Western Digital Ultrastar DC HC550 18TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 3.5-inch Helium ISE Enterprise HDD

The Western Digital Ultrastar DC HC550 18TB is a high-capacity, helium-sealed 3.5-inch enterprise hard drive engineered for demanding datacenter and cloud-scale environments. Built on Western Digital's ePMR (energy-assisted perpendicular magnetic recording) technology and sealed with a helium atmosphere, the HC550 achieves an 18TB native capacity while maintaining the thermal stability and reduced rotational drag required for high-density rack deployments. The drive spins at 7200 RPM and interfaces via SATA 6Gb/s, delivering a sustained transfer rate of up to 269 MB/s and a rated workload capability of 550 TB/year — reflecting its positioning as a true enterprise-class storage device rather than a nearline consumer product.

The WUH721818ALE6L5 variant incorporates Instant Secure Erase (ISE), which enables rapid cryptographic sanitization of stored data without physical destruction of the media. This capability streamlines drive retirement and repurposing workflows for organizations operating under data governance frameworks such as NIST 800-88 or similar regional compliance mandates. The helium-filled enclosure contributes to a lower operating power profile relative to air-filled alternatives at this capacity point, with a typical idle power draw in the 5–6W range and active power around 7–8W, supporting higher storage densities per rack unit without proportionally increasing thermal load.

Targeted at hyperscale cloud operators, enterprise NAS platforms, object storage clusters, surveillance archives, and AI/ML training data repositories, the HC550 is validated for 24/7 continuous operation and carries a five-year limited hardware assurance period. With a 2.5 million hours MTBF rating and a non-recoverable read error rate of less than 1 in 10^15 bits read, the drive is suited for tiered storage architectures where sustained throughput, data integrity, and long operational life are primary selection criteria.

Ideal for

• High-density cloud object storage nodes requiring maximum capacity per drive bay with low per-GB power consumption
• AI and machine learning training data lakes where large sequential read throughput supports rapid dataset ingestion at scale
• Enterprise backup and archival repositories demanding high sustained write performance and long-term media reliability
• Surveillance and video analytics platforms storing continuous high-bitrate footage streams from large camera deployments
• Hyperscale datacenter bulk storage tiers where ISE functionality is required for compliant drive decommissioning under data governance policies
• Scale-out NAS and software-defined storage clusters using JBOD enclosures that benefit from the drive's 550 TB/year workload rating

Technical specifications

Available from Omnixon Global. Submit an RFQ and our team will confirm configuration and availability for your order.