Common Misconceptions About WD HC620 SMR Drives and How to Use Them Correctly

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction: A New Option Under Soaring Storage Costs

The storage market is going through an unprecedented price surge, and storage costs have risen sharply for regular consumers and home NAS users. Large-capacity HDDs that once cost under 1,000 CNY now often cost two times more or even higher, putting them out of reach for many budget-conscious users. In this market environment, however, the HC620 is one of the few products that has not increased in price as dramatically. This article is not only about the HC620; it also applies to other similar SMR drives.

Common Misconceptions About HC620

Many people worry about whether HC620 is safe for data storage, but this is a typical misconception. The HC620 itself is an enterprise-grade drive, and its hardware quality is not poor. The “unsafe” impression usually comes from misunderstandings about SMR drives and using them in the wrong scenarios. SMR drives should not be used for frequent write-and-delete workloads, because that can trigger data reshuffling, reduce performance, and even cause severe stalls. But that is a workload mismatch, not a product defect. It is similar to enterprise tape systems: they work fine when used for sequential write and sequential read. Likewise, HC620 is suitable for sequential writes with random reads, but not for heavy concurrent delete-and-write workloads. In the right scenario, HC620 performs very well.

Suitable and Unsuitable Scenarios

Suitable scenarios:

Cold data backup and archiving at large capacity
Media libraries that are written once and then searched/read online (reads are naturally random head seeks, not strict sequential reads)

Unsuitable scenarios:

Workloads with frequent reads and writes (databases, downloading, active workspaces)
Direct usage on operating systems such as Windows and macOS is not supported (network-based access is excluded from this limitation)

Usage Requirements for HC620

The biggest issue with HC620 is convenience: it can be difficult to use, especially for beginners.

Hardware requirements

Do not connect it through a USB drive enclosure.
Direct connection to a motherboard SATA port is usually fine, but expansion cards can be inconsistent. Compatibility issues may occur. LSI 9300 (SAS3008) can work after flashing IT/HBA firmware. JMB585 has both working and non-working cases, so compatibility is mixed.
M.2-to-SATA adapters are also inconsistent. My M.2-to-JMB585 adapter works, but I have seen many incompatible cases, likely related to BIOS or firmware differences.

Software requirements

Not supported on Windows and macOS; supported on Linux
Supported on Feiniu NAS

Summary

For beginners, the easiest approach is to use Feiniu NAS and mount HC620 as external storage, using the whole drive for backups or a media library.

For users whose NAS capacity is full, moving less frequently used data to HC620 is also a practical way to free up NAS space.

Is a 600 RMB New HC620 14TB Drive Worth Buying?

Fri, 17 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Listing Notes

Main listing keywords included:

3.5-inch hard drive
not usable on Windows, Linux (Ubuntu) only
made in Thailand
brand new

Received Drive Photos and Initial Check

Packaging and appearance looked new. Manufacture date was 2021.

SMART check showed power-on hours = 0 at first boot.

Later recheck on 2023-03-28 (CrystalDiskInfo on Windows 10): Power-on count was 1 and power-on hours still 0.

On Windows, the device could be detected but could not be normally partitioned/formatted for regular usage.

Installation

Physical connector and form factor are standard, so installation is straightforward.

How to Use (Host-Managed/Zoned Disk)

Reference: https://zonedstorage.io/docs/linux/fs

Common filesystems such as ext4/xfs are not suitable here; use zoned-capable filesystems like Btrfs or F2FS.

Btrfs setup

Install tools:

`1`	`sudo apt install btrfs-progs`

Find device:

`1`	`fdisk -l`

Format with zoned option:

`1`	`sudo mkfs.btrfs -O zoned -d single -m single /dev/sda`

Mount:

`1`	`sudo mount /dev/sda /mnt/t`

F2FS setup

Install tools:

1
2

sudo apt-get update -y
sudo apt-get install -y f2fs-tools

Find device:

`1`	`fdisk -l`

Format:

`1`	`mkfs.f2fs -m /dev/sdb`

Mounting Notes

Mounting by UUID/label may fail for some setups (especially with specific zoned+Btrfs combinations).

A reliable method is mounting by disk ID (/dev/disk/by-id/...), usually using WWN:

`1`	`/dev/disk/by-id/wwn-0xxxxxxxxxxxx /mnt/hc620_14T btrfs auto 0 0`

Summary

Pros

The drive looked truly new (possibly old inventory but unused).
Price was very low for capacity.
Suitable as secondary/backup storage in Linux.

Cons

Not practical for normal Windows usage.
Linux support works but feels niche and less plug-and-play.
Host-managed behavior is not ideal for generic NAS scenarios.

References

HC620 product manual
Zoned storage intro

Additional Buying Notes

This kind of low-price HC620 drive is best treated as a special-purpose Linux storage disk rather than a normal desktop hard drive. Confirm that your workload, filesystem, and backup plan can tolerate host-managed/zoned behavior. For ordinary Windows desktops or simple NAS setups, a standard CMR drive is usually easier and safer.

Before putting the disk into real service, run a long SMART test, check the power-on count again after several reboots, and do a sustained write/read test on the chosen Linux filesystem. A cheap large-capacity disk is only useful when its limitations are understood and the data on it is backed up elsewhere.

Wd-Hc620 on KnightLi Blog

Common Misconceptions About WD HC620 SMR Drives and How to Use Them Correctly

Introduction: A New Option Under Soaring Storage Costs

Common Misconceptions About HC620

Suitable and Unsuitable Scenarios

Usage Requirements for HC620

Summary

Is a 600 RMB New HC620 14TB Drive Worth Buying?

Listing Notes

Received Drive Photos and Initial Check

Installation

How to Use (Host-Managed/Zoned Disk)

Btrfs setup

F2FS setup

Mounting Notes

Summary

Pros

Cons

References

Additional Buying Notes