WD, Seagate, Toshiba Sneak SMR Onto Hard Drives

[SteelCrysis]

https://www.extremetech.com/computing/31...-customers

The lawsuit, filed by Hattis Law, alleges that Western Digital shifted to SMR drives to save money with no regard for the performance impact this would have on its customers or the fact that it would render the drives “completely worthless for their intended purpose” (emphasis original).
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ServeTheHome’s tests show that the EFAX drive might work in a desktop context, but it has no place in a RAID array. The fact that Western Digital is explicitly advertising the SMR-equipped EFAX family as suitable for this purpose is tantamount to false advertising. It might not matter if you use an EFAX drive as storage for a video camera feed, but these drives clearly have major problems in RAID arrays.

Western Digital has not commented on the situation, but it continues to sell SMR WD Red drives into this space. We recommend staying away from any products in the WD Red line-up with the EFAX model number — use EFRX drives if you’re building a RAID array on these products.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/wd-cla...-us-canada

Update 5/30/2020 7:20am PT: Top Class Actions has also opened a lawsuit against WD in Canada, portending a broader spate of class action lawsuits against WD globally.