DatacenterDisk

9CF6R: CMR or SMR?

We have not found a manufacturer document stating the recording technology for this exact part number. We know what the drive is - a Dell 2TB SATA-6G hard drive (3.5") that we track - but a recording technology printed without a source is a guess, and for RAID, NAS or ZFS use that guess is the one that matters. That is a statement about what we have found, not about what Dell has published.

What the part number decodes to

We hold no vendor document that defines the segments of 9CF6R, so we do not decode it.

We hold no sourced Dell model to compare against. Nearest sourced model from another maker: WD20EFAX (WD Red 2TB, SMR). Listed for comparison only - two part numbers can use different recording methods, so its answer is not 9CF6R's.

MakerDell
Capacity2TB
InterfaceSATA-6G
Recording technologyNo maker source found

No seller we track has 9CF6R in stock right now. That describes today's listings only - it says nothing about whether the model is discontinued.

How to settle it for this drive

Read the model number on the drive's own label, then find Dell's data sheet or product manual for that family. A document that prints 9CF6R in its own row of a recording-technology table settles the question. A family page that names no part numbers does not: we have found maker pages that list neither a part number nor a recording method, and we no longer count them as sources. A retailer listing is not a source either - it is a seller's description, and sellers repeat what other listings say.

Documented Dell drives at 2TB

We hold no maker document for any Dell drive at 2TB yet, so there is no documented sibling to compare against.

When a source turns up

When we find a maker document that names 9CF6R, this page will state the answer with that document linked and the date we read it, the same way our documented pages do. Until then, the honest answer is that we do not know.

In-stock drives with sourced CMR, 2TB and up