Question 1

What is the rpm for this drive 7200RPM or 5900RPM?

Accepted Answer

Actually the drive is a 5900 RPM according to other sources.  I'd still buy another one if I had the money as the performance increase was VERY noticeable over the old 7200 RPM that I was running.  I think the performance increase is due to the 256mb cache attached to the drive.

Question 2

I would like to use this drive in an external enclosure for once-a-month laptop backup. Would you recommend a case with built-in fan, or could I go without the fan?

Accepted Answer

Do not think you would need a case with a fan for it. It is not a faster HDD and does not produce much heat. Mine is in a tower, in use most of the day and have not seen it go much over 30c. Will probably be a little hotter in a case but still doubt it would be a problem. Would recommend a cooled case if you got a 7200RPM or a SSHD (Hybrid Drive) because they get a bit hotter.

Question 3

I cannot format this drive. I went in to dos shell and removed the read only attribute but it still says it write protected. What can I do??

Accepted Answer

Depending on the version of Windows, normally you use "Disk Management" to do an initial format on the hard drive. Note, you need Windows 7 or later to access drives over 2 TB. The disk must also be initialized using GPT, and you will need to have the latest drivers for your storage manager. Click the "Windows" button, and search for "Disk Management". Select the control panel option to "Create and format hard disk partitions". This starts the Disk Management applet. You should see the 4TB disk listed. If it already partitioned, then you will just need to right-click on the partition and a popup menu will have a "Format" option. Selecting the format option will display a dialog with options for the volume label, file system (pick NTFS), and allocation unit (use default). Make sure that the "Perform a quick format" check box is checked, otherwise it will take a really long time to format. If there is no partion on the drive, then you will need to right click on the Disk label of the left side and create a new partition. Once you have it partitioned, then follow the instructions above to format the drive.

Question 4

How do I know if my computer can handle a 4 TB hard drive?

Accepted Answer

It's best to simply try putting it in the computer, and seeing if your BIOS / UEFI can handle a large size drive such as the above.

If the UEFI / BIOS only sees it as a 2 TB drive, then you'll need to use Seagate's DiscWizard Extended Capacity Manager Software, which you can download from Seagate's site directly.

Question 5

What RPM is this drive? And what enclosure is suitable for it?

Accepted Answer

RPM: Crystal Disk software reports 5400 RPM. It is not written anywhere on the disc label. But it has a large cache (256 MB or so) it is very fast and quite. Heat is barely noticeable.
Any enclosure capable of USB 3 would be fine. I am using a Startech enclosure, which is basically a tray, having a ventilation fan... its has a slot on top,  and HDD's can be swapped at need. Very convenient. I like this enclosure.

Question 6

is this good for ps4 use?

Accepted Answer

It is more then sufficient. I would never buy under 128cache for anything.

Question 7

Why is my new Seagate ST4000DM004 4 TB HDD seen only as 1677.90 GB, on a Win 10 Pro 64 bit OS? This looks like a HDD mislabeling. What am I doing wrong? Thanks.

Accepted Answer

The hard drive is 4TB however you may have one of two issues. The first may be the SATA controller doesn't support more than 2TB. The second may be that the drive may be using MBR (Master Boot Record) format instead of GPT format.

To change this, boot into Windows after setup and go to the Disk Management tool under Computer Management. Just ask google for instructions. I would share a how to link but this won't let me.

Question 8

good for gaming? 
i wish the SSDs would be cheaper but for my budget would 4tb blue drive be alright for games? 
and editing?

Accepted Answer

The burst performance on this drive that newegg mentions in the description is not a lie.  You do get a noticeable difference in the performance of your system.  My boot ups are faster, my transfer of files are faster (especially large files).  When doing backups it doesn't take forever to transfer 25 gb worth of files.  Now it runs around 10 min or so.  If I had to choose a drive like this again because of being in your position I would choose the same drive.  The only thing different I would do the second time around is see if there was a 7200 rpm drive just to make sure I could get enough speed for the money that I was spending.  I purchased this drive at a higher price 150.00.  So if you spend 100.00 you are getting a good deal IMO.  I haven't had any problems with my drive.  My system is using this drive as I write this message to you.  I think I've had mine for about 2 years now.  Hope this info helps you.

Question 9

Does this work with a raid enclosure?

Accepted Answer

Well in order to answer flawlessly we would need to know what raid enclosure you are using; however in the industry where raids are used they do not use a bunch of 2.5" laptop drives and ssd are not so common since they do not hold as much data as a conventional hdd. I would assume it should fit fine.  They fit in nas box which is pretty small. You will need to check what it recommends.

Question 10

Is it true that the 4TB/5400RPM drive is approximately 20.2 mm/0.795 in thick?

Accepted Answer

This is a typical PC hard drive not meant for laptops.  Therefore it is actually about 22 or 23 mm thick.  The drive I have is in my system running so that I can type this message.  So I didn't/won't be stooping under the desk for measurements.  I'd have to disassemble my PC to get to it. (I use a PC Lan case, not a typical ATX PC case like a Dell or HP upright.)

Questions & Answers