[SOLVED] How to know if a drive uses SMR or CMR

[Peli Khan]

Hello,
I hope somebody can help in my quest to buy a new hard-drive and specifically how to determine if it uses SMR or CMR. Unfortunately most hardware manufacturers do not state it anymore in their datasheets. At the moment I am searching an external 4 TB drive with CMR and am considering the STEG4000401. Does someone know what technology it uses or is there a link that lists all drives with their complete specs? Any help would be much appreciated !

 

[cryoburner]

One hint as to whether a drive is using SMR is to look at how much cache it has. SMR drives will typically have a lot more cache, since the drive needs to organize a big chunk of data before writing it to the platters. A consumer-oriented drive with 256MB of cache is most likely going to be SMR, as the manufacturer wouldn't bother including that much cache if the drive didn't need it. Drives with just 64MB of cache should be CMR, offering better performance.

It might be hard to find that information for external drives though, and sometimes manufacturers may even change the model of the drive used in a particular external unit. Based on a quick search, it looks like the STEG4000401 may be SMR though, going by a German comment found here...

Seagate Expansion Desktop 4 TB externe Festplatte, 3.5 Zoll für 88€ › Dealgott.de

Bei MediaMarkt bekommt ihr die Seagate Expansion Desktop 4 TB externe Festplatte, 3.5 Zoll für 88€ inklusive Versand. Im Vergleich fallen ...

www.dealgott.de

 

[Peli Khan]

Thank you for the hint, that makes sense and will help me to choose!
I also think, that the guy who posted the comment is right. Poor though that the manufacturers do not state that information anywhere.