Toshiba N300 14TB NAS 3.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive Review: A Reliable Powerhouse for Your Data Needs

First, an important notice for all buyers of these internal hard drives: These internal drives were really meant for use by OEM manufacturers or for those (e.g., professional builders of custom computers) who know and follow proper ESD-protection procedures when handling these drives. If you handle or touch them improperly, you can cause ESD damage to the internal circuits of these drives, rendering them inoperable immediately or some time later (known as latent damage, which is an important cause of reduced reliability of the drives), depending on the nature of the damage you caused. You cannot handle and touch them like other consumer electronic devices. You need to follow proper ESD-protection procedures. Since, by default, these drives were intended to be used by those know how to properly handle them, the manufacturers do not typically include ESD warnings other than the anti-static bags that they come packaged in. The insidious nature of ESD means that the damage can manifest itself in many different ways, so no two ESD-damaged drives will malfunction in identical ways. When I see people reporting hard drive failures and they are different, especially if there are multiple failures being reported by the same person (especially if that same person reports dead on power-on for multiple drives, whether they were bought at the same or at different times), that is an important clue that ESD damage due to improper handling was the most likely cause of the failures. The fact that ESD does not always cause immediate failures or problems (but, instead, can cause latent damages which can cause the drive to prematurely fail sooner than the manufacturer's expected life expectancy) unfortunately misleads consumers into false beliefs that they are not causing problems when they do not follow proper ESD-protection procedures. The above notice comes from my experience as an engineer working for a company that uses ESD-sensitive devices in our products. The company sells to a major customer that uses the products for life-critical applications, where a failure of our product can kill people. (Our products also have internal self-test and diagnostic functions built in to warn of any possible impending failures of internal components, so that the customer can respond before the product actually fails.) For regular consumers like you, that, of course, does not necessarily apply. So you can choose to do whatever you want with the above ESD warning. And, yes, I do understand that vast majority of the consumers like to feel empowered or do not want to pay extra by installing or using these drives themselves. But do note that if you do not know or follow the proper ESD-protection procedures when handling the hard drives, the drives' MTBF specifications go out the window, which means you can no longer rely on the level of reliability that was designed into them by the manufacturer. The reliability then becomes unknown and most likely will be worse than what they came with before you touched them. And, yes, in case you're wondering, I do follow proper ESD-protection procedures when I handle internal hard drives. Now, on to my review of the Toshiba hard drive. Unlike most people, my most important criterion for a hard drive is not performance but reliability. I save files that are important and valuable to me for various reasons. So not losing those files is more important to me than other criteria like the read/write speeds. (For those who say that NAS can mitigate failures of individual drives, I agree. But I also care about the reliabilities of individual drives since, if too many of the them fail within a certain amount of time, even a NAS cannot help you. But that's just me.) I originally used Seagate and WD drives years ago. I discovered that most of them failed much sooner than they should have, based on the manufacturers' claims. It seemed that the drives were not made using proper procedures. (I know what kind of QA shortcuts that managers of manufacturing plants can take if they are under pressure from the HQ.) So I began searching online for hard drive brand reliabilities and discovered that HGST was highly rated. During years of using their internal hard drives, not a single one failed on me. This was refreshing after my experience with the Seagate and WD drives. But after HGST stopped operations as an independent company after WD acquired it, I needed to find a different brand. I was not going to trust WD again. One day I discovered the Toshiba brand of internal hard drives. At that time, there weren't many reviews of those drives. So I decided to take a chance and try them out. I first tried their 4TB drives and now I'm using their 8TB drives. I've been using them for several years now. None has failed on me so far, except for one that came in very badly damaged box (the one that the drive was packaged in; the box itself was shipped in a flimsy plastic bag). That one failed to format and made strange noises, almost as if the internal mechanical moving parts were grinding against themselves. Amazon replaced it very quickly and the replacement has worked flawlessly.

I am using two of these in my Isilon NL400 running TrueNAS Core (12.0-U1). I bought twelve Barracuda 8TB drives (which I expected to die) in order to make a zpool with the expectation to swap the garbage Barracudas with decent drives over time. So far these Toshiba drives are working as expected and are CMR. Resilvering went quickly and they are still working. It is difficult to say whether or not they have longevity since these are fairly new. If they die in a time shorter than expected I will update the review. The price is probably the cheapest of the NAS grade drives that you can purchase at the time.

Buying Hard Drives for some of us is like purchasing a commodity. I needed 8 drives (8Tb) for a Raid Array and I wanted the Toshiba NAS drives. Toshiba makes an excellent product and I have used their drives in many devices for both commercial and personal situations. But, the reason I am writing this review is this: Since the supply chain is all screwed up, I was worried about getting product. I ordered these from the "SmartBazaar" vendor (this link) on a Tuesday night , they shipped on Wednesday, FROM SINGAPORE(surprise) , they arrived in Hawaii on Thursday, Memphis/Richmond on Friday and delivered to me on Monday.(6 days) - The drives were packed in sealed individual OEM boxes, inside sealed Boxes of 4 from the OEM factory in the Philippines. They were packed extremely well and all are happily at work in my new Raid. Considering I have trouble getting US Mail across town in that same time period. I am certain if needed the customer support from Smart Bazaar, it would be available with the same professionalism. I can recommend Toshiba based on my history using their product.. and SmartBazaar, based on the experience above.

Update: came across with Seagate Exos 12TB Helium filled. $264. Runs a bit less noise (different sound vs Toshiba when write/seek), just a bit faster random and consequently write/read and 2 degrees Celsium runs cooler. Decided to keep Exos. 5 years warranty. But, note regarding Seagate warranty: it starts NOT from date of purchase but from date retailers got it from Seagate. Bought Toshiba and Seagate Ironwolf 8TB. Compared both in Qnap NAS drive. Both worked just fine. Producing same level of noise when reading/ recording data. Seagate was just 2-3 dB louder. Temperature wise, Qnap shown that Toshiba runs cooler about 2-3 degrees in Celsius. SATA Ciurent/Max speed Toshiba shown 6Gbps, Seagate 3 for Current and 6 for Max. Seq read/write Seagate shown about 245-250mbps and random about 150mbps. Toshiba shown 237-240 and 170 corresponding. Toshiba was a better packed for shipping and less prone to get damaged during transportation. Seagate was into carbon cheap box. Price wise : Toshiba 8TB was a bit cheaper ($175) and Seagate Ironwolf 8TB ($195 on sale, regular $205). Either drive didn’t show any errors. Bothe choices are fine. You won’t go wrong with either one.

En mi equipo nisiquiera noto el ruido de los hdd. Desempeño muy bueno, es mejor que seagate. Tengo 3 toshiba de 6, 4, 3 años y ninguno han fallado. Este modelo particularmente es silencioso y con uso rudo de carga y descarga constante no ha dado un solo problema. Velocidad de transferencia como se indica casi la ideal en mi sistema.

The first drive was a dud, looked like box was dropped and drive damaged. The amount drives being returned i don't get how Amazon or the vendor don't take care of the drives. Anyhow, replacement drive arrived a few days later. Homeserver picked it up and just works. Transfer speeds are amazing, at times i get 15-20 seconds bursts of over 230Mb/s, fastest drive I own. As far as noise, its in the server along bunch of other drives, it's not any louder than any of the other ones. When spools full speed, yeah you can hear it a bit more, nothing excessive. It does run a few degrees cooler than Seagate drives, and has bit less airflow than the Seagates and Hitachi drives. It's been a great drive, waiting a bit and will get 2 more.

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