Toshiba N300 14TB NAS Hard Drive 3.5" SATA 7200RPM

The Toshiba N300 14TB NAS Hard Drive 3.5" SATA 7200RPM (SKU HDD-14TB-TOSHIBA-N300-NAS) is a single 14TB drive for network attached storage (NAS) units and surveillance storage. Here is what each headline spec means in practice.

Spec by spec

• 14TB capacity: 14 terabytes is 14,000 gigabytes on one drive. In a multi-bay NAS, each filled bay adds that much raw space before RAID overhead.
• 3.5-inch SATA III, 6 Gb/s: SATA is Serial ATA, the common drive connection. The 3.5-inch body is the full-size format, not the slim laptop type.
• 7200 RPM: the platters spin 7,200 times a minute.
• 256 MB cache buffer: a small block of fast memory on the drive that holds data briefly while it is read or written.
• 24/7 operation: designed to run continuously rather than for occasional desktop use.
• RAID and multi-bay optimised: RAID (redundant array of independent disks) combines several drives into one volume. This drive is made for that kind of NAS environment.

What else you need

A NAS or recorder with a 3.5-inch SATA bay that accepts a 14TB drive. Check the maximum drive size your device supports before ordering, as compact units often cap lower. For a RAID array, you need as many drives as the chosen RAID level requires, plus a chassis that supports that level.