The hard drive world has upturned two weeks ago, when we learned that big-name manufacturers, such as Western Digital, Seagate and Toshiba, were not being totally transparent about the fact that some of their hard drives were fabricated with shingled magnetic recording (SMR) technology.
Western Digital came clean and released a list of WD hard drives that leverage the slower technology. Toshiba is now following Western Digital's footsteps and put out a list of its own, so you can know exactly what you're getting.
| Model | Capacity | Form Factor |
|---|---|---|
| Toshiba P300 | 6TB | 3.5-inch |
| Toshiba P300 | 4TB | 3.5-inch |
| Toshiba DT02 | 6TB | 3.5-inch |
| Toshiba DT02 | 4TB | 3.5-inch |
| Toshiba DT02-V | 6TB | 3.5-inch |
| Toshiba DT02-V | 4TB | 3.5-inch |
| Toshiba L200 | 2TB | 2.5-inch |
| Toshiba L200 | 1TB | 2.5-inch |
| Toshiba MQ04 | 2TB | 2.5-inch |
| Toshiba MQ04 | 1TB | 2.5-inch |
The whole point of SMR is to produce hard drives with high densities, such as 10TB or 14TB models. But it's surprising that Toshiba is utilizing the technology on 6TB, 4TB and even 1TB and 2TB drives. This points to a strategy to save cost while maximizing profits.
As Toshiba has put it, SMR isn't completely bad, as the technique has opened the doors for hard drive manufacturers to increase the capacity of their conventional platter drives. However, SMR has a negative impact on a hard drive's performance, particularly in workloads that involve continuous random writing. Therefore, it's important to disclose this tiny, but very important, piece of information to consumers.
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It's not a crime to sell hard drives with SMR technology. But as an ethical practice, vendors should label their products accordingly. Toshiba has updated the marketing materials for the MQ04 and DT102 series to reflect the usage of SMR. Since Toshiba just released its list today, it might take a little longer before the company finishes updating marketing materials for the other models.
