Slickdeals is community-supported.  We may get paid by brands for deals, including promoted items.
Heads up, this deal has expired. Want to create a deal alert for this item?
expiredcaptainguy posted Nov 17, 2023 06:06 AM
expiredcaptainguy posted Nov 17, 2023 06:06 AM

18TB WD easystore USB 3.0 External Hard Drive

+ Free Store Pickup

$200

$405

50% off
Best Buy
319 Comments 101,288 Views
Visit Best Buy
Good Deal
Save
Share
Deal Details
Best Buy has 18TB WD easystore USB 3.0 External Hard Drive (WDBAMA0180HBK-NESN) on sale for $199.99. Select store pickup where available.

Note: Availability for store pickup varies and may be limited.

Thanks to Community Member captainguy for sharing this deal.

Includes:
  • 18TB External Desktop Hard Drive
  • SuperSpeed USB-A cable (5Gbps)
  • AC adapter
  • Device management and backup software
  • 2-Year Warranty

Editor's Notes

Written by RazorConcepts

Original Post

Written by captainguy
Product Info
Community Notes
About the Poster
Deal Details
Product Info
Community Notes
About the Poster
Best Buy has 18TB WD easystore USB 3.0 External Hard Drive (WDBAMA0180HBK-NESN) on sale for $199.99. Select store pickup where available.

Note: Availability for store pickup varies and may be limited.

Thanks to Community Member captainguy for sharing this deal.

Includes:
  • 18TB External Desktop Hard Drive
  • SuperSpeed USB-A cable (5Gbps)
  • AC adapter
  • Device management and backup software
  • 2-Year Warranty

Editor's Notes

Written by RazorConcepts

Original Post

Written by captainguy

Community Voting

Deal Score
+207
Good Deal
Visit Best Buy

Price Intelligence

Model: WD - easystore 18TB External USB 3.0 Hard Drive - Black

Deal History 

Sale Price
Slickdeal
  • $NaN
  • Today

Leave a Comment

Unregistered (You)

Top Comments

resuds
431 Posts
350 Reputation
Good deal at $11.11/TB
jase77
741 Posts
54 Reputation
Nonsense. Normal people who just use a computer don't backup data but anyone needing 18tbs knows how things work.
lastwraith
1833 Posts
552 Reputation
I would get this personally. While I don't subscribe to Seagate all being garbage, these WD that I've gotten have all been Helioseal drives (based on HGST designs) and have been cool, quiet, and fast. The initial ones were PWDIS which meant you had to tape the pin, cut it, or use an adapter, but the latest ones haven't been PWDIS so no issues.

318 Comments

Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.

Nov 20, 2023 07:38 AM
673 Posts
Joined Aug 2023
t3t4Nov 20, 2023 07:38 AM
673 Posts
Quote from lastwraith :
I had no clue what you meant with the "V" before, but I get it now.
You're not technically wrong but you're going by speeds that don't take into account the Random IO delays of multiple files. Yeah, if you only transfer one or a few large files then the performance should stay above approx 225MB/s but real life doesn't normally work that way. That's why drive testing tools let you adjust file size samples.
My only point was that you can and will see real-life performance much lower than 225MB/s once you introduce IO delays because you're moving a bunch of small files. If you only ever move large ones.... you'll be fine.

No one here is mad, that's also a weird thing to bring up when you started your post (that I replied to) by telling everyone to shut up.
Well, kinda exactly like I said then?
1
Nov 20, 2023 07:40 AM
1,833 Posts
Joined Jan 2015
lastwraithNov 20, 2023 07:40 AM
1,833 Posts
Quote from t3t4 :
Well, kinda exactly like I said then?
My worry is that people will read your post and expect their drive to always at least give them 225MB/s.
Depending on what they're moving, this will not necessarily be the case but someone who doesn't know better may think their drive is not performing properly.
Last edited by lastwraith November 20, 2023 at 12:42 AM.
Nov 20, 2023 08:01 AM
673 Posts
Joined Aug 2023
t3t4Nov 20, 2023 08:01 AM
673 Posts
Quote from lastwraith :
My worry is that people will read your post and expect their drive to always at least give them 225MB/s.
Depending on what they're moving, this will not necessarily be the case but someone who doesn't know better may think their drive is not performing properly.
Excellent! You're point is 100% valid, and I think I like you.....
However, everyone expects to receive what they paid for, and not a nothing less than!

Telling you all, point blank, these drives will do the deed @ 225 + per second, depending on the deed!
Simple truth mater of fact, I did not lie to any of you!
Last edited by t3t4 November 20, 2023 at 01:12 AM.
2
Nov 20, 2023 09:35 AM
1,833 Posts
Joined Jan 2015
lastwraithNov 20, 2023 09:35 AM
1,833 Posts
Quote from t3t4 :
Excellent! You're point is 100% valid, and I think I like you.....
However, everyone expects to receive what they paid for, and not a nothing less than!

Telling you all, point blank, these drives will do the deed @ 225 + per second, depending on the deed!
Simple truth mater of fact, I did not lie to any of you!
Haha, fair enough. I appreciate some real-world feedback. I don't have this 18TB, only it's 14TB baby-brother and an older 12TB which was basically an HGST drive that WD slapped a label on after they absorbed them. Both helium drives are still cool, quiet, and quick.
Trying to resist grabbing an 18!
Pro
Nov 20, 2023 11:49 AM
3,012 Posts
Joined May 2011
Guy767
Pro
Nov 20, 2023 11:49 AM
3,012 Posts
Quote from t3t4 :
Well, everything dies, the question is when.

If your data does not currently exist in at least 3 locations, then it never existed at all.
You make a good/vital point about data being backed up at different locations. I'm in the process now of backing up my backups on a SSD so I can keep it at least in the garage.

Perhaps location 3 can be in my car; not sure if the SSDs are going to like being stored in -25F temperatures of Maine though. I really need to look into a cloud storage it seems; perhaps multiple free Google Drive accounts that have the backup split up between them; too much of cheap basterd to pay for it unfortunately...

As for SMART; It has proven useless for me over the years and it has never warned me of an impending drive failure. (Get a SMART synopsis of all drives connected when I boot; SMART status has always been HEALTHY)

However, perhaps I'm misusing and expecting too much from SMART; maybe its main purpose is to manually check via programs like CrystalDiskInfo to see if anything appears funky and replace the drive before it fails...


Quote from lastwraith :
I'm not sure, but these drives can't do 450MB/s by themselves and the included enclosure can only take one drive, so it doesn't really matter for these. I have a 2.5" enclosure that supports UASP and it's great for SATA SSDs. Since it's only a single drive enclosure though, UASP is irrelevant for my SATA spinners.

FWIW, I've never had a problem getting an RMA on WD shucked drives, but it's a good idea to keep the enclosure just in case. Plus they can be useful.
Ugh, seems like you are right about UASP and external USB hard drives; none of them that I own have it. (Checked via CrystalDiskInfo [crystalmark.info] and tested speeds with CrystalDiskMark [crystalmark.info]).

The max I can get on my externals is 190-200MB/s via USB 3. I must have gotten confused with the docking station [amazon.com] that I own which does support UASP and will give read speeds of 450MB/s to any drive that's attached.

I don't see why they can't make hard drive externals that support UASP though as the drives contained within them are SATA 600/SATA III 6Gbit/s - 600 MB/s. UASP [startech.com] support seems to be a rare or perhaps not available feature for hard drive externals I guess...
Last edited by Guy767 November 20, 2023 at 05:07 AM.
Nov 20, 2023 01:33 PM
44 Posts
Joined Nov 2021
NervousHalibut2346Nov 20, 2023 01:33 PM
44 Posts
I think this deal is dead. I ordered two last night and BB cancelled my order within 2 hours of giving them my money:
"[NervousHalibut2346], we canceled your delayed item(s).

Unfortunately, the item(s) below are still delayed. Because we don't know when we'll be able to get more, we canceled the item(s) from your order and will credit any payment.

For details regarding refunds and credits, please see the What You Need to Know section below.

We value you as a Best Buy® customer and hope to see you again soon.

Sincerely,

Your Customer Care Team"

They still charged me a few hours after getting that email though… not sure what to think.
Nov 20, 2023 02:46 PM
1,053 Posts
Joined Jul 2007
TurboMannNov 20, 2023 02:46 PM
1,053 Posts
Quote from Guy767 :
You make a good/vital point about data being backed up at different locations. I'm in the process now of backing up my backups on a SSD so I can keep it at least in the garage.

Perhaps location 3 can be in my car; not sure if the SSDs are going to like being stored in -25F temperatures of Maine though. I really need to look into a cloud storage it seems; perhaps multiple free Google Drive accounts that have the backup split up between them; too much of cheap basterd to pay for it unfortunately...

As for SMART; It has proven useless for me over the years and it has never warned me of an impending drive failure. (Get a SMART synopsis of all drives connected when I boot; SMART status has always been HEALTHY)

However, perhaps I'm misusing and expecting too much from SMART; maybe its main purpose is to manually check via programs like CrystalDiskInfo to see if anything appears funky and replace the drive before it fails...




Ugh, seems like you are right about UASP and external USB hard drives; none of them that I own have it. (Checked via CrystalDiskInfo [crystalmark.info] and tested speeds with CrystalDiskMark [crystalmark.info]).

The max I can get on my externals is 190-200MB/s via USB 3. I must have gotten confused with the docking station [amazon.com] that I own which does support UASP and will give read speeds of 450MB/s to any drive that's attached.

I don't see why they can't make hard drive externals that support UASP though as the drives contained within them are SATA 600/SATA III 6Gbit/s - 600 MB/s. UASP [startech.com] support seems to be a rare or perhaps not available feature for hard drive externals I guess...
I don't think it makes much sense to have UASP for a single HDD drive.

You're not going to be hitting anywhere close to 450 MB/s. With an SSD sure, definitely not with these spinners.

If you had two (or more) using striping sure you may start closing in on that 450 MB/s which is why you can purchase multi bay JBOD enclosures with UASP (picked a couple up recently for testing).

IMO, no need for UASP for these easystore drives.
Last edited by TurboMann November 20, 2023 at 07:49 AM.

Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.

Pro
Nov 20, 2023 03:01 PM
3,012 Posts
Joined May 2011
Guy767
Pro
Nov 20, 2023 03:01 PM
3,012 Posts
Quote from TurboMann :
I don't think it makes much sense to have UASP for a single HDD drive.

You're not going to be hitting anywhere close to 450 MB/s. With an SSD sure, definitely not with these spinners.

If you had two (or more) using striping sure you may start closing in on that 450 MB/s which is why you can purchase multi bay JBOD enclosures with UASP (picked a couple up recently for testing).

No need for UASP for these easystore drives.
Ah, I think I get it; traditional hard drives that spin can only support 150MB/s to 200MB/s and UASP 500MB/s read speeds would be superfluous so it's omitted on externals.

SSDs would benefit from UASP though hence why I get 450MB/s via my docking station for them. I made an incorrect assumption/inference that all drives would benefit from UASP. I was ignorant of the fact that tradition spinning drives only support around 180MB/s read speed; and I should consider myself lucky to get that from my externals. Thanks for enlightening me; it's appreciated.
Nov 20, 2023 06:21 PM
665 Posts
Joined Mar 2008
budkilmer21Nov 20, 2023 06:21 PM
665 Posts
Quote from NervousHalibut2346 :
I think this deal is dead. I ordered two last night and BB cancelled my order within 2 hours of giving them my money:
"[NervousHalibut2346], we canceled your delayed item(s).

Unfortunately, the item(s) below are still delayed. Because we don't know when we'll be able to get more, we canceled the item(s) from your order and will credit any payment.

For details regarding refunds and credits, please see the What You Need to Know section below.

We value you as a Best Buy® customer and hope to see you again soon.

Sincerely,

Your Customer Care Team"

They still charged me a few hours after getting that email though… not sure what to think.
Same thing here and I ordered on Saturday. Looks like they don't have enough stock and now cancelling
Nov 20, 2023 09:42 PM
31 Posts
Joined Aug 2020
DeadsoonNov 20, 2023 09:42 PM
31 Posts
Quote from Guy767 :
Oh my sweet summer data hoarding child they certainly do; especially large USB external drives in my experience.

That's why you should keep all your important data on a relatively small hard drive and have it automatically backed up regularly via programs like Macrium Reflect [macrium.com]. (Seems to be no longer free but you can get an older version that is. I know I'm blocking my trusty free version in Windows firewall just to make sure it remains free; hopefully this will work).

IMO backing up easily obtained video media is wasteful and foolish. Think of it this way, by the time your hard drive fails that contains all your easily found video crap; encoding methods, quality and files sizes will be dramatically improved and you will probably want to procure replacements anyways. Please don't waste good money backing up insipid crap like My Mother The Car [youtube.com]; think of the poor cheap basterds laugh out loud
Actually if you dont download a 80GB new 4k Remux then the torrent is usually dead or painfully slow in less than a year.
Also HDD dont just die instantly. My Seagate limped along long enough for me to get the 5TB of movies of it in time.
Yeah sure a movie will always be easily available to find online but it willl most certaintly be quality so hidious as to be unwatchable.
Case in point the number one public torrent tracker site by a mile is YTS.mx. The average movie size is a little under 1GB in 720p and thats for brand new movies like Oppenhimer where the 4k REMUX is 82GB.

It's all good though I usually go on a movie watching binge and get rid of up to 10 moves a day, watching a few and reralizing the others are pure crap.
Nov 20, 2023 09:46 PM
3,975 Posts
Joined Sep 2008
68droptopNov 20, 2023 09:46 PM
3,975 Posts
Keeps going in and out of stock. Hopefully they ship the one I did get to go through.
Nov 21, 2023 02:02 AM
1,833 Posts
Joined Jan 2015
lastwraithNov 21, 2023 02:02 AM
1,833 Posts
Quote from Guy767 :
Ah, I think I get it; traditional hard drives that spin can only support 150MB/s to 200MB/s and UASP 500MB/s read speeds would be superfluous so it's omitted on externals.

SSDs would benefit from UASP though hence why I get 450MB/s via my docking station for them. I made an incorrect assumption/inference that all drives would benefit from UASP. I was ignorant of the fact that tradition spinning drives only support around 180MB/s read speed; and I should consider myself lucky to get that from my externals. Thanks for enlightening me; it's appreciated.
Yeah, that's what I was trying to explain. Enclosures for 3.5" single SATA drives are likely never going to see a drive that can perform fast enough for UASP to matter.

2.5" SATA enclosures or ones that can contain multiple drives in RAID 0 or something are obviously better targets for UASP support since speeds may actually reach that high with RAID or a SATA SSD.
A single HDD is going to have a hard time delivering anything approaching 300MB/s so it's just not a big deal.
Nov 21, 2023 02:09 AM
1,833 Posts
Joined Jan 2015
lastwraithNov 21, 2023 02:09 AM
1,833 Posts
Quote from Deadsoon :
Actually if you dont download a 80GB new 4k Remux then the torrent is usually dead or painfully slow in less than a year.
Also HDD dont just die instantly. My Seagate limped along long enough for me to get the 5TB of movies of it in time.
Yeah sure a movie will always be easily available to find online but it willl most certaintly be quality so hidious as to be unwatchable.
Case in point the number one public torrent tracker site by a mile is YTS.mx. The average movie size is a little under 1GB in 720p and thats for brand new movies like Oppenhimer where the 4k REMUX is 82GB.

It's all good though I usually go on a movie watching binge and get rid of up to 10 moves a day, watching a few and reralizing the others are pure crap.
He referred specifically to externals, so it's certainly possible for those to die with no warning. They don't always have great cooling and perhaps more importantly, for a while there were problems with the enclosures and their logic boards dying out of the blue. On encrypted enclosures, this proved to be a real problem. For ones that weren't, you could at least swap the drive elsewhere because it usually worked fine.

In a more general sense, I've had drives give lots of warning and some give none before dying. Assume they will all die and have backups for anything you care about. In the grand scheme of things, storage is cheap. I'd rather have backups than try to replace everything, even if it is technically replaceable. My time is not without value.
Nov 21, 2023 06:36 AM
297 Posts
Joined Jan 2013
terrywang903Nov 21, 2023 06:36 AM
297 Posts
Deal is live now
1

Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.

Nov 21, 2023 06:54 AM
1,833 Posts
Joined Jan 2015
lastwraithNov 21, 2023 06:54 AM
1,833 Posts
Quote from terrywang903 :
Deal is live now
Pretty sure it's been live the whole time, but I will say that with certain stores selected it seems to dip in and out.
Some people were saying their orders were canceled afterwards though, so that's a consideration as well.

Leave a Comment

Unregistered (You)

Popular Deals

Trending Deals