BestBuy - 12TB Easystore USB HDD - $180

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.

msg7086

Active Member
May 2, 2017
423
148
43
36
if one of them are SMR drives.
WD120EMFZ = US7ASP140 = Western Digital Ultrastar DC HC530
Designed to handle workloads up to 550TB per year, the Ultrastar DC HC530 is based on conventional magnetic recording (CMR) technology for drop-in simplicity in enterprise and cloud data centers.

WD120EMAZ = US7SAM120 = Western Digital Ultrastar DC HC520
Designed to handle workloads up to 550TB per year, the Ultrastar DC HC520 is the industry’s first 12TB drive and uses traditional perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology to make it dropin ready for any enterprise-capacity application or environment.
 

azev

Well-Known Member
Jan 18, 2013
768
251
63
I just did a math, if let say the drive continuously writes at 100MB/s average, it will write about 8.6TB per day.
This mean the drives can only write continuously for 67 days out of the 365 days in a year :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Samir

msg7086

Active Member
May 2, 2017
423
148
43
36
The drive will be full on its second day.

Also this is "designed" workload, not restricted workload. If you have a workload that needs to write at 100MB/s for 67 days, you should consider a different drive or even a different system design (such as, you know, a RAID).
 
  • Like
Reactions: Samir
Wasn't it concluded that these do not have SMR drives?
That is generally the impression I had, at least for the 12tb ones yes... HOWEVER I had read somewhere (I dont remember where) that it might be in the process of changing, so I was hoping once I got a drive I could just try to verify it with that TRIM command or whatever and then know for sure. I don't want to shuck or decase anything for at least a year.

I dont think there has been any shingled in the Easystores yet. I dont know why this question pops up every time. I guess its Toshiba or Seagate that wants to slow the trend of shucking WD drives.
The internet is full of contradictory information. It's hard to have definitive information when WD keeps playing so cagey ON PURPOSE refusing to answer the simplest dang questions in the universe. :-/ I also think there were older press releases from before which implied that some sizes would use shingled recordings and maybe assumptions were made. Obviously if there's a single case of someone shucking a 10/12/14tb WD and finding a shingled drive - it wont be the only one. I thought I remember seeing that.

In past scanning the internet, it seemed to suggest that the 12tb's were "so far" 90% at least conventional, but someone saying up to half the 10tb and 14tb were shingled. I dont remember where I read that, just that the odds said 12's were the least likely to ever be shingled. Though if all three are 100% "conventional" and the info I heard about that changing was also wrong with no changes in sight that makes it easier.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Samir

msg7086

Active Member
May 2, 2017
423
148
43
36
Unfortunately I've never heard any report that WD 8TB or above has a SMR drive in it. And WD was pretty clear SMR drives have TRIM feature, and it was never found in 8TB and above externals. There were reports saying that WD started using air filled drives on 8TB, instead of the previous Helium drives. But that's about it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Samir

n17ikh

Member
Jul 12, 2019
62
61
18
For what it's worth, out of the four I bought, one was WD120EMAZ and the other three were WD120EMFZ. All of them are too fast in sustained writes to be SMR, and none of them claim to support the TRIM command. I haven't shucked any yet but they run pretty toasty in their enclosures, 50C under load.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Samir

Samir

Post Liker and Deal Hunter Extraordinaire!
Jul 21, 2017
3,257
1,445
113
49
HSV and SFO
WD120EMFZ = US7ASP140 = Western Digital Ultrastar DC HC530
Designed to handle workloads up to 550TB per year, the Ultrastar DC HC530 is based on conventional magnetic recording (CMR) technology for drop-in simplicity in enterprise and cloud data centers.

WD120EMAZ = US7SAM120 = Western Digital Ultrastar DC HC520
Designed to handle workloads up to 550TB per year, the Ultrastar DC HC520 is the industry’s first 12TB drive and uses traditional perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology to make it dropin ready for any enterprise-capacity application or environment.
It is important to note that while the design origins for these drives are from their enterprise cousins, deducing that they will operate at the same performance or workload may be a bad idea if your data is critical. These are definitely not enterprise drives or they would be sold as such.
 

Samir

Post Liker and Deal Hunter Extraordinaire!
Jul 21, 2017
3,257
1,445
113
49
HSV and SFO
I just did a math, if let say the drive continuously writes at 100MB/s average, it will write about 8.6TB per day.
This mean the drives can only write continuously for 67 days out of the 365 days in a year :)
And that is assuming they meet the enterprise spec for TBW.
 

Samir

Post Liker and Deal Hunter Extraordinaire!
Jul 21, 2017
3,257
1,445
113
49
HSV and SFO
In past scanning the internet, it seemed to suggest that the 12tb's were "so far" 90% at least conventional, but someone saying up to half the 10tb and 14tb were shingled. I dont remember where I read that, just that the odds said 12's were the least likely to ever be shingled. Though if all three are 100% "conventional" and the info I heard about that changing was also wrong with no changes in sight that makes it easier.
When I had 14TB helium enterprise drives in my hands, this shucking crazy started and the drives posted online looked identical to the one I had, including the sealed helium casing.
 

msg7086

Active Member
May 2, 2017
423
148
43
36
It is important to note that while the design origins for these drives are from their enterprise cousins, deducing that they will operate at the same performance or workload may be a bad idea if your data is critical. These are definitely not enterprise drives or they would be sold as such.
Of course they are not the same as their enterprise cousin. I specifically pointed out the PMR/CMR to indicate those models are not SMRs, not implying they have the same performance or workload or reliability. In fact the enterprise drives are 7200RPMs and externals are 5400, so definitely different characteristics.
 

Samir

Post Liker and Deal Hunter Extraordinaire!
Jul 21, 2017
3,257
1,445
113
49
HSV and SFO
Of course they are not the same as their enterprise cousin. I specifically pointed out the PMR/CMR to indicate those models are not SMRs, not implying they have the same performance or workload or reliability. In fact the enterprise drives are 7200RPMs and externals are 5400, so definitely different characteristics.
Good. Too many people try to extrapolate that these are birds that can fly when they just have wings and feathers. ;)
 

msg7086

Active Member
May 2, 2017
423
148
43
36
And -- as I already posted on reddit about that discussion -- the suffix itself has nothing to do with SMR/CMRs. They mostly define cache size and RPMs. For example, EMAZ, A = 256M cache. EFFX and EMFZ would have 512M cache. The actual SMR/CMRs are still on the actual model number, such as WD60EFAX.
 

lcars

New Member
Apr 8, 2020
8
9
3
There is some reporting from Ars Technica that includes manufacturer statements about SMR that I found helpful.

First was an article about WD:

Buyer beware—that 2TB-6TB “NAS” drive you’ve been eyeing might be SMR

Then a follow-up article about Seagate:

Seagate says Network Attached Storage and SMR don’t mix

It's still a bunch to go through, but basically I took away the following:

  • Some 2-6TB drives from WD may have SMR. They may not disclose this in their spec sheets. Affected drives include some marketed for NAS use. (Also see WD blog statement at On WD Red NAS Drives - Western Digital Corporate Blog)
  • Seagate doesn't use SMR in drives marketed for NAS use
  • Seagate does use SMR in certain drives, including some enterprise drives (e.g. their Exos "5E" line) but apparently discloses this in marketing materials and in specifications publications
 
  • Like
Reactions: Samir and KC8FLB

mimino

Active Member
Nov 2, 2018
189
70
28
Can somebody enlighten me why would I choose this over Ultrastar DC HC510 (He10) 10TB SAS 12G for $159.99?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Samir

sparx

Active Member
Jul 16, 2015
320
118
43
Sweden
Weeelll.. Not many good answers there @mimino. Maybe you cant run SAS. Maybe the HC510 is not new and/or out of warranty.
But in any case the SAS drive is better in all ways except power consumption. Perhaps noise also. Hmm.. that became a better list than i intended.

Wait. Its 12TB also ;)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Samir