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Seagate · Surveillance drive · ST4000VX016

Seagate SkyHawk 4TB

Seagate's CCTV line, built for camera recorders (NVRs and DVRs).

Capacity
4 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 4 TB?

It's the right sort of drive for an NVR or a CCTV recorder, which is the job Seagate rates it for. It turns up when you sort everything by price per TB, which is why it's labelled here. In a NAS you'd be running it outside what Seagate rates it for, and for an array you want a drive that's rated for one.

Watch out for

Seagate doesn't rate it for NAS use at all, which rules it out for an array as far as we're concerned.

No Backblaze failure rate for this one. They don't run enough of them, if any, for a figure worth quoting. Seagate's datasheet puts it at 23 dB idle and 27 dB seeking. Power draw is 2.5 W idle and 3.7 W working on Seagate's figures, or 22 kWh a year if it spends the whole year idling.