What is the Western Digital controversy?

Written by Editorial Team | Last Updated: August 2026

The primary controversy involving Western Digital centered around the undisclosed use of Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) technology in certain desktop and network-attached storage (NAS) hard drive lines instead of traditional Conventional Magnetic Recording (CMR). Consumers and RAID array users discovered that SMR drives suffered from severe performance slowdowns during heavy write operations, leading to class-action lawsuits, public backlash over transparency, and eventual changes to product specification labeling.

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Corporate and technical controversies involving Western Digital (WD) historically centered around undisclosed hardware modifications in network-attached storage (NAS) hard drives regarding magnetic recording technologies, alongside class-action lawsu...

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