OMG, I thought the issue was solved, but that means the 2Tb LM0003 I have may indeed be SMR! I guess this means I’ll try to find some HGST Travelstar 7K1000…

The one in my hand is a 9.5mm ST2000LM003 branded Seagate, PN: HN-M201RAD/D1, rev A, F/W: 2BE10001, 5400 RPM, DP/N: 0TF52W, Made in China on July 2016 Site: DHT MSIP-REM-STX Momentus D

If you want more details, I can check the manufacturer data (hdparm, smart…) or benchmark (ex: with fio on Linux) - anything that doesn’t require putting the drive in the ZFS pool!

If you have other references (someone mentioned Toshiba), I’d be very interested.

they contained Seagate ST2000LM003 drives

I thought I hit the jackpot as I have a few, but I’ve just read in a reply below they ARE SMR as I suspected

HGST Travelstar 7K1000

I will look for them immediately

Personally, my opinion is that whatever policy is mandating 2.5" hard drives which are no longer being made is simply outdated and uninformed. Find some reputable 4TB/8TB 2.5" SATA SSDs with high endurance ratings and implement a backup requirement.

Some of these systems are left powered off for years, so requiring HDD next to NAND seems reasonable to mitigate the risks of data loss.

Good luck finding them as NOS at any reasonable price

JACKPOT!

I happen to have a few sitting in a box, brand new and sealed, but I didn’t know if they were SMR or CMR, so I wasn’t going going to use them.

There’s a couple of 1TB drives from Toshiba, but they’re hard to find and expensive.

If they cost less than $500/drive, price will not be a problem

Would you have the reference or model number for these Toshibas?

There was a 1TB WD Red NAS CMR drive, but it seems to be discontinued.

Likewise, would you have the reference or a model number for the WD Red?

Read here for more info about the platters in 2.5" and 3.5" drives.

You may have forgotten a link?

SSD pricing at 2TB and smaller are basically on par with 2.5" hard drives now. 4TB drives are also dropping in price considerably

Price is not a concern as long as the costs per drive do not require a special authorization process (>$500 per drive)

They don’t exist.

What about old drives like the Spinpoint M9T ST2000LM003 from Seagate? I have a few leftovers, but I don’t know if they are CMR or SMR.

I would expect SATA SSD’s to completely phase out 2.5" HDD’s probably within the next year or two.

The current plan is to keep things as-is for the next 2 to 3 years, so I will have to purchase a few spares this year.