Resource icon

List of known SMR drives

Yorick

Wizard
Joined
Nov 4, 2018
Messages
1,912
be nice if there was a model list of the SMR disks on the first page

There is. Click on the "Overview" tab.
 

Lexx

Cadet
Joined
May 2, 2020
Messages
3
never clicked on Overview (i would have never, would of expected it to be in a expandable quoted box or a link in the post)

also the freenas ad banners has WD red in them as well

WD red are not really that bad as long as you don't get the SMR versions, as this has been going on for 2 years for consumer drives and about 1 year with WD Red drives, but only more a problem now that WD Red released firmware buggy versions of SMR thats shown them up and brought it into more light then what more so WD and less so Seagate (giving them really good PR at the moment but they are not angels)

Seagate keeping there statement very open ended statement they don't regret using SMR in Consumer drives without saying it, where as WD basically saying the drives work fine and we don't care as no one put there name on that statement (but seems they will replace them with a RX one)
but seems Seagate is not going to even chance adding SMR to there iron wolf (never looked at seagate site before for spec of iron wolf drives before but they all have disk type CMR on them now, i would guess less then a week ago the type of disk would of not been listed, all they need to do now is state that on the Consumer drives)

there is a youtuber at the moment doing a multipart with WD Red SMR and SMR so be interesting if he does a 2TB filled rebuild test (don't want to post links to it as not using freenas and not been in been for long so unsure about linking to other content but related to the topic)
he set it up and strangely the SMR did it far faster (5-6 hours) then the CMR (8-9 hours) on a new array setup,, i guess the SMR drive was ignoring Zero byte writes
but empty rebuild disk completed same time (pulled the disk and put a new on in) 4 disks doing rebuild taken 8-9 hours on Raid5 (not hybrid raid) for both SMR and CMR, so i guess the SMR again was less so the Zero bytes as it was rebuilding an empty array (and it's more reads than Writes)
when he does the filled array test (i am assuming he is doing it) 4-8 days rebuild does seem expected with SMR (as per disk Writes will drop to under 10MB/s or lower with half a second pauses/latency)

so this where the problem might be with WD testing maybe they have done a pull test but on a Empty array never actually put more than 100GB per disk (+partly disk/s) in the array so problems did not show up for them
 

Ericloewe

Server Wrangler
Moderator
Joined
Feb 15, 2014
Messages
20,175
be nice if there was a model list of the SMR disks on the first page
This is the discussion thread. The list in in the resource proper, you can get to it using the Overview tab.
 

sretalla

Powered by Neutrality
Moderator
Joined
Jan 1, 2016
Messages
9,702
It would be great to know if anyone has information on the WD Purple drives... (I guess I should know more since I run 8 of them)

It seems to me that these are not SMR and are in most other ways the same as the smaller WD REDs, usually about 5% cheaper where I see them.

They have the same low power and slow spin rate as the REDs.

They claim to be optimized for high write volumes/stream counts, but I'm not sure how they are actually different from the EFRX variant reds.

It could be a viable alternative when online stores run out of EFRX REDs. I have seen 1TB, 2TB and 4TB variants... I guess the 8TB and above would be less relevant as you can get CMR REDs at those sizes.

EDIT: OK, so asking others to google on my behalf is less than good practice: Here's the answer: https://www.storagereview.com/news/wd-responds-to-smr-gate
TL/DR They are all CMR. So consider them as a good alternative to lower sizes in RED unless someone wants to point out some other shortcoming (my 8x4TB run just fine).
 

Yorick

Wizard
Joined
Nov 4, 2018
Messages
1,912

nikkon

Contributor
Joined
Dec 16, 2012
Messages
163
Did Seagate published any document covering the SMR/SMR for their series ? I'm interested in the IronWolf disks and i can't find any info
 

Constantin

Vampire Pig
Joined
May 19, 2017
Messages
1,827
Did Seagate published any document covering the SMR/SMR for their series ? I'm interested in the IronWolf disks and i can't find any info
See the overview document. In the seagate section it references an article over at blocks and files (see Update)
Seagate issued this statement on April 21: “Seagate confirms that we do not utilize Shingled Magnetic Recording technology (SMR) in any IronWolf or IronWolf Pro drives – our NAS solutions family.“
Iron wolf appears safe for now. However, the reliability of 12TB drives in the back blaze report would make me shy away from them. Over 3% failure rate is certainly industry-leading, however!
 

nikkon

Contributor
Joined
Dec 16, 2012
Messages
163
thanks. i was looking at the 6TB drives.
 

Constantin

Vampire Pig
Joined
May 19, 2017
Messages
1,827
per servethehome and other outlets, WD announced that they’re going to segment their red line into three different families,
  • Red (DMSMR)
  • Red+ (CMR @ 5900 RPM?), and
  • RedPro (CMR @ 7,200 RPM)

I’d wager this is designed to help with the upcoming class-action lawsuit rather than anything rooted in marketing 101. The amount of customer goodwill this decision-by-committee is going to cost in the long run... just wow.

there simply isn’t a reason for the new red line to exist other than to fool people into buying a shingled drive based on past good experiences with Red CMR drives. At least they are now up front about the guts of these drives.
 

Yorick

Wizard
Joined
Nov 4, 2018
Messages
1,912
there simply isn’t a reason for the new red line to exist other than to fool people

I don’t know. There might be a reason. Some folk count their dollars very closely, and I’d assume that this change goes with a drop in price. Of course it could be the other way around and WD could raise the price of the Plus. We shall see presently - are these drives in the channel yet?

The amount of customer goodwill this decision-by-committee is going to cost in the long run

Could also mend some broken fences instead. There is now a clear understanding of which type of drive is where, and what it’s for. “SMB or ZFS, Red+”. Then again, I am maybe a little too far away from the “oh a drive, slap it in” crowd to know how this will actually play out with customers.
 

Ericloewe

Server Wrangler
Moderator
Joined
Feb 15, 2014
Messages
20,175
Ultimately, one of the two selling points the Red line had is irrelevant with SMR (the other being the extra warranty):
TLER does not solve much if regular operations on a good drive creep into the seconds range.
 

Yorick

Wizard
Joined
Nov 4, 2018
Messages
1,912
Absolutely. Anyone who knows or cares what TLER is will stick with Red+, the rebranded Red before the SMR foul-up.

A brutally honest rebrand would have recreated the all-CMR Red lineup and either scrapped SMR or called it Red Minus or Pink or something. I don’t expect miracles though, and branding being what it is: Red is dead, long live the new Red (Plus).

Edited to add: Given that the Red brand is now tainted, it actually makes sense to recreate the old lineup as Red+, it creates clarity.
 
Last edited:

Ericloewe

Server Wrangler
Moderator
Joined
Feb 15, 2014
Messages
20,175
Someone mentioned the Purple line. I wonder if the story there is the same or if they kept it CMR.
 

Yorick

Wizard
Joined
Nov 4, 2018
Messages
1,912
Someone mentioned the Purple line. I wonder if the story there is the same or if they kept it CMR.

Purple is CMR all the way through from all I have seen.
 
Joined
Jul 2, 2019
Messages
648
I wonder when the "new" Red Plus will get into the supply chain...

And if they will be more than the "old" CMR drives of the same size
 

Constantin

Vampire Pig
Joined
May 19, 2017
Messages
1,827
Some folk count their dollars very closely, and I’d assume that this change goes with a drop in price.
That was not the case at the consumer end. On Amazon, the Red SMR drives sold at the same price as the Red CMR drives, the last time I looked. WD may have sold SMR drives into the channel at a lower price, however. Though unlikely, resellers may have been pocketing the difference. Based on the available evidence, the more likely scenario is that WD tried to pull a fast one.

Of course it could be the other way around and WD could raise the price of the Plus. We shall see presently - are these drives in the channel yet?
I haven't seen them yet, I presume this blog entry is a bit of a trial balloon to see the market reaction. I would be willing to give WD the benefit of the doubt if they had come up with this drive family technology-split ahead of time. That is, announce the new Red lineup, along with accurate spec sheets for each set of drive families, then ship DMSMR drives to customers who are willing to take the performance hit in return for 20% more capacity. WD did none of that.

There is now a clear understanding of which type of drive is where, and what it’s for. “SMB or ZFS, Red+”.
I don't agree. The Red line of drives was marketed exclusively for years towards NAS applications and was priced accordingly. The Red series is a strong brand precisely because they performed well in this application. Hence also the strong preference from shuckers of external enclosures for WD drives with Red vs. White labels, even if the mechanism and the firmware is the same.

Rather than re-designating Red as Red+ and cheapening the original Red brand, DMSMR drives should have been kept out of the NAS-drive channel (i.e. the Red family of products) altogether. You can't tell me that Manfred Berger was the only guy at WD who knew that DMSMR had no place in ZFS or other NAS applications. Seagate and Toshiba are likely sending platters of expensive cheeses and wines to the WD Red team conference room as we speak, this was the best thing that happened for them in a long time.

Someone mentioned the Purple line. I wonder if the story there is the same or if they kept it CMR.
For the time being, it is still marketed as CMR, though with a 10x lower expected lifespan than the former Red NAS drives.

In closing, to me this looks like a classic case of YBGIBG where someone had to optimize their specific job-related metrics to meet a bonus threshold, damage to the product / parent company be damned.
 

Yorick

Wizard
Joined
Nov 4, 2018
Messages
1,912
I wonder when the "new" Red Plus will get into the supply chain...

The 8TB and up are available now, since nothing has changed there.
For 2-6TB, they’ll need to start making EFRX again. WD says “WD Red Plus in 2TB, 3TB, 4TB and 6TB capacities will be available soon” at https://blog.westerndigital.com/wd-red-nas-drives/.

What, indeed, is “soon”? Let’s consult https://www.lotro.com/en/content/brief-history-time-according-sapience :


soon
No really, we have a date now! It’s even penciled in on a calendar somewhere!

That should clear it up.
 

Yorick

Wizard
Joined
Nov 4, 2018
Messages
1,912
Rather than re-designating Red as Red+ and cheapening the original Red brand, DMSMR drives should have been kept out of the NAS-drive channel (i.e. the Red family of products) altogether.

No contention. Just that that horse has left the barn. Red had a good rep, it doesn’t any more. The Red brand is damaged, and WD chose to “embrace the suck” and make Red all SMR.

I’m not going to get hung up on branding. All I am saying is that the choice is now clear, where it wasn’t before.

Red: Sucks
Red+: The “old Red”, doesn’t suck

I have no emotional attachment to what the Red brand used to stand for. It doesn’t stand for that, any more, and WD have only themselves to blame for that.

Agreed on confetti in the Seagate offices. What a gift from a competitor.
 

Constantin

Vampire Pig
Joined
May 19, 2017
Messages
1,827
Anytime a product family has a inconsistent SKU lineup, all I can say is "watch out". Note how the Plus product family now has a mix of EFRX, EFAX, and EFFX SKUs. Even more confusingly, the regular Red lineup has the same EFAX SKU designation as the higher-capacity Plus drives. To me, this is a pretty disjointed attempt to play cleanup after the fact to deal with the coming class-action lawsuit.

The only saving grace to this lineup is that customers looking to buy EFRX SKUs will be once again able to do so and EFRX drives will remain CMR.

If this had been planned properly, the DMSMR line would have been EFAX, the plus line would have been EFRX throughout. Claiming that DMSMR drives are NAS-compatible (see the sticker on the drive) after explaining to the world why DMSMR drives are unsuited for NAS applications is pretty brazen.
wd-red-family-800x671.png
 
Last edited:

Yorick

Wizard
Joined
Nov 4, 2018
Messages
1,912
That was not the case at the consumer end.

Agreed. WD just pocketed the difference. I am speculating about the future, not the past. How pricing for Red Plus 2-6TB will look we will see, but in order to “slot into” the existing Red Plus line, it’d have to stay at what it has been - which means the Red SMR would need to drop.

That’s all idle speculation and I’m not invested in it. We will see this soon enough as the drives become available in the channel.
 
Top