Seagate IronWolf 12TB NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD – CMR 3.5 Inch SATA 6Gb/s 7200 RPM 256MB Cache for RAID Network Attached Storage (ST12000VNZ008/ST12000VN0008)

I bought a 4TB Seagate Ironwolf drive to replace a WD drive I had that was giving errors in my UNRAID server. I have not bought a Seagate drive in a very long time. There was a period of time when Seagate was great, then a period of time when they were not so great. Anyway, I figured I would give Seagate a try again, especially since their drive was $15 cheaper than the same WD drive at the time. I received my drive and it was well packaged in protective packaging and inside a box. The drive had the same familiar footprint dimensions but was a shorter height which was interesting. Anyway, it didn't make a difference really. I removed my failing WD drive from the server, and then slotted this seagate drive in. I then started the server and once booted I assigned the drive to the correct slot in the menu and the server immediately began rebuilding the data on the new seagate drive. The drive had zero issues and zero errors on it from testing and rebuilding. It delivers good read/write speeds, but read/write speeds are really dependent upon many factors and what the server is doing at the time and so forth, so no detailed reports on that. The Seagate drive has been running 24/7 on my server for about a month now and not a single issue with it so far. The shorter height is interesting as it lets more air from the front facing fans pass between it and the drive above it, so that is a plus I suppose. If this drive holds up for 6+ months I will probably replace more of my server drives with Seagate drives. I have 2 other server drives coming on replacement time in near while, so I will be purchasing at least a couple more of these as they go on sale from time to time. I will need to compare the longevity of the Seagate drives with the WD drives. I've had good luck with WD up until about a year ago. Now, their drives do not seem to be of the quality that they once were. I get a lot of errors on some WD drives sooner than expected. Hopefully these Seagate drives fair better. Anyhow, so far so good. -------------------------------------------- UPDATE 15AUG2025 -------------------------------------------- So, a 4TB WD RED PLUS drive in my server went bad. The drive is 4 month old. It started about a week ago with some Sector Reallocation errors, then more errors over the days... then hundreds of bad sectors. I couldn't write data to the drive anymore, then the server kicked out the drive and refuses to start it up. I pulled the drive and tested on my PC... yeah, the drive is going bad, and it is going bad fast. I formatted it, put it back in the server (to trick the server into thinking it was a new drive), it rebuilt the data (after about 10 hours or so), and all seemed fine. But, soon after (within hours), it started acting up again. Definitely a bad drive. I can read data from it, but writing to it is challenging as it triggers a cascade of sector errors. Had to call WD today and RMA the drive... now I have to pack it up and ship it at my expense to get a replacement. Honestly, it's probably not worth it. I do not want another new WD drive in my server. I'll probably put in on light duty on one of the kids PCs or something instead. WD's quality has fallen into the toilet, and this new drive I will get from them will probably be another bomb waiting to happen. You know sticking in a new replacement into the server and waiting 10 to 12 hours for the data to rebuild is not particularly fun. WD I am not impressed in the slightest. This is particularly bad since this was a BRAND NEW RED PLUS drive. I not long ago replaced another WD drive with a Seagate. A brand new WD Red Plus..... and sitting next to it is a 5 year old WD Blue purring away happily without complaint... WOW! What happened to WD?!?!?! I have a 7 year old WD Green (they don't even make them anymore) that still works fine... and a new RED Plus can't make it past 4 months. Amazing. I even have a WD Blue that is years and years old in my security camera DRV/NVR recording 24/7... never has an issue...WD used to make good product. They are garbage now in my opinion. So, guess what I ordered as a replacement for the RED PLUS? Yep, I ordered a Seagate Ironwolf... even though WD is giving me a replacement (which you have to wait weeks and weeks for), I am paying for another Seagate to replace it with. The Red Plus will never see the inside of my server as I do not need the aggravation. It might be a long long long time before I ever order another WD drive again. Not until they sort out their quality again. My advice is to stay away from WD drives.... it is hit and miss with them. It is like playing Russian roulette with your data. So, we are down to two players left in the HDD world; Seagate and Toshiba. But, for now I am happy with Seagate. -------------------------------------------- UPDATE 06OCT2025 -------------------------------------------- I did finally receive the replacement WD RED Drive. WD sent me a white label drive instead of a RED label drive. It's basically the same drive but it has a label that looks like some printed on a thermal printer type label that they must issue when doing replacements or something. I didn't put it in my server. Instead, I have replaced 4 drives in my server with Seagate drives now. I even replaced my parity drive with a Seagate at this point, since it was a WD and started giving SMART warnings as well. So, the UNRAID server is almost entirely Seagate drives now and everything is running happy and smooth. The LSA HBA card has no issues with these drives at all and UNRAID sees them as normal SATA drives (normal as if they were connected to the motherboard directly)... just in case there are any UNRAIDers out there considering a LSA HBA card... I used a 9300 16i that was already in IT mode... zero issue with it with UNRAID... plug and play literally, the drivers come up automatically during boot. Anyway, the Seagate drives have been awesome so far.

Amazon Customer for a really long time · 2025-06-02 · via amazon

I installed this Seagate IronWolf 4TB NAS (CMR, 5400 RPM, SATA 6Gb/s, 64MB cache) into a home NAS setup for media storage and backups. Setup & Recognition: The drive was recognized immediately by the NAS system without firmware issues. SMART data looked clean out of the box. Performance: For a 5400 RPM drive, transfer speeds are solid and consistent for large file storage. It’s not an SSD, obviously, but for media streaming and backups it performs smoothly without noticeable bottlenecks. CMR vs SMR (Important): This is a CMR drive, which matters for RAID environments. Rebuild times are stable and performance doesn’t tank under sustained writes like SMR drives can. Noise & Heat: Runs relatively quiet inside the enclosure. Temperatures have stayed within normal range under moderate load. No excessive clicking or vibration so far. Reliability: After continuous uptime and regular data writes, it’s been stable with no errors or dropouts. Things to Know: – 5400 RPM favors reliability and lower heat over peak speed. – Best suited for NAS, backups, media servers — not high-performance workstation tasks. – Make sure your NAS supports 3.5" SATA drives. Bottom Line: If you’re building or expanding a NAS and want a dependable CMR drive designed for 24/7 operation, this IronWolf 4TB is a solid choice.

Michael Parrack · 2026-03-01 · via amazon

I recently put these Seagate IronWolf 12TB drives into my system after having them in storage for a while, and overall, they've been performing very well. The speeds are solid, and they handle data transfers smoothly, which is exactly what I was hoping for from NAS-class drives. So far, reliability and performance have met my expectations. That said, they can be a bit noisy when actively reading or writing. At idle, they're nearly silent, but under load, there is definitely noticeable drive chatter. I have my machine sitting right on my desk, so the sound is more apparent than it might be in a closet, rack, or separate room. If your system is close to where you work and you're sensitive to noise, you may want to consider that or plan on using good noise-canceling headphones. Overall, they're a great set of high-capacity drives with strong performance, just keep the noise factor in mind depending on your setup.

Mark Mastro · 2026-05-04 · via amazon

Plugged in and worked as advertised. Seagate has been a good product for me.

Guinea Pig · 2026-05-01 · via amazon

MSI

Not tracked at this retailer

Newegg

Not tracked at this retailer

Newegg (Open Box)

Not tracked at this retailer