DATA-CENTRE 18TB 7200 RPM · CMR WUH722018CLE6L4
Western Digital · Data-centre drive · WUH722018CLE6L4
WD Ultrastar DC HC555 18TB 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.
Price
No shop price yet
That button opens an Amazon search for WUH722018CLE6L4, and searches throw up lookalikes, so the part number on the listing is the thing to check before you buy.
eBay
for WD Ultrastar DC HC555 18TB Affiliate link
Capacity 18 TB
Recording CMR
Speed 7,200 rpm
Warranty 5 years
Workload 550 TB/yr
Failure rate No failure data Sizes 12 TB 14 TB 16 TB 18 TB 20 TB 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
Should you buy the WD Ultrastar DC HC555 18 TB? It's at home in a rack or a garage, where 7,200 rpm of spinning rust can whirr away all day without bothering anyone. WD backs it for five years, which is a long time in drive terms. It's CMR, which is what you want anywhere near a RAID or ZFS rebuild.
! Watch out forIt's a 7,200 rpm drive and you'll hear it working.
There's no Backblaze data worth quoting here. 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. A 4-bay box full of these gives 54 TB after one drive's worth of parity.
WD Ultrastar DC HC555 18TB specifications Drive type Data centre source for Drive type (documents.westerndigital.com, opens in new tab) Capacity 18 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