FD 8TB External Hard Drive - USB 3.2 Gen 1 - 5Gbps & eSATA - GForce 3 Aluminum - Silver - Compatible with Mac/Windows/PS4/Xbox (GF3S8000EU) by Fantom Drives

Bought from AWD, drive cycles on spin-up in the box, as if it where asking for more juice than the supply given. Took drive out, it's a Hitachi HGST HUA722010CLA330, not a bad drive. Drive spins up fine in a regular desktop computer, so I thought, well the box is bad. Placed another used drive in box, works just fine... so I'm at a loss. Can certainly see why it was returned. Drive has 0 power-on hours on it and was made 03/2018, guess I'll have to find another home for it. --> awGuru.comEDIT: After further testing, it's the POWER SUPPLY that is a piece of junk, it's rated at 2 amps/12v but it can't power a .46 amp drive. Used my old WD power supply which is only rated at 1.5 amps/12v and everything running as should be. Seems all the reviews stating these things come with crap power supplies are correct.For anyone interested in the actual specs:4/24/2019 8:50:25 AMModel Number: Hitachi HUA722010CLA330Serial Number: JPW9K0N132XDLLFirmware Revision: JP4OA3EASMART - Started 4/24/2019 8:50:25 AMSMART - Pass 4/24/2019 8:50:30 AMIdentify - Started 4/24/2019 8:50:51 AMModel Number: Hitachi HUA722010CLA330Serial Number: JPW9K0N132XDLLFirmware Revision: JP4OA3EADrive Capacity: 1.00 TB / 931.51 GiBMax LBA: 1953525167Cache Size: 29 MBLifetime Bytes Read: 191.75 MBLifetime Bytes Written: 25.64 MBPower-On Hours: 0Annualized Workload Rate [ (Writes + Reads) * (8760 / POH) ]: 0 TB/yrDrive Temperature (C/F): 26 / 79WWN: 5000CCA39CEB99E3Sector size (Logical/Physical/Allignment): 512 / 512 / 0Signal Speed (Max/Negotiated): 3.0 / ---- Gb/sTransport Supported: SATA 2.6Rotation rate: 7200 RPMForm factor: 3.5 inchSpecification Supported: ATA8-ACSEncryption Support: Not SupportedSecurity Mode: Supported, FrozenSMART: EnabledHost Protected Area features: EnabledAdvanced Power Management: SupportedDownload Microcode: Segmented

Reliable External Drive with eSata and USB3. The 5TB model uses a Toshiba HDWE150 7200 RPM Hard Drive. Toshiba hard drive reliability and performance have been rated equal to Western Digital Hard Drives. A good choice by Fantom. My previous 4TB Fantom Hard Dive lasted a little over 3 years of very heavy use (server backup of large image files several times a day) before bad sectors started to appear. My 2TB Fantom has lasted over 5 years of constant use as a backup drive. This is considered a normal lifespan for hard drives which is 3 to 5 years. My 2TB Fantom is a bit over 5 years old and still going. I don't remember which brand Hard Drive was in the 4TB and 2TB models. Just stay away from Seagate hard drives - they have the worst reliability as tested by multiple sources online.

This 4 TB External hard drive is being used as my DVR expander for my DirecTV Genie. So here is a little back story:I have Verizon Fios and DirecTV Genie service in my home. (Yes I have both for sports etc). I have used the Western digital 1TB expandable DVR expanders for a few years on both Directv and my Fios service. The Western Digitals work great but... 1TB is simply not enough for when I go on vacations or record a lot of shows within a week. I have been looking for a perfect solution to my storage needs. I HAVE found what I've been looking for in the Fantom 4TB drive. (Disclaimer, this drive only works with my Directv Genie, My Fios box wouldn't recognize it).Pros:-The drive really does expand my DirecTV Genie to 4TB. I have literally over 80 hours of HD content and only 4% is full so far. That's 96% free. Since I know the capacity limits of the 1TB I can say the Directv Genie uses the full 4TB of space.-Easy to install and use (Just unplug the receiver, plug in this drive then boot up receiver).-Does not slow down the receiver or your browsing of channels and shows.-If the power ever goes out, once rebooted it goes back right where it left off, recording all of my shows.Cons-The Blinking Blue light is very frustrating and annoying. Use some black electric tape to cover this light.-Compared to the Western Digital 1TB DVR expanders, this drive definitely makes some noise. Nothing too loud or unbearable but, you definitely hear the drive grinding. If you store it further away or under a shelf you should be fine.-Build quality of the casing isn't the best. Feels a bit cheap but looks aren't everything I guess.-Does NOT come with a eSata cable. Luckily I had an extra one from my Western Digital drive but if you don't have one, buy one.-Does NOT work with Fios, Only Directv as I have tested.Overall I am very happy with my purchase of this drive. I know I can be away for weeks at a time and all of my shows will be recording without running out of space. It isn't perfect but for the price and the high capacity (4TB) it's a great deal!Buy it!

If drives fail, they usually fail out of the box...did so in this situation.Connection coming and going.Surprised manufacturer had no software tools available to test it...so after working on it for a couple days, time to go back.I will find a more reliable manufacturer.Now the intermittent disconnect with the computer could be the cable too...but my experience usually shows the cable needs to be touched or moved a bit for it to disconnect.the fact is this drive would just disappear and reappear...sometimes an hour later, sometimes twice in 3 minutes.I have many externals and even one with cable issues never did this.it even hangs my boot up sometimes....def issue with drive...return

I bought this to replace a Shaw Expander for my Aris Gateway system. It is hard to find a hard drive that has an eSata connection anymore. This external hard drive is working well with my Shaw Aris Gateway so far. No complaints and happy I was able to find something compatible as an eSata connection is required as the USB input is not active for expanding the hard drive.

It seems to work well and has lots of storage.It looks good.Depending on what your using it for there is a bright blue light on the front that flickers when data in transferring. We used it as an external hard drive for a Pvr, so had to put some electrical tape over the light.It is quite noisy and has a vibration that is amplified by a desk or tv stand. Had to put a rubber pad underneath it. Seems odd for something labelled a “fantom drive”, because you can definitely hear it and see it.

I bought this to add to my Shaw Gateway PVR system to add storage space, and for 9 months, it was awesome. It alleviated all my storage problems. Before adding this drive, I was consistently at 70% full and getting messages that it wouldn't be able to record certain shows. With this drive in place, I never got over 20% full, but...It quit after 9 months. I had to re-format it to get it to run again, and lost a whole bunch of shows I was saving to binge watch. I have a feeling the problem is with Shaw, rather than the drive. All I have to go on is the fact that Shaw got out of the PVR expander business. You used to be able to buy WD drives directly from them to add to your system, and now they no longer sell them. I suspect they were tired of the complaints about a product they sold. Until they start putting bigger internal drives in their systems, though, these externals will be necessary for a lot of us. I reformatted it yesterday. It's back up and running. We'll see how long it lasts this time.

I bought this hard drive to use with my new Shaw Arris HDPVR. I needed the esata connection and this one had the best price around. I think this drive is pretty good! It is quiet! No noise like I have read some of the reviews on the drive here at Amazon.ca. Yes, we covered up the blue power light at the front too - it is way too bright. The drive is very sturdy and attractive. It works great with the receiver from Shaw and so far is doing everything it should be. Yes, you need to buy an esata cable for it seperately as well. All in all so far so good and very happy with the purchase!

this unit seems to work well but is a little noisy even when it is apparently not recording.For Shaw users the way this works is it becomes part of your pvr internal hard drive in other words a recording will be put on either the internal pvr hard drive or this external hard drive. you cannot control where a recording goes you cannot see if a recording is on the internal or external hard drive. Shaw mistakenly told me the internal hard drive would fill first this is not so. the unit is seamless we can not tell if a recording is on the internal or external drive. when we first hooked it up we went from over 60+ percent to 11 percent lots of room now.