is my wd red smr or cmr

Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated 1/1/20) and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement (updated 1/1/20) and Ars Technica Addendum (effective 8/21/2018). “Currently, Western Digital’s WD Red 2TB-6TB drives are device-managed SMR (DMSMR). On the one hand, this process is more space-saving in the end, but it also shows the big difference to CMR technology: If the faster on-disk cache is filled before the controller can transfer the data to the SMR area, then the cache must first emptied or rewritten before new data can be saved again. I have six 4TB WD40EFRX (CMR) and four 6TB WD60EFAX(SMR) as well as a SSD for the operating system. There's a fairly large CMR cache area on the otherwise SMR disks, as well as a 256MiB volatile (RAM) cache. So, in this article, we will focus on CMR and SMR technology in hard drives to find which one is better. Many people ask themselves this question when it comes to finding the right hard drive for the intended use. Western Digital's new marketing for the SMR-equipped Red drives labels them as for SOHO use only and clarifies that this means low-intensity operations with lots of idle time in between—and no ZFS. Original story 7:34am ET For those consumers, an SMR-equipped Red will probably be okay—they're unlikely to push through the CMR cache, and even if they do, the SMR management firmware can probably handle the direct writes fairly well. List of WD CMR and SMR hard drives (HDD) Updated table : 23/10/2020 Now … conventional magnetic recording, when hard drives with pure PMR (perpendicular magnetic recording) technology are used.SMR, or Shingled Magnetic Recording, is the second recording method. For this reason, with large files it can happen that the transfer rate drops after a certain amount of data because the cache is full and must first be cleared again. It’s that we DO understand it, and that WD has added it to drive models that didn’t have it before, in lines where it is COMPLETELY inappropriate. The CMR cache area on the drive will perform the same as an entirely CMR disk does—and if it has "downtime" between storage requests, the drive's firmware can spend that time reading data from the CMR cache and trickling it down to the considerably more limited main SMR storage area. The new branding is certainly a big step forward for more knowledgeable consumers who already know they don't want SMR—the only thing they need to know is "Red" means SMR, and "Red Plus" and "Red Pro" mean CMR. Although all three remaining major hard drive vendors—Western Digital, Toshiba, and Seagate—have "submarined" SMR disks into existing channels without doing much to notify customers about it, only Western Digital has done so with disks designed specifically for NAS, or Network Attached Storage, use. The speed is 5400 rpm; is written with CMR. Storage vendors appear to be getting much bolder about deploying the new technology into ever-smaller formats, presumably to save a bit on manufacturing costs. Are they trying to spin this into their "New Coke"-moment or what? Data is also exchanged with, for example, mobile devices or the television set at a very high speed. CNMN Collection This refers to the garbage collection process migrating data from CMR cache to SMR zones occurring in long idle times between operations. Comment document.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "aea28022a28d6584534b4740b7fa0ece" );document.getElementById("a2f30e4be5").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Clearly stating that SMR drives should be used only in low-demand use cases. We’ll also take a look at two specific types of hard drives with CMR recording technology: the new WD Red Plus series and the Seagate Ironwolf series. The 8TB and larger drives with the “EFAX” code use CMR technology. Because the different recording methods behave differently and are therefore sometimes better and sometimes worse for the intended purpose. Meanwhile, the CMR disks formerly known as WD Red—in sizes from 1TB to 14TB—get a new "WD Red Plus" branding and label, although their model numbers also remain the same. This is getting absurd. With a Bolt (or Edge) first all all best to use a CMR drive even if SMR works. The speed is 5400 rpm; is written with CMR. There are numerous options in the market. The issue isn’t that we don’t understand SMR or DMSMR. For permanent writing activities and the transfer of large amounts of data at high transfer rates, i.e. In response to heated criticism for not disclosing that some of its hard drives use slower SMR technology, WD penned a blog post outlining its plans … Choosing Between CMR and SMR Technology in Hard Drives. Although not an authoritative source, this article quotes WD as saying 2TB-6TB Reds use SMR, but higher capacity Reds use CMR (PMR). © 2021 Condé Nast. However, the data of the following lane are overwritten, which means that the next lane may have to be written again after a successful recording process. Click to find out more. Sheesh. This may slow down the writing process drastically. I am looking to create a Plex Media Server for music, videos, tv shows, photos, etc. If there isn't prominent disambiguation between Red, Red Plus, and Red Pro on the product pages themselves, the new branding may not reach many of the people who need to see it. This results in extremely low average throughput (compared with the drive’s available throughput) and provides plenty of idle time for the DMSMR drive to perform the necessary background operations, making it an ideal fit for this application. Ars may earn compensation on sales from links on this site. when the speed of large data transfers is important, CMR hard drives are the better choice. If it is not listed, it is probably CMR and you do not have any problem. This report is the latest in a series on hard drive manufacturers slipping SMR technology into existing disk lines, with little or no notice to customers. They offer more storage capacity and are more energy efficient than CMR, which makes them ideal for archiving tasks. In addition to the WD Red NAS drives that the company previously admitted used SMR tech, WD is also shipping the tech into its 2.5"and 3.5" WD … Currently, Western Digital’s WD Red 2TB-6TB drives are device-managed SMR (DMSMR). with 153 posters participating, including story author, Western Digital adds “Red Plus” branding for non-SMR hard drives, Lawsuit vs. Western Digital wants to end any use of SMR in NAS drives, We put Western Digital’s dreaded SMR Red drive to the test, Western Digital gets sued for sneaking SMR disks into its NAS channel, Seagate says Network Attached Storage and SMR don’t mix. You are correct that we do not specify recording technology in our WD Red HDD documentation. Western Digital doesn't publish details about the CMR cache area in its product datasheets, unfortunately—but typical estimates, such as what was shown in this blocksandfiles interview, range from 1GiB to 100GiB, depending in part on the size of the disk itself. With PMR it is possible to write directly to the final storage location of the data on the hard disk without the data first having to be rewritten on the hard disk. WD has responded through its blog, stating mainly that only certain SKUs of the WD Red were … This line is unchanged—it existed with the same branding before the SMR fiasco, and it still exists with the same branding and same models today. The existing SMR models—WD 20/30/40/60 EFAX—will retain their existing model numbers and will retain their existing WD Red branding. SMR hard drives have TRIM support, so if it is listed it is SMR. WIRED Media Group The majority of consumers buying small Synology, Netgear, or other purpose-built NAS devices are likely using them intermittently, with a small number of overall users, and mostly for large files such as digital photos, movies, and music. Form-Factor: Storage Capacity: WD Red: WD Red Pro: WD Blue: WD Black: WD Purple: 2.5" 500GB or below--CMR: CMR-2.5" 1TB: CMR-SMR: SMR-2.5" 2TB--SMR--3.5" 1TB or below When asked to comment on how prices of the existing EFRX and EFAX models will shift in order to make Red less expensive than Red Plus, the only response was "I can only comment on the [preceding] at this time," followed by "WD Red Plus will be available in August time period.". If things don’t go optimally, this “rewriting” has to continue. By reading this site you agree to our cookie policy. If you use WD Red CMR drives, you had class-leading performance in this test but if you bought a WD Red SMR drive, perhaps not understanding the difference, you would have another 9 days of potentially catastrophic data vulnerability. In this case, a hard disk with a CMR recording method should definitely be used.CMR hard disks are a good choice when data is to be stored at high transfer rates or particularly large amounts of data. For small business, "intensive," or ZFS workloads, there's the Red Plus line—which effectively just means the older, pre-SMR models for now. The second CMR model that we would like to take a closer look at is the Seagate IronWolf NAS HDD 4TB, SATA 6GB / s. The Iron-Wolf hard drives are characterized by their robustness and scalability. In a RAID rebuild scenario using a typical Synology or QNAP (non-ZFS) platform, WD Red DMSMR drives perform as well as CMR drives or show slightly longer RAID rebuild times, depending on the condition of the drive and extent of rebuild required. Clearly disclosing which drives use SMR vs CMR. This procedure was developed in order to be able to provide more than 750 GB with the common 3.5 inch hard drives. SMR is a technology that can introduce more capacity onto a platter, as well as introduces performance differences, particularly in writes. As we mention on our last podcast, several users were frustrated to find that WD Red NAS drives they purchased were SMR when they thought they were CMR. This is one of the commonly asked questions of those who want to buy a new hard drive. WD exchanged my SMR disks for CMR/PMR ones This whole affair has been unpleasant, but all things considered this is about as much as you could ask from them at this point, aside from clearly identifying *all* disks that use SMR tech. The company is taking a new branding initiative to clarify the technology used in its NAS drives—in the near future, "WD Red" will exclusively mean disks using Shingled Magnetic Recording technology, and "WD Red Plus" will mean disks using Conventional Magnetic Recording. Your email address will not be published. A distinction is made between two common recording methods: CMR and SMR. Doing a brand segmentation that separates the SMR drives. The real question moving forward is how well Western Digital's blog post announcing the new branding will tie in with the actual product details seen on reseller sites. Since can't keep a backup, thing to do would be buy a new drive every 3-5 years if using CMR 3.5, clone, put in the clone, then repurpose the original. TDMR - Two-Dimentional Magnetic Recording (can be found on both CMR and SMR types of drives). “The information you shared from [Geizhals] appears to be inaccurate. Required fields are marked *. Therefore, the write head writes very close to the previous web, so that it remains readable. Above all, you can rely on SMR if you want large hard disks with lower material costs and usually lower electrical power consumption, which serve as pure data storage devices. All rights reserved. Apparently, enthusiasts have been trying to prove Western Digital hard drives spin at the wrong speed for more than a year.While WD Red drives are … In the following we want to look at the model WD60EFRX-CMR WD Red Plus NAS hard drive with 6 TB of the WD Red Plus hard drive series. Maltz on April 30th, 2020 - 12:03am . This is a CMR hard disk. The ZFS filesystem, in particular, tends to present SMR disks with challenges they have difficulty handling. Which model WD My Passport Ultra drives are CMR or SMR? In the following we want to look at the model WD60EFRX-CMR WD Red Plus NAS hard drive with 6 TB of the WD Red Plus hard drive series. A few weeks ago, a messagepopped up on the zfs-discuss mailing list: The unexpected shift from CMR to SMR in these NAS (Network Attached Storage) drives has caused problems above and beyond simple performance; the user quoted above couldn't get his SMR disks to stay i… The WD Red was specially developed for NAS systems that have one to eight drive bays in 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch sizes. 8.3, the popular Siemens small controller is connected to the cloud, Ethernet over Coax: A stable internet connection in every room, Established brands holding on to their advantage in the European smart home, Avoid critical aerosol concentrations with Testo’s practical measuring instruments, Smart Home via Bluetooth – Frogs as real communication talents, New high performance LED construction spotlights by Brennenstuhl, Smoke detectors: Warning devices that can save lives, Window ventilation, secondary air units and co – Proper ventilation at home and in the office. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Join the Ars Orbital Transmission mailing list to get weekly updates delivered to your inbox. Anyway, this is the list of models that use SMR recognized by the different manufacturers. Western Digital has heralded a positive shift in its approach to users of shingled WD Red NAS drives, via a short statement on the company blog.. As described in our recent article Western Digital admits 2TB-6TB WD Red NAS drives use shingled magnetic recording (SMR), some users can experience performance problems in situations such as adding the drives to RAID groups which use … - Jun 24, 2020 10:08 pm UTC, Update 5:08pm ET: Pricing Sign up or login to join the discussions! WD Red drives will use SMR, but WD Red Plus and WD Red Pro SKUs will stick to CMR tech. Which technology should I use for my hard drives? Both technologies (SMR and CMR) have their justification and their respective fields of application. You must login or create an account to comment. Realizing this is a little difficult to track, Western Digital has provided a chart to identify all of their drives with DM-SMR. The existing SMR models—WD 20/30/40/60 EFAX—will retain their existing model numbers and will retain their existing WD Red branding. PMR is also used in this method – similarities and differences to CMR are discussed in more detail below in the text. Unfortunately for Western Digital, NAS users tend to be significantly more technical than general consumers—and they frequently hit their disks with far more difficult workloads than Western Digital apparently tested or planned for. WD was foolish to introduce SMR into their Red line; they're not going to triple down on that mistake by now also putting it into Red Plus, after explicitly vowing that Red Plus will be CMR only. If using SMR and/or 2.5 might want to do a bit more often. The use of SMR technology in Western Digital Red is not going away—but moving forward, "Red" will exclusively mean SMR disks. for my house. Last night, a Western Digital executive reached out to Ars to let us know of a blog post concerning their controversial Red drives. SMR hard disks are a good choice if they are primarily used as pure data storage or if a large hard disk is to be used for a PC on which data is stored. Answer given was `` in general, we agree with the above quote from Western Digital provided! Account to comment 4TB WD40EFRX ( CMR ) and four 6TB WD60EFAX ( SMR and )... Very close to the previous web, so that it remains readable ( RAM ) cache the transfer large. Allows multiple users and the transfer of large data to be able to provide more than 750 with! Are CMR but I am extremely skeptical, photos, etc devices the... 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The storage density is increased compared to pmr do be cautious and know what you buying... Using SMR and/or 2.5 might want to buy a new hard drive for the operating system are. The 5TB is SMR is one of the commonly asked questions of those who to...