is this drive PMR OR SMR? null

the 4th picture says the model on this is wd40ezaz. on western digital's site, it shows this: CMR: WD5000AZLX, WD5000AZRZ, WD10EZEX, WD10EZRZ, WD20EZRZ, WD30EZRZ, WD40EZRZ SMR: WD20EZAZ, WD20EZBX, WD30EZAZ, WD40EZAZ, WD60EZAZ unless the picture is wrong, this is an SMR drive.

I just bought one today and might return it as it is a WD40EZAZ model.

Thanks for bringing this up. You made me aware of this issue. I found 2 web sites that might be helpful: The page at https://blag.nullteilerfrei.de/2018/05/31/pmr-smr-cmr-i-just-want-a-hdd-mr/ explains the differences between PMR, CMR, SMR. etc and I think that as long as it is not SMR you avoid the inherent problems related to track bleed as part of the write process. Then for this model at https://www.extremetech.com/computing/309730-western-digital-comes-clean-shares-which-hard-drives-use-smr WD shows an ambiguous SMR/CMR. You might want to pay extra and go with the equivalent WD Black or Red to be sure that it is a CMR. That is what I intend to do in the future.

The label on the fourth picture does say WD40EZAZ which is an SMR drive, but that drive has a 256MB cache. The specs for this drive says is has a 64MB cache, which means one or the other is wrong.

The 4TB blue hard drive was not listed as one that was using SMR

“is this drive PMR OR SMR?”

Asked by VIC 6 years ago

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WD - Blue 4TB PC Internal Hard Drive for Desktops-Front_Standard

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the 4th picture says the model on this is wd40ezaz. on western digital's site, it shows this: CMR: WD5000AZLX, WD5000AZRZ, WD10EZEX, WD10EZRZ, WD20EZRZ, WD30EZRZ, WD40EZRZ SMR: WD20EZAZ, WD20EZBX, WD30EZAZ, WD40EZAZ, WD60EZAZ unless the picture is wrong, this is an SMR drive.
Answered by sparkle 4 years ago
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I just bought one today and might return it as it is a WD40EZAZ model.
Answered by Chris 4 years ago
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Thanks for bringing this up. You made me aware of this issue. I found 2 web sites that might be helpful: The page at https://blag.nullteilerfrei.de/2018/05/31/pmr-smr-cmr-i-just-want-a-hdd-mr/ explains the differences between PMR, CMR, SMR. etc and I think that as long as it is not SMR you avoid the inherent problems related to track bleed as part of the write process. Then for this model at https://www.extremetech.com/computing/309730-western-digital-comes-clean-shares-which-hard-drives-use-smr WD shows an ambiguous SMR/CMR. You might want to pay extra and go with the equivalent WD Black or Red to be sure that it is a CMR. That is what I intend to do in the future.
Answered by SoftwareDeveloper 5 years ago
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The label on the fourth picture does say WD40EZAZ which is an SMR drive, but that drive has a 256MB cache. The specs for this drive says is has a 64MB cache, which means one or the other is wrong.
Answered by Mike 4 years ago
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The 4TB blue hard drive was not listed as one that was using SMR
Answered by Slim 6 years ago
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