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Seagate · Surveillance drive · ST3000VX015

Seagate SkyHawk 3TB

This one's for camera recorders. Seagate sells it as a surveillance drive, and the ratings on its datasheet are written with CCTV in mind.

Capacity
3 TB
Recording
CMR
Speed
5,400 rpm
Warranty
3 years
Workload
180 TB/yr
Failure rate
No failure data

Good for

  • A CCTV recorder (NVR or DVR)

Not for

  • A NAS (Seagate gives it no NAS rating)
  • Heavy daily writes (180 TB a year rating)

Updated 27 Oct 2026 · Method 2.0

Should you buy the SkyHawk 3 TB?

It's the right sort of drive for an NVR or a CCTV recorder, which is the job Seagate rates it for. We list it because surveillance drives show up in any price-per-TB hunt. For a NAS array, though, you'd be running it off its rating.

Watch out for

No NAS rating from Seagate. For an array, pick a NAS line instead.

Backblaze doesn't run enough of these for a failure rate we'd publish. On paper it makes 23 dB at idle and 27 dB seeking. Seagate lists 2.5 W at idle and 3.7 W working, which comes to 22 kWh a year for a drive that idles around the clock.

Specifications

Each value links to the Seagate page or datasheet it came from.

Seagate SkyHawk 3TB specifications
Drive type Surveillance source for Drive type (seagate.com, opens in new tab)
Capacity 3 TB source for Capacity (seagate.com, opens in new tab)
Spindle speed 5,400 rpm source for Spindle speed (seagate.com, opens in new tab)
Recording technology CMR source for Recording technology (seagate.com, opens in new tab)
Cache 256 MB source for Cache (seagate.com, opens in new tab)
Interface SATA 6Gb/s source for Interface (seagate.com, opens in new tab)
Form factor 3.5in source for Form factor (seagate.com, opens in new tab)
Max sustained transfer 180 MB/s source for Max sustained transfer (seagate.com, opens in new tab)
Workload rating 180 TB/yr source for Workload rating (seagate.com, opens in new tab)
MTBF / MTTF 1,000,000 hours source for MTBF / MTTF (seagate.com, opens in new tab)
Maker's rated AFR 0.87% source for Maker's rated AFR (seagate.com, opens in new tab)
Warranty 3 years source for Warranty (seagate.com, opens in new tab)
Power at idle 2.5 W source for Power at idle (seagate.com, opens in new tab)
Power in use 3.7 W source for Power in use (seagate.com, opens in new tab)
Noise at idle 23 dB source for Noise at idle (seagate.com, opens in new tab)
Noise when seeking 27 dB source for Noise when seeking (seagate.com, opens in new tab)

Sources: seagate.com