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My SMR drive - opinions please

Should I replace the drive?

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Your loss. WD Black drives are among the best made. Full stop.
I didn’t say anything about quality, just that they make more noise than other drives I’ve used. They’re great drives overall, and honestly I’m more picky than others about noise, most users run fans that distract the hell out of me, calling them silent :shrug:
 
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What?

I didn’t say anything about quality, just that they make more noise than other drives I’ve used.
No, what you said was...
I’d avoid WD black if you’re worried about noise/vibrations, so no loss there
...this, which is NOT the same as saying that "they make more noise than other drives I’ve used".

Context is important. Try it sometime.
 
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I think you’re just trying to pick a fight with me or are misreading. I have half a dozen 8TB Blacks in a ZFS array, and have capacities as old as 500GB PATA laying around that still work fine (they’re obvs in a box though). I used to build arrays for studios and offices, and WD Blacks have always been great.

Please don’t troll. Have a nice day!
 
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I think you’re just trying to pick a fight with me or are misreading.
You made a statement which was misleading and an attempt at brand shaming. Your vocabulary was very clear.
I have half a dozen 8TB Blacks in a ZFS array, and have capacities as old as 500GB PATA laying around that still work fine (they’re obvs in a box though). I used to build arrays for studios and offices, and WD Blacks have always been great.
Then why did you suggest avoiding them?
Please don’t troll. Have a nice day!
Oh, now you're blame shifting? Nice try. If you don't want people contesting your nonsense, stop spouting nonsense.
And for the record, I was already participating in the conversation of this thread before you made your comment...
 
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You made a statement which was misleading and an attempt at brand shaming. Your vocabulary was very clear.
Yeah, if you’re worried about noise/vibrations, you’re not missing out on their build quality and high price. Reds are just as good, and don’t perform as well, and are quieter.
Then why did you suggest avoiding them?
“Noise/vibrations”
Oh, now you're blame shifting? Nice try. If you don't want people contesting your nonsense, stop spouting nonsense.
And for the record, I was already participating in the conversation of this thread before you made your comment...
LTR
 

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Guys, enough.
 

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I'd just like to give a special thanks to all those who voted chuck it in the furnace - epic, guys. :cool: :D

It's what I felt like doing when I initially discovered it was SMR as it hadn't been disclosed before purchase.
 

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The furnace scenario isn't far fetched. The metal will be more valuable than the drive itself at some point.
The dystopian future where people raid server farms for the helium in the hard drives
 
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Helium huffing cyberpunks...hey guys all out of that good stuff, but I got a couple dozen HDD's you wanna get high!? :laugh:
 
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Since the initial load, my single wd easystore 2tb USB smr drive has yet to exceed cache on incremental backups. and read speeds are exactly the same as my old cmr drives

I'm really not as flustered about this as I initially thought I would be, because I don't run zfs - for all my internal drives I'll pay the Red Plus premium (extract local archives, or long data copies like raw Blu-ray ready for encode), but for pure network-accessible backups, why should I care?
 
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Right ppl, I've got an update for you.

Scan has now refunded me for the faulty drive, no quibble, they're a good retailer. The drive cost me about £207 with shipping, which is about right.

I live in England so unsurprisingly, I normally buy off British stores. amazon.co.uk don't sell this drive, but amazon.com do, but get this: I bought it for just £143 including international shipping! I couldn't believe it when I saw it. Chances are that amazon.co.uk would have sold it for around £200 too if they had it.

It's due any day now, so I'll let you know how I get on with it.
 
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I didn't realize it was faulty.
 

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I didn't realize it was faulty.

Oh yeah, I went on about it a few posts up lol.

Are 10K or 15K RPM HDD's manufactured anymore?
My guess is that yes, but as niche products for compatibility reasons. I've heard a 15K drive in operation and that whine was no joke. We're talking insanity inducing hearing damage noise. Imagine a datacentre full of them?! Ear defenders are a must. Even with SSDs, they're very noisy places due to the cooling that often need ear defenders. They're basically fridges with computer equipment inside.
 
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I worked in a data center, hearing any hard drives over the numerous high RPM fans and AC equipment was impossible.
 

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Ok, so I got my new drive from amazon.com a day early and I'm glad to say that this one works properly - very little vibration and near silent just like my other Blue, as I was expecting.

This one came properly protected in its official WD shipping box, unlike the one from Scan that was delivered in a pathetic bit of bubblewrap unfit for a HDD. A dedicate computer hardware retailer, Scan should know better.

I reckon the other one must have been dropped or banged about which caused the platter to become unbalanced. I'm surprised it worked at all in that state, but no, no errors. At least for the few minutes that I had it running, anyway.

1657836197267.png
 

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7.27TB?

Deficient, throw it back
 

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My guess is that yes, but as niche products for compatibility reasons.
The only SATA 10K drives were the WD Raptor line, which I think is now discontinued. But there are definitely still SAS 10/15K HDDs.
 

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The only SATA 10K drives were the WD Raptor line, which I think is now discontinued. But there are definitely still SAS 10/15K HDDs.
Thanks for the clarification. This isn't an area I know much about.
 
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I'd love one of those raptors with the window; but I'm off topic.
 

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qubit

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I'd love one of those raptors with the window; but I'm off topic.
And I've got one in mint condition from new since 2007. Now you can truly look green with envy! :p
 
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Is the window on the seagate raptor HDD at all helpful in diagnosing drive problems?
 

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Is the window on the seagate raptor HDD at all helpful in diagnosing drive problems?
I never had problems with it, but it might give some indication if the head movement looked off, maybe.

That platter looks like a perfectly smooth mirror and when it spins, it looks the same. That's how precision made it is.

I remember the WD website at the time didn't say anything about the feature, so I think it's purely decorative. There was a version of it, same specs, with a regular cover, for slightly less money.
 
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