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From WD comment: "Currently, Western Digital’s WD Red 2TB-6TB drives are device-managed SMR (DMSMR). WD Red 8TB-14TB drives are CMR-based." This does not make

From WD comment: "Currently, Western Digital’s WD Red 2TB-6TB drives are device-managed SMR (DMSMR). WD Red 8TB-14TB drives are CMR-based." This does not make sense - why smaller disks are SMR, while larger ones are CMR? Perhaps they just switched that in comment?

simias 7y ago
Maybe they refreshed their 2-6TB line recently and not the 8-14TB and it'll come later? Maybe the market for 8-14TB is different enough that it warrants CMS? For instance maybe the 2-6TB is for hobbyists/small companies who might not realize the drives behave differently while the larger and more expensive drives are more often use in large companies with dedicated IT who would realize something is off? Given that TFA mainly mentions 2-6TB several times I doubt they got it wrong.
- disiplus 7y ago
  maybe the testing showed that the 8-14 would fail in rebuild but the 2-6 where small enough that would pass. or that the 8-14 where used in "serious business" where you could not fake your way around and the smaller ones for consumers or smaller firms would not notice or could not cause bigger harm.
throwaheyy 7y ago
I was wondering about this too, and I think it’s for cost-cutting on the lowest-margin products in the range. SMR is going to reduce platter size and quality requirements for a given size in GB (because the data is packed more densely). A given capacity can require fewer platters/sides, or a blemished platter can now be used where it couldn’t previously.
duskwuff 7y ago
> Perhaps they just switched that in comment? No, I think that's correct. It's definitely weird, but it's consistent with what users have observed.
donmcronald 7y ago
My guess is the want to further segment the markets so they can improve price discrimination, but they don’t want to sell a “lite” or “value” drive in the NAS segment, so they change the base model(s) to be shittier and accept the bad PR. That way they can come out with a more expensive PMR SKU in the NAS series. SSD manufacturers did a lot of the same where features were stripped from consumer drives (PLP, DRAT/DZAT, etc.), segmented into a new market (notice the NAS SSDs?), and sold back to us as more expensive SKU.

simias 7y ago

Maybe they refreshed their 2-6TB line recently and not the 8-14TB and it'll come later? Maybe the market for 8-14TB is different enough that it warrants CMS? For instance maybe the 2-6TB is for hobbyists/small companies who might not realize the drives behave differently while the larger and more expensive drives are more often use in large companies with dedicated IT who would realize something is off? Given that TFA mainly mentions 2-6TB several times I doubt they got it wrong.

disiplus 7y ago
maybe the testing showed that the 8-14 would fail in rebuild but the 2-6 where small enough that would pass. or that the 8-14 where used in "serious business" where you could not fake your way around and the smaller ones for consumers or smaller firms would not notice or could not cause bigger harm.

throwaheyy 7y ago

I was wondering about this too, and I think it’s for cost-cutting on the lowest-margin products in the range. SMR is going to reduce platter size and quality requirements for a given size in GB (because the data is packed more densely). A given capacity can require fewer platters/sides, or a blemished platter can now be used where it couldn’t previously.

duskwuff 7y ago

> Perhaps they just switched that in comment? No, I think that's correct. It's definitely weird, but it's consistent with what users have observed.

donmcronald 7y ago

My guess is the want to further segment the markets so they can improve price discrimination, but they don’t want to sell a “lite” or “value” drive in the NAS segment, so they change the base model(s) to be shittier and accept the bad PR. That way they can come out with a more expensive PMR SKU in the NAS series. SSD manufacturers did a lot of the same where features were stripped from consumer drives (PLP, DRAT/DZAT, etc.), segmented into a new market (notice the NAS SSDs?), and sold back to us as more expensive SKU.