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The WD Red Pro hard drives provide superior long-term performance for NAS as well as other RAID systems. They do have a hefty price tag, but are worth the investment as they prevent users from needing to replace hard drives on a regular basis.
Over the past few months, I’ve been working on updating my digital storage systems. In addition to my computer’s hard drive, I have a local backup on my NAS device and then a remote backup through Backblaze.
I believe that backup systems are an essential part of data organization – especially when you are curating content for a website. That’s why I’ve always been so careful to keep my systems updated and in top working order. One of the ways to do that is to upgrade hard drives when possible.
In addition to the backup systems I mentioned, I also have a LaCie 6Big Thunderbolt 3 RAID device. This system is connected directly to my MacBook Pro and I use it as a working media drive for photo and video editing. When I got it a couple of years ago, the only option that was available for me was the version that had 12TB drives(2TB x 6) in it. This model isn’t even offered through LaCie anymore and the smallest capacity you can purchase is one with 24TB (4TB x 6).
The hard drives that came with the LaCie were the IronWolf Pro from Seagate. These are good hard drives and comparable to the Western Digital Red Pro drives. The hard drives have performed admirably but I decided to change them out for the WD Red Pro NAS hard drives because they have a faster cache and I was able to upgrade the capacity to 48TB (8TB x 6) at the same time.
When you choose a hard drive, you want to make sure you get the right type for its intended purpose. Western Digital (WD) has several different types of internal (3.5-inch) hard drives. They are each named with a different color to indicate what they are best used for.
Blue: WD Blue internal hard drives deliver reliability for office and web applications. They are ideal for use as primary drives in desktop PCs and for office applications.
Gold: WD Gold HDD are specifically designed for use in enterprise-class data centers and storage systems.
Purple: WD Purple Pro drives are designed for advanced AI-enabled recorders, video analytics servers, and deep learning solutions requiring additional capacity, performance, and workload capability. WD Purple is available as Surveillance and Pro Smart Video hard drives.
Red: WD Red NAS hard drives are built within a NAS unit to store, archive, and share data. WD Red HDDs are available as standard, Plus, and Pro models.
Black: WD Black HDD have been designed for using with gaming PCs.
Since I wanted to add to a backup system, I selected the Red Pro hard drives (Model: WD8003FFBX-68B9AN0). So, how are they different from other drives? Here are some details from Western Digital.
Compatibility: Unlike desktop drives, these drives are specifically tested for compatibility with NAS systems for optimum performance. Reliability: The always-on environment of a NAS or RAID is a hot one, and desktop drives aren’t typically designed and tested under those conditions like WD Red Pro drives are.
Error Recovery Controls: WD Red ™ Pro NAS hard drives are specifically designed with RAID error recovery control to help reduce failures within the NAS system.
Noise and Vibration Protection: Designed to operate solo, desktop drives typically offer little or no protection from the noise and vibration present in a multi-drive system. WD Red Pro drives are designed to thrive in multi-bay NAS system environments.
The WD Red Pro NAS Hard Drives are available in a wide variety of capacities from 2TB up to 22TB. They are backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee and come supported with a 5-year limited warranty. The hard drives range in price from $99.99 up to $599.99 each. See the full pricing table below. These prices are current as of this article’s publishing. The WD Red Pro NAS Hard Drives are available from westerndigital.com, Best Buy, Amazon, B&H Photo, and other authorized retailers.
The WD Red Pro hard drives were packaged in anti-static, moisture barrier bags. This is common for hard drive transport as it keeps the device’s internal components protected while they are in transit. I waited to take them out of their protective packaging until I had all the previous drives removed from the LaCie unit. LaCie made the transfer quite easy as there were only four screws that needed to be removed before I could remove the IronWolf HDDs.
As I mentioned, the LaCie had been in use for a couple of years at this point and I’m embarrassed to say that I had never completed proper cleaning maintenance on it. There isn’t really a set amount of defined time about how often you should perform cleaning maintenance on your hard drive systems and it really depends on the environment the device is kept in.
If you have a server farm, chances are you are keeping your hard drive storage in a clean room where there is very little people traffic or other activities. If, however, you are keeping your NAS in a room that has standard activity — for example, an office — more dust will likely accumulate. My recommendation would be to do regular maintenance at the same time you evaluate your backup system — maybe on World Backup Day. That would ensure you are doing it at least once a year.
If you are completing regular cleaning of the room (dusting, vacuuming, etc.) I would recommend at least checking the internal case of the NAS at that point. Regular cleaning of your hard drive can help prolong the life of your system. So, it’s important to catch dust collection early.
With that said, when I opened the case of the LaCie 6Big, I found a lot of dust bunnies. I carefully removed the hard drive trays so that dust didn’t get blown all over the place and as I removed each of the drives from their trays, I used canned air to blow the dust off of them.
I would not recommend using any type of wet cloth to clean the dust off of an HDD. They are particularly sensitive to moisture and even a slightly damp cloth could drop water where you don’t want it. Use a dry cloth, canned air (or an air blower if you have one), or even a vacuum to pull the dust away from the HDDs.
Once I was satisfied that the hard drive trays and the LaCie unit itself were sufficiently dust-free, I started the process of installing the WD Red Pro hard drives. The first step was to remove them from their bag. If you don’t have a static-free environment or an anti-static mat, then try to remove any possible sources of static collection.
In my case, I primarily used the desktop surface rather than the wool desk mat that was on the desk. I also tried to limit my movements while I was working with the HDDs. My desk chair sits on top of a plastic chair mat so that was better than if the chair was directly on top of the carpeted floor in my office.
I tried to make sure all the items I needed were ready to go so that the amount of time from when I took the HDDs out of their protective bags was minimized. I had all the drive trays emptied and my small screwdriver available. I lined up the WD Red Pro HDD with the screw holes in the drive tray and then started securing the HDD with the screws. The entire process took about 5 minutes per tray since I was being cautious and didn’t want to chance stripping any of the screws if they didn’t align just right.
After each of the trays was filled with a new WD Red Pro HDD, I placed them into each of the drive bays on the LaCie. With this particular hard drive device, the drive tray has a latch that locks into place when you seat it correctly into the drive bay. So you know right away if it’s not right.
Even though each type of storage chassis is designed differently, many of them have a similar mechanism and you’ll know if something is wrong. Once all the drives were in place, I powered the LaCie 6Big up. My MacBook Pro recognized it and it started the process of formatting the new hard drives into the RAID setup.
When measuring a hard drive’s performance, I usually take a few things into account. First, I look at how well they behave under normal, daily operations. Do they cause any speed issues? Is there any problem with transferring data back and forth? Have there been any drive failures or errors? Fortunately, the answer to all of those questions is, “No,” with the WD Red Pro drives.
Not only have I used them for daily media transferring as I edit, but they have also been used to store another NAS backup on it. I’ve not discovered any read/write errors with them and they have been working as they should. The drives are not spinning and actively writing data 100% of the time, but the LaCie system does become active as soon as my MacBook Pro is awake. It will stay online until the MacBook Pro is shut down or goes to sleep.
The next thing I look at is benchmark tests. I usually run two as a standard – the Blackmagic Disk Speedtest and the AJA System Test Lite. Both tests have macOS apps that can be downloaded for free from the Mac App Store. Both of these tests provide similar data about the drives you are testing. They are meant to show the read/write speed of the drives under different types of stress tests.
The 8TB WD Red Pro HDD are rated with a transfer rate of 235 MB/s. The Blackmagic Speed test showed a result of 26.4 MB/s WRITE and 308.6 MB/s READ. The AJA System Test Lite showed a result of 535 MB/s WRITE and 286 MB/s READ. These tests were run one right after the other so I am not sure why they are so wildly different from one another.
The next test that I ran was a simple transfer test. This is a what I consider a ‘real-world’ test as it consists of timing how long it takes a file or set of files to transfer from one source to another. I transferred a folder that was 4.68 GB in size from the MacBook Pro to the LaCie. The two devices were connected through Thunderbolt 3. The transfer took 24.51 seconds to complete. That translates to a transfer rate of around 187.2 MB/s, which is about 21% slower than the top transfer rate listed for this hard drive.
For many years, we have fought drive failures in our NAS devices. A few years ago, we were able to start using WD Red Pro drives in one of them. Those hard drives are still in use and going strong. Even though there are many options for NAS hard drives, I think I would only recommend the WD Red Pro for long-term, constant use. They stand up to hard, daily use and are well worth the investment.
For more information, visit wd.com, Facebook, or Twitter.
I'm a Tech geek, Photographer, Star Wars fan, and writer for macsources.com I love technology, and what people do when creating amazing apps and products. Find me on Twitter Want to know more? Just ask. Or visit our team page
On the 8TB model I’ve had 11 failed from an array of 8 drives in two years. Worst drive ever in my 20+ year IT career. No failures in the same amount of time on the 10TB model.
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