Last night I started a pre-clear on a 2TB Hitachi drive.  The drive was being used in a Win 7 box and was previously filled to capacity after making a visit to my brothers to copy some *ahem* stuff.  I came home, copied the stuff to the unRAID server using Tera-copy, no problems, CRC's good.  After that I powered it all down and put the drive into the unRAID box and started the pre-clear.  Today I noticed that the speed had dropped from over 100 MB/s to under 40 MB/s.  Checking the syslog it appears it's full of errors.

 

Jul 15 11:21:12 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x2400000 action 0x0 (Errors)

Jul 15 11:21:12 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8.00: BMDMA2 stat 0x50001 (Drive related)

Jul 15 11:21:12 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8: SError: { Handshk UnrecFIS } (Errors)

Jul 15 11:21:12 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8.00: failed command: WRITE DMA EXT (Minor Issues)

Jul 15 11:21:12 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8.00: cmd 35/00:00:48:b9:8b/00:04:55:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 524288 out (Drive related)

Jul 15 11:21:12 BIGHOSS kernel:          res 51/04:80:c8:b9:8b/00:03:55:00:00/15 Emask 0x1 (device error) (Errors)

Jul 15 11:21:12 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8.00: status: { DRDY ERR } (Drive related)

Jul 15 11:21:12 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8.00: error: { ABRT } (Errors)

Jul 15 11:21:12 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8.00: configured for UDMA/33 (Drive related)

Jul 15 11:21:12 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8: EH complete (Drive related)

Jul 15 11:21:12 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x2400000 action 0x0 (Errors)

Jul 15 11:21:12 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8.00: BMDMA2 stat 0x50001 (Drive related)

Jul 15 11:21:12 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8: SError: { Handshk UnrecFIS } (Errors)

Jul 15 11:21:12 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8.00: failed command: WRITE DMA EXT (Minor Issues)

Jul 15 11:21:12 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8.00: cmd 35/00:00:48:fd:8b/00:04:55:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 524288 out (Drive related)

Jul 15 11:21:12 BIGHOSS kernel:          res 51/04:b0:98:ff:8b/00:01:55:00:00/15 Emask 0x1 (device error) (Errors)

Jul 15 11:21:12 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8.00: status: { DRDY ERR } (Drive related)

Jul 15 11:21:12 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8.00: error: { ABRT } (Errors)

Jul 15 11:21:12 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8.00: configured for UDMA/33 (Drive related)

Jul 15 11:21:12 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8: EH complete (Drive related)

Jul 15 11:21:12 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x2400000 action 0x0 (Errors)

Jul 15 11:21:12 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8.00: BMDMA2 stat 0x50001 (Drive related)

Jul 15 11:21:12 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8: SError: { Handshk UnrecFIS } (Errors)

Jul 15 11:21:12 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8.00: failed command: WRITE DMA EXT (Minor Issues)

Jul 15 11:21:12 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8.00: cmd 35/00:00:48:a1:8c/00:04:55:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 524288 out (Drive related)

Jul 15 11:21:12 BIGHOSS kernel:          res 51/04:70:d8:a1:8c/00:03:55:00:00/15 Emask 0x1 (device error) (Errors)

Jul 15 11:21:12 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8.00: status: { DRDY ERR } (Drive related)

Jul 15 11:21:12 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8.00: error: { ABRT } (Errors)

Jul 15 11:21:12 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8.00: configured for UDMA/33 (Drive related)

Jul 15 11:21:12 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8: EH complete (Drive related)

Jul 15 11:21:45 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x2400000 action 0x6 frozen (Errors)

Jul 15 11:21:45 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8: SError: { Handshk UnrecFIS } (Errors)

Jul 15 11:21:45 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8.00: failed command: WRITE DMA EXT (Minor Issues)

Jul 15 11:21:45 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8.00: cmd 35/00:00:48:3d:8f/00:04:55:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 524288 out (Drive related)

Jul 15 11:21:45 BIGHOSS kernel:          res 40/00:70:d8:a1:8c/00:03:55:00:00/15 Emask 0x4 (timeout) (Errors)

Jul 15 11:21:45 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8.00: status: { DRDY } (Drive related)

Jul 15 11:21:45 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8: hard resetting link (Minor Issues)

Jul 15 11:21:45 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310) (Drive related)

Jul 15 11:21:45 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8.00: configured for UDMA/33 (Drive related)

Jul 15 11:21:45 BIGHOSS kernel: ata8: EH complete (Drive related)

 

The drive is plugged directly into the MOBO Sata port as is 5 other drives.  Have not had any problem with the other drives that I am aware of and this drive is fine.  At first I suspect it might be something with that port, but I also am not getting any errors on the screen that is running the pre-clear.  It just updates ever few seconds to show me progress.

 

The cable I am using was taken from the Win 7 box I had the drive plugged into when I made the copy to the unRAID so I know the cable is fine.

 

I'm just wondering if I should abort the pre-clear at this point.  13 hours in and at 37% of Step 2.

 

Thanks!

Checking a Short Smart test of the dirve in question it's showing 32,000 CRC errors and rising!  I killed the clear as there is something clearly wrong with the drive, port or cabling...

 

The mobo is an older model (Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe) and I am suspecting that might be it.

 

Any other ideas are still greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks!

Scrounged up an old 3Ware 9650 2LP card and threw that in.  Re-started the pre-clear and no errors are written to the syslog.  Not only did the errors disappear but the speed jumped from 80-90 MB/s to 135 MB/s! 

 

Not only might it be time for a mobo upgrade but it might be time to buy some PCI-X/Express raid cards!