Seems to be - something happened in HDD vendor's product descriptions (CMR/SMR)

[jeyare]

from my 2 days research I have better overview, what HDD was created with CMR and what with SMR technology (not only for NASes). Seems to be two main HDD vendors - Seagate and Western Digital have prepared new NAS product white sheets with clear information about used technology for a magnetic recording - CMR or SMR. Except Toshiba.

 

[fredbert]

I've just ordered an WD 12TB external USB 3 drive (£186) as I need a bit more space for various stuff and will spend the next few days (again) re-jigging what data and backups are where.

While waiting for it to arrive (and I'll pop the case to get the disk out) I thought I'd search WD's site for what the likely disk will be (Blue I'd expect but googling doesn't find a 12TB). Anyway, on the WD Red page I now see that they list the CMR/SMR parts separately...

WD Red NAS Hard Drive, Internal Hard Drive (2 TB to 6 TB) | Western Digital | Western Digital

There’s a leading edge WD Red™ drive for every compatible NAS system to store your precious data. With drives up to 6TB, WD Red™ offers a wide array of storage for customers looking to build a NAS solution. Built and tested for personal and home NAS systems with up to 8-bays, these drives pack...

shop.westerndigital.com

 

[DeltaGolf]

I'll pop the case to get the disk out

I've never managed to get a whole drive out of a case. Or if I did have a case to put it back into!
Nowadays I prefer to buy a drive and enclosure separately. That way when the drive dies you can just stick another in or if the enclosure goes, just change that. And it saves all that research trying to work out what drive is hidden in what case.

If anyone cares I'm finding the StarTech stuff nice. They have a big range but always click the 'where to buy' link, they're a fair bit cheaper from Amazon.

 

[fredbert]

WD Elements have a black plastic case and only needs a plastic 'knife'/'spudger' and a phillips screwdriver (to remove the SATA->USB/power interface. Up to 6TB WD Elements drives had the old Green drives until they merged Green and Blue to be just Blue drives now. But Blue is listed up to 6TB ... hence the interest to see what will be the 12TB SATA disk used in the enclosure.

 

[fredbert]

While waiting for it to arrive (and I'll pop the case to get the disk out) I thought I'd search WD's site for what the likely disk will be (Blue I'd expect but googling doesn't find a 12TB).

It's a WD120EMAZ white label drive and going to be connected to the DS218+ either in my eSata enclosure (if the interface board supports 12TB) or the WD USB 3 enclosure.

 

[jeyare]

Anyway, on the WD Red page I now see that they list the CMR/SMR parts separately...

WD Red NAS Hard Drive, Internal Hard Drive (2 TB to 6 TB) | Western Digital | Western Digital

There’s a leading edge WD Red™ drive for every compatible NAS system to store your precious data. With drives up to 6TB, WD Red™ offers a wide array of storage for customers looking to build a NAS solution. Built and tested for personal and home NAS systems with up to 8-bays, these drives pack...

shop.westerndigital.com

yes, it vas available from mid April, described in this thread here
but from my side, there is just one and only mandatory validation point - product sheet, because in e-shop description you can find sometimes mistakes or typos.
Then we have “copy” of the important part of product sheets here