WD selling SMR drives as WD Reds

HungryHippos · 16 Apr 2020 at 14:57

Turns out that WD has been selling some of their WD Red drives without telling people they are SMR drives.

https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/g1di7w/wd_admits_red_nas_drives_2tb6tb_are_smr/

SMR drives are usually cheaper because they are not as good as normal drives for most uses, they have a place but normally that is considered to be the WORM usage scenario (Write Once Read Many).

HungryHippos · 17 Apr 2020 at 17:26

Vertigo1 said:
At least Seagate isn't using SMR on NAS drives like WD clandestinely is!

So are all 2-6TB WD Red drives actually (DM)SMR? I have two Ironwolf 12TB drives and two Red 4TB (EFRX) drives in my server at present. The Reds are used for backups so random write performance is likely not too much of an issue but, when the time comes to upgrade, I'll likely get another pair of Ironwolfs (Ironwolves?)

From what I saw on that original reddit link, the EFRX ones aren't SMR drives, it's the 2-6TB EFAX ones that are. Yours should be safe if they are the EFRX ones.

HungryHippos · 18 Apr 2020 at 01:17

From what WD were saying it's not a problem on the 8TB+ Red drives, but my 10TB Reds share a similar model number and the larger cache. Main difference perhaps is that they are helium drives.

Model number is WD100EFAX-68LHPN0.

From what people are saying these drives aren't SMR, but I think the jury is still out on the extent of the cases.

HungryHippos · 18 Apr 2020 at 17:50

FL630 said:
To the layman with no knowledge of the finer details of HDDs, yet is building a NAS with 4TB Reds, should I be worried about this?

If buying new try and make sure you get the EFRX model number, those ones should be fine to use.

The SMR EFAX ones will work, but they will just be a bit crippled compared to their EFRX counterparts. SMR drives are not as good on certain operations, so for the most part you may not notice anything, but things like rebuilding a disk in the raid group may be slower than normal, some people reported problems especially where they had a mixture of SMR and non-SMR drives in the same raid group.

If the EFAX ones are cheap, and you are mainly using for cold storage that gets read (i.e. films/tv shows) then probably fine to crack on, but I would not want to pay a premium for a drive that was slightly crippled.

From what people were saying, Seagate Ironwolf drives should be OK to use instead if you can get hold of them, or pay up for the larger Reds (8TB+) which apparently don't have the SMR issue.

HungryHippos · 19 Apr 2020 at 19:00

FL630 said:
Damn, they are EFAX drives. I wonder if it's worth returning, given it's a NAS for photo storage.

Return them and ask for the EFRX ones instead?

HungryHippos · 24 Apr 2020 at 01:00

Paul_RD said:
I have recently bought a WD 6TD Red. Just went and had a look at it turns out to be an EFAX one
I have installed it in a Media PC (250GB SSD for Windows and a single 6TB HDD for Video).
I bought the WD Red because I wanted a quiet drive (I had a WD Black before that sounded like it was taking off).
What do you guys thin? - keep it or swap it for an EFRX (if I can get one or another make/model)?

I'd definitely get a new one mate, SMR will hit your re-sale value later as well.

Speak to supplier but say you want to return it after learning of the SMR issue. EFRX is safe if you can find one, otherwise go 8TB or above and should be fine.

WD have confirmed which drives are impacted: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/wd-lists-all-drives-slower-smr-techNOLOGY

HungryHippos · 28 Apr 2020 at 18:31

Paul_RD said:
I contacted WD yesterday and supplied all my details.
They came back to me today offering to replace my WD60EFAX with a WD60EFRX model.
They also asked for a photo of the drive label which I have just sent them.
I also asked them to confirm that the replacement WD60EFRX would be new retail packaged with a full three year warranty - (not OEM/used/reconditioned/recertified)

Sounds like a good result.

HungryHippos · 31 May 2020 at 21:58

MrRockliffe said:
Could someone point me towards some info as to why it’s a bad thing? I’m clueless when it comes to HDDs

Ta

Shingles drives are fine for certain use cases, like WORM (Write Once Read Many) storage.

But RAID configurations don't like them, and normally cheaper drives are SMR.

For a more premium range like the WD Red people are understandably pretty annoyed, especially as it wasn't obvious and WD tried to hide it.

HungryHippos · 31 May 2020 at 22:30

MrRockliffe said:
I bought some Seagate NAS drives in the past 2 years - any chance I can check if they’re SMR? Bought them because at the time, they were recommended for the application

Think the Seagate Ironwolves are fine if those are the ones you have?

HungryHippos · 19 Jun 2020 at 15:22

Paul_RD said:
The replacement for my WD Red WD60EFAX (SMR-type) arrived this morning.
They sent me a brand new WD Red Pro WD6003FFBX (CMR-type) with a date of manufacture of 2020.

Good stuff! that is a good ending

HungryHippos · 2 Jul 2020 at 11:20

Honestly first line people are just the gatekeepers that try it on, they won't want to RMA your drive and are hoping you'll give up.

But sticking to your guns does usually work, and eventually you'll get somewhere if you're in the right.