12TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 256MB Cache 3.5inch Internal Desktop Hard Drive, MD12TBGSA25672

06/2024 UPDATE: So far zero problems with either of these drives in my NAS. I use the NAS daily for access to lots of media files, and I have done a large amount of file copies just moving stiff around from my long term archives. I also have four computers doing hourly file backups to this NAS every day. Drive noise is no worse than it was with WD and Seagate drives. I would absolutely buy these drives again. ORIGINAL review: This is a VERY preliminary review, as the drive has only been in operation for about 10 minutes! But so far it is great. I have a Netgear 4-bay ReadyNAS that was configured with 4x8TB drives, and I need more space, so I ordered two of these 12TB drives. I just swapped in the first one, and the NAS is in resync mode. This is important to this review because that means the NAS is in very heavy read/write mode where it rebuilds all the data that was on the old drive in the same bay, so if the new drive was any noisier than the old WD 8TB, it would be immediately obvious. Guess what? If anything, the NAS is now QUIETER than it was in normal operation with 4 WD drives. The NAS instantly accepted the new MDD drive without any issues, but I will note here that the NAS reports different model and S/N information that what is on the drive label. Although it does not show manufacturer names for drives, it does show that correct Model and S/N information for the WD drives I have been using. But for this MDD MD12TBGSA25672 drive, it reports Model OOS12000G, and the S/N is different too. I have no reason to think that is a problem, but just reporting what I see. I was leery of going with something new and untried for the NAS, but other reviews I read all said these MDD drives were working for them, so I decided to take the chance and save big $$ too. So far, so good. I am pleased.

I use these as backup drives in a four bay external USB enclosure, and they are working great. There's still the unknown of how long they will last, but with a 3-year warranty I'm not too worried. These are an amazing deal for new drives, you won't find a better one unless you're brave enough to go with refurbished. UPDATE: These perform so much better than my current internal drives, I am now replacing them as well. ~250 MB/s copying from one to the other, it doesn't really get better than that with spinning drives.

Came into this not knowing what to expect, what I got was an amazing deal for a part that will very likely give me many years of service. This is an Enterprise drive, which for anyone who doesnt know means that this drive is made to run 24/7, 365 in a blisteringly hot server rack and still last at least a decade. These drives are made with primo parts. Which also explains the noise, enterprise hard drives make a little more noise than desktop-grade drives as they are designed for a server environment with lots of fans spinning and not inches away from ears. So far this drive doesn't seem particularly noisy, but I can hear it spin up. Speedwise it transfers over 200MB/s, not nearly as fast as an NVME SSD drive but plenty fast enough for a backup. It appears to be a Seagate drive, but I've had good luck with Seagate drives over the years. So far I'm impressed with what I'm getting and will very likely be coming back for one more of these drives in the future. I will update this review if it dies on me.

I bought two 12TB 3.5" hard drives. Neither would fit in my internal drive bays because they were too big: >3.5" (wider than 3.5 inches). They bind when I attempt to slide them into hot swappable internal drive bays. WD, Seagate, and other vendors will fit, fine. This makes the MDD’s unusable. They work fine in a test fixture which reports the serial numbers for both devices as all zero's: "00000000000000000000" I installed it on 12/5/24, but the drive reports its first install date was 3-4 years ago. Could this MDD drive really be used? - Dr DV Black, (PhD EE&CS)

I had an 8TB WD 5640 RPM Drive fail on me, and instead of spending $122 on one new drive I saw one of these 12TB Drives for little less. I am now downloading about 4TB of media onto the drive and it is performing as advertised. Came new with 0 hours and 5 startups. Only complaint is now that my drive is downloading 4TB straight away it is getting a little loud, almost like water boiling in an electric kettle (if you know you know) But when I did the stress test it did make noise. So I am hoping that once it is done being at a 100% usage for the next 48 hours that it will be a bit quieter.

This thing is NOT silent. Even with rubber grommet offsets, this thing makes audible noise when it transfers files. Every now and then, I'll hear it CHURN for full 2 seconds when it wakes up once an hour or so. Scares the bejeezes out of me sometimes! BURZZZZZT! I have two of these, and both behave in the exact same fashion, so yeah - that's just how the drive is. For data? This thing is an outright beast. Fast transfers, nice buffer, massive storage. If you can get over the noise factor, it's a buy. If you're using them in a NAS solution in another room? Buy it. If you're using it on a main rig for gaming, I'd go with a quieter option. For the noise department, I docked two stars. It just comes with a big caveat, and buyers should absolutely be aware of it prior to purchase!