SMR?

[kt2022]

Hi!
This may be a nonsense idea, but I was wondering if there is a way to test an HDD for being SMR? SMR drives seem to get much slower when the free space decreases, therefore perhaps there could be a way to test this. Obviously we can contact manufacturer support with questions or rely on some websites listing this parameter, but I am wondering if the validity of the information obtained either way can be tested?
Thanks in advance!
Best regards,

K

[hdsentinel]

Sometimes even manufacturers do not want us to know this in many cases drives "hide" if they're SMR or not.

There are some traces which can indicate if a drive is SMR. If you check the Information page and you see that

- the cache buffer is large enough (eg. 256 MBytes) (sometimes this can be found in Disk menu -> Device Specific Information in latest versions)
- the hard disk supports TRIM function (which designed for SSDs - but many SMR drives also use this to release unused space)

then there is good chance that the hard disk is SMR.

Collecting information and probably there will be a function to show/confirm if the drive is SMR or not: all developer-reports (Report menu -> Send test report to developer option) can help.

[kt2022]

Thank you for your kind reply, J!

I am very glad that you are taking note of the situation.

It is for sure the manufacturers don't want us to know many things :-/
On the other hand Seagate support has just replied to me and admitted the drives I asked about were all SMR. They have not replied to my follow-up question yet though: "Do you make any 2,5" drives that are not SMR?" sigh :-/

re: all developer-reports (Report menu -> Send test report to developer option) can help

Does it mean that sending you data about my drives will help you build such a function into HD Sentinel? I don't have the latest drives though. Will that be of any help too?


K

[hdsentinel]

ST2000LM003

That was the last 2 TB 2.5" non-SMR hard disk, one of my personal favourites. I have some of them and really liked - just they are too old now....

Exactly as you, I'd be more than happy to have 2.5" non-SMR drives (especially with 2 TB or bigger capacity) but none available.... There are 2.5" 2 TB models from WD and Toshiba but they are 15 mm.

Generally yes, any developer-report helps development, thanks!

[InquiringMind]

Apologies for the thread necromancy, but Seagate do now have a product information page listing which of their drives use SMR and CMR - see:

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