WD, Seagate, and Toshiba were recently found - and acknowledged - using slower shingled magnetic recording (SMR) technology in some of their hard drives, without mentioning the spec in their product documentation. WD Red drives particularly stood out, as their marketed remains targeted at NAS consumers and have caused several buyers to experience NAS rebuilding issues.

Using SMR technology instead of conventional magnetic recording allows HDD manufacturers to put out denser drives at cheaper prices. These drives are not suitable for NAS environments due to their slow write speeds, with SMR being particularly concerning if not disclosed in the product documentation.

Particularly concerning is WD Reds are now all SMR technology (with Red Pro's using CMR and more suited to data intensive "non-intermittent" workloads.

Bottom line: Full details can be found https://www.techspot.com/news/84973-wd-publishes-complete-list-smr-drives-following-user.html

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Jesus,
How to you find this stuff?
Well thankfully my wd 2TB reds are a few years old because they have a different model number.

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Lucky you! Surprising news that WD is hobbling such a great HDD.

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If anyone is looking for a possible alternative to the WD Reds and wants to be sure they are getting CMR technology, have a look at the following article and scroll about half way down. The 5900 rpm 2tb Seagate IronWolf drives might be worth a look.

https://www.techspot.com/bestof/storage/

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It seems that WD has taken a lot of flack & heated criticism for not disclosing the switch from CMR to SMR in it's Reds. Class action lawsuits have even been filed for failing to disclose the downgrade.
https://www.hattislaw.com/cases/investigations/western-digital-lawsuit-for-shipping-slower-smr-hard-drives-including-wd-red-nas/

In a concillatory effort, WD has just announced they will provide a "mid" tier Red drive in the 2gb-6gb range targeted for NAS use at the same price point as the standard Red drives, calling it the "Red Plus."
https://blog.westerndigital.com/wd-red-nas-drives/

Caveat Emptor

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Hi All, Thanks to everyone for your continued effort to keep the MSS & WHS alive. Haven't registered yet? Please do so the moderators know your here!

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Another review of wd red SMR:
https://www.servethehome.com/wd-red-smr ... d-red-smr/

_________________
VGA/PS2 Keyboard/PS2 Mouse/Serial debug board
Popcorn C-200
Popcorn A-200
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Rasberry PI OSMC(KODI)
ReadyNAS RN316
Amazon FireStick
Amazon ECHO
AnyDvD
MyMovies

Thanks for the tip.