WD Red 6tb WD60EFAX SMR???

[criskoe]

WD Red 6tb WD60EFAX SMR??? I cant seem to find anything related to this online anywhere except a few reddit posts and on synologys hard drive compatibility chart.

NASWestern DigitalWD60EFAX - 68SHWN0Red82.00A826TB3.5" SATA HDDnoNotes
Due to the characteristics of SMR, this SMR drive might have longer response time than a PMR drive. It is highly recommended not to mix SMR and PMR drives in one RAID type. You can refer to this FAQ for more information.

I even tried to call WD support and got no where. Rep basically told me they dont know that information so he couldnt answer it. LOL

I have a raid set up with the older WD Red 6tb WD60EFRX drives which are PMR drives and I need to start expanding my array. Seems these older drives are harder to get now here in canada. Most of the retailers have stopped selling them for the newer WD60EFAX drives. I really dont want to change out all of them and I defiantly dont want to incorporate a SMR drive into a existing PMR raid. Debating on to just start adding WD red Pros route but am not sure I really want the extra noise.

Any hard drive gurus out there might have some input or suggestions as to what I should do? Im planning on expanding over time and also want to have replacement options when a failure could happen and it really seems the WD60EFRX models I currently have are being phased out.

[Doomer]

WD60EFAX - 68SHWN0 is SMR

[ddrecovery]

WD60EFAX - 68SHWN0 is SMR

I think the OP is saying WD60EFRX is the PMR drive.

[Doomer]

yeah, my bad, I thought the question was about drives, while in reality the question is far more philosophical: "what I should do?"
Can't answer that

[criskoe]

yeah, my bad, I thought the question was about drives, while in reality the question is far more philosophical: "what I should do?"
Can't answer that

Hey no thank you. I was also wanting to know if the WD60EFAX was truly a SMR drive. Cause I keep reading that WD doesnt make SMR drives and also tried asking in other forums and people where either unaware or said as well that WD doesnt make SMR drives.

[fzabkar]

ISTM that a better way to categorise current HDDs is to refer to them as SMR versus non-SMR. IIUC, all SMR drives use PMR techniques, so using PMR to describe a non-SMR drive makes no sense. Or am I misunderstanding something?

[criskoe]

ISTM that a better way to categorise current HDDs is to refer to them as SMR versus non-SMR. IIUC, all SMR drives use PMR techniques, so using PMR to describe a non-SMR drive makes no sense. Or am I misunderstanding something?

Sorry. Your not missunderstanding anything. Im just a complete noob when it comes to this stuff and am learning still. I apologize.

I was needing to know if the WD60EFAX was either a SMR or NON-SMR drive. I tried to contact WD directly and they would not disclose that information to me. Got routed to a higher rep who also said that he could not disclose that information to me. I asked him if I could speak to someone higher then him and he informed me that there was no one higher then him that will take calls. Still His response was "that information is not provided to consumers" I then directed him to the synology hard drive compatibility page where it lists the WD60EFAX and says the the drive is a SMR drive. The tech said that he still was unable to comment or confirm if that information was true or not. LOL

So I was left to try to find answers else where. Which has brought me here.

I really dont understand why this information was so hard to obtain or why they wont give it out.

Am I correct in assuming that information i can find is it's not a good idea to mix SMR drives with NON-SMR drives in raid 6 configurations correct?

[fzabkar]

Well, here is WD's whitepaper on SMR:

https://documents.westerndigital.com/content/dam/doc-library/en_us/assets/public/western-digital/collateral/white-paper/white-paper-shingled-magnetic-recording-helioseal-technology.pdf

The paper states that Host Managed SMR is preferable to both Drive Managed SMR and Host Aware SMR.

FWIW, HGST's Ultrastar DC HC600 series incorporates host-managed SMR (HM-SMR):

https://www.westerndigital.com/products/data-center-drives/ultrastar-dc-hc600-series-hdd

Here is a product manual which mentions SMR:

https://documents.westerndigital.com/content/dam/doc-library/en_us/assets/public/western-digital/product/data-center-drives/ultrastar-dc-hc600-series/product-manual-ultrastar-dc-hc620-sas-spec.pdf

Host Managed SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording)

Such drives would be unsuitable for any OS that does not support this feature.

Unlike CMR drives, HM-SMR drives are not drop-in replacements for traditional drives and require system software modifications that take advantage of the new command sets to ensure data is written sequentially to the drive. This software investment helps yield the most cost-efficient storage solutions.

Therefore, ISTM that HDD manufacturers should be honour bound to disclose, not only whether their drives are SMR models, but they should also disclose whether SMR management needs to be supported in the OS.

BTW, WD does have product manuals for its own native WD models, but these are only made available to their "partners" via the partner portal. I would think that these same manuals would be available to WD's tech support staff. In fact it annoys me that they are not publicly available to everyone, especially WD's end users.

[fzabkar]

Here is an example of a WD Tech Manual:

ftp://ftp.fen.pl/certyfikaty/CE_pdf/SuperMicro/dyski%20WD/2679-771339-A05.pdf

Ask yourself, do WD's tech support staff have access to such manuals? Should these manuals be any more "confidential" than HGST's?

And just to add another complication …

A new twist to IntelliPower?
https://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?p=272530

[fzabkar]

Here are two product manuals which appear to be for the same drive.

WD Gold EX8 Technical Reference Manual:
http://wfcache.advantech.com/www/certified-peripherals/documents/96HD8TB-ST-WD7KE1_datasheet.pdf

HGST Ultrastar He8 SATA OEM Specification:
https://www.hgst.com/sites/default/files/resources/UltrastarHe8_OEMSpec_SATAmodels_v1.6.pdf

The WD Gold is a rebadged HGST model (the World Wide Name attests to this, among other things). HGST's manual is available to everyone, but the essentially identical "WD" manual is only available to WD's "partners".