# CMR vs SMR for ZFS: Why Recording Method Matters

> Build ZFS vdevs with CMR drives. If you already own SMR disks, keep them out of critical ZFS pools unless you fully understand the specific device behavior and can accept the consequences.

This context describes the Cloudzat canonical page at https://cloudzat.com/cmr-vs-smr-for-zfs/. Current or last-verified Amazon price and image status belongs on the canonical page and is intentionally not frozen here.

## Primary source
- [CMR vs SMR for ZFS: Why Recording Method Matters](https://cloudzat.com/cmr-vs-smr-for-zfs/index.md): Clean Markdown version of the full Cloudzat guidance.

## Related Cloudzat guidance
- [CMR/SMR hard-drive checker](https://cloudzat.com/cmr-smr-hard-drive-checker/)
- [Best CMR hard drives](https://cloudzat.com/best-cmr-hard-drives/)
- [Best CMR hard drives for NAS](https://cloudzat.com/best-cmr-hard-drives-for-nas/)
- [CMR vs SMR for NAS](https://cloudzat.com/cmr-vs-smr-for-nas/)
- [CMR vs SMR for RAID](https://cloudzat.com/cmr-vs-smr-for-raid/)
- [CMR vs SMR for TrueNAS](https://cloudzat.com/cmr-vs-smr-for-truenas/)