I've just bought 2 WD red with SMR :(

Ignacio97

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Aug 19, 2020
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16
Hello everyone,
Past week, I've bought 2x WD Red 4TB online. The buyers, had published WD40EFRX but when the disks arrive my home, I've noticed that they sent me WD40EFAX (with SMR).
I've call the shop to tell him about the mistake and he told me that he hasn't WD40EFRX to replace the ones he sent me.
I've been thinking about the use I'll give the disks... "4TB mirrored" and may be SMR technology does not affect me "a lot".

What do you think about that?

Thanks all.
 

Yorick

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Nov 4, 2018
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1,912
I think you can tell the seller that they shipped you product that is "not as described", and to take it back and refund your money.

Then either find Red Plus WD 4TB (those are the WD40EFRX), or go for N300 or Ironwolf if you don't mind the extra heat/noise from 7200 rpm.

Why take a chance with SMR when you don't have to.

WD are still in the process of switching their branding over. Using the new labels:
Never buy WD Red. Never. Those are all SMR now.
Do buy WD Red Plus. They are all CMR.
Do buy WD Red Pro if you want 7200rpm. They are all CMR.

See https://www.westerndigital.com/products/internal-drives/wd-red-hdd
 

mav@

iXsystems
iXsystems
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If you have to keep the drives, at least make sure to increase the recordsize on the datasets to the max. There were reports that it help the drives to behave due to lower fragmentation and more sequential I/O. Just a guess, fusion pools in 12 with metadata on SSD may additional help to reduce small allocations and fragmentation, though this mean additional cost of some small SSD(s).
 

Yorick

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If you have to keep the drives

After you are done ranting at Argentinian consumer protection laws. I really hope they don't have to keep the drives.

Worst comes to worst, get with WD and have them RMA the drives for CMR ones. I'd try that before trying to make them work with ZFS.
 

Ignacio97

Dabbler
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Aug 19, 2020
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After you are done ranting at Argentinian consumer protection laws. I really hope they don't have to keep the drives.

Worst comes to worst, get with WD and have them RMA the drives for CMR ones. I'd try that before trying to make them work with ZFS.

Thanks for your advise. Yes, tomorrow I will send back the disks to the shop...
 

joeschmuck

Old Man
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May 28, 2011
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Thanks for your advise. Yes, tomorrow I will send back the disks to the shop...
I fully agree with that resolution. You should not retain drives that have been proven to cause problems with FreeNAS and then cross your fingers hoping you are the lucky one. Send them back, get your money, try to buy the correct ones.

Good Luck!
 

Ignacio97

Dabbler
Joined
Aug 19, 2020
Messages
16
Finally, the seller brought me back the money. Now, I have to buy 2 new devices.
What if I can't buy WD40EFRX? Which 4TB Seagate model is reliable?

Thanks all.
 

Yorick

Wizard
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Nov 4, 2018
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1,912
Seagate Ironwolf, Toshiba N300, or WD Red Plus. Red Plus are WD40EFRX in the 4TB size.
 

Ignacio97

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Aug 19, 2020
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Great. About IronWolf, are there something feature, particular model, which should be considered? Or everyones are CMR/PMR.
As I searched in Google, all 4 TB IronWolf would be perfect for NAS.
 

Constantin

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Last edited:

Yorick

Wizard
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That is actually an overview of known-bad drives. Just saying.
 

Ignacio97

Dabbler
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Aug 19, 2020
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I think I'll go for 2x ST4000VN008. It is impossible to get WD40EFRX here in Argentina. :confused:
 

Constantin

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That might be a temporary condition - The EFRX designator was used until early this year when WD switched to the EFAX designator (and started shipping a mix of SMR and CMR drives under the same designator). The larger EFAX drives (8TB+) remained CMR, the smaller ones (6TB and below) transitioned to SMR. EFRX drives were removed from the pipeline.

Then WDs underhanded tactic was exposed, some time passed, and then WD split their Red line into 3 different tiers: Red (SMR), Red Plus (CMR), and Red Pro (CMR, 7,200 RPM, longer warranty).

The Red Pro drives are all CMR and the capacities 6TB and below re-use the EFRX SKU ending. Thus, I expect you will see EFRX drives re-appearing in your market at some point in the future. However, since these "Red Plus" were just released in the USA, I expect some sort of delay coming to your market just because that's how most of these companies work - release first in USA and Asia, then follow in the ROW later.

So I guess it comes down to how quickly you need the drives vs. how badly you want to use a "Red Plus".
 

Ignacio97

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Aug 19, 2020
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Thanks for your comment Constantin. I need to upgrade my FreeNAS ASAP, that's why I'll go for ST4000VN008. I hope this will a good option.

Thanks again.
 

Evertb1

Guru
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May 31, 2016
Messages
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ST4000VN008
I own 6 of them and until now I am pretty happy with them. One little correction on the remark of @Yorick: they have a rpm of 5900 not 7200. Temperature wise mine behave outstanding. And they produce very little noise. Currently the temperatures of my disks (that are mounted in hotswap bays) are between 23 and 26 degrees celcius with an ambiant temperature of 18 degrees celcius.
 

Yorick

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Nov 4, 2018
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Oh good to know, thank you! I think I was just looking at the >=8TB models. You are right, 6TB and under you can get lower rotational speeds.

I'm thinking 6x12TB is the price/capacity sweet spot right now, but that's very dependent on how much capacity someone actually needs.
 
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