WD selling SMR drives as WD Reds

[andy_mk3]

I'm quite thankful all my reds are EFRX. Definitely something to look out for in future.

Not cool though. They've done bad and handled it even worse. When you get caught out, at least hold your hands up. Great way to alienate your customers with what they've said and done.

 

[Paul_RD]

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

Thanks for that link, it is most interesting.
It links to a page on WD's blog that says "We know you entrust your data to our products, and we don’t take that lightly. If you have purchased a WD Red drive, please call our customer care if you are experiencing performance or any other technical issues. We will have options for you. We are here to help."
I will try calling WD Customer Care next week - I bet they won't help!

Edit: In all fairness to WD Customer Care, they did help (please continue reading this thread) - they emailed me a pre-paid shipping label, I returned the WD Red WD60EFAX (SMR-type) and they sent me a brand new WD Red Pro WD6003FFBX (CMR-type) - Thanks WD !

 

[andy_mk3]

Thanks for that link, it is most interesting.
It links to a page on WD's blog that says "We know you entrust your data to our products, and we don’t take that lightly. If you have purchased a WD Red drive, please call our customer care if you are experiencing performance or any other technical issues. We will have options for you. We are here to help."
I will try calling WD Customer Care next week - I bet they won't help!

They'll try and sell you a Red Pro or Gold drive I bet

 

[Paul_RD]

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)

 

[HungryHippos]

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.

 

[Paul_RD]

Sounds like a good result.

I supplied all the information WD requested on Monday and so far they have failed to acknowledge or respond to any of my messages.
Time will tell if WD are good to their word.

 

[Paul_RD]

WD did get back to me.

They have confirmed that I will be provided with a brand new drive, and that I will not get a refurbished drive nor a recertified drive.

However, they said that they have temporarily suspended all Advanced Replacement RMAs as shown here: https://www.westerndigital.com/support/covid-19-updates and they would only be able to replace the drive once the restrictions are lifted.

Fair enough under the current circumstances so I will just have to wait for now.

 

[edgedemon]

This had me worried as I have 4 x 6TB WD Reds, luckily they are EFRX models. I just had to replace one of them as it had bad sectors, I went for a Ironwolf drive this time, so it has cost them business. Array is rebuilding as I speak.
I was going to go for Toshiba but they aren't supported by QNAP..

 

[Paul_RD]

I went for a Ironwolf drive this time

All my other drives are EFRX models - this is the only EFAX model I received.
Unfortunately, WD will lose out now because I will no longer buy any of their drives as there is no guarantee that I would get a non-SMR drive.
They have already denied it once, and despite them admitting which drives currently contain SMR, I would be reluctant to trust them in the future.
Therefore, like yourself, I will be choosing Ironwolf for future purchases.

 

[Paul_RD]

Meanwhile, in the United States:

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/29/wd_class_action_lawsuit/​

 

[andy_mk3]

Meanwhile, in the United States:

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/29/wd_class_action_lawsuit/​

That was pretty much a given haha.

 

[Akagi]

That's cheeky... I'd happily buy one to use in my backup machine if they reduce the prices accordingly though

 

[Silicon Si]

Ironwolf Pro's here in raid 1 i did a lot of reading up a few months back about Nas/server hdd's the pro version has 2 year free data recovery and a 5 year total warranty.

 

[MrRockliffe]

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

Ta

 

[BlizzardX]

this may help https://www.servethehome.com/wd-red-smr-vs-cmr-tested-avoid-red-smr/ Its done by Serve The Home which I've always found good, anyway it tests the conventional approach with the singled approach and you can clearly see the speed issues when running Raid configs.

 

[HungryHippos]

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.

 

[MrRockliffe]

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.

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

 

[HungryHippos]

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?

 

[Akagi]

I want to know what they are doing with the SMR drives that are being returned and the ones that have been manufactured but not yet distributed. I could really use some cheap high capacity storage, so it will be upsetting if they are just scrapping them.

 

[chippy08]

So is this one of the drives to avoid

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/wd-2...e-internal-hard-drive-wd20ezaz-hd-564-wd.html