Western Digital 2TB WD Black Performance Internal Hard Drive HDD - 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64 MB Cache, 3.5" - WD2003FZEX

Sometimes you gotta sacrifice silence for performance. This being a spinning disk it makes a bit of noise when reading/writing, however it's okay and fully functional. Great speed and useful for new builds.

I've been using this hard drive for several weeks now, and it has truly exceeded my expectations. If you work with large files like video projects, renders, or game libraries, this hard drive is an excellent investment. Loading and transfer times are fast for an HDD, and the 256MB cache makes a huge difference when moving large folders. It's a SATA drive, so don't expect the speed of an SSD, but within its category, it performs very well. I have it mounted in a tower for video editing and storing old projects, and so far, I've had zero annoying noises or overheating. It stays cool and stable. Something to keep in mind: this model is more expensive than a regular hard drive, but it's clearly built to last. If your workflow is demanding or you want a robust drive for your game or media library, the price is justifiable.

I've had a lot of hard drives over the years, but the reliability in performance of Western digital black drives stands above the rest. Yes you can spend less money on a drive the same size, but sometimes you get what you pay for. When you get a Western digital black you get a longer warranty and faster speeds. These drives are fast, quiet, and reliable. I bought this to replace a failed Western digital black 2 terabyte drive of the same model, that was part of a raid array. Mind you, when I say that that drive failed, it did so honorably after 9.27 years of uptime in computers that were left running 24/7. I still have three more identical drives that are the same age, and still working fine. That's well beyond the 5-year warranty. I say computers, with a plural, because when I upgraded to a new computer I continued to use my old, and still functioning WD black hard drives. So with any luck, this new drive will last as long as the old one did, or more. I don't have any heat issues with these, but then again I have a high air flow case, and the drives are installed with fans blowing over them. I did try it one point mounting several drives very close together and and enclosed space, and I did run into heat issues. As long as you have reasonable air flow and you don't pack them too close together, they're not going to get too hot. I know in this day and age still using hard drives is kind of antiquated, but depending on what you use them for and how you use them, they can still have some benefits. I use these in a raid configuration consisting of five identical drives that contain a raid 0 array and a raid 5 array. This way I have the benefit of speed over data protection for one volume, and the benefit of data protection over speed for the other.

Western Digital hard drives are my choice when I pick a new hard drive. I used to live near their California HQ and was a former head of a large PC user group and learned WD has good quality. This drive is more expensive than others because i researched which one was good for handling heavy graphic read and write's when using video editing software and the file was on an external drive. This is a SATA drive and runs the faster 7200 RPM with a large cache. You have to either install this an internal drive, or buy an external drive case for this, with cables, etc. This is a do it yourself product and not for novice users. This drive is NOT a consumer product. You have to go to the website to get the instructions on how to format this drive, etc. That is what they mean by Bulk/OEM labels - it lacks any extras included with consumer hard drives in a box. You have to order the cables you need, and download the configuration software from the WD website, which is fairly easy to do. If you don't want to configure a drive like this, find a consumer external drive with the CD, cable, etc. and buy it instead. You need to know if your PC will handle large partitions, ie. 2 TB, or you have to format it with several partitions due to older operating systems. I did not buy a separate external drive box, but bought an Anker external open case with power supply and capability to connect to both USB 3.0 AND eSata connections. I did that because using the eSata port on my old laptop was much faster than 2.0 USB. But, I can move the box and drive to my desktop which has a USB 3.0 add in card. Both eSata and USB 3.0 are much faster transfer speeds than USB 2.0 and this drive can handle it. I have included pictures of the drive working fine in the Anker case so you can see both in use. Note: Hard drives have standard connections to the case or internal slot for power and data transfer. The ability to provide USB 3.0 or eSata connections is built into the case, not the hard drive. Both USB 2.0 and eSata require special cables, so don't forget to get them if you do this. In my case, since I used the external "open" Anker docking station, I didn't need cables. I just slid the drive into the docking slot and the connection for data and power was made. The Anker unit also has an on off switch. Of course, if you use this drive internally in your system, that is a different process and involves other tasks if you make it your primary drive with an operating system. I did not do that, so mine is used primarily for a video data file drive and has not been setup with booting capability. You can't go wrong with Western Digital. (Unless they sell out to someone,then watch what changes in quality). You can get this drive in 1 TB, 2 TB or 3 TB versions. I got the 2 TB version and it cost about 30% more than WD drives with lower speeds and features.

it's ok. loads games quickly. has amazing storage. it's great but there's one HUGE problem if you built a silent computer. coming from 2 ssds then installing this thinking it would be my "mass storage" drive for most games and videos and what i got is a LOUD WHINING NOISE. it's constant. this hdd is the loudest component in my computer. even under the desk, i can hear the disks spinning and it giving off a high pitched noise. when reading and writing there's a clicking noise. that's not the issue. it's expected. the issue is the spinning of the disks is somehow causing a high pitched whining sound that is so annoying. completely ruined my silent computer. had a 232gb sata ssd, then a 1tb nvme ssd and running out of storage, thinking "hey, i'll just get a hdd with 6tb", not even thinking about the NOISE of this thing. for people with loud builds they probably don't notice it. but my build was 100% completely silent. now all i hear is this high pitched whining sound for a 24/7 computer it's pretty stupid. performance vs noise i guess. it's faster than others, but louder too. could be a deal breaker. honestly a shame.

I needed a little more storage space for my gaming system and didn't want to reinstall the OS. I decided on this drive as I've had good luck with them in the pass. This time I selected the 2 TB Black drive mainly due to the 7200 rpm speed and it would go well to replace a 160 gig drive I had a few things on. (Turned out I had more on there than I thought.) Anyway, installation was a matter of pulling the SATA Blue Ray burner out and then moving the old drive to the slot the Blue Ray had been in, which I did after taking the system into my work table in the kitchen where I do all my in case work. I did the switch as the old drive had stuff on it I wanted moved to the new drive. Once I got the new drive installed, I laid the old drive on top of the new drive after placing some cardboard in between to make sure the old drive wouldn't contact the old one and possibly cause a short. I then plugged up everything (KB, mouse, monitor, etc..), and cranked up Windows to activate the new drive and format it. These two things went off without a hitch and after changing the drive letter on the old drive to F, as I had four drive on of the system, and changing the new drive's letter to E, as the old one had been, I proceeded to move all the folders one at a time from the old drive to the new drive. by using cut and paste. Since the old drive had a number of item that weren't installed but merely copied to the drive this went fairly speedily until I got to the Program Files (x86) folder which turned out to be 101 gigs in size. An hour later, I had it all moved without a single error being reported. After checking the new drive by running a few things from it and making sure that all had copied off OK, I formatted the old drive and powered down the system and removed it and reinstalled the Blue Ray burner again and cranked things up again. The system came up running without a problem and the new 2 TB drive is now running as drive E on a three HD with burner system. I moved the system back into the Computer Room and hooked it up and so far all's well. I have gotten good results with WD drives and if I have to replace a drive or upgrade one to a larger capacity I usual get WDs. An increase in storage space and well worth the price.

This review is for the 2 TB black hard drive. I have owned several different brands of hard drives and several different versions of WD’s hard drives over the years, including the greens, reds and purples. I have only have had one failure in that time, which happened to be worked hard, operating on a security camera server for a few years before failing. This is my first black as I wanted a reliable drive for backing up my desktop. These hard drives have a great 5-year warranty, which is one of the big reasons, I purchased this. I connected this drive to my Windows 10 computer with no issues. It took less than a minute to get setup and going. It was pre-formatted, so it was quick to a drive letter and get going. File transfer speeds are fairly speedy for a large size drive. I do think the drives are a bit pricey, but have come down in price over the last couple years. I currently have three of the black drives, this 2TB, a 6 and a 8TB....all have been reliable so far. Overall, other than being slightly pricey, these are great hard drives with good speeds and good warranty that I expect to be reliable over the long term. 4.5 stars

UPDATE #3: PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND NOT PURCHASE THIS DRIVE. It has been three months and I still don't have a working drive. See Update #2 below about "PRIME INVENTORY." On March 18th, they sent an email saying that they would notify me when my replacement drive was ready for delivery. Today, April 20, I still don't have it. This should be deemed a deceptive trade practice. Seriously . . . STAY AWAY FROM WESTERN DIGITAL. They are not the same company we grew up with. At this point, I feel like they are doing everything in their power to make me go away, effectively stealing (by neglect) my $250. I feel like posting all the emails, just to prove this is not the rant of some lunatic. They are that bad. (UPDATE #3A: Literally on chat with WD Customer Service right now and here's a quote: "Now , as a token of apology WD team have created another Advance RMA - XXXXXXXX on 04/19/2025 under which we will be shipping our Prime drive first to you." Notice the term "Prime drive." What a horrible disregard for their customers. ORIGINAL REVIEW:I purchased this in November 2024, but did not install it until January, 2025. When I did, it did not work. Recognized as 0MB and would not initialize. Tried three different computers and three operating systems (W11, W10, and Linux). Too late to return to Amazon, so I dealt with WD's awful customer service and it took almost two weeks to get a replacement. When I got it, it, too, didn't work--tried again on three different computers and operating systems--my brand new Dell would not allow me to initialize the drive. Still haven't heard back from WD customer service--it's been five days. In the meantime, I purchased two Toshiba drives, and both of them are working flawlessly and were initialized immediately. I'm done with WD. I can accept a defective product, but I cannot accept their horribly broken customer service channel. I will never buy from WD again. UPDATE 1: Wrote them on Feb 28, 2025. As of 5 p.m. on March 6, still have not heard from them. Wrote again, today. UPDATE 2: WD says I have to return the first defective drive before they can send me the THIRD drive (at which time I will have to return the second defective drive). Oddly enough, WD said "Now, to resolve this issue, I will help you with an another replacement drive but this time I'll make sure that the drive will be provided to you via the prime inventory." Prime inventory? That sounds like a rather poor trade practice if they have different classes of inventory for ostensibly the same product. Have they been shipping "non-prime" inventory? What a joke. So far, this has consumed two months of my life. I wonder if they are thinking that if they make it just hard enough to deal with them, then I'll just say to heck with it and eat the $200+ I spent on this stupid drive. Really: shame on Western Digital.

The item sent to be was defected when I open up the package. WD support said that it doesn't cover along part with their so called policy. No choice I have to do a refund on these.

Its been more than a year i have upgraded my desktop storage with the Western Digital 2 TB SATA III Desktop Hard Drive, and I'm thoroughly impressed with its performance and reliability. As someone who needs ample storage space for work and multimedia files, this hard drive has proven to be a trustworthy companion. Firstly, the storage capacity of 2 TB is generous and meets my needs perfectly. It provides ample room for storing a vast collection of documents, photos, videos, and software applications without worrying about running out of space. Whether I'm organizing my digital library or backing up essential data, this hard drive offers plenty of room to accommodate my growing storage demands. In terms of performance, the SATA III interface ensures fast data transfer speeds and seamless connectivity with my desktop system. It delivers consistent performance when transferring large files or accessing data-intensive applications, which is essential for maintaining productivity and efficiency in my daily tasks. Reliability is a crucial factor for any storage device, and the Western Digital hard drive excels in this aspect. Known for their robust build quality and rigorous testing processes, Western Digital drives are designed to offer long-term durability and data integrity. I have confidence in the hard drive's ability to safeguard my valuable data and operate reliably for years to come. Installation was straightforward, thanks to the plug-and-play compatibility with my desktop setup. The drive fit seamlessly into my existing system, and setup was hassle-free, requiring minimal configuration before I could start using it immediately. Noise levels are pleasantly low, even during heavy usage, contributing to a quieter work environment. This is particularly beneficial for those who prefer a distraction-free workspace or have sensitive audio recording needs. Overall, the Western Digital 2 TB SATA III Desktop Hard Drive exceeds expectations with its generous storage capacity, reliable performance, ease of installation, and quiet operation. Whether you're upgrading your desktop storage or building a new system, this hard drive is an excellent choice for users seeking dependable storage solutions backed by Western Digital's reputation for quality and reliability.

Ottimo prodotto, veloce e affidabile. Utilizzato in sostituzione di un HGST di analoga capacità e velocità, con 10 anni di onorato servizio, che cominciava a zoppicare e perdere settori. Nessun problema di incompatibilità con il laptop - un MSI di 10 anni ancora pimpante.

Ninguna queja le tengo a este hdd. es todo lo que dice ser, para juegos va excelente, tengo instalado el resident evil 9 y me va de maravilla, simplemente muy recomendable!!

Based on other reviews here, I almost passed on buying this drive, but I'm glad I didn't. I already had a Seagate Barracuda 4TB 3.5" HDD in my other rig that I use to store games on an off my SSD's, saving me from redownloading them, and even thou it's a great drive for the price, read/write speed are not very fast and it was bugging me. So when this drive had a sale for black friday, with better specs and speed for only 35$ more, I wanted to try it, but reviews we're discouraging with people saying they got dead drives or used one in their order. Anyway I took a chance, figuring I would return it, worst case being, and I'm glad I did. Because I got a brand new unit in a sealed box/anti-static bag. It seems to work perfect and checked it in hard disk sentinel and it shows 0 days 0 hours and a 100% clean bill of health. From personnal experience, I've had Seagate drive quit on me after a couple of years of uses, but my Western Digital one never seems to quit, also it has 5yrs warranty, so I will see how it will turn out over time. It also is a 7200 RPM drive and is a little faster at transferring than the Seagate being a 5400 RPM drive, hitting close to 400 mbps over 250-280 mbps, which was an irritant for me. I'm also wondering if people leaving bad reviews on dead drives, weren't doing things wrong. These 3.5" drives need to be plug-in on power from a PSU or a proper usb enclosure with external power. They draw to much to be tested on a usb SATA adapter and will not work from usb port power alone. Also every new drive needs to be initialized in windows disk manager and formatted for it to then show in windows explorer, leaves me wondering if people just tried to hook them up to an usb adapter and open explorer to not be able to see the new drive there and then call it quits and leave a poor review. Anyway I'm happy with mine, crossing my fingers it will last! 🤞