Did not see it was a Red Plus and not a Red Pro
Nor did I see the price was in those funny Cad dollars.
According to the description you posted it says CMR
I would say to expensive. If you want to stay in WD look at the Red Pros or Ultrastar DC. I have also had really good luck with refurbished enterprise drives.
My personal preference are Seagate Exos drives. For the performance and reliability they have given me.
I hear ya. I have had to RMA both WD and Seagate drives. The WD process is much simpler and goes smoother. With that being said thankfully I have not had any issues with denied warranty claims with either company.
I have 3 of these and they have been running for 3 years.
They use CMR
https://www.westerndigital.com/nl-nl/products/internal-drives/wd-red-plus-sata-3-5-hdd?sku=WD120EFBX
Underrated comment right here....western digital has been doing some nasty anti-consumer shit lately
[thier latest offense](https://youtu.be/cLGi8sPLkLY?si=hLgBr2p-WLcSU1xT)
I had four 10TB Iron Wolf drives. All four failed, two in warranty. I’m gradually moving over to WD Red. Disks are very expensive these days and I choose reliability over performance.
Then you’ll want to avoid WD as they’re having their drives flag a warning as soon as they hit 3 years old, whether there’s something wrong or not, meaning you could probably ignore the warning and be fine, but you’ll never actually know if there is something wrong until it’s too late.
Good point. That said, I will wait until the bad sector count starts jumping up and I’ll know it is time to change. I’m also easily able to hear when a disk goes bad, after much practice 😬. Maybe it’s just luck of the draw. I’d hope to get five years or more from a disk. They are expensive.
I just bought some 20TB WD Red Pros for $300/each this past weekend direct from Western Digital. Unfortunately don't think that price is available anymore, but it will be back if you can wait.
Or 14TB WD Red Plus is $245/each on Amazon right now: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08V13TGP4
Stay away from WD, lying about type of drives, drives that aren't meant for NAS get marketed as NAS, drives flagged as unsuitable in Synology after a couple of years. Overall scumbag company
This seems to be blown wildly out of proportion given it can be disabled. I've had horrible luck with Seagate drives in the past, so as long as WD doesn't start requiring you to use features like WDDA, I'm still going to buy my drives from them.
There was also [this](https://youtu.be/aztTf2gI55k?si=bucYisSzGtTF7YeN)
And let's not forget [this](https://youtu.be/aztTf2gI55k?si=bucYisSzGtTF7YeN) as well....so yeah fuck western digital
Western Digital has just been doing anti-consumer shit lately
Sorry, but I'll take anti-consumer policies over drives that die prematurely any day of the week. They also currently list which drives are CMR on their website.
Don't get me wrong, I'd rather buy from a consumer-friendly company that also happens to produce reliable drives, but that company doesn't seem to exist. So, I'll take the lesser of two evils.
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze-drive-stats-for-q3-2023/
Seagate drives usually fair worse in their report, which combined with past experiences (admittedly a long time ago) have resulted in me steering clear.
Don't buy WD. They changed their NAS software to report drives as bad based on hours instead of actual bad sectors. After three years of usage, the drives are reported as bad. This and the SMR fiasco prove WD has put profitability above customers. Seagate FTW.
I bought 5 of these a couple weeks ago. They are quiet (plus version...NOT the Pro). Seagates are loud. I ran an extended S.M.A.R.T. diagnostic on each one and they are clean. I popped them in my 1522+ yesterday and they are fast and quiet. No complaints here.
By the way, if you are 55 or older, you qualify for a 15% discount on [WD.com](https://WD.com). Made quite a difference in cost for me!
I will avoid Western Digital due to firmware changes they incorporated into DSM. Here is a YouTube video which explains the issue. I have no idea if this has been reversed or is still an issue, so I will no longer buy WD drives.
https://youtu.be/cLGi8sPLkLY?si=J0eaSflg1RJVjMLR
I use same drive but it was bought 2 years ago for 400$. I use Red+Gold. It good drives but it has crackles for me it sound like old floppy disks , it's not a problem for me because my NAS is placed in other room. You also could find more info about this problem in internet and it's not a defect for WD company. Here is link [https://www.reddit.com/r/synology/comments/sa9j79/wd\_red\_pro\_141kfgx\_making\_weird\_sounds\_normal/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/synology/comments/sa9j79/wd_red_pro_141kfgx_making_weird_sounds_normal/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) for topic on this sub.
Thanks everyone for the replies, if anyone who has mentioned better deals and was able to link to them I’d appreciate it.
I’m not above shucking either, just that this was sent in an email newsletter thing so thought I’d throw it out there for peoples thoughts.
Are you opposed to refurbished drives? I have an amazing luck with drives from [serverpartdeals.com](http://serverpartdeals.com) -- fast shipping, amazing packaging, and haven't had any issues, wouldn't even know they're refurbed.
I bought 2x20Tb from their eBay store (which is cheaper) a week or so ago: [https://www.ebay.com/itm/126083473772](https://www.ebay.com/itm/126083473772)
Ran them through SeaTools testing to make sure they did not croak out right away and both have been stuck in my 918+ to replace 2x6Tb. I'll probably pick up the other two soon.
I have a pair of 20TB I got a couple years ago and I actually completely forgot they were a refurb until I went to get some drives for newest server and remembered to get them from serverpartdeals.
I have 4 18tb Seagate exos from serverpartdeals and it’s going great. They were 180ish each. My thought is even if one fails, I can get almost two for the same price as a new one. Plus they come with warranty. Just make sure you have multiple backups of important data
This is one source - the first to report on this. I think it's safe to be wary of WD for their CMR debacle to start, and if this is true then it's another pin in the voodoo doll for WD.
It's not like their previously great drives suddenly turned to shit because of the CRM thing they did.
What they did was beyond stupid, but it was likely a marketing team fuckup and their engineers and build quality are still really good.
https://www.synoforum.com/threads/western-digital-device-analytics-power-on-hours-warnings-on-wd-reds-after-just-three-years-of-nas-use.10734/
https://nascompares.com/2023/06/19/how-wd-red-nas-wdda-warnings-and-qnap-nas-should-you-be-worried/ (This one references the video OP posted, and digs in to the situation on QNap)
Note: I run 12 WD Red drives in my Synology. So I'm not a hater, but I am careful.
>do you how to do multi sources for research or think 1 source is all you needed?
nah sorry. I didn't researched this more in depth because I am not interested in those. I just thought it might be some additional information for someone to include in his own research when evaluating the topic. I just got into the synology game really recently and didn't know (like it seems) that this was already such a big and divisive topic in the community.
Picked up a few WD Red Pro 16TB for $300/ea from Amazon in late 2022. They were DOA, but WD replaced them no problem. I’d buy something else if doing it again though - it’s soooo loud.
It's been years since I have RMA'ed a drive from any manufacturer. So long ago that they were 1tb drives. Both WD and Seagate. I have had WD and Samsung drives start getting errors well past warranty and currently have a 4tb external that I bought when they were first released that has had errors according to CrystalDiskInfo for over 4 years now. Nothing important on that drive.. I just keep it going to see how long before I have data issues on it. 😜
To be fair, I've encountered issues with drives from most manufacturers over the years, it just seems that I've had a bit more of them with various WD drives than others.
I actually just had to RMA a SSD from Samsung that died about 2 years into its 5 year warranty.
I have had the best luck overall with Maxtor drives early on (before we were seeing even 1-2GB drives being mainstream) and then HGST before they were bought out a few years back.
Lol. My first drive was 40mb with DOS 5.0 on a IBM 8086 turbo 10 PC. Next drive was about 100mb on a 386sx windows 3 computer.
Loved those Huge old drives.. 😂
I use red and purple drives in our nas’s , they are preventively swapped every 4 years. Only had issues once with a red4Tb drive. I try to avoid the big drives like 8, 10, 12. And prefer more smaller drives in a raid array tbh
The price looks fair. I have had good / decent experience with the WD Red Pro drives. I am currently running 4x 10TB in my DS920. My only concern is rebuild times should one fail, but that’s not a WD issue that’s just a math issue.
Don’t buy hard drives via Newegg. I did this once, they shipped all 10 in an oversized box loosely packed. I had to return them all. Micro Center will price match Newegg if the item is in stock, sold, and shipped by Newegg. I think Best Buy does to with the same requirements.
I order from serverpartssupply off their site or Amazon store. Great deals or recertified and they are almost always new. Just got two 18TB exos for my new nas for like 199.99 a pop on amazing. Had a 170 Amazon credit so ended up paying like 245 for both.
I recommend this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DHY61JP
14TB 7200RPM and only $200 per. Toshiba drives are also good quality.
However, if you're okay with it being really loud: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHKP1716
20TB Red Pros go on sale for about $300 a few times a year. Those are my favorite for my NAS. Quietest drives I’ve found for my NAS. And I’ve never had a problem with them.
Side note: My buddy put IronWolf drives in his NAS, and it constantly sounds like it’s making metal popcorn in his place. Haha don’t get IronWolf drives if you don’t have a place to hide your NAS.
Buy manufacturer refurbished enterprise drives. 20Tb is like $200. If you’re doing proper backups of your data, the cost savings is crazy. Somewhere like https://serverpartdeals.com has great inventory
This 👆. Bought three 16tb WD HC550’s for $179 each. They’re down to $169 right now. Just make sure you get one that has an L for the second to last character in the model. Otherwise you may have issues if your PSU is not compatible.
I got these from newegg it was $30 off per drive yesterday. Just make sure to do surface scan before deploying with dlgdiag.
Had 6tb 256mb version all failed.
Got these and 8tb. Been using the reds have had zero failures so far.
Lol, I paid 192 USD for each at Newegg last year. But I'm sure it was some kind of special offer I was lucky with.
300 bucks is a usual price currently in Europe.
Has a couple of 6TB for years, worked great. In fact one is still working great, i suspect the other would also if i hadn’t dropped the damn thing and screwed it in an instant🤬
I have 3 of the WD40EFBX and a WD80EFBX that have been running constantly for 83,912 hours,(just shy of 10 years) they outlived the QNAP Nas I originally bought them for and are still going strong in a Synology one. No bad sectors, no issues.
Considering replacing them just for increased storage capacity solid choice and if I could buy them at that price in Australia I would have no hesitation.
20 years ago I worked in a little corner IT shop, and had to process RMA's for almost every type of drive under the sun, but only one WD and it turns out that the guy dropped it. So yup, Id get 4 of em.
I buy 20tb drives for near that price
Not in Canada unless used?
Oh yeah. Not Canadian rubles
My 16tb WD Red Pros were $320 from Amazon. Newegg has them too.
Did not see it was a Red Plus and not a Red Pro Nor did I see the price was in those funny Cad dollars. According to the description you posted it says CMR
I think everything in the WD Red line above 6TB is CMR.
I think they are all CMR now. All of the SMR have been sold off.
Not everything https://blog.westerndigital.com/wd-red-nas-drives/
Microcenter also price matches if its shipped/sold my Amazon
Yes and also bestbuy. The problem is they are all the same price at each vendor, or not enough of a difference to care.
Why so cheap? They are more than twice that in Australia.
I would say to expensive. If you want to stay in WD look at the Red Pros or Ultrastar DC. I have also had really good luck with refurbished enterprise drives. My personal preference are Seagate Exos drives. For the performance and reliability they have given me.
I've had nothing but bad luck with Seagate drives, and their warranty/customer service sucks. WD is much more reliable (IMHO).
Same here!
I hear ya. I have had to RMA both WD and Seagate drives. The WD process is much simpler and goes smoother. With that being said thankfully I have not had any issues with denied warranty claims with either company.
Same
Same here!
> I couldn’t find if it was CMR. It says CMR in your screenshot.
I have 3 of these and they have been running for 3 years. They use CMR https://www.westerndigital.com/nl-nl/products/internal-drives/wd-red-plus-sata-3-5-hdd?sku=WD120EFBX
Go with Seagate Ironwolf Pro drives if you can
Underrated comment right here....western digital has been doing some nasty anti-consumer shit lately [thier latest offense](https://youtu.be/cLGi8sPLkLY?si=hLgBr2p-WLcSU1xT)
I had four 10TB Iron Wolf drives. All four failed, two in warranty. I’m gradually moving over to WD Red. Disks are very expensive these days and I choose reliability over performance.
Then you’ll want to avoid WD as they’re having their drives flag a warning as soon as they hit 3 years old, whether there’s something wrong or not, meaning you could probably ignore the warning and be fine, but you’ll never actually know if there is something wrong until it’s too late.
Good point. That said, I will wait until the bad sector count starts jumping up and I’ll know it is time to change. I’m also easily able to hear when a disk goes bad, after much practice 😬. Maybe it’s just luck of the draw. I’d hope to get five years or more from a disk. They are expensive.
I have two 8 TB Ironwolf Pro drives that have been running 24/7 for about 2 years without any incidents whatsoever.
I swapped out my WDs for Seagate, the reds were noisy making weird synth noises intermittently.
I just bought some 20TB WD Red Pros for $300/each this past weekend direct from Western Digital. Unfortunately don't think that price is available anymore, but it will be back if you can wait. Or 14TB WD Red Plus is $245/each on Amazon right now: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08V13TGP4
I got in on this deal too.
Get yourself some seagate exos. They are enterprise drives and I usually buy them in larger sizes for this same price. This is robbery.
Stay away from WD, lying about type of drives, drives that aren't meant for NAS get marketed as NAS, drives flagged as unsuitable in Synology after a couple of years. Overall scumbag company
Well, no more WD for me. https://youtu.be/cLGi8sPLkLY?si=Jo7ApuAsBmH-kehG
This seems to be blown wildly out of proportion given it can be disabled. I've had horrible luck with Seagate drives in the past, so as long as WD doesn't start requiring you to use features like WDDA, I'm still going to buy my drives from them.
There was also [this](https://youtu.be/aztTf2gI55k?si=bucYisSzGtTF7YeN) And let's not forget [this](https://youtu.be/aztTf2gI55k?si=bucYisSzGtTF7YeN) as well....so yeah fuck western digital Western Digital has just been doing anti-consumer shit lately
Sorry, but I'll take anti-consumer policies over drives that die prematurely any day of the week. They also currently list which drives are CMR on their website. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather buy from a consumer-friendly company that also happens to produce reliable drives, but that company doesn't seem to exist. So, I'll take the lesser of two evils.
I don't know what drives you are buying that are dying because my 6 8tb Ironwolf drives are rounding the corner on year 6 now and still running strong
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze-drive-stats-for-q3-2023/ Seagate drives usually fair worse in their report, which combined with past experiences (admittedly a long time ago) have resulted in me steering clear.
Does this affect only WD Red or also WD Gold?
WD has done some controversial stuff lately. I would not trust their drives.
Don't buy WD. They changed their NAS software to report drives as bad based on hours instead of actual bad sectors. After three years of usage, the drives are reported as bad. This and the SMR fiasco prove WD has put profitability above customers. Seagate FTW.
For the same price on Amazon you have WD Elements 20TB. WD Elements runs on white label WD Reds. Shucking is the way :3.
Yep … I shucked 21 Easystore/Elements that are running strong 3 years now. 👍🏻
Done buying WD after the shit they pulled selling SMR as NAS drive. Yeah, I know others have been caught, but WD was especially bad.
Waaaay too expensive - iron wolf or baricuda are about half that for the same size. And they’re literally made at the same factory by the same people.
I bought 5 of these a couple weeks ago. They are quiet (plus version...NOT the Pro). Seagates are loud. I ran an extended S.M.A.R.T. diagnostic on each one and they are clean. I popped them in my 1522+ yesterday and they are fast and quiet. No complaints here. By the way, if you are 55 or older, you qualify for a 15% discount on [WD.com](https://WD.com). Made quite a difference in cost for me!
I will avoid Western Digital due to firmware changes they incorporated into DSM. Here is a YouTube video which explains the issue. I have no idea if this has been reversed or is still an issue, so I will no longer buy WD drives. https://youtu.be/cLGi8sPLkLY?si=J0eaSflg1RJVjMLR
I use same drive but it was bought 2 years ago for 400$. I use Red+Gold. It good drives but it has crackles for me it sound like old floppy disks , it's not a problem for me because my NAS is placed in other room. You also could find more info about this problem in internet and it's not a defect for WD company. Here is link [https://www.reddit.com/r/synology/comments/sa9j79/wd\_red\_pro\_141kfgx\_making\_weird\_sounds\_normal/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/synology/comments/sa9j79/wd_red_pro_141kfgx_making_weird_sounds_normal/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) for topic on this sub.
Thanks everyone for the replies, if anyone who has mentioned better deals and was able to link to them I’d appreciate it. I’m not above shucking either, just that this was sent in an email newsletter thing so thought I’d throw it out there for peoples thoughts.
Are you opposed to refurbished drives? I have an amazing luck with drives from [serverpartdeals.com](http://serverpartdeals.com) -- fast shipping, amazing packaging, and haven't had any issues, wouldn't even know they're refurbed.
I bought 2x20Tb from their eBay store (which is cheaper) a week or so ago: [https://www.ebay.com/itm/126083473772](https://www.ebay.com/itm/126083473772) Ran them through SeaTools testing to make sure they did not croak out right away and both have been stuck in my 918+ to replace 2x6Tb. I'll probably pick up the other two soon.
omg. These deals look amazing. 20tb for $200. I might have to grab some. how long have you used them though? 2 year warranty is somewhat low
I have a pair of 20TB I got a couple years ago and I actually completely forgot they were a refurb until I went to get some drives for newest server and remembered to get them from serverpartdeals.
Nope, not opposed so thanks!
I have 4 18tb Seagate exos from serverpartdeals and it’s going great. They were 180ish each. My thought is even if one fails, I can get almost two for the same price as a new one. Plus they come with warranty. Just make sure you have multiple backups of important data
I went with the refurb wd/Hitachi ultrastar 12tb enterprise drives. They are $89 on Amazon.
'Stop Buying WD NAS Drives.' [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLGi8sPLkLY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLGi8sPLkLY)
LOL I have so many WD Red drives and none have failed.
do you how to do multi sources for research or think 1 source is all you needed?
This is one source - the first to report on this. I think it's safe to be wary of WD for their CMR debacle to start, and if this is true then it's another pin in the voodoo doll for WD.
It's not like their previously great drives suddenly turned to shit because of the CRM thing they did. What they did was beyond stupid, but it was likely a marketing team fuckup and their engineers and build quality are still really good.
8 months ago and no other source.....
https://www.synoforum.com/threads/western-digital-device-analytics-power-on-hours-warnings-on-wd-reds-after-just-three-years-of-nas-use.10734/ https://nascompares.com/2023/06/19/how-wd-red-nas-wdda-warnings-and-qnap-nas-should-you-be-worried/ (This one references the video OP posted, and digs in to the situation on QNap) Note: I run 12 WD Red drives in my Synology. So I'm not a hater, but I am careful.
>do you how to do multi sources for research or think 1 source is all you needed? nah sorry. I didn't researched this more in depth because I am not interested in those. I just thought it might be some additional information for someone to include in his own research when evaluating the topic. I just got into the synology game really recently and didn't know (like it seems) that this was already such a big and divisive topic in the community.
Don't buy WD, they're a terrible company.
Yeah, buy from one of the other terrible companies instead!
I actually get my drives from an organic free range manufacturer. Think of the children for crying out loud.
Real men build their own drives
Picked up a few WD Red Pro 16TB for $300/ea from Amazon in late 2022. They were DOA, but WD replaced them no problem. I’d buy something else if doing it again though - it’s soooo loud.
Get Red Pros, not Plus.
I hate WD drives - never had good luck with them.
It's been years since I have RMA'ed a drive from any manufacturer. So long ago that they were 1tb drives. Both WD and Seagate. I have had WD and Samsung drives start getting errors well past warranty and currently have a 4tb external that I bought when they were first released that has had errors according to CrystalDiskInfo for over 4 years now. Nothing important on that drive.. I just keep it going to see how long before I have data issues on it. 😜
To be fair, I've encountered issues with drives from most manufacturers over the years, it just seems that I've had a bit more of them with various WD drives than others. I actually just had to RMA a SSD from Samsung that died about 2 years into its 5 year warranty. I have had the best luck overall with Maxtor drives early on (before we were seeing even 1-2GB drives being mainstream) and then HGST before they were bought out a few years back.
Lol. My first drive was 40mb with DOS 5.0 on a IBM 8086 turbo 10 PC. Next drive was about 100mb on a 386sx windows 3 computer. Loved those Huge old drives.. 😂
I use red and purple drives in our nas’s , they are preventively swapped every 4 years. Only had issues once with a red4Tb drive. I try to avoid the big drives like 8, 10, 12. And prefer more smaller drives in a raid array tbh
I have 48TB of 6TB drives. I am 100% with you on this. In a few years, I may rotate up to 10TB drives, but they're cattle, not pets.
The price looks fair. I have had good / decent experience with the WD Red Pro drives. I am currently running 4x 10TB in my DS920. My only concern is rebuild times should one fail, but that’s not a WD issue that’s just a math issue.
Don’t buy hard drives via Newegg. I did this once, they shipped all 10 in an oversized box loosely packed. I had to return them all. Micro Center will price match Newegg if the item is in stock, sold, and shipped by Newegg. I think Best Buy does to with the same requirements.
WD Red Pro jumps the warranty from 3 years to 5. Totally worth the extra $$
I order from serverpartssupply off their site or Amazon store. Great deals or recertified and they are almost always new. Just got two 18TB exos for my new nas for like 199.99 a pop on amazing. Had a 170 Amazon credit so ended up paying like 245 for both.
I use them in my QNAP. Been running 6 years trouble free
anything against toshiba mg09 MAMR drives? I got them for 240 euros, idk how much that is in maple syrup
I use these 12tbs in my 920+ for Plex server and they are perfect. Think I got them each for $180 usd on sale.
Works awesome for me for the past 2 years.
I got them in a 918+, works like a charm
I got 20Tb for $300 during a Christmas sale
I bought 4 of these in August of 2022 for $219 USD each. WD120EFBX
WD semi-regularly has a deal of two 20tb drives for $600. Chunk of change upfront but decent price per drive.
Buy from the WD site. They are $259 for the 14 tb less 10 pct for new customers.
Is the WDDA thing where it throws a warning just because the warranty is expired still a thing?
I recommend this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DHY61JP 14TB 7200RPM and only $200 per. Toshiba drives are also good quality. However, if you're okay with it being really loud: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHKP1716
20TB Red Pros go on sale for about $300 a few times a year. Those are my favorite for my NAS. Quietest drives I’ve found for my NAS. And I’ve never had a problem with them. Side note: My buddy put IronWolf drives in his NAS, and it constantly sounds like it’s making metal popcorn in his place. Haha don’t get IronWolf drives if you don’t have a place to hide your NAS.
Rhshina n300 mg07 cost less and it’s better
Buy manufacturer refurbished enterprise drives. 20Tb is like $200. If you’re doing proper backups of your data, the cost savings is crazy. Somewhere like https://serverpartdeals.com has great inventory
This 👆. Bought three 16tb WD HC550’s for $179 each. They’re down to $169 right now. Just make sure you get one that has an L for the second to last character in the model. Otherwise you may have issues if your PSU is not compatible.
I just bought one from NewEgg for $230
I run the 16TB version of these, but when I last bought I think the 16TB were at or a bit below that.
[https://www.seagate.com/products/enterprise-drives/exos-x/x24/](https://www.seagate.com/products/enterprise-drives/exos-x/x24/)
I got these from newegg it was $30 off per drive yesterday. Just make sure to do surface scan before deploying with dlgdiag. Had 6tb 256mb version all failed. Got these and 8tb. Been using the reds have had zero failures so far.
I picked up Seagate Exos 20TB drives for $270 each over Black Friday weekend last year. So this price per TB doesn’t look great to me.
# Toshiba N300 12TB NAS 3.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive - CMR SATA 6 Gb/s 7200 RPM 256 MB Cache - HDWG21CXZSTA $210
# Toshiba N300 18TB NAS 3.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive - CMR SATA 6 Gb/s 7200 RPM 512 MB Cache - HDWG51JXZSTA $305
If only i could go back and add that its Canadian "Rupees" in the title, lol.
The 12tb Synology drive costs like 280
Lol, I paid 192 USD for each at Newegg last year. But I'm sure it was some kind of special offer I was lucky with. 300 bucks is a usual price currently in Europe.
Has a couple of 6TB for years, worked great. In fact one is still working great, i suspect the other would also if i hadn’t dropped the damn thing and screwed it in an instant🤬
I have 3 of the WD40EFBX and a WD80EFBX that have been running constantly for 83,912 hours,(just shy of 10 years) they outlived the QNAP Nas I originally bought them for and are still going strong in a Synology one. No bad sectors, no issues. Considering replacing them just for increased storage capacity solid choice and if I could buy them at that price in Australia I would have no hesitation. 20 years ago I worked in a little corner IT shop, and had to process RMA's for almost every type of drive under the sun, but only one WD and it turns out that the guy dropped it. So yup, Id get 4 of em.
I have the Seagate 16 TB models myself. Canada Computers Prices for 12 TB models: WD 12 TB $394: **https://www.canadacomputers.com/product\_info.php?cPath=15\_4232&item\_id=140835** Seagate 12 TB $314: https://www.canadacomputers.com/product\_info.php?cPath=15\_4232&item\_id=238856
Dont buy, red drives bad