CMR HDD

[testcy]

Which HDDs guaranteed to be CMR do you suggest? The fastest the better, but as these are intended for offline backups and no second copies will be kept, reliability is more important. Size is also something to consider in case of a failure (largest used so far was 3TB). I am guessing 3.5", but are there any 2.5" worth considering?

[AbydosOne]

1 minute ago, testcy said:

but as these are intended for offline backups and no second copies will be kept

Now there's hubris if I've ever seen it...

 

2 minutes ago, testcy said:

Which HDDs guaranteed to be CMR do you suggest?

Seagate Exos, WD Red+/Red Pro, WD HGST.

[HanZie82]

Want your data to be safe, do NOT consider any storage to be reliable!!!

[RONOTHAN##]

44 minutes ago, testcy said:

reliability is more important

Look at Backblaze's reliability metrics if you want to see some real world failure rates of different drives:

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze-drive-stats-for-Q1-2024/

 

Realistically though, even the most reliable drives aren't 100% reliable. Manufacturing defects happen, and you should take that into accout when doing this. 

[Ryker Robb]

3 hours ago, testcy said:

Which HDDs guaranteed to be CMR do you suggest? The fastest the better, but as these are intended for offline backups and no second copies will be kept, reliability is more important. Size is also something to consider in case of a failure (largest used so far was 3TB). I am guessing 3.5", but are there any 2.5" worth considering?

https://www.seagate.com/products/cmr-smr-list/

https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detailweb/a_id/50697/~/steps-to-determine-if-an-internal-drive-uses-cmr-or-smr-technology

https://www.toshiba-storage.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/TOSH-15956_Katalog_Storage_2023_Screen.pdf

[Kilrah]

There are no CMR 2.5" drives anymore.

Manufacturers have specs on what's what.

[Ryker Robb]

3 hours ago, testcy said:

but as these are intended for offline backups

I really don't see a problem with using smr drives for offline backups.

[testcy]

On 7/1/2024 at 10:15 PM, Ryker Robb said:

I really don't see a problem with using smr drives for offline backups.

Since SMR drives are usually cheaper, I am assuming they are also slower. Transferring data even for offline backups takes time and in any case I would buy CMR and 7200RPM if I could. Only such choice I have for now is TOSHIBA HDWD130UZSVA P300. Is anyone using this?

[Ryker Robb]

3 hours ago, testcy said:

TOSHIBA HDWD130UZSVA P300. Is anyone using this?

I have the dt01aca300, which is essentially the same thing. It's using 1tb platters, so roughly 180-200MB/s sequential read and writes, which can actually be slower than a 7200rpm 2tb/platter smr drive, such as the wd20ezbx.

[kokosnh]

The problem with SMR HDD speed is that, it's fast only once. 

[testcy]

22 hours ago, Ryker Robb said:

I have the dt01aca300, which is essentially the same thing. It's using 1tb platters, so roughly 180-200MB/s sequential read and writes, which can actually be slower than a 7200rpm 2tb/platter smr drive, such as the wd20ezbx.

I have dt01aca300 too, but it never reaches such speeds. How is it possible read and write speed to be the same? Are there any 7200RPM 2TB/platter CMR drives?

14 hours ago, kokosnh said:

The problem with SMR HDD speed is that, it's fast only once. 

What do you mean only once?

[Ryker Robb]

39 minutes ago, testcy said:

I have dt01aca300 too, but it never reaches such speeds. How is it possible read and write speed to be the same? Are there any 7200RPM 2TB/platter CMR drives?

You really only see those sequencial speeds when doing large file transfers (not lots of smaller files) or in benchmarks like hd tune or crystaldiskmark. The read and write speeds do vary, that's why i said roughly 180-200MB/s.

46 minutes ago, testcy said:

Are there any 7200RPM 2TB/platter CMR drives?

Yes, but they tend to be more expensive. Here are some models that are 7200rpm, and use 2tb cmr platters:

Seagate:

ST2000NT001

ST4000NT001

ST4000DX005

Wd:

WD6004FRYZ

WD6005FFBX

Toshiba:

MG10ADA200E

MG10ADA400E

MG10ADA600E

HDWG740 

HDWG760 

 

Of course, there are a lot more, but they will be higher capacity, helium drives.

[Ryker Robb]

15 hours ago, kokosnh said:

The problem with SMR HDD speed is that, it's fast only once. 

Well, if you give it enough idle time, and you keep it purely sequencial, you can see that speed more than once.

[Ryker Robb]

I would also like to add that the newest wd blue drives, although they aren't 7200 rpm, do use 2tb cmr platters:

Excluding the 1tb and 500gb models, as they are using 1tb platters.

 

[testcy]

1 hour ago, Ryker Robb said:

Yes, but they tend to be more expensive. Here are some models that are 7200rpm, and use 2tb cmr platters:

Seagate:

ST2000NT001

ST4000NT001

ST4000DX005

Wd:

WD6004FRYZ

WD6005FFBX

Toshiba:

MG10ADA200E

MG10ADA400E

MG10ADA600E

HDWG740 

HDWG760 

 

Of course, there are a lot more, but they will be higher capacity, helium drives.

What about ST6000NM019B and WD6003FRYZ?

56 minutes ago, Ryker Robb said:

I would also like to add that the newest wd blue drives, although they aren't 7200 rpm, do use 2tb cmr platters:

Excluding the 1tb and 500gb models, as they are using 1tb platters.

 

But why not 7200RPM?

[Ryker Robb]

1 hour ago, testcy said:

What about ST6000NM019B and WD6003FRYZ?

The st6000nm019b is also using 2tb cmr platters, however the wd6003fryz is using 1.5tb cmr platters (as it's a 4 platter drive). Both are very fast drives though, and the difference is minor. 

[Ryker Robb]

1 hour ago, testcy said:

But why not 7200RPM?

Probably because they didn't want it competing too much with their other drive classes, if i had to guess. They haven't updated their black drives to use 2tb platters yet. 

[kokosnh]

3 hours ago, testcy said:

What do you mean only once?

The problem with SMR HDD is always when it have lots of data on it.

if you try to consolidate a backup, it’s a nightmare. 
in SMR you have to have free space to write anything to it, as any write operation will rewrite data on other track. 

So you have to wait for it to trim itself, as you can only write to empty space.

And defragmentation is impossible… 

 

in CRM HDD you can rewritten all the sectors at will.

 

[testcy]

On 7/5/2024 at 9:39 PM, Ryker Robb said:

Probably because they didn't want it competing too much with their other drive classes, if i had to guess. They haven't updated their black drives to use 2tb platters yet. 

Any opinions about Toshiba MG06ACA10TE?

[Ryker Robb]

4 hours ago, testcy said:

Any opinions about Toshiba MG06ACA10TE?

This is actually a pretty cool drive. It's using 7 1.43 tb platters, which is actually the only air filled drive (as well as the x300, n300, and s300 versions of this drive) to use 7 platters without the use of helium.