Synology NAS - 6TB - WD Red or Seagate Ironwolf

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alisam

829 posts

Ultimate Geek

#289005 6-Aug-2021 09:30

My DS216Play has 2 x 6TB WD Red drives. Both out of 3 year warranty by just over 15 months.

Most of the data is static e.g. DVD's converted to .mkv but I do run a Plex Media Server on the NAS. Also I store Acronis Backups from 3 PC's which are backed up regularly.

Drive 2 now has 1009 Bad Sectors.

So far, what I have read, is to replace the drive.

I wondered whether I could replace the drive with a Seagate Ironwolf 6TB?

At PB Tech they are about $7 cheaper than the WD Red and have a 258MB cache as opposed to the Red's 128MB cache.

(there was a $20 difference earlier this morning but now the Red is on the Stock Take Special).

PC: HP ProBook 470G1 (Windows 10 Pro), Intel NUC7I5BNH (Windows 10 Pro), Dell Inspiron 7591 2n1 (Windows 11 Pro)
Net: Grandstream 1 x GWN7062, 1 x GWN7610, 1 x GWN7665
Storage: Synology DS216play NAS, 2 x 6TB
Media: 3 x Amazon FireTV. Echo, Dot, Spot
TV: 2 x Samsung H6400 55" LED TV, Panasonic TH-P50G10Z 50" Plasma TV
Mobile: Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
Wearable: Gear S3 Frontier

Hatch

797 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2756057 6-Aug-2021 10:42

Following because I need to find a HDD for single drive WD NAS and not sure what is better.

networkn

Networkn
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#2756090 6-Aug-2021 11:43

We have primarily used WD Reds for the longest time, but stock shortages have seen us switch to Ironwolf as required, but I've never mixed them. I'd try to avoid mixing them if possible, I'd probably replace both. Sell the working 6TB second hand if it indeed has no faults.

But before that I'd try my luck trying to get WD to cover them under warranty :)

alisam

829 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2756103 6-Aug-2021 12:20

Deactivated Drive 2

Doing a Secure Erase, but now stuck on 99%. I did this just to go through the process.

Temperature:

1 = 25

2 = 28 (the problem drive)

networkn

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#2756224 6-Aug-2021 16:05

Difference in drive temp won't be material.

alisam

829 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2756228 6-Aug-2021 16:14

I got a bit nervous and ordered a new 6TB Red.

Still no advance on 99%

jpoc

1043 posts

Uber Geek

#2756355 6-Aug-2021 21:30

WD Red drives are definitely shingled and are not suitable for a NAS application.

WD claim that today, Red Plus drives are not shingled and are thus OK for NAS but:

1) Their docs reserve the right to change that at any time.

2) They have lied about that point in the past.

I would favour a Toshiba drive: N300 6TB.

That is a CMR drive designed and suitable for NAS use. As far as I can tell, Toshiba have always been open and honest about SMR and CMR drives.

Azzura

603 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#2756357 6-Aug-2021 22:08

Could buy WD external HD off Amazon US and shuck em. Much cheaper....

Tradepub

Free professional, reference and technical white papers (affiliate link).

jpoc

1043 posts

Uber Geek

#2756358 6-Aug-2021 22:19

Azzura:

Could buy WD external HD off Amazon US and shuck em. Much cheaper....

Very bad idea if you want to put the drives into a NAS.

First off, you will almost certainly get a shingled drive which is a no no for NAS but also drives in USB cases are mechanically different due to vibration mitigation.

Azzura

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#2756362 6-Aug-2021 22:59

jpoc:

Azzura:

Could buy WD external HD off Amazon US and shuck em. Much cheaper....

Very bad idea if you want to put the drives into a NAS.

First off, you will almost certainly get a shingled drive which is a no no for NAS but also drives in USB cases are mechanically different due to vibration mitigation.

I got 8 x wd 8TB shucked drives in my Synology 1817+ running for over 3+ yrs now. And another 4 running in a 916+...

They're not smr...

jpoc

1043 posts

Uber Geek

#2756386 7-Aug-2021 08:16

Azzura:

I got 8 x wd 8TB shucked drives in my Synology 1817+ running for over 3+ yrs now. And another 4 running in a 916+...

They're not smr...

Sure, but three years ago was before WD joined Seagate in all the undisclosed SMR monkey business.

Azzura

603 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#2756413 7-Aug-2021 10:38

I ordered (last night) an External WD 14TB Elements Desktop Hard Drive for $480 nzd delivered.

I do ...do a little research in these before buying these. A person shouldn't just purchase these willy-nilly or you could end up with a smr.

External WD 14TB Elements - Reporting either a Red Label or White Label -
WD140EMFZ = Easystore / Elements 14TB drive

WD140EDFZ = My Book 14TB drive

"The 'F' in WD140EMFZ actually reveals that it has 512MB cache, like all WD 14 TB drives have. The smaller models like 12TB or 10TB only have 256MB cache ('A'). "WD140EMFZ = Easystore / Elements 14TB drive WD140EDFZ = My Book 14TB drive "The only difference is that the My Book support encryption on the hardware level ("D"= enterprise drive) and has a three years warranty, instead of two years. These are all basically Western Digital Ultrastar HC530 drives, slowed down to 5400RPM and hence absolutely comparable to WD Red 14TB drives."

"the Ultrastar DC HC530 is based on conventional magnetic recording
(CMR) technology for drop-in simplicity in enterprise and cloud data centers."