Seagate Technology is a leading provider of data storage solutions, producing a wide range of hard disk drives (HDDs) since 1979. Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, Seagate designs and manufactures HDDs for desktop and laptop PCs, servers, network-attached storage devices, and other applications. The company has shipped over 3 billion disk drives and has factories around the world.
Seagate offers a range of HDDs for different use cases, including enterprise and datacenter drives, desktop drives, surveillance drives, NAS drives, and portable external drives. Their product lines utilize different technologies like conventional magnetic recording (CMR) and shingled magnetic recording (SMR) to optimize cost, capacity, performance, reliability and power consumption.
What is SMR?
SMR stands for Shingled Magnetic Recording. It is a storage technology used in certain hard disk drives where tracks are overlapped like shingles on a roof to increase storage density. This allows SMR drives to pack more data onto each platter compared to conventional magnetic recording (CMR) drives, where tracks are written side-by-side with space between them.
With SMR, the new track partially overwrites a previously written track, eliminating the need for spaces between tracks. This allows higher track density but it also means SMR drives can only write sequentially within each zone on the disk. Random writes are much slower compared to CMR drives.
Overall, SMR technology allows drive manufacturers to produce higher capacity hard drives at a lower cost. However, performance is reduced, especially for random write workloads. SMR drives are best suited for sequential data access like storing photos, videos, audio, archives, and other media.
Some key properties of SMR drives:
- Higher storage density and capacity than CMR
- Lower cost per terabyte
- Sequential write performance can match CMR
- Random write performance is significantly slower than CMR
- Better suited for sequential data access and read-intensive workloads
Benefits of SMR
Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) offer several key benefits compared to traditional large-scale nuclear reactors. Two of the most notable benefits are higher capacity production and lower costs.
SMRs have a smaller footprint and can be manufactured at factories in a standardized and efficient process. This allows them to be made more quickly and at a lower cost per megawatt compared to large custom-built reactors1. Their modular design also enables capacity to be scaled up incrementally to match growing energy demands.
Additionally, SMRs require less upfront capital investment. For a 1,000 MW plant, SMRs can have overnight costs 25-30% lower than traditional large reactor designs. This reduces financial risks and makes SMRs more accessible to a wider range of markets2.
In summary, the modular and standardized design of SMRs allows for lower construction costs and greater scalability, making them flexible solutions for affordable clean energy production.
Drawbacks of SMR
One of the main drawbacks of SMR drives is that they have slower write speeds compared to conventional hard drives. This is because with SMR, new data is written in narrower tracks that overlap previously written data. This requires more complicated writing algorithms that result in slower performance [1].
Specifically, SMR drives experience significant slowdowns when writing data sequentially, as each new write requires pre-existing data in the overlapping tracks to be rewritten. Random writes are less impacted, but still slower than in non-SMR drives. This makes SMR drives not ideal for certain use cases like RAID configurations that require fast sequential write speeds [2].
Seagate’s SMR Drives
According to Seagate’s official list, the following Seagate drives utilize SMR technology:
- ST5000AS0011 – 5TB Archive HDD (1)
- ST6000AS0002 – 6TB Archive HDD v2 (2)
- ST8000AS0002 – 8TB Archive HDD (3)
- ST10000AS0004 – 10TB Archive HDD v2
- ST12000AS0007 – 12TB Archive HDD
These drives are specifically designed and optimized for write-once, read-many workload scenarios like archiving data and backups. The SMR technology allows Seagate to offer more storage capacity at a lower cost compared to conventional magnetic recording.
Ideal Uses for Seagate SMR Drives
Despite some potential drawbacks, Seagate’s SMR drives are well-suited for certain use cases. With proper understanding of how SMR works, these drives can provide high storage density at a low cost.
SMR drives work well for data that is mostly written sequentially and then read back, with minimal updates. This makes them a good fit for the following applications:
- Backups – SMR drives are a cost-effective option for backing up large amounts of data that doesn’t change frequently. The sequential write performance is sufficient for performing regular backup jobs.
- Archives – Archival data that is mostly read after the initial write is a prime use case. The high capacity allows storing lots of infrequently accessed data.
- Surveillance – Security camera footage is written sequentially as it’s recorded and then read back when needed. SMR drives provide ample capacity for video archives.
- NAS – Network-attached storage can utilize SMR drives for shared storage and backups. Writes will be slower but maximum throughput for reads.
While random writes suffer on SMR compared to conventional drives, the benefits of lower cost per TB and high read speeds make them suitable for the sequential workloads above. Understanding the strengths and limitations of the technology allows matching SMR drives to compatible use cases.
Performance Testing
Various benchmarks have been done to compare the performance of Seagate’s SMR drives versus conventional HDDs. One detailed review from AnandTech looked at the Seagate Backup Plus Portable 5TB, which uses SMR technology, versus other portable HDDs using conventional magnetic recording (CMR) https://www.anandtech.com/show/14539/seagate-backup-plus-portable-5tb-backup-plus-slim-2tb-review-portable-smr/3.
In synthetic benchmarks, the Seagate SMR drive showed higher peak performance numbers for sequential reads and writes compared to CMR drives of the same capacity. However, performance was less consistent in the SMR drive and declined substantially as the drive filled up.
In real-world copy tests, the SMR drive started out with faster speeds but experienced sharp drops in write performance later on. Overall, the review found that while Seagate’s SMR implementation enables higher capacity drives, it comes at the expense of inconsistent performance compared to conventional HDDs.
SMR Controversy
In April 2020, it came to light that Western Digital, Seagate, and Toshiba had been selling SMR hard drives in their consumer product lines without properly disclosing they used SMR technology [1]. This caused significant backlash from consumers because SMR drives can suffer from much slower write speeds in certain use cases compared to conventional magnetic recording (CMR) drives. Many felt the lack of disclosure was deceptive.
In particular, the use of SMR in NAS (network attached storage) drives provoked anger amongst consumers. As detailed by Ars Technica, SMR drives are not well suited to the workload of a multi-user NAS environment where there are simultaneous read and write operations [2]. Seagate later acknowledged SMR drives should not be used in NAS devices.
The controversy arose because consumers felt they were misled into buying drives not optimized for their intended use-case. There were calls for greater transparency and disclosure around SMR drives from all manufacturers. Many customers lost trust in these brands after the SMR scandal came to light.
The Future of SMR
The future looks bright for increased adoption of small modular reactors (SMRs). According to the NEA Small Modular Reactor (SMR) Strategy, up to 2035, the global SMR market could reach 21 gigawatts (NEA, 2016). Afterwards, a rapid increase in build rate can be envisaged. Allied Market Research projects the global SMR market will grow at a CAGR of 8.7% from 2023 to 2032, reaching $13.4 billion by 2032 (Allied Market Research). In North America specifically, the SMR market size is projected to grow at around 14% CAGR from 2023-2028 according to MarkNtel Advisors (MarkNtel Advisors). Several factors are contributing to the expected growth, including modular construction advantages, reduced financing costs, and greater flexibility in siting.
SMRs are well positioned to play an increasing role in clean energy transitions around the world. Continued technology development and cost reductions will further accelerate SMR adoption going forward.
Conclusion
Seagate’s SMR drives offer some benefits like increased storage density and lower costs compared to conventional drives. However, they also come with some significant drawbacks like reduced performance and compatibility issues.
Based on the testing and analysis, Seagate’s SMR drives are best suited for sequential write workloads like archival storage and data backup. They should be avoided for applications requiring high random write performance like server workloads.
If you need a large capacity drive for backups or cold storage, Seagate’s SMR drives provide good value. Just be aware of the performance limitations and ensure your workload is compatible. For other applications, it’s better to stick with conventional CMR drives to avoid any issues.
Overall, use Seagate SMR drives with caution. They can work well in the right scenarios but require careful consideration to avoid problems. As SMR technology matures, compatibility and performance may improve making them suitable for a broader range of applications.