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WD (and others) sneaking SMR drives into their NAS Drive Lineup

Entz

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I actually just picked up a pair of Ironwolf 6TB (5900 lower power version) to have on hand if my red dies lol. WD isn't getting my money.

Yes, they say in their spec sheets, at least on the NAS side https://www.seagate.com/www-content/datasheets/pdfs/ironwolf-16tb-DS1904-15-2004US-en_CA.pdf

Since its actually written down I think it is safe to trust but they do have new SKUs from time to time so there be dragons.
I will see if they did a press release. I know there are some desktop drives that are SMR.
 

Entz

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Looks like "The company's Barracuda 8TB (ST8000DM004) and 5TB Desktop (ST500DM000) were previously called out for using SMR without specifying the tech, however, the drives are not aimed at NAS consumers and should be treated as such. "
 

Entz

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I wouldn't count on it. I can see them moving 8Tb there sooner than later.

In terms of the Barracuda pro, they do not list tech on the specs. So not sure. The official unofficial list is :
  • Barracuda 2TB – 7,200rpm – SATA 6gig – model name – ST2000DM008
  • Barracuda 4TB – 5,400rpm – SATA 6gig – ST4000DM004
  • Barracuda 8TB – 5,400rpm – SATA 6gig – ST8000DM004
  • Desktop HDD 5TB – 5,900rpm – SATA 6gig – ST5000DM000
  • Exos 8TB – 5900rpm – SATA 6gig – ST8000AS0003
  • Archive v2 6TB – 5,900rpm – SATA 6gig – ST6000AS0002
  • Archive v2 8TB – 5,900rpm – SATA 6gig – ST8000AS0002
The Exos in question is the 5E8 cold storage drives, so it makes sense as does the archive ones.
 

Valkyrie

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Seagate is apparently saying that SMR drives currently are not okay for RAID use. The point of the comment I quoted is that all drive mfgrs are working toward SMR. This is where they want to go.

The theory is that by adjusting the block size, caching, and firmware strategy it will become invisible to the user.

Edit: replying to Friendly's question....
 

JD

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From what I gather, all the IronWolfs are SMR-free, and the Exos and Archive lines specifically tell you if its SMR or not.

Barracuda is a free for all though, you get whatever they are producing it seems.
 

sswilson

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Nothing in Seagate's NAS lineup (ironwolf or ironwolf pro) is SMR. They've come out publically and stated that (in their opinion) SMR technology is not suitable for any form of NAS.
 

sswilson

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Not a complete mea culpa, but it at least appears they've realised that they need to put the shovel aside and stop digging....

Unfortunately for them, the issue is more about having SMR tech in NAS drives, and not so much about identifying which ones are or aren't SMR.

Seagate got the messaging right on this one by clearly stating that they don't believe SMR belongs in HDD lines designed for NAS/Raid.

After all of this... who in their right mind would buy a full set of any capacity of RED drives regardless of what tech those particular drives use? I sure as hell wouldn't trust that I'd be able to get a CMR warranty replacement drive if my 8TB drive failed after a year or so.....
 

moocow

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Am I glad I couldn't afford to shuck drives at the moment. WD USB drives were Red drives or mostly White drives with similar performance. I was keen on buying some WD 8TB or 10TB from Bestbuy and shuck them for a new RAID 5.
 

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