HGST Ultrastar 7K3000 2TB SATA 6.0GB/s 7200rpm 64MB cache 3.5-in Bulk hard drive (0F12455)

The drive supplied was HGST HUA723020ALA640. This is a 2 TB, 7200 rpm drive with a 2.0 million(!) hour MTBF. HGST shows it as a 7K3000 series drive. Its interface is SATA and it has a 64MB buffer. I've had great luck with HGST drives and I love this one. When I ordered it Amazon was not shipping them so it came from a Marketplace vendor and the price was much lower. I didn't think it was well packed but I've had no problem with it. I can't imagine why people buy competing drives for nearly as much money with a 2000 hour MTBF - only three months of continuous operation. Then again I've never had a drive from any supplier die in three months, even one rated for only 2000 hours.

I really love these Enterprise-level hard drives, great speed+price+size+RELIABILITY (rated 2 million hrs)........I've bought 6 of these already, 1st 2 several months ago and w/heavy use still great quality/speed and even *less* slow-sectors than my 5x-less-used 1TB Hitachi (use the free MHDD boot-cd tool *outside*/b4 Windows to test properly [I had to temporarily change BIOS setting to ATA/IDE from AHCI for the tool to work properly, just don't forget to change it back b4 booting Windows again], and use GSmartControl [inside Windows] to see the *real* number of Hours In Operation, incl *b4* zero'd-out during supplier-refurbishing; most of mine show 20k+ hrs of pre-use [they're rated 2 *million* hrs, so no worries!], yet *still* run better/faster/safer [less slow spots] than any brand-new HD's I've ever had, incl the venerable WD-Blacks of the day); only 1 or 2 of my 6 are at all noisy and the sound is "Normal"/safe head-access like the old days; I'm completely confident of these drives, and ya can't beat the price, esp for such Enterprise-level quality/reliability [the 2TB size is perfect, too, bc some external-HD-enclosures have issues w/larger drives]. Plus there's always the 5-yr as-advertised warranty for peace of mind, regardless of what the Hitachi site-tool says, if the supplier *here* advertises 5-yr warranty then they have to honor it, it's their own responsibility to be sure of that kind of stuff b4 advertising it, of course.)I'll probably pick up a few more when/while they're <= $50 again and still advertised w/5 yr warranties... and I'm *very* picky about my HD's, +I always keep a separate slow quiet cooling fan blowing/sucking air across HD-bays [or in external-enclosures, of course], JIC, keeps these HDs around 80-90 idle and <95-100 under load [only a tiny bit warmer than my other slower crappier HDs, np]... heat is the enemy... and as long as the GSmartControl tool doesn't show any heat-Failures during past pre-use, and of course no "bad" vibration regardless of noise, it's good to go...>;](ps: of course, I'll update this review if there are any changes/disappointments/etc at all in the future... )

Something is just not right with this hard disk. Actually several things. For example:1. The Amazon product page clearly states that this hard drive has a 5 year warranty but I find only after I have committed to buy my invoice only gives me a 1 year warranty. Also when I check the warranty by entering the serial number on HGST.COM, (the Hitachi Hard Disk website,) it will not honor any warranty at all. Without explanation it simply says, "Please return drive to the point of purchase or system manufacturer." (I have learned that Hitachi does not warrant any hard disks that are sold by unauthorized sellers or by OEMs.)2. When I mounted the disk for formatting, it made the loudest noise that I have ever heard from a hard disk. A kind of loud high frequency chirping sound. Very much like the sound of a bearing seizing. (The sound subsided after a few minutes.)3. After formatting I checked it with Crystal Disk Info and found that S.M.A.R.T. was showing a caution because of current pending sector count of 53. That's when I decided that I had seen enough and would send the drive back.One other thing worth noting is that the drive came in a small flat rate postal box. Now the hard disk measures about 4"x5.7"x1" and the box is only 5.2"x7.6"x1.5". The drive had only a single thin sheet of bubble wrap. Nothing else. Never got a hard drive with so little protection.The return request I submitted was approved immediately and a prepaid mailing label was issued.Conclusion: I have had other similar problems buying hard drives through Amazon. Sometimes the drives are old, and had been sold to OEMs, which often means that the manufacturer will not warranty them at all. At least all my problems were resolved quickly. On reflection it seems that the hard drives that were listed as "Ships from and sold by Amazon.com" were good while all my problem hard drives were fulfilled by others. I think I will resolve to only buy hard drives direct from Amazon in the future.

I bought 2 of these because I bought a very similar 2TB Hitachi before and was very happy with it. These are even better. I wanted the new ones before Western Digital de-Hitachi'd them (i.e. discontinues them or replaces them with WD drive mechanisms). Boy am I glad I got these. They weren't the cheapest, but they are a premium drive- and you can tell.* VERY, VERY quiet- I have to put my ear up to the running bare drive to tell it's on. I have never heard a drive this quiet, ever.* Very fast- I don't remember now (it's been a couple of weeks) exactly the stats of MB/Sec, but transferring the files from my old drive to this one was very fast, as it should be with a 64MB cache.* Also not very warm- it was just slightly warm to the touch, so it shouldn't be any problem in cases with a lot of drives.I hope these hold up like I'm expecting them to. I'm putting both in a 4-drive external tower to replace older/smaller/slower drives.