At the online retailer Amazon, feedback about incorrectly delivered Western Digital hard drives of the WD Red series has been accumulating for weeks. Customers explicitly ordered EFRX models such as the WD60EFRX (6 TB), in which Western Digital used Conventional Magnetic Recording (CMR). promises. Instead, Amazon delivers EFAX versions that rely on Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR), which can cause problems, particularly when it is advertised as being suitable for network storage (NAS).
Numerous Document reviews including pictures on Amazonthat there is a sticker with the correct EFRX model number on the bubble wrap, but that EFAX is on the hard drive itself. Amazon takes care of the sale and shipping itself – manufacturer Western Digital is obviously not involved in the incorrect deliveries.
Meanwhile, buyers also criticize the packaging as inadequate: Amazon wraps the hard drives in a little bubble wrap and fills boxes with paper or cardboard, if necessary. This is not enough for stronger shocks, so that the HDDs arrive partially defective. According to buyers, inquiries from Western Digital have shown that Amazon sells OEM versions that are actually intended for complete systems from PC manufacturers. Warranty processing is therefore carried out via Amazon and not directly via Western Digital.
SMR disadvantageous in NAS systems
The models named EFRX will shortly receive the separate HDD series WD Red Plus, which guarantees Western Digital CMR technology. In the cheaper SMR, the data tracks overlap similarly to roof shingles to increase the data density, but this leads to reduced performance when repeated writes are made. SMR drives are just as fast as CMR drives when reading and when writing sequential data for the first time.
When rewriting, however, SMR disks must first read in a complete SMR zone, change this data and then write again. In NAS environments, this delay can lead to errors when rebuilding (rebuilding) RAID groups, for example when replacing defective hard disks. NAS manufacturer Synology therefore lists the WD-Red hard drives with SMR as incompatible.
(mma)
– .
/nginx/o/2019/11/10/12729058t1h58ec.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
