Seagate ST8000AS0002 Archive v2 8 TB 3.5-Inch Hard Drive

It is absolutely essential that you understand the intended function of this drive before you buy it. This is not suitable for a NAS system or as a boot drive, and it was not built to be either of those things. People who use these as NAS drives and then complain of failure are dragging the score of the drive down simply because it doesn't perform doing something it wasn't built to do. Its like yelling at your dog for not producing eggs. This drive uses SMR, which is covered very well in another review on here. It is intended to be written to sparingly - or preferably just once - and then read sparingly. It is an archive drive, a backup, a drive that you dump your 8TB of data onto and then keep safe in a cupboard for the rest of its life, using only in the event of your main drives' failure as a data restore. I cannot stress this enough: this is not designed or intended for or recommended to be used as a NAS drive. There are plenty of 8TB NAS drives on the market, so if that is what you are looking for then this is not the drive for you. However, if you want a safe backup of a large amount of data, then this drive is perfect. I love it. It took me two days to copy across two 4TB drives' worth of data to this archive drive. The write speed starts off fast (I got approx. 190mb/s) but gradually slows down (at its slowest I got 40mb/s). But speed is not what this drive is about, so that is fine. Once the data was copied over I put this in a static-proof HDD box and it now lives in my cupboard, well away from anything that could fall on it!

Excellent product and price. Ideal as large capacity storage for read only (storage!) data, such as media libraries or backup. Note: this is not intended as a regular read/write drive (such as for your operating system/C: drive, for running games or working documents that will frequently change). That said I was surprised by the write speeds it achieves - up to 120MB during mass transfer. Standard SATA setup - so plug in data and power and you're set. We're using this for media (video) storage in our central media server and it performs great for all formats tested up to (virtually) uncompressed MKV blu ray backups with multiple high bit rate audio tracks included. Highly recommended. Easy to use. Performs well.

Was concerned about reliability given the number of reported failures that seem to be around (although there's obviously no way to tell how many people have perfectly working units and therefore don't feel compelled to post a review), but one week in and no problems. As many have said before, the drive uses SMR technology and is designed for cold storage/archive purposes, with low write speed but good read performance. I knew this going in, and it fits my use case perfectly – I'm using the drive for offsite backup of photos, video, music and personal data. I was initially a bit concerned when I started running my usual Robocopy-driven backup script – Not far through I started seeing average write speeds to the drive of around 1.5-3 MB/sec, even with large files, when from reviews I had expected the lower end to be more around 30 MB/sec. Looking further into it, I noticed that I wasn't using Robocopy's multi-threaded option (/MT). Once I turned this on, write speed seemed to fluctuate around 30-70 MB/sec, which is certainly sufficient for my purpose. Average read speed has been around 150 MB/sec – both in speed tests and in an MD5 hash check I run on 2.4 TB of photos. Will continue to surface test the drive on a regular basis but so far so good!

Arrived and didn't work. That could have something to do with the fact that Amazon put it in a jiffy bag inside a large cardboard box. Not exactly a suitable packaging system for a rotating hard drive. Returned for a refund. The drive it's self is also far more bulky than other drives of this form factor. It's not the wrong shape but it doesn't have the usual cutout corners you would expect a drive to have. This can make a difference if you trying to fit to to the likes of an Apple Time Capsule as the rubber formers that hold the drive in place wont fit on this drive. You have to surgically alter them to make the drive fit.

For what it's designed for this is an excellent drive. It is not however for general usage. For large sequential writes such as a backup or copying files one at a time (rsync or just dropping a directory of files onto it in Finder) it's fine - fast enough the gigabit connection I was copying over was the limiting factor. If you try and set up more than one copy at once however performance drops off massively - even more than with a normal drive since this drive uses shingled recording which means when it writes it has to write 7 tracks at a time. Random reads are fine. For the use I bought it for, large image files that get written once and then read several/many times, it's great but do not buy this drive for general usage or a raid array. The drive also has low power requirements so storing stuff that isn't frequently access but needs to be available quickly is another good use. It would also make a good backup drive so long as your backup software doesn't try to write more than one stream of data at a time.

Great drive! As good performance as the 2TB and 3TB I had for backup storage. I was able to backup the 5TB's already in the system at 131MBps which is more than adequate for a backup drive that isn't in constant use. I've always used Seagate for my hard drives. They tend to last the longest. I've had a 2TB installed and according to S.M.A.R.T. it's been running for 1066 days 1 hour. Hard disk sentinel still says the drive is at 100% even after all the time it's been on. That particular drive was used as a torrent seed and was in constant read/write for the entire 1066 days! I find with other drives (mostly Western Digital) that overuse like that results in me getting 2 years max out of a drive before it starts to fail. My 3TB Seagate is still at 100% after 860 days and my 2TB Seagate Hybrid is still running at 100% after 667 days. It's impressive that they make these drives to last. Having said that, to get the most out of your drives, you should try to keep them cool. I don't have my drives stacked on top of each other. I have a Corsair 540 case and I keep the drives away from the heat in the cable compartment instead of in with the CPU and GPU which keeps my drives around 38 degrees even when the rest of the computer is hitting 45-50 during high end gaming. Either way, it looks like another great drive! As soon as I run out of storage again, I'll definitely be getting another one to replace one of my smaller drives.

Firstly, the drive is imported from USA, therefore you have to provide KYC documents. The drive is fast and value for money.

I've had my 8TB Seagate for about 8 months. It has about 7.4TB of useable space. I've had no significant read/write problems; the write speed is generally fast (often over 100MB/s), but sometimes slows down to around 4 or 5MB/s, depending on the content being written and the amount of files in the transfer. I tend to copy files in batches of 40GB or less. After all the copying, I'll defrag the drive. I use mine as a mutlimedia hub. Since purchase, I've loaded it with about 6TB of movies and music, dropped it in an external drive enclosure, and mounted it with heavy duty 3M Scotch dual-lock strips to the back of my LG 55LN5700 TV and routed it to the USB input. It handles like a champ! I've used it nearly every day, and it shows no signs of slowing down. I know drives tend to have MTBF rates that can shorten lifespans the longer they're spun. According to Seagate, however, these drives have an MTBFR of around 800,000 hours (roughly 91.32 years). I don't know if I trust that figure, but the takeaway is that these drives are built to last. Seagate warrants them for 3 years. Most of the time, I leave mine plugged in and on; when my TV is off, it doesn't take much power. Because the USB indicates the on-state of the TV to the drive, it really only spools up when the TV is turned on. When I'm gone for long periods, I will turn it off (via the switch on my external HDD enclosure). I can play movies and music all day and night. Be aware, however: if you intend to use an external HDD for this purpose, make sure your TV is equipped to handle it. I've tried the same setup with a Vizio, and the Vizio can't display drive content directly via the USB. I've also tried it with a Samsung and had a similar experience, which was surprising; Samsungs are considered some of the best TVs on the market. However, there is a workaround, but it's not as clean as simply slapping the Seagate to the back of the TV and pressing play, like I can do with my LG. The workaround requires attachment of the HDD to a computer, either internally or externally via USB. From the computer, you can run an HDMI cable to the TV and use it as a monitor. In a pinch, a laptop can be used, but that adds to the clutter around the TV and is not as clean looking. All in all, I'd say this Seagate is an absolute rockstar in terms of storage space and value. It is everything I wanted it to be. When I purchased it, the drive cost $262.02 (only 8 months ago), so the current price of $214.99 is a steal! I bought mine to upgrade from a 4TB drive. Because this 8TB Seagate is still the most amount of storage for the money currently on the market (there are larger helium-filled drives, but at a steep cost), I may just buy one or two more. It really is the best on the market.

It is excellent! Even I know it's not recommended to keep deleting files, or to edit videos at all; for the purpose I bought it, I won't get any low performance. The purpose I've been using it for is writing files and folders big and small permanently as an archive. I transfer videos already edited from another hard drive which I call the workshop hard drive. Period.

wonderful nice job