IronWolf internal hard drives are the ideal solution for up to 8-bay, multi-user NAS environments that require powerful performance. The Western Digital Red Plus series of NAS drives are specially designed for server use. They’re better than the base Red range by using a better and more reliable way of storing data. This does mean they won’t be the absolute cheapest NAS drives from WD.

Best NAS hard drives 2023: Reliable storage for Synology

Step 6: MiniTool ShadowMaker is starting cloning the system disk to your hard drive. After cloning, you will get the following information window. IronWolf targets home, SOHO and small business NAS drives with up to 8 drive bays. IronWolf Pro is for businesses and digital artists who need extreme performance from a NAS server. IronWolf vs IronWolf Pro: Capacity The IronWolf’s write performance in AS SSD was 40MBps slower than the BarraCuda 10TB, but we’re still trying to understand the BarraCuda 12TB’s sudden drop in write speed. Take these numbers with a grain of salt. The Pro drives also have a higher workload rating of 300TB/year, compared to 180TB/year for the Ironwolf. Overall, Seagate seems to be less reliable at lower capacities. IronWolf provides a three-year limited warranty, while IronWolf Pro a five-year limited warranty. IronWolf vs IronWolf Pro: Price Note that we did not spot any statistically relevant difference in the seek times between the BarraCuda Pro and the IronWolf. Capacity caveatsWe’d always recommend against using normal hard drives inside a NAS because they’re not designed for continuous use and don’t come with some of the features specially designed for servers. Seagate, Western Digital, Toshiba, and other brands have a collection of NAS-focused hard drives. IronWolf is designed for a variety of Network Attached Storage (NAS). Get robust, ready-to-use, and scalable 24/7 performance for multi-bay NAS environments with a wide range of capacity options. IronWolf Pro We didn’t test the lower-capacity 1TB through 10TB IronWolf drives, but Seagate’s performance claims decrease progressively with each drop in capacity. On the other hand, the company lists only 210MBps for the 12TB model we tested, not the 250MBps we saw. You might see better-than-claimed performance with the other capacities as well, depending on your computer. Seagate

IronWolf Pro 12TB NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD – Inch Seagate IronWolf Pro 12TB NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD – Inch

Easily monitor NAS drive health with the integrated IronWolf health management system and enjoy long-term reliability with a 1.2 million hour MTBF. In short, IronWolf Pro drives will give you greater reliability, faster speeds, and a longer life span. But, it has a higher price. How to Clone System to Your Hard Drive Our thoughts: We’re recommending the Seagate IronWolf Pro, not because it’s outright better than the Western Digital Red Pro, but because the drive with the least capacity has better specs. This makes it great to get into the pro range of drives without spending too much. Important metrics to consider when shopping around include price per GB to maximize your spending, transfer speed, motor speed, maximum bay support, cache, and workload. But really, for a home NAS, you’ll be absolutely fine with the cheapest NAS hard drive. Engineered for reduced wear and tear, virtually no noise/vibration, no lag or downtime, improved file sharing performance, lower power consumption, and additional data protection – even in the event of a power outage.

Seagate comes out slightly on top since Western Digital doesn't offer any 7,200 RPM drives unless you pay more for the Red Pro series. Everything else is pretty much identical between the two storage families. This extra speed found in higher capacity drives from Seagate means increased access speeds, which is essential for storing and loading files on your server — looking for hard drives to install into your NAS? Go with the Seagate IronWolf. Now, do you have a better understanding of IronWolf vs IronWolf Pro? If you have different opinions on IronWolf vs IronWolf Pro, please don’t hesitate to share them with us.