Check Whether Your Hard Drive Is SMR

Look up a model number

What the records cover

The records hold 311 model numbers, each taken from a maker's own data sheet, product brief or published list. 237 of them have a recording type from the maker: 224 stated for the model number itself, and 13 Seagate IronWolf and IronWolf Pro models answered from Seagate's product-line list, which gives every capacity of those lines as CMR. The answer says which kind it is. Seagate: 217 model numbers, 143 with a stated type (BarraCuda, Exos, IronWolf, IronWolf Pro, SkyHawk). Toshiba: 8 model numbers, 8 with a stated type (L200, P300). Western Digital: 86 model numbers, 86 with a stated type (WD Black 2.5-inch, WD Blue, WD Blue 2.5-inch, WD Purple, WD Red, WD Red Plus, WD Red Pro, WD_BLACK).

Not covered yet: Seagate FireCuda, 2.5-inch BarraCuda and BarraCuda models of 12TB and up, WD Gold, WD Ultrastar and HGST, Toshiba N300, X300 and MG series, and drives sold inside external enclosures (the number on the case is not the drive's). A model number from one of those returns "not in our records".

What each maker says by product line

These are the makers' own statements about whole product lines. They are shown for reference and are never applied to a model number by the lookup above.

Every model number on record

Where to find the model number

It is printed on the drive's label, usually after "Model" or "MDL", and your NAS or operating system shows it in the drive's details. Western Digital numbers look like WD40EFAX, Seagate numbers like ST8000VN004, Toshiba numbers like HDWD240UZSVA. Case, spaces and a trailing build suffix after a hyphen do not matter.

What an answer means

• CMR or SMR: the maker's document on file states that recording type for that exact model number. The answer names the document.
• CMR, by the maker's product-line list: the model's own data sheet gives no recording type, and Seagate's list gives every capacity of that line as CMR, with none as SMR. This applies to IronWolf and IronWolf Pro only, and the answer says so.
• Not stated by maker: the model number is in a maker document on file, and the document gives no recording type for it.
• Not in our records: we hold no maker document that lists the model number. This says nothing about the drive either way.

Related tools and pages

• CMR vs SMR for a NAS
• NAS hard drives, by price per TB
• NAS RAID rebuild time calculator
• NAS Upgrade Advisor

Sources

1. Seagate: CMR and SMR Hard Drives checked 2026-10-13
2. Seagate BarraCuda 3.5 data sheet DS2131.1-2302 (recording technology by model number) checked 2026-10-14
3. Western Digital support Answer ID 29458: WD Red Internal HDD SMR and CMR NAS Drive Information checked 2026-10-13
4. Western Digital support Answer ID 50697: Steps to Determine if an Internal Drive uses CMR or SMR Technology checked 2026-10-13
5. Western Digital: WD Internal Client HDD Recording Technology, SMR Drives by Capacity checked 2026-10-13
6. Toshiba: Use of Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) technology in Toshiba Consumer Hard Drives checked 2026-10-13

The rules on this page were reviewed on October 13, 2026. Each answer names the maker document it comes from.