[mythtv-users] SMR drives on Mythtv

[Stephen Worthington]

On Wed, 31 Jan 2018 13:53:48 -0500, you wrote:

>On 01/31/2018 01:44 AM, Stephen Worthington wrote:
>> On Tue, 30 Jan 2018 22:32:17 -0500, you wrote:
>>
>>> Does anyone have an opinion on SMR type drives for PVR applications such
>>> as myth?  Newegg has a really good deal on 4TB Seagate SMR drives for
>>> $89 right now.
>> As far as I know, the smallest shingled drive that Seagate makes is 8
>> Tbytes.  Do you have a URL for the Newegg ones?
>
>I think he's talking about the Seagate ST4000DM004 at:
>
>https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822179299
>
>which is $99.99, but until 11:59PM PST on Feb 1 (Mid-Winter Savings 
>Blitz Deal) is available for $89.99 with promo code EMCXPESP2
>
>>    It is likely that
>> Newegg is mislabeling them as SMR when they are actually normal
>> drives.
>
>I'm pretty sure Newegg isn't labeling them as SMR, however comments on 
>the internet are rife with claims that it's an SMR drive.
>
>>    You need to look up the model number on Seagate's web site
>> and download its data sheet to find out.
>
>It doesn't seem to say:
>
>Data Sheet: 
>https://www.seagate.com/www-content/datasheets/pdfs/3-5-barracuda-3tbDS1900-9-1710US-en_US.pdf
>Manual: 
>https://www.seagate.com/www-content/product-content/barracuda-fam/barracuda-new/en-us/docs/100805918g.pdf
>
>(both from 
>https://www.seagate.com/internal-hard-drives/hdd/barracuda/?sku=ST4000DM004#specs-3-5 
>, along with data sheets/manuals for similar models)
>
>It's in the same family as the ST8000DM004 (8TB), which I'm pretty sure 
>is a shingled drive, but also the ST2000DM002/DM006 (2TB models) and 
>even a 1TB and 500GB model--that wouldn't make sense to be shingled...  
>It's very thin (fewer platters than my ST4000DM001, the 
>earlier-generation model).  I know because I just finished installing 
>one (that I bought for $9 more than the sale price on Amazon the day 
>before Newegg started the sale)--I needed a quick replacement for a 
>drive that was about to fail.
>
>If anyone knows if it is shingled, I'd love to know so I can convert it 
>to a MythTV archive disk.  Or, if there are any hdparm or smartctl or 
>whatever commands or logging information I can use to find out, please 
>let me know and I'll check.
>
>Thanks,
>Mike

No, none of the STx000DM00y drives are shingled.  The shingled drives
are AS model, not DM.  The manual from Seagate's site does not mention
the word "shingle" or "SMR" anywhere.  This is a case of someone on
the net making wrong conclusions about a product and others
propagating them without actually checking the facts.  The DM series
drives are normal desktop drives and should be fine for recording.