HDD is then don't buy any hard drives until you learn how tell them from safe HDDs. I had a reliable RAID array that had a HDD fail. I replaced it with a SMR drive not being aware of them and how bad they were. The system become extremely unreliable. This drive was used to replace that SMR drive and now I have a reliable trouble free system again.I know that the WD Red series was considered the gold standard for HDD but they killed that reputation by add undocumented SMR to their Red series. Given that there is no good reason to consider WD a better choice Seagate is a valid alternative. Some Seagate drives, such as this particular model are a good choice.Buy this model and be happy or buy another model only after you have done your research. Remember all brands, including Seagate, have SMR models and are not very forth coming about which models are SMR and which are not.

All the posted reviews below must be fake...

This drive as advertised is clearly a bait and switch. Do YOUR RESEARCH! The model number listed is NOT a surveillance model. You can find this out easily enough just looking it up. The actual specs for that model are NOWHERE NEAR the specs advertised here. Now... How do I know Amcrest is ripping off consumers? Because I did NOT bother to research this company as well as I should have and believed they would actually ship as advertised. What did I receive? That's the right model NUMBER, but the drive is definitely NOT a surveillance grade. When I took the time to research that model number at SEAGATE's website, I found out the truth. Amcrest claims to be selling you a surveillance grade drive, custom-built for surveillance applications with maximum 180TB/year ... MoreThis drive as advertised is clearly a bait and switch. Do YOUR RESEARCH! The model number listed is NOT a surveillance model. You can find this out easily enough just looking it up. The actual specs for that model are NOWHERE NEAR the specs advertised here. Now... How do I know Amcrest is ripping off consumers? Because I did NOT bother to research this company as well as I should have and believed they would actually ship as advertised. What did I receive? That's the right model NUMBER, but the drive is definitely NOT a surveillance grade. When I took the time to research that model number at SEAGATE's website, I found out the truth. Amcrest claims to be selling you a surveillance grade drive, custom-built for surveillance applications with maximum 180TB/year workload rating. That is three times the workload rating of desktop drives, making them reliable performing in write-intensive surveillance systems. But when you look at the specs based on Seagate model number, there is NO reference to it being a surveillance model AND the maximum workload per year is less than 55. So according to Amcrest's statement, you can readily expect this drive to fail in less than a year! On top of that you can purchase this cheap basic drive anywhere else for $99 retail. DONT BE A SUCKER!

Great drive for NVR

For those of us not having many cameras, buying smaller capacity surveillance cable drives still makes sense. At present, a 1TB drive is about the smallest I'd consider to be viable for that purpose. My NVR automatically configures drives for RAID configuration, so four of these 1TB drives were needed. This was the only drive that arrived in perfect condition on the first try. Mostly that's due to the fact that it was also the only one properly packed for shipment. It took 3 separate orders totally 6 drives to get just three working drives when ordered from another vendor via the "smile" site. Even the "smile" site gave up on trying to successfully fulfill my order after the vendor shipped a third attempt only to result in yet another failed drive. Kudos to VPCI for ... MoreFor those of us not having many cameras, buying smaller capacity surveillance cable drives still makes sense. At present, a 1TB drive is about the smallest I'd consider to be viable for that purpose. My NVR automatically configures drives for RAID configuration, so four of these 1TB drives were needed. This was the only drive that arrived in perfect condition on the first try. Mostly that's due to the fact that it was also the only one properly packed for shipment. It took 3 separate orders totally 6 drives to get just three working drives when ordered from another vendor via the "smile" site. Even the "smile" site gave up on trying to successfully fulfill my order after the vendor shipped a third attempt only to result in yet another failed drive. Kudos to VPCI for properly packing the drive! Thanks! I wouldn't hesitate to order a disk from you guys again!

Guy's review of SKYHAWK 2TB SURVEILLANCE 3.5IN 6GB/S SATA 64MB

Pros: The packaging was impressive: no plastics, but recyclable cardboard in an intricate form that protected the drives well. The drives themselves were well finished, screw threads clean and free of swarf, all excellent. I've only had them for a few months, but they have been quiet and fault free.Cons: I changed policy from 7,200 drives to these. The difference in speed is not noticeable in normal use, but it certainly was when transferring 2TB data to each one. Faster NAS drives would be something to look forward to in future.

I just bought a 2 TB Skyhawk for a small NVR and camera system I just purchased. I also purchased...

I just bought a 2 TB Skyhawk for a small NVR and camera system I just purchased. I also purchased a 2 TB WD Purple drive, and decided to install one of these in the NVR and the other in a USB enclosure attached to the NVR as a backup. I ended up putting the Purple in the USB enclosure and set the Skyhawk as the installed drive inside the NVR, based on reviews here and some reviews of the WD Purple, which claimed video sometimes stuttered. I have always been a fan of Seagate drives, though some of the Seagate desktop drives, though making little seek/head noise, can vibrate more than their WD counterparts. This is an issue I have NOT seen in the Seagate NAS drives, of which I have several (Ironwolf and last generation NAS, also). These are the first ... MoreI just bought a 2 TB Skyhawk for a small NVR and camera system I just purchased. I also purchased a 2 TB WD Purple drive, and decided to install one of these in the NVR and the other in a USB enclosure attached to the NVR as a backup. I ended up putting the Purple in the USB enclosure and set the Skyhawk as the installed drive inside the NVR, based on reviews here and some reviews of the WD Purple, which claimed video sometimes stuttered. I have always been a fan of Seagate drives, though some of the Seagate desktop drives, though making little seek/head noise, can vibrate more than their WD counterparts. This is an issue I have NOT seen in the Seagate NAS drives, of which I have several (Ironwolf and last generation NAS, also). These are the first surveillance-specific drives I have purchased. This Skyhawk is QUIET, probably one of the quietest drives I have ever used - you can barely heard it at all, even when pressing your ear against the NVR enclosure. Like the NAS drives, there is no vibration, either. I love my HGST NAS drives and had a couple extras, but they're not the quietest drives on the market, and didn't want something hammering away that you can hear two rooms down inside an NVR. The good reviews have given me confidence this will be a great drive for the long haul.

Jack's review of SKYHAWK 2TB SURVEILLANCE 3.5IN 6GB/S SATA 64MB

Pros: Great drive, very fast transfer speeds in both read and write and cost effective for the capacity.Cons: Enterprise/NAS drives are much louder than standard consumer drives which can be a small annoyance when installed in a desktop computer. However this is a trade off for the capacity and performance.

So far so good! Using as a dedicated drive in a Dell Optiplex SFF and working great. With 12 stre...

So far so good! Using as a dedicated drive in a Dell Optiplex SFF and working great. With 12 streams of 4K and 5MP going to it 24/7 it’s hardly working according to the task manager status. Everyone recommended the WD surveillance Drives but they’re significantly more expensive. I hope that this drive last and is of good value. Only time can tell. Been running it for about a month. If it craps out in a unreasonable period of time, I’ll update this review.

Speed and durability.

I have used this same drive for several years without issue until we had a serious grid failure that caused the electricity to flutter on and off, with the associated surges that finally killed the drive and messed up my wife's computer. The drive ran for several years before this incident, 24 hours a day, 7-days a week supporting 8 cameras recording in HD 1080p. Videos were pulled and recorded from the drive on several occasions to support police reports and never failed to function perfectly. I highly recommend this product.

The health management(HM) system which suppose to be built into this drive does not work with hik...

The health management(HM) system which suppose to be built into this drive does not work with hikvision NVRs. The 8 TB Skyhawk drive I also have works fine. Contacted Seagate over the HMA issue thinking 6TB drives does not have this capability but Seagate claims it does. Contacted Hikvision and they claim it's the drive not their NVR firmware . Just a run around. If you want to make use of the HM stay away from the 6TB Skyhawk drive and purchase the 8TB or Western Digital Purple Update 11/15/2020... Updated the NVR to newest firmware and now the health management works.

Works great in it's intended use

I am using this in my Zmodo 4 Camera 960H DVR. It has been in use for about 3 weeks now, so no long term reliability information, but so far so good. This is kept in my unconditioned garage, temps range from 40°F to 95°F. I have 3 of the 4 cameras hooked up, 1 records 24/7, the other 2 are on motion activation. This drive is the 2 TB version, replacing a WD Green 2.5 TB drive that has been in it for about 2 years. First thing I noticed once the drives were swapped is it is almost silent now. Not that the WD green was loud or anything, just this Skyhawk drive is super quiet. I checked the temp of the case over the HDD with an IR thermometer, and with the WD green it would be about 10-15°F above ambient, the Skyhawk is 5-10°F above ambient, so it does run a little ... MoreI am using this in my Zmodo 4 Camera 960H DVR. It has been in use for about 3 weeks now, so no long term reliability information, but so far so good. This is kept in my unconditioned garage, temps range from 40°F to 95°F. I have 3 of the 4 cameras hooked up, 1 records 24/7, the other 2 are on motion activation. This drive is the 2 TB version, replacing a WD Green 2.5 TB drive that has been in it for about 2 years. First thing I noticed once the drives were swapped is it is almost silent now. Not that the WD green was loud or anything, just this Skyhawk drive is super quiet. I checked the temp of the case over the HDD with an IR thermometer, and with the WD green it would be about 10-15°F above ambient, the Skyhawk is 5-10°F above ambient, so it does run a little cooler. I do get a little less time from this drive than the WD Green, but it also has 500 gb less storage space, so it is to be expected. With my current camera setup, I should get 6-7 weeks of storage. As for playback quality, I don't really see much of a difference between this and what was in there before. Knowing I have a drive designed 24/7 recording is a nice thing though, I was always a little worried about using the Green drive for that. While this is designed for DVR/security cameras, it is a drive that can be used anywhere you need a HDD. I debated using it in my HTPC, but decided to use it in it's intended purpose. I did not run any transfer speed tests, I just stuck it in the Security system. I have read some sites state it is a 7200 rpm drive but have no idea if it really is.