Question 1

For those who are actually using this in a NAS, how many bays do you have and how many are populated?  I am looking to pick up 8 of these guys for a freenas box and i have been scoping them out for awhile.  Heard a lot out DOA's....  Still the case with these drives?

Accepted Answer

I have a Seagate Black Armor NAS with four bays populated with the Seagate ST3000VN000 3TB in all four slots. Dives works fine and are designed for this type of use and easy to warranty if you have any issues, I am a long time user of Seagate drives and recommend them, just keep the unit cool not above 75 degrees and you should be fine. As with all hard drives the big enemy is heat.

Question 2

What does NAS stand for?

Accepted Answer

Network Attached Storage
This hard drive is designed to work in a multiple hdd box so you can back up AND then mirror your backup. It avoids loss of data if one drive fails. You would need to purchase a system, such as Synology, that has the device to mount the drives and the software to manage them. It is like building a personal cloud with redundancy. The only downside is if both drives or the entire system is harmed and you lose all your data. You can avoid a lot of that by purchasing a extra hdd and rotate it off site. 
I HIGHLY recommend having your data backed up and for the price of the synlogy and two hdd to get this done - it's less expensive than monthly cloud storage fees. Pays for itself quickly = especially if you have 3tb drives.

Question 3

What is the RPM of this Hard drive?

Accepted Answer

It is a bit different.  It is 5900 RPM

Question 4

Can this drive be used as additional drive in my pc?

Accepted Answer

Yes, I use a pair in a home theater PC, but you need a UEFI BIOS to see the full 3TB, and install is a bit tricky to force Windows 7 into GPT (GUID Parition Table) - because of the 3TB, not because it is for NAS.  I believe your boot disk (or at least the BIOS settings) needs to already be UEFI and GPT or you may need to reinstall the OS.  Research installation of >2TB drives on the Net before you commit.

Question 5

What is the rotational speed of this drive?

Accepted Answer

It is 5900 RPM, but the 3 & 4 TB models have performance similar to 7200 RPM drives of 1-2 years ago.

I use a 120GB SSD, bought here, for my Linux, Windows and Apps and this drive, in an external eSATA/USB 3.0 enclosure for all my media.
eSATA to my PC. USB to my media player which only reads files.

Question 6

Need to replace Seagate Barracuda 7200 12 1T is this an appropriate replacement?

Accepted Answer

I've had almost half of these be DOA. Some later failures too. Ive had better luck so far with WD Red 3TB 5400RPM 64mb SATA 6 Gb/s

Question 7

Does this drive have aggressive head parking (touted as an energy saving feature, when it could be shortening the usable lifespan of drive) like some of the external Seagate drives?
Being a NAS drive I would think NO. By agressive, I mean trying to park the heads every 30 minutes or so.

Accepted Answer

My 2 have been fine, but supposedly all Seagate HDDs are lacking on reliability compared to every other brand. I used to buy Hitachi HDDs and since learning more about modern Seagate from Backblaze (not perfect info but I know of none better) I regret the purchase. Go Hitachi if you can. WD is also less bad than Seagate, though Greens and Reds in particular can be problematic.

Question 8

what is the rpm for this drive?

Accepted Answer

5900 rpm

Question 9

Can I use this as a normal hdd? In that it is NAS ready(as if my school wanted to use it) but I can also simply plug it into my MoBo and it'll work fine. Because it has a lot of room for cheap.

Accepted Answer

The Network Attached Storage (NAS) designation simply means it's probably more reliable than a less expensive drive that doesn't have that designation, and is more reliable in RAID enclosures for network storage.

Question 10

what is the speed of this hard drive?
is it 10,000 RPM or 7200 RPM?

Accepted Answer

It is a 5900 RPM drive, but the 3 and 4TB models have fast data transfer rates comparable to 7200 RPM drives of 1-2 years ago.

In real life usage it is very fast, but this drive is designed for constant on media streaming, low power usage and heat generation and it does it extremely well.

Just a suggestion. Buy a 120-256GB SSD for your boot drive and one of these for general storage and you will have the best of both worlds.

Questions & Answers