I have had these drives installed and functioning in a Raid 5 NAS for 5 days and 21 hours. They are functioning as expected. If they can continue to function as expected for the next 10-15 years, I will give a five star rating. However, right now the rating is good, as expected, for new equipment.

A good drive

This is my 1st 18Tb drive. It will take around 30 hours to fully copy this drive assuming you have a constant speed of 110,000 kbytes/second.The drive is not noisy, and it does not heat up that much compared to other drives of lesser capacity. I use this drive as a backup solution and as a test drive. If this drive works fine then i will buy more of those drives. I've always been impressed with the lifespan on the Hitachi drives (Ultrastar is the Hitachi name owned by IBM before). Almost all my Hitachi drives never failed on me for the last 8 years and they have been working constantly 24 hours a day. Also Hitachi's returning policy is the best: if your drive fails, they will send you a new drive instead of a refurbished drive, this is why I only buy Hitachi ... MoreThis is my 1st 18Tb drive. It will take around 30 hours to fully copy this drive assuming you have a constant speed of 110,000 kbytes/second.The drive is not noisy, and it does not heat up that much compared to other drives of lesser capacity. I use this drive as a backup solution and as a test drive. If this drive works fine then i will buy more of those drives. I've always been impressed with the lifespan on the Hitachi drives (Ultrastar is the Hitachi name owned by IBM before). Almost all my Hitachi drives never failed on me for the last 8 years and they have been working constantly 24 hours a day. Also Hitachi's returning policy is the best: if your drive fails, they will send you a new drive instead of a refurbished drive, this is why I only buy Hitachi (rebranded WD). All those things should be taken into consideration when you buy a drive. Of course it's still too soon to know how long this drive will last but i will make sure to update my review is something else comes up.

A solid backup drive

This drive is on the cutting edge with all the bells and whistles - EAMR, helium-filled, triple stage actuator, and a whopping nine platters. When it spins up, you can feel it and hear it running. I use it as a backup drive in an external enclosure, so I spin it down when it's not in use. I'm a bit unclear on the warranty policy. I got it cause I thought it was 5 years (as it is on WDC's site), but Newegg is listing it as a 2 year warranty, so if it's actually 2 years (which seems wrong), that would be a big negative.

As good as it gets.

UltraStar drives have a consistent reliable track record. Check for yourself on BackBlaze where they rate all Hard Drives. This 18TB is no exception. I've updated 3 older UltraStar drives (2) 10TB UltraStars that have been in use for approx. 6 years. These drives are turned on everyday and run approx 16 hours a day in a residential setting using Windows 7. I use them for storing 1080p and 4K videos. Never had a problem with these drives, at some point all drives will fail some more than others but the UltraStars give me peace of mind. Not the cheapest drive out there but they do have the Western Digital 5 year factory warranty and set up only took a few minutes. I'm using a Dell Precision 7910 with Dual Xeon Processors and 64GB Ram which is also about 6 years old ... MoreUltraStar drives have a consistent reliable track record. Check for yourself on BackBlaze where they rate all Hard Drives. This 18TB is no exception. I've updated 3 older UltraStar drives (2) 10TB UltraStars that have been in use for approx. 6 years. These drives are turned on everyday and run approx 16 hours a day in a residential setting using Windows 7. I use them for storing 1080p and 4K videos. Never had a problem with these drives, at some point all drives will fail some more than others but the UltraStars give me peace of mind. Not the cheapest drive out there but they do have the Western Digital 5 year factory warranty and set up only took a few minutes. I'm using a Dell Precision 7910 with Dual Xeon Processors and 64GB Ram which is also about 6 years old never had a problem with PC or drives. Could be just lucky. OWC has them at the best price I could find and delivery was quick.

Bought in Nov 2021, received in Dec 2021, well tested since then. Till today, Apr 2022, the drive is still running fine, fully utilized 16TB

Bought in Nov 2021, received in Dec 2021, well tested since then. Till today, Apr 2022, the drive is still running fine, fully utilized 16TB, worth of money Thank you seller. Nice package with big bubble wraps and two boxes on it ensuring the disk is not damaged by the shock during shipment

Excellent Price on a Solid HDD, But Check Your Warranty!

I received the drive and immediately checked the warranty using the WD warranty checker. It stated that the drive was *not* under warranty through WD. I reached out to OWC and they confirmed that WD should honor the 5 year warranty, not OWC. After going back to WD support, and then a tedious back and forth over the next week with them, I was able to get WD to cover the drive. The warranty checker still says it's not covered, but WD support said if I ever had issues with the drive to present my support communications history and I'd be OK.So, not the best experience for someone who really values a drive's warranty, but the drive itself is great. If you care about the warranty, check it when you receive the drive and if it doesn't say it's covered, be prepared for a ... MoreI received the drive and immediately checked the warranty using the WD warranty checker. It stated that the drive was *not* under warranty through WD. I reached out to OWC and they confirmed that WD should honor the 5 year warranty, not OWC. After going back to WD support, and then a tedious back and forth over the next week with them, I was able to get WD to cover the drive. The warranty checker still says it's not covered, but WD support said if I ever had issues with the drive to present my support communications history and I'd be OK.So, not the best experience for someone who really values a drive's warranty, but the drive itself is great. If you care about the warranty, check it when you receive the drive and if it doesn't say it's covered, be prepared for a bit of a battle. This isn't completely uncommon in the OEM drive buying world, but it is nevertheless frustrating and not what is listed in the marketing materials on the drive's product page. If you really, REALLY care about the warranty and don't want to put up with any nonsense, buy your drive somewhere else where you can confirm it is a retail drive (which you will likely pay quite a bit more for).

Good value. Now problems. Noisy, tinny sound.

I usually use 12TB Seagate Ironwolf NAS drives in 10 disk arrays. I needed a large single disk when traveling. The 18TB ULTRASTAR seamed a good value with a large capacity. I have not had problems to date. I've used it for about 2 months. I run 12 12TB Seagate Ironwolf NAS drives in 2 OWC 6 drive enclosures and I really notice the fan sound more than the drives. The sound of this drive is very noticeable. I wouldn't want to listen to 12 of them. I still think it is a good value for my usage case. I would purchase one again.

Huge amount of storage for a decent price

Even though WD customer service is not the best, I continue to buy their drives and be a loyal WD customer. I understand that the UltraStar line may be another brand "re-branded" by WD. Regardless, I have not had any issues with this drive and it has been rock-solid thus far. It's quiet and runs cooler than my WD Red Pro drives. Every once in a while it makes a strange noise like a hiccup and I think the drive has crashed, but I', starting to think this is normal. I would recommend this drive and I would buy it again.

It Works

This is a solid HDD so far. I plugged it in and was recognized. Keep in mind you will about 10% of stated capacity when formatted (mine showed 16.3TB after formatting) though that is not unexpected. Drive does have a 5 Year Warranty. Was able to confirm through WD Online chat, they also advised that Data Center drives like this it is NOT necessary to register the product. WD chat was very helpful. I would buy again

Loud, but otherwise great

I ordered four drives for a NAS, and the worst I can say about the drives so far is that they're remarkably loud. If you're not running these in a rackmount server they'll probably be the loudest part of the system. Otherwise, they were recognized by the system and have comparable performance to other hard drives I've used, and contrary to some of the other reviews all four of my drives had full warranties. I would buy these again, under the provision that they're not near my desk.