3 ms·

I have got some old 2TB reds. Is there a a way to check if a drive is SMR given its serial, part or model number?

Silhouette 7y ago
Based on the reports cited in the article, it looks like earlier models (WDx0EFRX) were not SMR, but newer ones (WDx0EFAX) are, up to 6TB. Their larger disks are still claimed to be CMR at the moment, though how much credibility anyone should give a WD spokesperson at this point is obviously open to debate.
- leetbulb 7y ago
  Funny, EFAX must be horrible then. All of my dead WD REDs are EFRX.
  - qwerty456127 7y ago
    Same tihing. I just hope I'm going to be able to get more 2GB EFRXes.
read_if_gay_ 7y ago
If they are old, they aren't SMR. In the article it is stated that only past year's models are affected. SMR itself is also only a few years old.
- klodolph 7y ago
  That’s right, SMR has only appeared in hard drives recently, although SMR has been used in other media (like tape) for a long time.
qilo 7y ago
The general rule I use is to look at the DRAM size, if it is: * 256 MB (or more) - most likely it’s an SMR drive * 64-128 MB almost guaranteed it’s an PMR drive I base this on my observation, that I’ve never seen an SMR drive with less than 256 MB of cache.
- ComputerGuru 7y ago
  It really depends, newer Toshiba and HGST drives in "massive" (ie > 8TB) sizes are almost all 256MB cache for improved in-memory write reordering, but HGST calls out at least some of their drives as not only being PMR but also being better because they're PMR [0] (it's just the most recent one we purchased for our ZFS pool). We haven't had any issues with it (first order of business is writing random values to the disk then reading them back to verify integrity and check SMART values afterwards) and had sustained write speeds the entire time. "Designed to handle workloads up to 550TB per year, the Ultrastar DC HC520 is the industry’s first 12TB drive and uses traditional perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology to make it dropin ready for any enterprise-capacity application or environment." [0]: https://documents.westerndigital.com/content/dam/doc-library/en_us/assets/public/western-digital/product/data-center-drives/ultrastar-dc-hc500-series/data-sheet-ultrastar-dc-hc520.pdf https://documents.westerndigital.com/content/dam/doc-library... (search PMR)
waz0wski 7y ago
one way to check, seen on another forum, is to see if the drive reports supporting the TRIM function via smartctl/camcontrol - if it does it's one of these 'DMSMR' style drives

Based on the reports cited in the article, it looks like earlier models (WDx0EFRX) were not SMR, but newer ones (WDx0EFAX) are, up to 6TB. Their larger disks are still claimed to be CMR at the moment, though how much credibility anyone should give a WD spokesperson at this point is obviously open to debate.

leetbulb 7y ago
Funny, EFAX must be horrible then. All of my dead WD REDs are EFRX.
- qwerty456127 7y ago
  Same tihing. I just hope I'm going to be able to get more 2GB EFRXes.

read_if_gay_ 7y ago

If they are old, they aren't SMR. In the article it is stated that only past year's models are affected. SMR itself is also only a few years old.

klodolph 7y ago
That’s right, SMR has only appeared in hard drives recently, although SMR has been used in other media (like tape) for a long time.

qilo 7y ago

The general rule I use is to look at the DRAM size, if it is: * 256 MB (or more) - most likely it’s an SMR drive * 64-128 MB almost guaranteed it’s an PMR drive I base this on my observation, that I’ve never seen an SMR drive with less than 256 MB of cache.

ComputerGuru 7y ago
It really depends, newer Toshiba and HGST drives in "massive" (ie > 8TB) sizes are almost all 256MB cache for improved in-memory write reordering, but HGST calls out at least some of their drives as not only being PMR but also being better because they're PMR [0] (it's just the most recent one we purchased for our ZFS pool). We haven't had any issues with it (first order of business is writing random values to the disk then reading them back to verify integrity and check SMART values afterwards) and had sustained write speeds the entire time. "Designed to handle workloads up to 550TB per year, the Ultrastar DC HC520 is the industry’s first 12TB drive and uses traditional perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology to make it dropin ready for any enterprise-capacity application or environment." [0]: https://documents.westerndigital.com/content/dam/doc-library/en_us/assets/public/western-digital/product/data-center-drives/ultrastar-dc-hc500-series/data-sheet-ultrastar-dc-hc520.pdf https://documents.westerndigital.com/content/dam/doc-library... (search PMR)

waz0wski 7y ago

one way to check, seen on another forum, is to see if the drive reports supporting the TRIM function via smartctl/camcontrol - if it does it's one of these 'DMSMR' style drives