Dignity server where old drives go to die.

[phileeny]

In 2020 I build my second unraid server and called it "Dignity" built with old HDDs, a place for my old drives to go to die.

It started with a 4TB as Parity but I soon changed that to a new Toshiba Enterprise 8TB as Parity, as of a week or so ago the server was as follows.

New 8TB Parity

8 x 3TB + 2 x 4TB as data = 32TB

2 x 500GB as cache pool

6 x 1TB very old drives as second pool, I guess as raid 1

Over the months I was moving non-critical data from my main server (to save space) to the dignity server, I set the share to fill each drive first and I had filled drives 1 to 7 (5 x 3TB drives + 2 x 4TB drives) with the total of 22.3TB as the server started to fill drive 8 the next 3TB drive the move command failed, on looking at the "Dignity" server, oddly drive 1 the first full drive had gone to red cross emulated and disk 8 with just a few 100MBs came up with a number of errors.

I restarted the server and drive 1 and 8 were missing, ok odd.

I restarted the server again, drive 1 is still emulated and 8 was missing, ok.

I restarted again, now all drives are back and drive 1 is emulated, what the f.

I moved the little data off drive 8, now the question I need to ask myself, do I work to keep them running or just replace with a new 8TB

Drive 1 is a Seagate Barracuda XT 17 Jan 2011 with 1y, 10m, 2d,11h run time

Drive 8 is a WD Green 8th Sep 2013 with 1y, 5m 14d 3h run time

Not my oldest drives in the system.

I like to play but not loose data

[TimTheSettler]

When drives appear, disappear, and then reappear it could mean the drive is dying but could also mean that the cable is broken or not connected properly.  I've had this happen to me in some older systems I've had.  It could be that I played with the cable a few too many times and I ruined the wires or it was a crappy cable to begin with.  Once I replaced the cable the drive came back and ran beautifully for a few more years.  I've also had cases where the drive appears to be getting errors and then I move it around to another drive bay or put it into another computer and then everything is ok.  The errors (usually bad sectors) are re-evaluated and are not bad sectors after all.  There seems to be no rhyme or reason sometimes.

 

Thermal shock and excessive heat are what usually kills components.  My oldest working hard drive (shown below) has been running continuously for over 12 years.