Do my new hard drives need a firmware flash for better FreeNAS usage?

[Johnnie Black]

Your case consists of "2 GB/platter is impossible without SMR" (citation needed)

See here:

https://www.anandtech.com/show/1192...try-with-mamr-breakthrough-for-nextgen-hdds/2

PMR was developed as a solution to the previous areal density limits of around 200 Gb/sq.in caused by the 'superparamagnetic effect' where the density of bits would cause the bits to flip magnetic orientation and corrupt data. PMR, by itself, can theoretically hit around 1.1 Tb/sq.in.

Alongside PMR, more technologies have come into play. The most recently launched hard drives (the Seagate 12TB ones) have an areal density of 923 Gb/sq.in. ...

According to the data sheet, the ST8000DM004 has an areal density of 1203 Gb/sq.in., so as you can see it's over the limit of what it's possible today and it's even above the theoretical limit for PMR, you can see on the graph on the same link that the theoretical limit for SMR is 1400 Gb/sq.in.

 

[danb35]

https://www.anandtech.com/show/1192...try-with-mamr-breakthrough-for-nextgen-hdds/2

Ah yes, the MAMR thread that got locked a while back. That helps, thanks.

 

[rs225]

I see the ST8000DM004 being labeled a Barracuda Pro. Maybe there is a product line mismatch somewhere?

 

[Ericloewe]

Ah yes, the MAMR thread that got locked a while back. That helps, thanks.

And nuked? I get a 404.

 

[danb35]

And nuked? I get a 404.

Click the link in @Johnnie Black's post; it works. But I was referring to this thread.

 

[Ericloewe]

Ah, silly me, I missed that it wasn't a forum link and that XenForo had helpfully mangled the link into uselessness.

Edit: Extra silly me missed the fact that it was a thread on these forums. I should probably get some sleep.

 

[Norlig]

I see the ST8000DM004 being labeled a Barracuda Pro. Maybe there is a product line mismatch somewhere?

ST8000DM0004 Is the Pro Version, as far as I could sum up. They also say PRO on the sticker.

My drives have one less "0" and does not say Pro.

 

[Johnnie Black]

ST8000DM0004 Is the Pro Version, as far as I could sum up.

Correct:

ST8000DM0004 is a Barracuda Pro, it's a PMR drive with an 867Gb/sq.in. areal density
ST8000DM004 is a Barracuda, with an 1206Gb/sq.in, areal density, impossible with PMR alone.

Thanks to @danb35 for making me look for a citation, I was wrong above when I mentioned the HGST He12 was the largest density PMR drive (though I qualified that statement with an AFAIK), the Seagate 12TB drive is the current largest areal density PMR drive with 923GB/sq.in, the HGST He12 is in the same ballpark with 864GB/sq.in., I also mentioned I was 99.99% sure the Barracuda couldn't be PMR with such an high density, now according to that article not only is not currently possible, it will never be with PMR alone:

We had briefly mentioned PMR technology having theoretical limits earlier in this section. Traditional PMR can deliver up to 1.1 Tb/sq.in. with improved actuators and heads. Use of SMR and TDMR (Two Dimensional Magnetic Recording) can drive this up to 1.4 Tb/sq.in.

So I'm now 100% sure that drive is SMR.

 

[rs225]

OK, I have no opinion on whether they are SMR or not, but I do find Seagate guilty of deception in the labeling of their products with the 004 vs 0004.

 

[Chris Moore]

My only use will be HTPC media Storage, doesn't need to be excessively fast.

Just wondered if I there were any firmware settings (like the WD Greens) I could/should do with these, so as to not wear down a specific component inside.

Have you got your system fully assembled?

How is it working out?

Any trouble with these drives?

 

[Norlig]

Have you got your system fully assembled?

How is it working out?

Any trouble with these drives?

Cant say I have had any issues.

I wrote ~6TB to them on day one, kept my data on both volumes for a few weeks, and deleted the old data on the old volume some days ago.

Both the SAS Card and Drives appear to be working great.

 

[Inxsible]

HGST just announced a 14TB SMR drive and it's "just" 1.75TB/platter.

Launched now
https://www.anandtech.com/show/1266...es-ultrastar-dc-hc530-14-tb-pmr-with-tdmr-hdd

 

[Johnnie Black]

Launched now
https://www.anandtech.com/show/1266...es-ultrastar-dc-hc530-14-tb-pmr-with-tdmr-hdd

Yes, Toshiba also announced a 14TB PMR a while ago, though Thoshiba will use nine 1.55TB platters, these (and the upcoming Seagate 14TB PMR likely as well) will use eight 1.75TB platters, which are currently the max possible without SMR.

 

[Chris Moore]

Launched now
https://www.anandtech.com/show/1266...es-ultrastar-dc-hc530-14-tb-pmr-with-tdmr-hdd

The thing that is more interesting to me is this technology from Seagate:
https://blog.seagate.com/craftsman-ship/multi-actuator-technology-a-new-performance-breakthrough/
Bigger drives are great, but what they need to do is go faster.

 

[Chris Moore]

Is something like that suggested to do on the Seagate Drives? Is it possible?
Any other firmware changes suggested to these drives?

Can you upload the photos (if you still have them) directly into the forum. The link that was previously used is not working now.
Also, how are these drives doing?

 

[HoneyBadger]

Whoa, necro-post.

can't say I have had any issues.

I wrote ~6TB to them on day one, kept my data on both volumes for a few weeks, and deleted the old data on the old volume some days ago.

Both the SAS Card and Drives appear to be working great.

As long as you don't overrun the burst-write capability of these drives (which ZFS's nature of grouping writes into transaction groups mitigates) they'll handle a light or latency-insensitive write workload just fine.

However, under a sustained write load, such as during a resilvering operation, these drives will choke and die.