4TB WD ELEMENTS with WD40EDAZ inside! SMR! Avoid!

I risked for a NEW external WD drive, and i got a WD40EDAZ inside an external ELEMENTS enclosure!!!

I feel ripped off!

I just hate that consumers don’t have a clue about the drive inside external enclosures, and need to open the package to check the hard drive info. Now it’s gonna be a HASSLE to return it! I just REFUSE to buy SMR drives! Period! Have contacted WD support to ask for “permission” to return this to the reseller.

I wish there was a way to buy external hard drives without falling into this russian roulette…

I thought the only possibility to get a 4TB SMR drive would be the WD40EFAX!!! WD Sets the Record Straight: Lists All Drives That Use Slower SMR Tech | Tom's Hardware

I guess not!!! There are a LOT of new models! The HDD Platter Capacity Database: Western Digital - 3.5" (RE/Gold/Se/Black/Red/"Internal Use")

Don’t buy one then. Simple. Most people don’t care.

If you do care, then buy a bare drive and a USB enclosure to put it in, and then you know exactly what you’re getting.

That’s your own fault since you shouted from the rooftops “I WILL NEVER BUY ANOTHER EXTERNAL WD DRIVE AGAIN!!!” in a previous post.

Nobody to blame but yourself.

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Yes… mea culpa… (it was a cheper solution than buying a drive + enclosure).

And I also want to state that now WD external drives are plagued with SMR.

Is there a way to find out via software what kind of drive is actually in an WD Elements 4TB external drive (type: 2620 USB-HDD) without cracking open the enclosure?

@marcolopes How were you able to power your drive without connection the USB cable? In my drive the USB connector is the only connector available on my 4TB Elements drive.

Data Lifeguard Diagnostic should have been able to do this, but it’s been deprecated.

Data Lifeguard Diagnostic

Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows has been DEPRECATED and replaced with the Western Digital Dashboard

The Western Digital Dashboard that replaces Data Lifeguard Diagnostic is said to only support SSD.

Western Digital Dashboard

The Western Digital Dashboard includes tools for analysis of the disk (including the disk model, capacity, firmware version, and SMART attributes) and firmware updates.

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YES! Just as i said here: Incompetence from WD support on PMR or SMR drives - #11 by marcolopes

So, if anyone needs to know WHAT INTERNAL DRIVE MODEL they have in their WD EXTERNAL ENCLOSURES, install https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo and COPY PAST the info to the clipboard! (EDIT → COPY or CTRL-C). Paste it to a text editor, and voila!!!

Then, compare the model against one of the HD DATABASES available

And check if they have SMR tech or not!

@marcolopes Thanks for your reply.

It seems that my WD Elements 4TB drive indeed has the SMR technology inside:

Shingled Magnetic Recording, 15mm z-height

Model Outside: WDBU6Y0040BBK-EA (on sticker on the box)
Model Inside: WD40NDZW-11MR8S1
According to [source]
Which is a:
“Not For Resale” (5400RPM, 128MB cache, USB 3.0 interface, Advanced Format, Shingled Magnetic Recording, 15mm z-height)
[source]

Enclosure : WD Elements 2620 USB Device (V=1058, P=2620, sa1)
Model : WDC WD40NDZW-11A8JS1
[CrystalDiskInfo 8]
WD40NDZW-xxMR8Sx/xxA8JSx 4TB (4/8) ::
“Not For Resale” (5400RPM, 128MB cache, USB 3.0 interface, Advanced Format, Shingled Magnetic Recording, 15mm z-height)
[source]

I also checked my other WD Elements SE 2TB HDD and it does NOT have SMR inside (according to CrystalDiskInfo):

PMR/CMR, 15mm z-height

Model Outside: WDBJRT0020BBK-0B (on sticker on the box)
Model Inside: WD20SMZW-11YFCS0
According to [source]
Shingled Magnetic Recording, 7mm z-height
[source]

Enclosure : WD Elements SE 25FE USB Device (V=1058, P=25FE, sa1)
Model : WDC WD20NMVW-11EDZS6
[CrystalDiskInfo 8]

WD20NMVW-xxAV3Sx/xxW68Sx/xxEDZSx 2TB (4/8) ::
“Not For Resale” (5200RPM, 8MB cache, USB 3.0 interface, Advanced Format, 15mm z-height)
[source]
WD Blue USB 3.0

The both sources give conflicting information. Can I trust CrystalDiskInfo better?

I’m taken by surprise by this. Now I need to decide if it’s a problem for my purposes. I did notice that random write performance is not that good (see my other topic). I will use the drive primarily as an external drive to unload my valuable data on for long term (10 year +) storage (my current drives are 15 years old and are failing). Furthermore I’ll use the extra capacity as a backup medium. What would be the ideal use-case for SMR tech? I can still return the drive but need to make a decision ASAP.

Could you bring me up to speed on the benefits and pitfalls of PMR vs SMR technology?
Are there WD Elements 4TB drives with PMR technology inside?

Well, my 4TB WD40EDAZ (that i returned and opted for a NON SMR 8TB instead - though these are drives that get EXTREMELY SCARY HOT!!! almost to 60 degrees Celsius! None of my 4TB or lower ever reached 40, let alone 60!!!) had almost ZERO random write performance… use this HDD Bench APP and you will be amazed how SMR “stall” almost to ZERO performance on 4k blocks!!! (that’s because they have to write an entire 256MB? SHINGLED zone just to write a single BYTE!) Alex Intelligent Software - Downloads

SMR has ZERO benefits for the user! They all go to the MANUFACTURER (that cuts the plates by 1/3 or more!). This is BAD tech, to cut production costs. Period.

Along with ZERO benefits, it adds many caveats, like REWRITING an entire Shingled ZONE every time data is written to that zone (no matter the size), and that brings the “random” small block write performance down to it’s knees!

NOTE: a thing that almost no one talks about is DATA RECOVER on these drives!!! NON SMR HDD data recover is tricky, but with SMR (with the tracks almost on top of each other) i can imagine the price for this service…

Maybe the “stall” problem explains, why I experienced 53 hours for a full format of a 3,5 TB partition on the WD Elements 4TB (with an obscured SMR disk inside). It boils down to a format speed of 18KB per second on an empty disk (BTW it reported 0 bad sectors).

Edit: it seems that it’s quite normal for external USB drives to take this long. Sectors have to be random filled, read (checked) and zero filled again. Because there’s a lot of management software in between the interface and the physical disk, bad sector checking might be non effective. But is the drive management OS now under the impression that the drive is full??? Does performance therefor suffer? How do we make the drive OS aware that the disk is empty?? WD explanation is crucial here in order to understand what’s going on under the hood of an SMR disk.

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Yap! Run the AS SSD benchmark and you’ll see!

Might you know if there are WD Elements 4TB external HDD with PMR disks inside? (A swap might be more easy to establish at the retailer than a refund.)

Do all PMR disks suffer from high temperatures (also in the 4TB Elements range)?

Is there anything known about the longevity of data on SMR disks (10 year +)

NO! There aren’t!!! WD does that on purpose, because few people know / want to know what’s inside! 2 years ago you might catch old batches with NON SMR drives inside, not in 2021, absolutely not! ONLY 8TB and ABOVE external drives are NOT SMR! (last time i checked was 2 months ago on the HDD PLATTER DATABASE The HDD Platter Capacity Database: Western Digital)

If you see a certain sized SMR drive on the WD HDD list, you have to assume they will be shipped mainly on external enclosures. So, if / when an 8TB is listed as SMR, you must assume ALL external WD 8TB drives will be shipped with SMR!

On the other hand, if you buy an INTERNAL HD, you can choose wisely (i would opt for the WD PURPLE line, not plagued by this, less expensive than WD RED PRO - other WD RED have SMR among them - that’s why WD was sued!)

The trouble with buying internal is that you have to buy an external enclosure, and MOST (99%) of them DO NOT control SPIN DOWN / STANDBY! (if they don’t say it, they don’t support it!). Your HDD will be spinning all the time! That’s not acceptable. I want my external HDDs to stop spinning a few minutes after not being accessed (though it’s a hard job to configure in windows, but that’s not WD’s fault!)

HIGH temps are common on HIGH capacity disks… they usually spin at 7200 RPM (not really needed, but hey, we can’t control that…). That + the fact that they are inside an enclosure with no ventilation = VERY HIGH temps! That’s why i would prefer 2 4TB “green” or “blue” drives over one 8TB… 5400 RPM drives are usually SUPER cool, and last for a decade with round the clock use! (not sure how long would a 8T that reaches 55-60 degrees would last if i gave it the use i give to all my 1/2/4TB!)

Have you seen the latest scam, where WD silently replaced fast NAND memory on their well reviewed NVMe SSD drive SN550 by a slower one? (See Tom’s Hardware article).

It’ kind of similar with silently replacing PMR disk by SMR disks, but now they’re covertly downgrading the NAND storage chips in their NMVe SSDs.

WD said:

“For greater transparency going forward, if we make a change to an existing internal SSD, we commit to introducing a new model number whenever any related published specifications are impacted. We value our customers and are committed to providing the best possible solutions for their data storage needs.”

Just as transparent as they are up-front about the switch from PMR to SMR in their ELEMENTS enclosures?

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Yes… i read about it!

It’s almost a crime… And it’s not because of a SHORTAGE of chips… it’s another way to push the profit at any cost.

The problem is that they know what they do! They send a GOOD sample to reviewers, and then change the components in production, but i presume they don’t inform the consumers about the components, so, they can change them at any time!

And even if consumers test the drives after they buy them, many resellers don’t accept returns of hard drives / SSD!

Good news for the unhappy NVMe SSD drive SN550 purchasers that got inferior QLC memory chips on their SSD instead of faster and longer lasting TLC memocy chips.
WD announced:

For any WD Blue SN550 NVMe SSD with the new configuration that is under warranty but does not meet performance requirements, customers can reach out to our Customer Service team for assistance with replacement.
(source)

Hopefully WD will offer a similar solution for people that unknowingly bought SMR HDDs hidden away in external drive bays whereas WD previously sold PMR drives instead, without any notification.

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ah!! I don’t see WD doing that! Not in a million years! Specially with EXTERNAL drives!!