NAS hard drives Synology now lists WD Red with SMR as incompatible

WD Red drives are SMR

The secret application of Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) with NAS hard discs of the series WD Red has for western Digitally other consequences. The Auslistung from the compatibility lists of the leading NAS supplier Synology follows the aimed collective complaint.

WD Now Red with SMR are officially incompatible with Synology

A reader has drawn the attention of the editorial staff to the fact that the NAS manufacturer Synology has adapted, in the meantime, his compatibility lists HDD because of the SMR problems. If the affected WD Red were listed before still with discreet reference to the SMR technology as compatible to various NAS systems by Synology, now this is not any more the case: Now the WD Red with SMR are performed as to no Synology-NAS compatibly. In addition, a tip is deposited which says that is suited the HDD „on account of the Performance-Charakteristik of SMR disc drives only for surroundings with light Workload“.

However, not all NAS manufacturers are so resolute up to now. On the compatibility lists of QNAP the affected WD Red which are provided, however, at least with a tip are found possibly furthermore:

By use of SMR-been based hard discs the NAS achievement can be affected if on the disc drives any more enough cache does not exist. If your NAS works in data-intensive surroundings, we recommend the use of Data centre hard discs.

With Terra master no tip to SMR models and her restrictions is found again. Consequently affected WD Red are led like the WD20AFAX or WD60EFAX in the support lists furthermore as compatible and even are "recommended".

Background: All manufacturers concealed SMR application

At the middle of April had become known that western uses WD Red the technology SMR Digitally in hard discs of the series without giving this. SMR raises the data density per magnet disc (More flatly) by shingle-like overlapping tracks, however, has the disadvantage that with the Wiederbeschreiben also adjoining tracks must be updated. According to scenario this can become apparent in massive achievement losses, which is why SMR hard discs are used mostly only for archiving. Users had become attentive to the application of SMR with some WD Red models by problems while restoring of RAID configurations.

Afterwards appeared that not only other HDD series of western Are digital, but also the both other hard disc manufacturer are concerned in the form of Seagate and also Toshiba by the secret application of SMR.

With western the case weighs Digitally heavier, because explicitly with RAID suitability promoted NAS hard discs were sold secretly with SMR, although SMR limits the RAID application.

WD-HDDs with SMR and collective complaint

In the meantime, western points Digitally on own product sides clearly to the SMR models (look list below). However, now a lawsuit threatens the manufacturer, because the lawyer's company Hattis Law has lodged complaint against western before a Californian court Digitally.

WD-Festplatten mit SMR:

• 3,5-Zoll-WD rote 2 TB, 3 TB, 4 TB, 6 TB (SKUs: WD20EFAX, WD30EFAX, WD40EFAX, WD60EFAX)
• 3,5-Zoll-WD blaue 2 TB, 6 TB (SKUs: WD20EZAZ, WD60EZAZ)
• 2,5-Zoll-WD blauer 1 TB, 2 TB (SKUs: WD10SPZX, WD20SPZX)
• 2,5-Zoll-WD schwarzer 1 TB (SKU: WD10SPSX)