Western Digital 18TB WD Purple Pro Surveillance Internal Hard Drive HDD - SATA 6 Gb/s, 512 MB Cache, 3.5" - WD181PURP

It has survived 100k+ miles, turned off while driving, in a tractor trailer going through some of the bumpiest roads of the usa, including louisville repeatedly. It hits different in a truck. Ive kept it off for 3-6 months at a time, and possibly longer, and it held data without obvious corruption. Freezing temps, hot temps.. I just need to reformat it to a larger cluster size. File integrity be damned, im not waiting hours for a few gigs. value for money is good. Hdd tech is hdd tech. You know. At least it has a high theoretical lifespan. Formatting can be done fine. At first i thought there was an issue with the drive but then i tried a different dongle and realized the drive was fine. Speed for hdd is not fabulous, and never will be, unless you run them in raid setups where you can get multiplied speed by the factor of however many drives your raid tyoe is setup for. Noise, i use it with a dongle ro a minipc right by my head. You hear some clicks, but nerds these days are usually loud mouths listening to backgroundvmusic while streaming as they do their homework, so a few clicks wont matter unless youre an asmr artist or recording studio quality soundtracks in the same room with high sensitivity mics. Its not bad.

I recently purchased ten Western Digital 12TB WD Purple Pro surveillance drives for an extensive security project. Out of the box, I did encounter an unexpected issue: two of the drives were dead on arrival. However, I promptly reached out to customer support and received replacements without hassle. Once installed, the drives performed flawlessly. The WD Purple Pro series is specifically engineered for surveillance environments, and it shows—these drives run quietly and efficiently, handling constant writing and heavy workloads with ease. Recording high-definition video streams from multiple cameras has been seamless, and the storage capacity is ample for long-term retention. While initial failures were disappointing, the quick and professional replacement process reassured me of Western Digital’s commitment to customer service. The performance, reliability, and peace of mind these drives provide far outweigh the minor setback at the start.

I bought two of these for my NVR. One plugged in and worked just fine. The other was DOA - NVR reported an error and it wouldn't spin up. Eh, no big deal, it happens, I returned it to Amazon and they sent me replacement. This one was ALSO DOA. At this point I wondered if maybe my NVR backplane had an issue, so I tested the drive in other computers; nope, still dead. I switched around my existing NVR drives, and that slot works fine. So, two dead drives out of three. I then came here to check reviews, and I see many 1-star Dead-on-Arrival reviews, with many people apparently not checking until after return period (that sucks!). If you want to take the gamble, just be sure you check your drives right away when they show up!

I use two of the 18GB drives for stored video for two Blue Iris security camera systems in different locations. Zero compatibility issues with Blue Iris or two desktops (Lenovo Think Station & HP Elite work station) Both systems write direct-to-disk fast, with one handling 13 cameras, all recording constantly and the other handling 5 continuously. The system with 13 cameras has had the drive running flawlessly for 3 years now and the other with 5 cameras for about 1 year. I have no complaints about the noise level--some say they are a tad loud, but I feel they are reasonable for what they are doing. No problems whatsoever with either drive or system. I highly recommend for constant-write uses such as surveillance systems. The 18GB was overkill for my application but I wanted at least 30 days of backup footage in my system for all cameras and a few more in the future. They're a workhorse of a drive.

No issues so far! I am using this drive in my Unifi UNVR and it's been working great since I made the switch from housing my camera recordings on my Unifi Protect with 1TB HDD, which previously frequently would become unreachable and require formatting from time to time. With this much larger drive meant for surveillance systems, I currently have 7.92TB/13.9TB used and I already have 41d worth of recordings for my four 4k cameras. I am VERY happy and with this purchase!

The biggest issue I faced was the inability to order 4 drives as Amazon limited the number of drives to 3 With the limited stock I almost did not buy them, but was able to get my wife to order the 4th drive Sadly the drives 24hrs latter had dropped in price, a little frustrating but a fact of life in todays market The drives turned up in a paper bag that was split, the box’s were a little banged up, but the internal packaging probably prevented any serious damage. I hot swapped the 4 drives & the array built itself, taking about 2 days The performance of the system when loading detections has been improved but at a cost of more noise The 7200rpm drives are significantly noisier than the 5400 rpm which may result in the system being moved to place where the noise is not a problem So all told happy with the choice at the moment, but will come back to update this review if anything happens that prospective buyers would be interested in

I bought this beast to drop into my Amcrest NVR system because apparently, my house needed the same level of surveillance as Fort Knox. Spoiler alert: it works perfectly — and now my house is basically the Truman Show, but with better resolution. 🎥 Why I Love This Drive: 12 Terabytes of "You Saw Nothing, Officer" Seriously, it holds weeks of 4K footage from multiple cameras, including the one pointed at my driveway that’s mostly squirrels doing parkour. Purpose-Built for Paranoia Designed for 24/7/365 surveillance workloads. No naps. No coffee breaks. Just pure, tireless storage of every Amazon delivery and mysterious leaf blower incident. Plug-and-Paranoia Installation Installed in my Amcrest NVR like it was born there. No firmware drama, no compatibility tantrums. Just silence... and a blinking light of judgment. Cooler Than Your Ex Runs quiet, stays cool, and doesn’t randomly ghost you like a desktop hard drive shoved into a job it wasn’t hired for. 512MB Cache = Smooth Playback Rewinding suspicious backyard activity in crisp HD has never been this satisfying. Even if it was just a raccoon again. 🧠 Final Thoughts: If you're serious about home security (or just want to capture footage of your neighbor stealing your trash cans), this is the drive. It’s like a security guard that never blinks and never asks for a raise. Buy it. Install it. Sleep easy — unless you're worried what it might've caught you doing

Two of the three drives were DOA. The first one that I tried worked. Fingers crossed that it lasts

Buena marca para almacenar video vigilancia

Does a lot more noise than the drive it is replacing. Do not install in the same room as you work in.

boa capacidade e facil instalação

Fácil instalação, foi só trocar pelo antigo Notei que é mais rápido na hora de ver as filmagens.

Decent storage for 4k 10-15 cameras