Seagate Exos X16 14TB 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s 256MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Data Center HDD Enterprise Hard Drive (ST14000NM001G)

Seagate 16TB HDD Exos X16 7200 RPM 512e/4Kn ~300 USD (2021)This has been a 100% working drive so far. It has been writing its new contents for 3 days straight now. Temperature remaining at 32 degrees C. This is Great considering I am running it at full demand for a long time. For comparison my external WDC WD100EMAZ-00WJTA0 10000.8 GB (WD My Book 10GB) has run at 48 to 53 degrees C, alarmingly hot. After this WD external is getting shucked, the enclosure dremeled open for air, or a fan physical screwed on from an old computer. Datacenter drives can be noisy and this is generally known, this drive has been whisper quiet. There are not any clicking or ticking or whizzing sounds.Mine came with SN03 firmware and SN04 was available. Updating the firmware was a pain in the ass. Nothing can be done while in windows because it blocks everything like it is a virus, thanks Microsoft. I had to boot into seagate tools and then type the one commandline. This was easy, except that it took 4 hours of searching and reading everything available online to figure out that one line!!!!!! Horrible documentaion on this, not even youtube could help. While in Seagate tools I changed my drive to 4K (4096) or 4KN logical sectors. If you do this, do it before putting data on it. The majority will not know or care about this and is not a reason to disregard buying this drive.I am traditionally a Western Digital fan. 20 some years ago I used Seagate in everything with fantastic results (I still have a couple still around shelfed as backup storage). This drive was on sale for 300 when it is normally 400. I needed a drive quickly and at a good price. NOTHING compared to it in terms of price to value ratio. This might be in part due to COVID. I have been surprised at the quality so far and may be returning to using more Seagate hard drives again.My drive is not a SED (self encrypting model) but I am running Veracrypt on it fine.

It's fast, it's a bit noisy, it's an enterprise drive. I have 4 of these in my NAS, installed over a period of 5 years. Not a one of them has had a bit of trouble. They are plug-n-play, fast, and for my model NAS, on the supported drive list by the manufacturer for no-worries installation. Just make sure you get a new and not a refurbished model, as the new ones have a very good warranty from Seagate.

Shipped direct from Seagate to me, purchased through Amazon. Shipping protection seemed decent - came from FedEx. Drive spun up smoothly with no noise or issues.Raid mirror built up in ~24 hrs and far so good on the Exo 16x series 14TB. Cheaper than the Iron wolf consumer grade variety.Went with these vs Iron Wolf/Iron Wolf Pro due to the 5yr warranty and enterprise quality and MTBF (mean time between failure). Currently running as RAID mirror, but eventually will pick up a 3rd for raid 5 array in a Synology (yet to be purchased).Drives are a bit noisier than my prior WD Blacks and Toshiba consumer grade drives for reference. No issues with the 4k/512e sector size in Win 10 or Linux 20.04. I run dual boot and both seem to recognize the drive behind the AMD Raid controller I'm using just fine.Registered for long term warranty (serial numbers printed on the boxes) and set to run these the next 5+ years. Fingers crossed it's toward the 5-10 year side. :)

UPDATE #3: I put this drive in my Unifi Dream Machine Pro and after 3 minutes of "initializing drive", UDM alerted me that the drive has failed and that I need to replace it. I thought maybe it was a fluke before with my issues. Sad that Seagate refuses to honor a seemingly good warranty for a clearly defective drive.UPDATE #2: Replacement drive is still no longer recognized in UEFI. Seagate responded to my RMA for replacement of the second DOA drive with a cancellation of the RMA and explanation that the drive was fine. In feeling that I'm not going to get anywhere with Seagate support, I've written this whole thing off as 'money lost' and ended up buying a 16TB competitor HDD and that drive has had no issues thus far in my primary desktop computer. I haven't bought a Seagate in 14 years (the last drive was a 120GB and it just pooped-out - I used it as a cold-storage HDD for the last few years of its life). Also, I've had to send for a couple replacements before with the competitor and never had an issue.I'm sticking with the competitor.UPDATE #1: Requested a replacement with Seagate support. A few days after registering for drive replacement, I received a template apology email apologizing for not shipping my replacement in time. I just received my replacement and that drive is DOA. Unlike the issue with drive attempt #1, this drive sounds like I'm hooked up to a machine in a hospital; 3 seconds of silence then 1 second light beep sound. The drive hardware initially went in-and-out of Windows OS hardware detection for a minute at boot and then stopped completely. Computer Management -> Disk Management provides a prompt that the drive must be initialized but then results in an error saying that cannot initialize a drive that doesn't exist. After I powered-down my computer and spun back up, the drive no longer powers-on. After 3rd computer restart, drive no longer recognized in UEFI.Initial Review:Ordered the 16TB Exos from SabrePC and I was able to register it for the 5 year warranty without issue. However, after installation the drive loudly played beautiful, high-pitched tunes before its soul left its chassis. Needless-to-say, I have submitted a RMA with Seagate for replacement.