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WD Red Hard Disks: CMR vs SMR
Dear Forum Members, especially StephenB It's been a time since I've visited the hallowed pages of this forum and, as expected, time as moved on and new HD technologies have been introduced. I...
ukbobboy01 wrote:
PS. Is it true that there's a consumer class action against WD for the way they introduced SMR into the HD market?
Yes (in the US and Canada).
ukbobboy01 wrote:
For myself, I'm worried about compatibility issues, e.g. will these SMR drives work with my current CMR ones or even work with my old ReadyNAS's OS (probably not).
I think the system will accept them, but that the performance will be worse than with CMR drives. How much worse is hard to say. You can read through the arstechnical tests earlier, they are probably closer to what you'll see in legacy ReadyNAS than the servethehome tests.
One option would be to go with jbod (one volume per disk), and not use RAID.
Hi Stephen
Thank you for your quick reply, especially as It's been such a long time since I've been here.
As it happens, I was watching a YouTube video about the differences between SMR and CMR Red drives and how WD are trying to sneakily sell them to customers without making them aware of the pit falls.
For myself, I'm worried about compatibility issues, e.g. will these SMR drives work with my current CMR ones or even work with my old ReadyNAS's OS (probably not).
TBH, my problem is that I have recently bought an unused ReadyNAS Duo v2 on eBay, the original user bought but never actually used it, he decided to go with Synology instead. Since I have a couple of RNDuo v2's already, and I'm familiar with this device, I jumped at the chance to get another one. And once I can verify it is in good working condition, I intend to populate it with WD Reds.
But I now see that WD Reds are not just the Reds I bought a few years ago, an unfavourable variant has now been introduced that should be avoided at all cost.
Finally, does anyone know why WD is trying to introduce SMR drives in such a sneaky way and so trash it's reputation that it has built up over the years?
UK Bob
PS. Is it true that there's a consumer class action against WD for the way they introduced SMR into the HD market?
ukbobboy01 wrote:
PS. Is it true that there's a consumer class action against WD for the way they introduced SMR into the HD market?
Yes (in the US and Canada).
ukbobboy01 wrote:
For myself, I'm worried about compatibility issues, e.g. will these SMR drives work with my current CMR ones or even work with my old ReadyNAS's OS (probably not).
I think the system will accept them, but that the performance will be worse than with CMR drives. How much worse is hard to say. You can read through the arstechnical tests earlier, they are probably closer to what you'll see in legacy ReadyNAS than the servethehome tests.
One option would be to go with jbod (one volume per disk), and not use RAID.
Hi Stephen and Sandshark
Thanks for your input to this discussion, which has help me to make up my mind towards future HD purchases.
It now seems the best way to go is to purchase WD Red Plus in the future, the prices of the Red Plus drives are still within the bounds of being affordable and as long as they maintain their reliability I will continue to buy them as and when needed.
So my next planned purchase will be 2 x 3TB WD Red Plus HDs, hopefully in the new year.
Thanks for your help and advice.
And guys, have a merry Christmas and a happy (better than 2020) new year.
UK Bob
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