Q: does this drive support S.M.A.R.T?

Yes. In fact, if you look in the overview tab on this page, you can click to view the manual and on page 29, it lists the different S.M.A.R.T. commands that are supported.

Q: It states that this is for storing music, games, and movies, I assume using this as a backup drive would also suffice or is this too good or too bad for that?

Absolutely. You can use this drive for whatever you want, and I don't know why drive companies list out uses, though there is one exception to that, and that's the Surveillance drives. Those spin slower and run cooler which is needed since some of those systems may be in pretty warm spots. I use these for backup, along with everything else.

Q: Will this drive suffice for recording and storage for a Blue Iris Security Camera Setup with 6 IPCams at 2MP each and x264 encoding at a decent bit rate (1024kbps or higher) such that the playback isn't a pixelated mess?

These drives and their predecessors will run 24/7 without any issues in a typical PC. The problem with security systems is often heat or cold depending on where the system is. I would also recommend surveillance drives for a security system, because they have a better tolerance for a larger temperature range, and they run cooler since they spin slower. Maybe you were thinking that Surveillance drives have to capable of a larger data throughput, but that isn't the case at all. Let's say each cam is creating a stream that's 720p and its bitrate is 2000 Kbps, which is the same as 2 Mbps. That's a SMALL letter "b", meaning it's bits per second, not bytes per second. So, to get bytes per second, divide by 8, and you see that for one cam, the video stream is 0.250 MB/s. Considering these drives can WRITE at about 150 MB/s, you could run 100 cams and STILL not be touching the limits of the write speeds of this drive. You could in fact run 200 cams if you have a security system capable of handling that many cameras, and still not touch the write limits of this drive. So, the surveillance drives run slower because speed isn't an issue, but reliability is and so is temps, and running slower keeps temps down.

Q: Is this ok for storing 4k movies on my HTPC or will it be the bottleneck?

You can boot from these drives with a Main Board that's newer than say, 5 years old? Maybe even going back before then. I can boot from a 4TB RAID on a 2012 Main Board, and of course that's partitioned as GPT. Modern OS's and modern PCs don't have that size limitation, and you can look it up. As far as 4K movies, that data stream is typically around 50 Mbps - 80 Mbps, if you are talking about an unaltered stream, like, coming off the bluray 4K disc. If you grab those streams and turn them into something like an .MKV file and didn't alter the streams, then let's looks at one that's more bandwidth intensive, one that's about 80 Mbps. Mbps = Megabits per second. Bits, not bytes. So, in terms of disk speed ratings, you're asking if this drive, that has a slower read speed of probably around 140 MB/s, or multiplied by 8 to give bits, is 1120 Mbps, can handle delivering a smooth stream that's 80 Mbps? Yes, incredibly easy, but if you want smooth performance, it's the REST of that system that needs to be capable of playing it.

Q: The description says it has "instant secure erase" and I am wondering what that is and how you access it?

In order to securely erase the data, the drive first creates an internal cipher key that is used to cryptographically scramble (or unscramble) the data as it is written to (or read from) the disk. During normal drive operation, all data is scrambled (or unscrambled) using that internal key. When the operator uses Instant Secure Erase to wipe the drive clean, the HDD deletes the internal key, rendering all user data unreadable. It is important to note that while Instant Secure Erase uses cryptographic techniques to securely erase data, it does not offer data encryption to protect data at rest. As far as how to access it, this was a gift and i do not have this option on my current drive.

Question 1

Well since no has actually answered this question straight up, here we go....
what is the RPM of this hard drives platter right out of the box?
Simple, right, know were in any of the specs is this info given?????

Accepted Answer

Only SeaGate knows for certain.  Googling it reveals a couple of sites that indicate that it's 5900RPM, despite sellers claiming it's 7200RPM.  When you get down to it, though, if you need a drive that will deliver extremely fast performance, even under heavy loads, then you should research other alternatives, such as RAID10 or RAID1, if not an SSD.

There is another option you can use.  It's called short-stroking the drive.  Basically, you find the 'sweet spot' from where there is a high performance rate (high RPMs) to where it drops off significantly.  Once you find that spot, you make a partition that size, and that partition will deliver high performance, perhaps even better than 7200RPMs.  Use Google to find more information about short stroking HDD's, it could help you out if you are wanting fast RPM's out of a lower RPM drive.

Question 2

What comes in the box?

Accepted Answer

The bare hard drive is contained in a bubble wrap.  The drive must be partitioned and formatted to be used. There are no "instruction"  details included.

Question 3

Running 64-bit Win 8.1 on an i7 CPU. 24GB memory (Dell 8500, bought new).
 
Drive not seen as 4TB unless connected via Seagate USB GoFlex connector. Not yet tried as internal drive.

I have two HGST 4TB HDDs. These two drives are seen as individual 4TB HDDs in Orico external USB drive boxes (1 and 2 drive boxes) and an older Sans Digital USB 4-drive box (all boxes/drives run JBOD). All USB is 3.0.

When I put in this new Seagate 4TB, it is ALWAYS shown as 2TB "Protected" and 1.7TB "Unallocated". The options to do anything with the drive are all "greyed out". If I connect the drive via the GoFlex cable, the drive is seen as 4TB, so I partitioned, formatted, and assigned it an unused drive letter. When I put *this* drive into the Orico or Sans Digital boxes, it is back to being an invisible 2TB+1.7TB  drive (described above--only seen in Drive Management).

When I put both HGST and Seagate in the same box, the HGST is properly seen while the Seagate is only seen in Drive Management, showing 2TB+1.7TB (can't assign letters or do anything, as described above).

Anyone got any ideas or suggestion as to the cause of the problem AND the solution?

Accepted Answer

initialize the drive as GPT, instead of MBR.  you can convert the drive to GPT after the fact, too.

Question 4

What's the thickness of the ST4000DM005 Barracuda 4TB 2.5" drive? If it's 15mms won't fit my RAID storage device. Having trouble finding  2.5" 4TB drives in the older (thinner) form factor.

Accepted Answer

This drive is a 3.5in not a 2.5in those are laptop drives even a low file 3.5in is only 26mm at best and a Standard Half-Height is 42mm and by the way your not going to find a 3TB on to 5TB under 15mm so your only option is SSD or get new RAID storage device that house standard size 3.5in drive sorry your petty much SOL for now.

Question 5

What's the difference between this and the Pro? Looking for a 4TB to hold my games

Accepted Answer

All these answers are innacurate except for the current one marked Best.  Speed is the main difference, although the Pro line also has drives with more platters to give them more capacity.  The regular 3.5" BarraCuda spins at 5900 RPMs and the largest is 8TB.  The Pro version spins at 7200 RPMs and the largest is 12TB.

Looking at the data sheet, ALL the larger drives be they the regular or pro version, have a cache size of 256MB.  There is also the FireCuda which is supposed to be better, but its data sheet shows it's about the same as the regular version and slower than the Pro.

All of this info is from Seagate's own data sheets, minus the spindle speed of the regular BarraCuda.  For some reason they don't want to publish that any of the BarraCuda drives 4TB and up spin slower than the drives that are < 4TB.  But, that's the way it was with the older Barracuda line and it hasn't changed.  You can see that the transfer rate is slower with the larger drives, and now since they list 2 different models of the 3TB drive, one of those is as slow as the 4TB + drives while the other model is as fast at the 2TB and smaller drives.

One more difference that's obvious is the warranty.  The regular has a 2 year warranty while the Pro has 5 years.

Search "Seagate Barracuda Pro", then click on a link that directs you to Seagate's information page for the drives.

Question 6

does this drive support S.M.A.R.T?

Accepted Answer

Yes.  In fact, if you look in the overview tab on this page, you can click to view the manual and on page 29, it lists the different S.M.A.R.T. commands that are supported.

Question 7

It states that this is for storing music, games, and movies, I assume using this as a backup drive would also suffice or is this too good or too bad for that?

Accepted Answer

Absolutely.  You can use this drive for whatever you want, and I don't know why drive companies list out uses, though there is one exception to that, and that's the Surveillance drives.  Those spin slower and run cooler which is needed since some of those systems may be in pretty warm spots.

I use these for backup, along with everything else.

Question 8

Will this drive suffice for recording and storage for a Blue Iris Security Camera Setup with 6 IPCams at 2MP each and x264 encoding at a decent bit rate (1024kbps or higher) such that the playback isn't a pixelated mess?

Accepted Answer

These drives and their predecessors will run 24/7 without any issues in a typical PC.  The problem with security systems is often heat or cold depending on where the system is.

I would also recommend surveillance drives for a security system, because they have a better tolerance for a larger temperature range, and they run cooler since they spin slower.  Maybe you were thinking that Surveillance drives have to capable of a larger data throughput, but that isn't the case at all.  Let's say each cam is creating a stream that's 720p and its bitrate is 2000 Kbps, which is the same as 2 Mbps.  That's a SMALL letter "b", meaning it's bits per second, not bytes per second.  So, to get bytes per second, divide by 8, and you see that for one cam, the video stream is 0.250 MB/s.  Considering these drives can WRITE at about 150 MB/s, you could run 100 cams and STILL not be touching the limits of the write speeds of this drive.  You could in fact run 200 cams if you have a security system capable of handling that many cameras, and still not touch the write limits of this drive.  So, the surveillance drives run slower because speed isn't an issue, but reliability is and so is temps, and running slower keeps temps down.

Question 9

Is this ok for storing 4k movies on my HTPC or will it be the bottleneck?

Accepted Answer

You can boot from these drives with a Main Board that's newer than say, 5 years old?  Maybe even going back before then.  I can boot from a 4TB RAID on a 2012 Main Board, and of course that's partitioned as GPT.  Modern OS's and modern PCs don't have that size limitation, and you can look it up.  As far as 4K movies, that data stream is typically around 50 Mbps - 80 Mbps, if you are talking about an unaltered stream, like, coming off the bluray 4K disc.  If you grab those streams and turn them into something like an .MKV file and didn't alter the streams, then let's looks at one that's more bandwidth intensive, one that's about 80 Mbps.  Mbps = Megabits per second.  Bits, not bytes.  So, in terms of disk speed ratings, you're asking if this drive, that has a slower read speed of probably around 140 MB/s, or multiplied by 8 to give bits, is 1120 Mbps, can handle delivering a smooth stream that's 80 Mbps?  Yes, incredibly easy, but if you want smooth performance, it's the REST of that system that needs to be capable of playing it.

Question 10

The description says it has "instant secure erase" and I am wondering what that is and how you access it?

Accepted Answer

In order to securely erase the data, the drive first creates an
internal cipher key that is used to cryptographically scramble
(or unscramble) the data as it is written to (or read from) the
disk. During normal drive operation, all data is scrambled (or
unscrambled) using that internal key. When the operator uses
Instant Secure Erase to wipe the drive clean, the HDD deletes the
internal key, rendering all user data unreadable.
It is important to note that while Instant Secure Erase uses
cryptographic techniques to securely erase data, it does not offer
data encryption to protect data at rest.

As far as how to access it, this was a gift and i do not have this option on my current drive.

Questions & Answers