Seagate Backup Plus 4TB Black Desktop Hard Drive (STCA4000100) $161.49 AC + Free Shipping

In the same boat as iq100. Same specs in my unit except PN.

Is there a benchmark that would make it clear if it was 7200RPM or 5900RPM?

I may crack it open. Is there a non-destructive way to open these?

If I open, I'll post what I find.

Quote from buvwon : In the same boat as iq100. Same specs in my unit except PN. Is there a benchmark that would make it clear if it was 7200RPM or 5900RPM? I may crack it open. Is there a non-destructive way to open these? If I open, I'll post what I find.

What is the PN on the enclosure?

Quote from iq100 : What is the PN on the enclosure?

Same as yours. I was looking on the box and that is different.

So I went ahead and opened one up [youtube.com].

Barracuda XT - ST4000DX000

I think the easiest and fastest way to check is to follow the video above only until the plastic strip is off. So stop at about 2:30 in the video.

You can then view the SN of the internal drive on the sticker that's underneath where the vent holds in that strip were.

Then check the warranty [seagate.com] using either ST4000DX000 or ST4000DM000 in the model/part number field. It will show unknown for one and a warranty expiration for the other. If the ST4000DX000 works, I think that should be confirmation that it's a 7200rpm.

This method should pose virtually no risk of damage as the strip comes off easily. I damaged quite a few of the tabs and little plastic pieces fully opening the case. But then again, I'm in the 96th percentile for Neanderthal DNA [23andme.com] so perhaps your motor skills are more refined.

So...I was about to buy the 4TB Western Digital My Book Live "http://www.amazon.com/Personal-Cloud-Storage-Share-Photos/dp/B0064XAIZY/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1361484959&sr=8-6&keywords=my+book+live" configured as RAID (1) to simply have a redundant backup of my data. (The NAS features are not important to me).

There was some discussion of other RAID configurations earlier in the discussion but does anyone know if the Seagate can be used for RAID1? I just want to have a duplicate backup and the seagate is half the price of the WD. (Or if anyone wants to suggest a better backup strategy at a similar price point that is not cloud storage, I'm all ears)

Thanks

Is the "Seagate Dashboard" software worth using?