WD - easystore 20TB External USB 3.0 Hard Drive - Black

I do regular image backups of my workstation, that has four NVMe m.2 drives . For this I need large capacity, external, hard drives. This 20TB drive is well suited for the task. Its only shortcoming is that it heats up to more than 50deg C during the long backup time, if left to its own devices. I have fixed this issue by positioning a pair of 80mm fans beneath it, to force cool air into its housing (see photo). The drive also performs well for a hard drive, as can be seen in the results of a Crystal Disk Mark speed test. The temperature at the start of the test was 24 deg C. At the end of the test it was 33 deg C, and dropped to 25 deg C just 3 minutes after the end of the test. The fans are very effective. I use two separate external hard drives for my backups, alternating between each one. This is good enough for my needs. I recommend this drive to anyone needing a simple, cost effective way to do large backups.

Excellent drive, moderate heat, Optimal transfer rates for the first 40% of the drive, but does dive to 140 MB/s at the end of the 20TB platter. It's a bit noisy compared to Seagate and Western Digital drives but overall the price is excellent. Overall still an great purchase especially when closer to $300. I highly recommend this as a stand alone vault but keep in mind 20TB is quite a bit of data and buying one and backing it up to another is peace of mind unless you plan to use hardware or software raid to guarantee it.

I've used dozens of WD external hard drives over the years. This is the 2nd 20TB HD I picked up for backup redundancy. I've never had any fail on me.

Chances are this will be a big enough drive to get you by on whatever project you're working on. Lots of space, easy to set up and install. BUT --- the 20TB branding is a bit of a misnomer. I don't feel deceived by Best Buy, as they presented it as 2000 GB, which is mostly right... The label on the box, the listing on BestBuy.com is for 20TB. If you're particular about counting your bytes as 1000 vs 1024, the drive is big enough to where it's a noticeable difference. 20,000,586,850,304 bytes.... That's 18.1 TB 20TB on the box. 20TB on the website. 18.1TB when you plug it in. I'm going to get great use out of this drive, I've trusted Western Digital drives for over 30 years. I just feel like I bought a 10-pack of something and there was only 9 in it. Just wanted to make sure you know what you're getting (and aren't getting)

I am making a movie that once completed will exceed the 8Tb capacity of my iMac. So, I will need a safe place outside of the iMac to store large sections of the movie till they're all complete and then finish editing them together and save it on the easystore. I had some difficulty linking the WD easystore to my iMac till I was fortunate enough to speak with Natalia V at Western Digital whose advice rapidly solved the problem. So, beyond a very large, very capable appliance, I also got direct, succinct technical support. This was a very good experience for me. Gratitudes for your efforts.