Toshiba16TB Enterprise Internal Hard Drive – MG Series 3.5" SATA HDD for Server, Storage, 24/7 Operation, Hyperscale, Cloud (MG08ACA16TE)

This drive is excellent, 250MB/s writes, 280MB/s reads, perfect for my 2.5GB home network, easily handles 200+ MB/s over the network.It is a fair bit louder under heavy load than my other hard drives, but they are old and much slower and also on 3TB, so not sure if this is just how massive hard drives are these days. I will be buying a 2nd in the coming months.

I've had this a few months now, I've nearly filled it with games, works brilliant, benchmarks are nothing to shout about, but fast enough to play the latest games on. Noise is reasonable.For the price it's a pretty good deal, just remember the bigger the drive the more space you lose due the the way computer storage is calculated, you're still getting the correct size regardless. On bigger drives like this it's almost 2tb under 20tb, regardless it'll be the same for any 20tb drive you purchase, it's just how it works.

Not only did the drive fail out of the box (Made a loud click noise, no spin up, then started making quiet beeping noises on system start up)But after checking the warranty on the Toshiba warranty checker, the warranty EXPIRES IN LESS THAN 1 YEARS TIME...The seller is: LIONELTUN.They are selling old unreliable stock and are not telling you it doesn't have a 5 year warranty. Not sure how Amazon allows this to happen...

This Toshiba hard drive is an enterprise grade model. This means it's designed for long term, 24/7 operation, with an MTBF and annual workload typically higher than even consumer grade pro series drives). Ironically, these types of drives typically cost less, sometimes considerably less, than consumer pro grade units. Why? Well, the cited reason by those in the know are that they can be noisier and use a tad more energy than their prosumer equivalents.An example of the sorts of price disparity, I recently purchased a new Seagate Exos 20Tb hard drive for my NAS. The Seagate Ironwolf Pro 20Tb model was approximately £100 more. So, why pay more for less? Oh, and here's an example of the difference in reliability figures. The Ironwolf Pro drive mentioned has an MTBF (Mean Time Before Failure) of 1.2 million hours and an annual workload rating of 330Tb. By comparison, the much cheaper Exos offers 2.5 million hours MTBF and a 550Tb annual workload rating.So, what about the drives being noisier? Well, both this Toshiba MG series 16Tb and my Seagate Exos are no louder in general operation than other drives I have that range from 6Tb to 20Tb and from varying manufacturers. Larger capacity hard drives are usually noisier than low capacity models anyway, and the first sign of this is during their power-up phase, where you will hear more whirring and chittering. If marginally noisier drives are a problem for you, then you really need to look at non-enterprise grade units, but be advised you will hear similar levels of noise from any high capacity drive. So, in my view, spending considerably less and having a superior drive is a great deal.So, does this mean such a drive isn't suitable for using in a desktop computer? No. Bear in mind that higher capacity NAS/enterprise grade hard drives operate at 7,200rpm rather than the more usual 5,400rpm spin speeds desktop grade drives work at. This means a spin-up time about two to three seconds longer than the slower spinning models. The 7,200rpm models will run hotter because of the increased spin speed, but only by a few degrees. However, bear in mind that noise and heat will depend on the enclosure the drive is mounted in. Some PC cases may hum quietly at the resonance created by the faster spinning drives, while others may see the drive running considerably warmer if in a restricted airflow situation. With those factors understood, these drives will be a great choice for desktop computers and offer superior performance to their desktop counterparts.So, what of this hard drive? This is my first Toshiba drive that I purchased as a starter disk for a new Synology NAS. Ironically, Synology themselves have recently introduced their own branded series of hard drives, of which, their higher capacity enterprise offerings are rebranded Toshiba units. If the likes of Synology put their trust in Toshiba to represent their brand's reputation, that says something.Now, the elephant in the room. At the price I paid for this 16Tb MG series drive (£216 at time of writing) it's clear this is NOT a new drive. Despite posting a question to clarify this, I received no replies from either customers or the seller. I went into this transaction knowing this was more than likely a refurbished drive. You will find many such enterprise grade drives being sold at bargain prices because of the way companies replace their fleets of hard drives. Enterprise grade drives typically have a five year warranty, and businesses, such as data centres, which use hundreds of these hard drives, often start replacing theirs at about the four year mark. In my view, the seller needs to make it clear these units are refurbished and not new.So, should you buy? In short, yes. You are covered for 90 days after purchase and, if the drives are going to fail, it's more than likely to occur within that time frame. Remember, these drives have been running for years without issue and the typical failure curve of drives sees them either more likely to fail within the first few months due to manufacturing defects or mishandling during shipping. Once they survive beyond that, their chances of failure, like any mechanical device, only increase beyond around the three to four year mark. The chances are that you will get years of service from one of these if it doesn't fail within a short period after purchase. Pays your money and takes your pick is the guiding principle here.One important point, and one I hope the seller takes onboard. Packaging is crucial to the health of a drive. Handling cannot be controlled , but proper packaging can. This drive wasn't packaged well. The box it arrived in was barely larger than the hard drive, with a single layer of bubble-wrap surrounding it. In my view, this is inadequate. A larger box with more padding is necessary to reduce the chances of drive failure as a result of poor handling during shipping. The aforementioned Seagate Exos drive I purchased new from another online retailer was incredibly well protected, the bubble wrapped package being around two inches thick. Consider it costs a seller pennies on the Pound to add more layers of protection against the increased possibilities of costly returns processing, Amazon need to do better here.So, should you trust this drive with your data? Well, For those that are unaware, even brand new drives should never be considered fit for use without thorough testing beforehand. Remember, even new drives can be damaged during transport or experience manufacturing defects. I once had a brand new drive, better packaged than this one, dropped by the Post Office worker before they handed it to me. Before using the drive to entrust my data to it, I routinely ran an extended S.M.A.R.T test on it. Sure enough, over 200 bad blocks were detected, and so the drive was returned. Due diligence is needed, despite such tests taking many hours. As I type this, the 16Tb drive in question is being thoroughly scanned via the aforementioned test and will take about 24 hours to complete. Sounds like a hassle to do this, right? For some, yes. However, it's a small price to pay for peace of mind. Incidentally, on a technical note, I am using a hard drive dock connected to my NAS to run this test. However, this dock supports the E-SATA connection method as well as USB. In my experience, performing a S.M.A.R.T test with USB attached devices doesn't work. Errors go undetected. If you don't have a dock equipped with an E-SATA interface, then simply installing the drive into your PC as normal,then running the test, will see you right.Examining the S.M.A.R.T data on this Toshiba drive, it appears that power on hours is zero. Drives record all kinds of diagnostic information via their onboard S.M.A.R.T system, and the number of hours of operation is one of many parameters you can interrogate with the right tools. However, don't be mislead, this data can be reset to make it appear that a drive is new. This is often standard practise when a drive is renewed/refurbished, so not necessarily done for nefarious reasons. You can find utilities for Windows and other platforms to run tests and examine a drive's S.M.A.R.T data, and I'd strongly recommend doing this.On the testing front, a word to owners of Synology NAS's. When you install any drive into your system,, you will be prompted to test the drive before it's integrated into your storage pool. Do this, but be aware that research I've done indicates this is not as thorough as running the aforementioned extended S.M.A.R.T scan. It's a parity scan that is more cursory than the aforementioned extended test.I took a star off the review rating because of the packaging and lack of clarity about being a new or refurbished drive.So, I hope this review has helped those who are unaware of the complexities and nuances of using hard drives.

I've had several of these HDDs now in home NAS units. Just bought another two. I have a *lot* of experience with HDDs, having bought dozens myself and from working in IT for decades.Toshiba professional HDDs are as good as the best of anyone's range and ideal for SAN or NAS use, or just in a server or even (dare I say it) a home PC for bulk storage. We still aren't at the stage of SSDs replacing them for sheer value in larger capacities, and even in smaller ones where a lot of writing occurs (like my surveillance recorder) which quickly causes an SSD to deteriorate.These Toshiba HDDs have a larger cache than many, making read/write access a little quicker in some circumstances. Probably not enough to notice outside very high level use, but it's still nice to have. The noise level from them is no worse than most and not as clackety as some can be. I notice HDD noise, even with my NASs in the loft, but these aren't noticeable once in the box.When buying, check the serial numbers you get and make sure they have the coloured label, otherwise you might have been sent one that's intended for OEM, not consumer, sales. They don't have the same warranty. You can check the serial number and warranty status easily on Toshiba's web site. To be safe, buy from Amazon itself.

Bought three of these for a NAS.Very happy. Been working flat out for about six weeks - as they transfer back fromm a number of sources and mirror to another off-site NAS. Used for data, CCTV and media storage. They’ve not got hot - and we’ve caned them over the last few weeks..Well done Toshiba - great product.

Never had a problem with these Toshiba drives. They are fast and run not too warm (with adequate space around them in a case). Mine have been quiet above the normal hummmm. Saying that though I suspect that the 5 year guarantee may be hard to claim against judging by the previous reviews here and my own perusing of Toshiba support site. Though I have just read somebody did find a way through the not so clear returns procedure.But I will reiterate that I have never had an issue with these drives over three years. Competitive pricing if you catch them when Amazon bounces a low price at you.Also good that they are not manufactured in China.HDD was factory sealed and surrounded in a plastic case , foam and cardboard box. Amazon packaging was fine with plenty of paper to stop it all rattling around the Amazon box.