BarraCuda Mobile Hard Drive 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 128MB Cache 2.5-Inch 7mm (ST500LM030)

I almost returned this because it was too tall for my enclosure, but I'm glad I didn't because the 20TB drive of mine died and I had to copy 2TB over to this one. It is so nice and quiet compared to that awful 20TB drive I might just buy a bunch of these and store them accordingly. I had a different enclosure that wasn't permanent. I'm keeping this guy.

Works good

Both hard drives I ordered arrived early, and in perfect condition. I installed them on my NAS and worked without any issues. I'll probably buy a couple more due to the great price.

When I decided to upgrade my micro PC, I knew I needed a hard drive that could keep up with my digital ambitions. Enter the Seagate BarraCuda 5TB Internal Hard Drive – a behemoth of storage that promises to turn your mini machine into a data-swallowing shark.First off, let me say, this drive is no lightweight minnow. It's a chunky boy, not suited for the delicate confines of a laptop. Trying to fit it into my micro PC was like trying to squeeze a sumo wrestler into skinny jeans—tight, but ultimately successful!Performance-wise, this drive swims circles around the competition. Speed and reliability are as advertised, making it a true powerhouse. Loading files, booting up, and transferring data feel like a breeze, even when dealing with massive amounts of information. It’s like having a turbo-charged engine in your tiny car.However, be warned, this BarraCuda is strictly for the mini machine crowd. If you attempt to put it in your laptop, you might end up with a device that resembles an overstuffed suitcase. But for micro PCs and other small form factors, it's the perfect catch.In summary, if you need a storage solution that's both speedy and spacious, the Seagate BarraCuda 5TB HDD is a reel-y great choice. Just make sure your device can handle its chonky design, and you'll be riding the waves of data with ease!

In short: 300% failure rate within one year == garbage drivesUpdate 20180416:Third replacement finally finished pattern testing. Over 2400 hours continuous activity writing patterns to the entire accessible space and reading them back, plus another couple hundred hours of continuous seek-then-read-and-compare operations. Like the others (except the second replacement) it passed all this without a hitch (though the original and first replacement only had to endure about 700 hours of this). The SMART values claim no sparing so far and that everything looks good, so it's off to a shelf because Seagate says they refuse to support my non-Seagate enclosure. Let's see whether I can read back the pattern I wrote to it in another couple months.Update 20171127:The second replacement is DOA -- claims capacity over 140PB but can't even access sector zero. Drive can not enable SMART due to errors, so can't even see anything about the errors.I don't care anymore that they have improved customer service; with this level of reliability, even white glove replacement installation would be utterly meaningless.Update 20171005:The replacement drive is failing. Same symptom as the original -- critical filesystem sectors that are not usually rewritten are returning uncorrectable ECC errors, and other evidence of bit rot. Either the replacement drive hid it better or it just took longer; not sure. On the positive side, the time between failures is better than many Seagate drives I have tried, but it's still far too short (needs to be more than five years, not merely more than five months).A Hitachi Travelstar 7200RPM 1TB drive placed in an identical installation at the same time and subjected to the same use and handling as the original Seagate 2TB and then the replacement is still working well, having outlasted two of this Seagate model.Update 20170908:The replacement drive looks good so far and no apparent evidence of bit rot. Maybe this means Seagate drives are becoming less prone to suffering bit rot. I raised it to three stars because it seems better, but only three stars because of my long history with Seagate makes me worry a little. Still, it shows some promise and so I might try another drive from Seagate just to see whether this was luck or a trend.Update 20170331:Seagate allowed me to do an advance exchange on the drive; I have the new one and they have the old one now. Hopefully the new one holds data longer -- I will update the review once I am more sure of that (at least a couple months). I gave back a star because I didn't have to fight with them to get the return accepted this time; if something happens there, or if the drive looks good in a couple months, I will update this again.Original review:I wanted a >1TB drive in 2.5" 9.5mm height or smaller. Pity nobody else makes one.Like (almost) every other Seagate drive I have purchased in the last 20+ years, this drive suffers bit rot. Write data to it, read it back, it's good. Leave it alone for a month and it can't read some of it (uncorrectable ECC errors). Wipe it, verify all sectors good, write data to it. Leave the data in place for a while (even powered off sitting on a shelf), come back to it. Unable to read everything due to uncorrectable ECC errors.I'm going to try to get this one replaced in hopes it can be done, but every other time I have, tried Seagate insisted that I use their tools to replace the bad sectors and then it verified good. Sit it aside for a while and even zeroed sectors rot; try their tool and it rewrites all the bad sectors, then declares the drive fine again. They historically will not accept return of a drive that will not 'stay' bad after having all its bad sectors rewritten.I'll update this if Seagate accepts the return of this drive and the new one isn't also junk.

What makes this such a cheap 2.5-inch 5TB HDD is a non-standard data recording method called "Shingled Magnetic Recording" or "SMR". To quote Google AI,"When comparing a Seagate Barracuda with SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) to one with PMR (Perpendicular Magnetic Recording), the key difference is that the SMR drive will generally have significantly slower write speeds due to its overlapping track design, while the PMR drive offers faster write performance, making it better for write-intensive tasks, even though the SMR drive might have a higher storage capacity at a lower price point."What that means is, it's good for data that you put on it once and never delete or update again, and slow for handling data that needs to be rewritten. I had to use mine for rewriting due to a lack of storage elsewhere, but every time I try to delete the latest version of the Unreal Engine 5 and replace it with the newest one, it makes the drive slow to a crawl. I have to constantly give my 5TB Barracudas down time and defrag them whenever I do big delete or write operation on them. I even had to open my computer case and point a full-sized desk fan at them whenever I run them just to keep them from overheating.Bottom line: Get this if you need a cheap, high-capacity 2.5-inch 5TB HDD you will never rewrite data to. But if you need drives to store data you want to rewrite on a regular basis, get a CMR/PMR HDD or an SSD.

As advertised, well packed, promptly delivered. Thanks!

great speed. easy recognized by computer.