Avoid WD Red Drives for NAS applications (Any SMR Drives)

**SBD4** · 4th June 2020, 08:25 PM

Originally Posted by BradC

2008 called. They’d like their chipset back.

The old Northbridge/southbridge went away years ago. Regardless, in any generic motherboard based RAID (softraid) the work is done by the CPU anyway (ie either BIOS/EFI drivers until os bring up and then fakeraid in the driver).

Right now avoid the 2-6TB WD EFAX. I just picked up some 8TB purples to try something different although I do have a “few” CMR reds.

As I recall southbridge originally went via northbridge to get to the cpu. Northbridge functions were absorbed into the CPU and the southbridge became known as "the chipset" connecting directly to the CPU via DMI (Direct Media Interface). So, slow I/O still handled by a separate chipset interfacing with the CPU vie the DMI (version 3 now I think).

Anyway my days of hardware expertise are long in the past. I just research it when I need it....that approach goes for pretty much anything actually. Helps to stop other other stuff I need to remember from pushed out the otherside

.

**Eevo** · 4th June 2020, 08:32 PM

Originally Posted by SBD4

. Helps to stop other other stuff I need to remember from pushed out the otherside

.

sounds like you need a storage upgrade.

**SBD4** · 4th June 2020, 08:45 PM

Originally Posted by Eevo

sounds like you need a storage upgrade.

Yeah....just please don't make it SMR.

**Eevo** · 4th June 2020, 08:47 PM

Originally Posted by SBD4

Yeah....just please don't make it SMR.

mine is write only memory.

**BradC** · 4th June 2020, 09:42 PM

Originally Posted by Eevo

mine is write only memory.

Sounds like Alan Bond and Carmen Lawrence.

**SBD4** · 25th June 2020, 10:41 AM

A bit of an update:

PeterJ · 25th June 2020, 11:26 AM

Originally Posted by rar110

One of the WD reds in our NAS has failed. It’s about 5 years old but failed a while ago. Any recommendations on a replacement? Thanks.

Well, I certainly just dodged a bullet that I never knew was being fired. Had my NAS pull up a disk failure about a week ago, (mind you it had been "up" for well over 8.5 years by the hour count so can not complain too much I guess, they are WD drives) spent 5 days getting it back up and running. Ohhhhh the pain. Anyway, went to Synology site and found a drive from the approve hardware list, (this might be of use Compatibility List | Synology Inc.) settled on Seagate 4TB Ironwolf drives, put 3 in then had a OMG moment when I saw this post. Fortunately they are PMR drives, so I guess Synology have got a clue, my point is go to the NAS manufacturer website and see what they reccommend.
My original setup was 2 x 3TB in JBOD, it was one of those things I never got round to doing properly

, luckily I was able to recover everything, it was just a painfully slow process, that I sort of deserved for being so slack. Now have the 3 x 4TB drives set as SHR, bit the same as RAID 5.

Here is another area of this forum I don't look at enough................thanks to the OP

Peter

**Pedro_The_Swift** · 29th June 2020, 06:28 AM

Linus actually hints that WD may be accepting warranty claims,,

Hmmmm..

**BradC** · 29th June 2020, 07:29 AM

Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

Linus actually hints that WD may be accepting warranty claims,,

Hmmmm..

they are. If you have an efax you can get it swapped for an efrx under warranty. Phone them up and make a claim.

**rar110** · 30th June 2020, 08:13 PM

Originally Posted by SBD4

Search for WD20EFRX you'll get plenty of options to buy. Buy 2 then you'll have a spare if the other old one throws in the towel later.

I finally got back to this. I have a DS213+ with two WD20EFRX, one of which as failed. So do you think buy same WD again?

Thread: Avoid WD Red Drives for NAS applications (Any SMR Drives)

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