Customer Ratings & Reviews

This is a great drive - a huge amount of storage and fast! However, if you are writing large amounts to it, you may need to get a fan. Let me relate to you my experience. When I first got the drive, I set it up to do a full scan of the drive. I did a CrystalDiskInfo before I started (see the picture), and the disk temperature was 31deg C. The scan took 5 hours. At the end of the scan the disk temperature had risen to 50deg C (see the picture). After completing the scan I watched to see how the temperature dropped. After 3 hours it had fallen to 45deg C. The passive cooling acts very slowly, despite the large number of slots in the bottom, top, and back of the drive housing. Next I obtained a dual fan, and set one at the back to push cool air into the drive. I put the second on top of the drive to pull hot air out of the drive. I then wrote files to the drive for 3 hours. The starting temperature of the drive was 30deg C. The temperature at the end of the 3 hours of copying files was just 33 deg (see picture)! I think this shows the effectiveness of having external fans. I also did a speed test of the drive using CrystalDiskMark (see picture). This hard disk drive is fast! I use this drive to archive material on my desktop computer at regular intervals. Large amounts are written to the drive, and I need the fans to maintain the health of the drive. I suspect that others using this drive will be doing something similar, and would benefit by adding fans. Despite this, I think this is a good drive and am happy with its purchase.

I have 10 or more WD EasyStores - sizes from 2TB to 18 TB so far. They are fast, reliable, and affordable. I've never had a single glitch in an EasyStore. This is my go-to backup solution and I stock up when on sale, because you can never have enough backups. As a 40 year IT professional, you need off-line backup so if you are hacked, those backup units will not be accessible. Secondly, you need both on-site and off-site copies so if your dwelling is ever wiped-out or you lose access, you still have a backup of your critical files in a safe location. People who claim the size of the unit does not match what's advertised do not know that they're talking about. There are two different ways to measure storage capacity - one used by the International System of Units is a base-10 prefix (mega, giga, tera) to represent a base-2 number (MiBi, GiBi, TiBi) defined by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). 1 Megabyte = 1000 Kilobytes while 1 Mebibyte equals 1024 Kibibytes. For the IEC units, each jump in prefix is a multiple of 1024 (2^10) instead of 1000 (10^3). Anytime you hear a number of bytes or bits, you have to consider if they are talking about base 2 or base 10. Hard drive companies typically sell products in base 10 as it makes it sound larger. A 1 Terabyte hard drive will turn out to actually be about 931.3 Gibibytes. That's where uninformed people get confused and write uninformed opinions. Also, Windows and Linux report volume sizes differently, which further confuses the situation. So if an OS reports an 18TB drive as 16.3 TB, don't blame the drive, blame the OS. See the Windows example where 1) is in TB and 2) is in TiBi.

I bought Western Digital 18 TB easystore hard drive to check for strict test on my own. It did heat up little bit to hit 50*C and I forced to put two fans (USB power only) on top of Western Digital easystore to beat heat temperature out to fall down to around 34*C - 40*C to help keep cool for longer time to help hard drive life more stable in long running. I find 15 damaged sectors on 18 TB hard drive and it's shocked me! When I use Hard Disk Sentinel program scanned sectors for 27 hours and 27 minutes (painful slow time during testing). I use Hard Disk Sentinel program to scan for bad sectors and finally catch 15 damaged sectors then do quickly repaired 15 damaged sectors into good stable sectors. I think tech workers are too rush at Western Digital company to formatting them and package before shipped. I want Western Digital workers to do very careful to check for damaged and bad sectors on hard drives. If hard drive have damaged sectors and bad sectors should not shipping to any stores. Must be error free and zero damaged sectors and zero bad sectors before shipping to stores for stock up on shelves to avoid any issues or problems. I got model name is WD180EDGZ and look up on internet about hard drive model database said have CMR. I'm very happy for that! I don't trust SMR technology because people report SMR is working too hard than CMR, that's why. I always avoid hard drives which are SMR are not approved means know many problems appear and more failure rate go up. Confirmed, it's working great on Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit SP1! But one crazy said driver is not working pop up message in bottom-right task said driver installed is unsuccessful. What's go on? I went to check hard drive from "Computer" and finally can see 16.3 TB on there. Thank you to Western Digital for to support Windows 7! Please keep support Windows 7 (Don't ignore this Windows 7). That's what I need bigger 18 TB hard drive for Windows 7 to store tons of PC games on it. Because every time when new PC games come out and have bigger files like over 20 GB to 100 GB or more then wow! :-) I let anyone know about Linux Mint. I did test Linux Mint (running under Windows 7) through VMware Workstation can see hard drive but can't mount. Puzzle me. Linux should add this hardware for support, maybe Linux don't have NTFS support build in system. Maybe add NTFS support in Linux maybe work or not. I don't know much deep inside Linux. If someone who are Linux fans maybe know how to fix problem. I did test Windows XP (running under Windows 7) through VMware Workstation program said successful installed driver and can't see 18 TB hard drive. Something wrong with Windows XP maybe limited to 2 TB hard drive. Someone maybe find out to fix Windows XP. I don't know how to fix on my self. I'm big fans of Windows XP on my few DELL computers, I not sell my old computers and just use for playing old PC games on it for myself to enjoy for lifetime. I did test Windows 10 (running under Windows 7) through VMware Workstation program and can see 18 TB hard drive without problems. I not sure about other operating systems maybe work or not work. Anyone can test them to see if work or not. Very important to everyone, when you bought bigger Western Digital hard drives like 12 TB, 14 TB, 16 TB, 18 TB and go on, please use Hard Disk Sentinel program to scan for damaged and bad sectors. If bad sectors are not repaired then return to store for exchange or refund. To Western Digital, please keep making a lot of hard drives (CMR type) for Windows 7 and others. I already know Western Digital made best hard drives quality in around the world. Keep it up! :-)

Lots of storage, must break in, first time transfer speed abit slow but after multi use speed moves faster, can be loud sometimes clicking noises, but hey WD drive works, i still have 15yrs old drives that still works. Plus i got this on black friday sale, even Amazon couldn't that match price. no brainer for me. I have 10 WD drives and 2 Seagate, all WD still works, both Seagate i failed. WD for life.

So, I got this 18TB external hard drive, and let me tell you, it's like having a black hole for all my files—in a good way! Transferring stuff is quick, and I don't have to worry about running out of space anytime soon. If you need loads of storage without the drama, this one's a winner. Also it's pretty idiot proof, you just plug it in and you can start transferring your files.

Needed this and need it quickly because I'd had a major crash. I was searching for a 10-12 TB drive but the 18 TB was on sale and $50 cheaper. WD has worked well for me in the past (it was a Seagate drive that failed). Works great and now I have oddles of storage.

First time use of this WD Portable HDD was very easy. It has been working great for me. It gives me a huge amount of space for file saving and it is fast and easy to find what I am looking for in it.

Big size, quiet and working perfectly a few months into use. Has 2 year warranty which is nice vs just 1 year. Backup your data bc 18tb is alot of data to lose! Get 2 on black Friday sales so you don't have to worry and mirror the drives with all you data incase one ever fails!

Great Storage Option, Especially For Mass Storage Space. Transfer Speeds Are Great As Well Even While At Near Full Capacity

I got this to back up all of my project files (RAWs, MOVs, MP4sm, etc.) from my photo and video gigs. It is the best bang for the buck in terms of GB/$. Expect the speeds to not be as fast as SSDs when transferring 50+ GB of data, but it's still good for long-term storage. Note that actual storage is 16.3 GB and not 18TB.

This review is for the Western Digital 18TB external version. I've moved away from bare drives in docks to these enclosures. I was concerned with the heat build up of the drive since it is inside an enclosure but Western Digital has done a decent job of providing vent slots on three sides of the case. My first enclosure many years ago was a Seagate Freeagent and it died very early (still under warranty). That wasn't a fluke as other guys in the IT department I worked in also had their Freeagents prematurely fail. On the initial huge backup when the drive is new it definitely feels warm so I usually point a small desk fan towards the enclosure to help if needed. I've been using the drive off and on for the past two months and it works great so far with no problems what so ever. I love how the Western Digital Easystores and My Books have the same power requirements (so the adapters are all the same so far) and the same Micro USB connector. That way I only have a couple of power and data cables on my desk that serves my 7 enclosures. They only get powered up when I'm backing up and then they get ejected and powered down to prolong their life.

So far so good. Going to be loading more in this and see if it starts to affect its performance. My only issue, and it's nothing that major, is that I have this sitting on my desk and it sounds like a fan when it's on. Nothing crazy but it can be annoying at times.

These work great in Supermicro cases. Currently running x24 of them in an array and have no complaints. Watch for sales, as they are discounted regularly.

Great drive, large storage, quick speeds and quiet.

Very large capacity and fast read/writes. Im using it for archiving data.

Great storage device. If you’re someone who needs mass storage for your files, it’s worth the investment. Just plug it in to the outlet, and then hook it up to the PC via USB and you’re good to go.

For the money, these have been the best external hard drives for storing videos and pictures. While I've had Seagate and Lacie drives fail, I have probably over 30 of these drives and none have failed. They're not going to be as fast, but reliability is huge.

Tons of storage integrated with easy-to-use software and a low power cost to run, plus it's quiet.

Works well. Nothing special or flashy. Plug and play so easy to use.

Plenty of room for all my files. Useful for backing up several hard drives.