BestBuy - 12TB Easystore USB HDD - $180

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josh

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Oct 21, 2013
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Easystores now exclusively ship with WD120EMFZs which require the 3.3v mod, having 512MB cache and are lower binned versions of the 14TBs. The Elements still ship with the WD120EMAZs which don't require the 3.3v mod and come with only 256MB cache. For some reason the EMAZs have a sustained write of ~100MB/s while the EMFZs can go up to ~200MB/s.
 
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azev

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Jan 18, 2013
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Does this mean that EMFZ is a better drive than EMAZ ?
How about mix and matching EMFZ and EMAZ in ZFS ??
Currently my ZFS storage server is running 2x vdev of 6x 12TB EMAZ and I want to expand another 2 vdev soon (10% capacity left)
Should I wait for Elements to get on sale of mix and matching EMFZ and EMAZ is competely fine ?
 
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josh

Active Member
Oct 21, 2013
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No idea. Can't decide myself. Trying to figure out which of the EMFZ or EMAZ belongs as a standalone drive and which belongs in an array.
 
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KC8FLB

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Aug 12, 2018
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"Nobody is reporting" is an interesting claim, as it seems to imply that you're familiar with every report, made by everyone, everywhere.

Anyway, for whatever it's worth, here's what a Redditor got back when they actually asked WD. Spoiler: they declined to answer: WD response + 12TB easystores + SMR or PMR : DataHoarder
Apologies, I may have been mistaken. I have shucked many of these drives for the last few years, been reading multiple forums where members shuck many of these drives and after reading hundreds of comments and threads over the last few years, have never seen anyone report that they have received a shingled drive.

which WD EasyStore drives come with shingled drives? That would really help members understand what they are getting.

thank you
 
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dc_carguy

New Member
Jan 21, 2020
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Vancouver BC
Apologies, I may have been mistaken. I have shucked many of these drives for the last few years, been reading multiple forums where members shuck many of these drives and after reading hundreds of comments and threads over the last few years, have never seen anyone report that they have received a shingled drive.

which WD EasyStore drives come with shingled drives? That would really help members understand what they are getting.

thank you
found this

"WD external HDD drives that have SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) drive inside, offer TRIM command support"

Link:
TRIM Command Support for WD External Drives

DC
 
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BLinux

cat lover server enthusiast
Jul 7, 2016
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was just about to buy a few of the 12TB for $180 ... then, when I added to cart, it was $250!!!! Total fail... :-(
 
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sparx

Active Member
Jul 16, 2015
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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.
 
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azev

Well-Known Member
Jan 18, 2013
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So I have gotten both flavor of the drives EMAZ and EMFZ and individually benchmarking those drives seems to yield similar result.
I currently have a pool that comprise of 2 vdev with 6x EMAZ for one and 6x EMFZ for another. Performance of the pool is what you would expect from a spinners so it seems ok. I got about 50% utilization right now so maybe as I filled up the drives I will start seeing the shortcoming of the vdev if one of them are SMR drives.
 
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