Western Digital Ultrastar DC HC550 16TB 7200RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 512MB 3.5-inch internal hard drive

Capacity and interface

The Western Digital Ultrastar DC HC550 is a 16TB 3.5-inch internal hard drive built for enterprise storage arrays. Its SATA 6.0Gb/s interface and 7200 RPM spindle speed suit servers and NAS units that need high-capacity bulk storage. The 512MB cache helps smooth heavy read and write workloads in multi-user environments.

Sustained workload behaviour

Energy-Assisted Magnetic Recording and a Triple Stage Actuator combine on a nine-disk platform to maintain areal density and head-positioning accuracy during long write sequences. The drive delivers consistent throughput for sequential workloads such as backup, archival and video surveillance recording. Enterprise firmware optimises command queuing for steady performance under continuous duty cycles.

Thermals, noise and power

The HC550 is designed for low power consumption in dense rack deployments, reducing heat output per terabyte compared to previous high-capacity models. Advanced power management modes spin the motor down during idle periods to cut draw further. Acoustic output remains within typical enterprise 3.5-inch drive limits for data-centre aisle environments.