Prime Members: 14TB Western Digital Elements USB 3.0 External Hard Drive

CheapPeasant

Oct 7, 2025 6:13 PM

273 Comments

Joined Dec 2019

CheapPeasantOct 7, 2025 6:13 PM

273 Comments

Quote from ChefJoe

:

FWIW, when I bought 3 WD Elements 14Tb external drives earlier this year (and I was happy paying ~$170 after various discounts and my taxes) they all ended up being 7200 rpm (physically, confirmed with a spectrum analyzer app on my cell phone detecting the frequency of 7200 rpm - 120hz). The firmware might cap the performance in some way but it's not an issue for me in my NAS.

my amazon visa says 5% cash back

blautens

Oct 7, 2025 6:21 PM

260 Comments

Joined Dec 2012

blautensOct 7, 2025 6:21 PM

260 Comments

Quote from UltraTraveler

:

While Seagate has 26TB at a similar price, is Seagate worse than WD on reliability?

Sharing is caring, sir. Link for the Seagates, please, if you have it? I checked Amazon but didn't see one at that price. I have a few older Seagates in my TrueNAS boxes and they haven't given me any issues - some of those 26TB ones would be nice. Thanks!

1

3

AquaGalley8616

Oct 7, 2025 6:30 PM

2.1K Comments

Joined Feb 2021

AquaGalley8616Oct 7, 2025 6:30 PM

2.1K Comments

ok, I did read the whole thread.

Can a few people tell us what type drive is in this device. it is enterprise type drive, or cheaper grade drive. Someone mentioned ultra-star drives (enterprise) that were binned.

Need confirmed type of drive that is in them. (I bought WD 530's refurb last year for about 105 dollars (which are enterprise drives) ... I want to put in my NAS good quality drives in my NAS/DAS.

2

muthukumaran.1234

Oct 7, 2025 6:37 PM

241 Comments

Joined Aug 2015

muthukumaran.1234Oct 7, 2025 6:37 PM

241 Comments

These have been available at the same price from time to time elsewhere aswell..so much for 'prime' deals...its becoming a joke on the people..

1

ssojo5150

Oct 7, 2025 6:41 PM

4 Comments

Joined Apr 2008

ssojo5150Oct 7, 2025 6:41 PM

4 Comments

Quote from paqmanbiker

:

Anyone see a problem with buying this and letting sit on a shelf for a long time? Say a year or two? It's the perfect size for my unraid array, (already have one of these exact drives in there already) but I don't need it right now. But kind of want to have a cold spare sitting around for when my old 6TB drive bites the dust.

You buy it, you can do what you want with it. It will be sitting unused either on your shelf or a warehouse.
Wear and tear will come with use. It will not mold, spoil or otherwise go bad. Keep it out of the sun and hydrate regularly.

1

AquaGalley8616

Oct 7, 2025 6:45 PM

2.1K Comments

Joined Feb 2021

AquaGalley8616Oct 7, 2025 6:45 PM

2.1K Comments

Quote from muthukumaran.1234

:

These have been available at the same price from time to time elsewhere aswell..so much for 'prime' deals...its becoming a joke on the people..

... man, I'm with you 1,000 percent. Prime DAY sucks, ... I haven't seen any good deals, and just regular sale stuff, ... Amazon is sliding down for me. My Echo Show 8's now have Sponsered ADS that you can NOT remove! I'm about ready to unplug them, with ad after ad, they you have to go up to the device and swip to stop the ad, then Amazon immediately puts a new ad on the device, taking you out of movie, or other things I'm doing to be spammed with ads. Sorry for the rant, but, yeah, this is PRIME DAY, and it's not like the good old days. Smilie

2

Tobbit

Pro

Oct 7, 2025 7:03 PM

695 Comments

Joined Jul 2016

Tobbit

Pro

Oct 7, 2025 7:03 PM

695 Comments

Is this type of drive less likely to fail than a more portable drive that doesn't have a separate power plug?

RotoJedi

Pro

Oct 7, 2025 7:18 PM

788 Comments

Joined Dec 2023

RotoJedi

Pro

Oct 7, 2025 7:18 PM

788 Comments

A few at Data Hoarder on Reddit seem to think the newer WD drives fail at a much higher rate than the older drives from 5+ years ago. Any truth to this?

1

ChefJoe

Oct 7, 2025 8:31 PM

188 Comments

Joined Nov 2009

ChefJoeOct 7, 2025 8:31 PM

188 Comments

Quote from AquaGalley8616

:

ok, I did read the whole thread.

Can a few people tell us what type drive is in this device. it is enterprise type drive, or cheaper grade drive. Someone mentioned ultra-star drives (enterprise) that were binned.

Need confirmed type of drive that is in them. (I bought WD 530's refurb last year for about 105 dollars (which are enterprise drives) ... I want to put in my NAS good quality drives in my NAS/DAS.

I bought 3 of the 14TB Elements drives back in July and received 2 of the WD140EDGZ-11CMYA0 IU HA570 / r/n 3pcha3 drives and 1 of the WD140EDGZ-11b1pao IU HA570 / r/n US7SAP140 dives. Those R/N numbers trace back to Purple Pro WD/Ultrastar DC HC555 and purple pro WD/Ultrastar HC530 datasheets, respectively. They spin at 7200 rpm too. Are they firmware limited to move or did they have defects, well, I can't tell you but they're operating fine so far. I prefer WD drives over Seagate, personally, but everyone has their own opinions about that and I don't want to argue with anyone about hard drive brands here. Smilie

3

rczrider

Oct 7, 2025 8:34 PM

2.9K Comments

Joined Jun 2014

rczriderOct 7, 2025 8:34 PM

2.9K Comments

Quote from blautens

:

Sharing is caring, sir. Link for the Seagates, please, if you have it? I checked Amazon but didn't see one at that price. I have a few older Seagates in my TrueNAS boxes and they haven't given me any issues - some of those 26TB ones would be nice. Thanks!

There's no link, they're just full of BS. Even if they meant 16TB and not 26TB, there aren't any new Seagate external drives for a "similar" price.

1

AquaGalley8616

Oct 7, 2025 8:55 PM

2.1K Comments

Joined Feb 2021

AquaGalley8616Oct 7, 2025 8:55 PM

2.1K Comments

Quote from ChefJoe

:

I bought 3 of the 14TB Elements drives back in July and received 2 of the WD140EDGZ-11CMYA0 IU HA570 / r/n 3pcha3 drives and 1 of the WD140EDGZ-11b1pao IU HA570 / r/n US7SAP140 dives. Those R/N numbers trace back to Purple Pro WD/Ultrastar DC HC555 and purple pro WD/Ultrastar HC530 datasheets, respectively. They spin at 7200 rpm too. Are they firmware limited to move or did they have defects, well, I can't tell you but they're operating fine so far. I prefer WD drives over Seagate, personally, but everyone has their own opinions about that and I don't want to argue with anyone about hard drive brands here.

...thank you ChefJoe to replying what was in your 3 14TB drives. That is the type of info that is important to me, and I'm sure others.
Keep posting, and have a peaceful and relaxing evening. Smilie

2

AquaGalley8616

Oct 7, 2025 9:07 PM

2.1K Comments

Joined Feb 2021

AquaGalley8616Oct 7, 2025 9:07 PM

2.1K Comments

Quote from rczrider

:

There's no link, they're just full of BS. Even if they meant 16TB and not 26TB, there aren't any new Seagate external drives for a "similar" price.

... in this Thread the OP mentioned 2 models the wd 14TB and the WD 18TB model, look at first post.

Now the WD 18TB model, OP has listed at 269 dollars.

My Seagate 26TB external has had a number of sales on SlickDeals the last month or so for 250 dollars. So either WD 18TB for 270 dollars or Seagate 26TB for 250 dollars... 8TB difference. It does depend if that is something good for you or not. In either case, with the info you had at the time, you shared your info, and I'm sharing my info.

Last edited by AquaGalley8616 October 7, 2025 at 02:09 PM.

1

joe318

Oct 7, 2025 10:32 PM

1.1K Comments

Joined Apr 2010

joe318Oct 7, 2025 10:32 PM

1.1K Comments

Quote from muthukumaran.1234

:

These have been available at the same price from time to time elsewhere aswell..so much for 'prime' deals...its becoming a joke on the people..

Prime deals do suck (have sucked for years), but this seems to be the best deal for an external hard drive right now, unless I'm not seeing something else?

2

back2basics

Oct 7, 2025 10:38 PM

266 Comments

Joined Feb 2008

back2basicsOct 7, 2025 10:38 PM

266 Comments

Quote from avalon

:

these are not helium right? don't want helium

https://www.westerndigital.com/pr...40HBK-NESN

https://www.westerndigital.com/co...esktop.pdf

14TB Black WDBWLG0140HBK-NESN 7 18037 87302 2 0 718037 873022

I'm not sure about these but all WD drives 16TB+ use helium technology. It's no longer new or flagship so they don't really advertise it a lot. Helium has not only proven reliable but the only way to get those mentioned capacities that have 6-8 platters inside and still run cool enough.

Prime Members: 14TB Western Digital Elements USB 3.0 External Hard Drive

$170

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