It's a minefield out there

[Negita43]

The HDD market is a minefield

This post isn’t about whether SMR or CMR hard disk technology is best nor indeed whether I should be using CCTV hard disks in my NAS – it’s about getting the information you need from manufacturers and suppliers to be able to be sure you are purchasing what you want.

 Some years ago WD amongst others silently introduced a new HDD technology called SMR cohabiting with the existing technology of CMR.

SMR is cheaper to produce but evoked a furious debate about its silent method of introduction and indeed WD were fined millions of dollars over this issue.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/wd-moves-to-settle-smr-hdd-false-advertising-class-action-lawsuit

The debate over the two technologies continues. It is generally accepted that CMR is better for RAID installations.

https://www.howtogeek.com/803276/cmr-vs.-smr-hard-drives-whats-the-difference/

So as talked about in a previous post I had decided to upgrade the HDDs my NAS as cheaply as I could. On researching I found that WD purples all had CMR technology

See attachment below

I ordered a pair at a good price.

I was then looking at another WD site and suddenly found this

https://www.westerndigital.com/en-ie/products/internal-drives/wd-purple-sata-hdd#WD40PURZ

From this it appears that there are two versions of a 4TB WD purple one with a 64 MB cache (generally recognised as being indicative of  CMR technology) and one with 256MB cache (generally recognised as being indicative of SMR technology). Also the price difference seems to confirm one is SMR and the other CMR

Subsequently I came across this url:

https://www.westerndigital.com/products/internal-drives/wd-purple-sata-hdd#WD42PURZ

Here only the 256 MB cache is available!

It also appears that only the 4TB has an SMR option, or is the 4TB just the thin end of the wedge for the whole range.

I immediately contacted my supplier (his website clearly said 64MB cache for what I ordered BUT knowing Asia as I do I asked him to confirm SMR or CMR) – of course he didn’t know what on earth i was asking.  Hopefully, I have cancelled the order.

After I get out of the asylum on Monday - back to square one on my search for competitively priced HDDs.

All I can say is in the area of HDDs and getting what you want - BUYER BEWARE

[OneMoreFarang]

50 minutes ago, Negita43 said:

as cheaply as I could

If you buy your computer parts from a well known reliable distributor and pick the good items and accept the existing prices then there is no problem.

It's unrealistic to expect to get something for cheaper than market value.

That's reality. It doesn't make sense to fight reality. 

[OneMoreFarang]

And about the specs: Look up the specs at the manufacturer's website. There you can find all the details.

Many shops just copy and paste and have little knowledge or interests in the details.

With reputable shops like JIB you can contact them and they have qualified people who don't just say yes. They check the details and you can rely on them.

Edited October 29, 2022 by OneMoreFarang

[DezLez]

1 hour ago, Negita43 said:

I had decided to upgrade the HDDs my NAS as cheaply as I could

You made the choice to for the "cheaply as I could" route rather than go the "best performance" or go for a middle of the road value for money option.

 You made the bad choice, so I suggest you stop complaining and live with it!

[Negita43]

42 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

If you buy your computer parts from a well known reliable distributor and pick the good items and accept the existing prices then there is no problem.

It's unrealistic to expect to get something for cheaper than market value.

That's reality. It doesn't make sense to fight reality. 

I am afraid that is not true - even the distributors don't know if it's a CMR or SMR because the disks aren't marked and the shop staff don't know

[Elkski]

May I ask what you do with this gear?

[OneMoreFarang]

2 hours ago, Negita43 said:

I am afraid that is not true - even the distributors don't know if it's a CMR or SMR because the disks aren't marked and the shop staff don't know

Look i.e. at the WD site and select what you want. Then look at the specs, i.e. here:

https://www.westerndigital.com/products/internal-drives/wd-red-pro-sata-hdd#WD2002FFSX

And then you see details like:

Recording Technology: CMR

And then you look at the product numbers, i.e. 
4 TB , 256 MB    WD4003FFBX
And then you look for exactly that model.
Or you do it the other way around.
It works, professionals work like that since decades.

[Negita43]

Yes me too - my first involvement with computers was the Apple II -if you know what that was -(around 1975). I built PCs as a business for many years. You are missing the point - I  just wanted to discuss the fact that with the fast changing IT environment it's often very difficult for consumers to know what they are actually going to get. They  can get all the official info from the manufacturer's site (the links I included in the original post) BUT when you come to buy from the seller they don't know/care/understand they just want to make a sale.- and that's true whether it's JIB, Advice, Lazada ......

In any event I now know the 64MB  cache has product code WD40PURZ and the 240 MB cache WD42PURZ - The retailer I ordered from advertises the item I ordered as WD40PURZ but in conversation he was not able to to confirm the the code so I cancelled the order.

That's my last post on this subject I will leave you "professionals"  alone from now on.

 

[Mickeymaus]

I have both SMR and CMR. The read speeds are comparable. But not so the write speeds especially if you write big amounts of data in a short time. This has to do with the overlapping tracks at SMR drives. Some SD Cards are faster then... But I have to admit that I write GB of data in a short time (videos). But then they rest there in a kind of archive. 

 

For video editing I had RAID 0 with 3 CMR drives. Now I don't do this anymore. 

 

Here an overview for Seagate drives

 

https://www.seagate.com/internal-hard-drives/cmr-smr-list/

[KannikaP]

what is a HDD these days?   555

[Mickeymaus]

Just one more remark to SMR and CMR drives. Now I sit at my big computer and copy about 25 GB from one 2TB Seagate SMR to an other 2TB Seagate SMR. The speed goes down to about 35 MB/s.

 

Don't buy such drives if you want to move big amounts of data often. With small amounts of data it will be much quicker.