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Western Digital · Data-centre drive · WUH722016CLE6L4

WD Ultrastar DC HC555 16TB

WD builds this one for data-centre racks; in a home NAS it's simply a big 7,200 rpm SATA drive with five years' cover.

Capacity
16 TB
Recording
CMR
Speed
7,200 rpm
Warranty
5 years
Workload
550 TB/yr
Failure rate
No failure data

Good for

  • Busy arrays (550 TB a year)
  • Big media libraries
  • RAID, SHR and ZFS rebuilds
  • 5 years' warranty

Not for

  • A desk or bedroom (7,200 rpm is the louder class)

Updated 27 Oct 2026 · Method 2.0

Is the WD Ultrastar DC HC555 16 TB right for you?

It makes most sense when you're chasing terabytes per pound and the NAS sits somewhere noise doesn't matter. Think garage, or a rack in the cupboard under the stairs. Five years of warranty is the other draw, and on a drive you'll leave spinning for most of a decade that's worth having. Recording is CMR, the right kind for RAID and ZFS.

Watch out for

It's a 7,200 rpm drive and you'll hear it working.

Backblaze doesn't run enough of these for a failure rate we'd publish. WD's datasheet puts it at 20 dB idle and 32 dB seeking. Power draw is 5.3 W idle and 6.4 W working on WD's figures, or 46 kWh a year if it spends the whole year idling. Put four in RAID 5 and you'll have 48 TB to fill (Windows will call it 43.7 TB).

Specifications

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

WD Ultrastar DC HC555 16TB specifications
Drive type Data centre source for Drive type (documents.westerndigital.com, opens in new tab)
Capacity 16 TB source for Capacity (documents.westerndigital.com, opens in new tab)
Spindle speed 7,200 rpm source for Spindle speed (documents.westerndigital.com, opens in new tab)
Recording technology CMR source for Recording technology (documents.westerndigital.com, opens in new tab)
Cache 512 MB source for Cache (documents.westerndigital.com, opens in new tab)
Interface SATA 6Gb/s source for Interface (documents.westerndigital.com, opens in new tab)
Form factor 3.5in source for Form factor (documents.westerndigital.com, opens in new tab)
Max sustained transfer 269 MB/s source for Max sustained transfer (documents.westerndigital.com, opens in new tab)
Workload rating 550 TB/yr source for Workload rating (westerndigital.com, opens in new tab)
MTBF / MTTF 2,500,000 hours source for MTBF / MTTF (documents.westerndigital.com, opens in new tab)
Maker's rated AFR 0.35% source for Maker's rated AFR (documents.westerndigital.com, opens in new tab)
Warranty 5 years source for Warranty (documents.westerndigital.com, opens in new tab)
Power at idle 5.3 W source for Power at idle (documents.westerndigital.com, opens in new tab)
Power in use 6.4 W source for Power in use (documents.westerndigital.com, opens in new tab)
Noise at idle 20 dB source for Noise at idle (documents.westerndigital.com, opens in new tab)
Noise when seeking 32 dB source for Noise when seeking (documents.westerndigital.com, opens in new tab)

Sources: documents.westerndigital.com, westerndigital.com