Replacement for failing HGST 7K1000 drive

[PeteBa]

Hi, I have a small unRaid server made up of 5 fairly old 2.5" HGST 7K1000 1TB drives (4 x data and 1 x parity). I also have a 500GB nvme cache drive. This has worked great for over 5 years now as mainly a media server and backup storage. But one of the drives is reporting errors (SMART test attached) and so I have been looking for a replacement. Unfortunately, my searching has struggled to find a modern equivalent drive for a reasonable price.

 

I think it has to do with CMR vs SMR technology and that CMR is no longer very supported for what is now a small capacity drive. I think the WD Red Plus drive is roughly equivalent but seems very expensive (£100) compared to the various SMR drives (£30-40) that come up in an amazon search.  So I guess I'm after some advice on a good 7K1000 replacement at a reasonable price.

 

My thoughts at the moment, include: 1) I dont need any additional storage capacity so going for larger drives doesnt seem necessary; 2) having said that, if 1TB drives are going obsolete do I bite the bullet and upgrade the whole system to two 4TB drives but that seems excessive for one failing drive; 3)  ideally, I would replace the drive with an 1TB SSD that is about the same price point but I see very conflicting TRIM messages on the forums, and; 4) maybe, I'm unfairly concerned about SMR drives and given I have a reasonably sized cache nvme drive then it wont make any material difference. 

 

Appreciate any thoughts/recommendations.

 

server-smart-20231118-1554.zip

[itimpi]

I do not see anything obvious in the SMART report that suggests a problem with the drive.    There are a number of CRC errors but these relate to connection issues and are nearly always caused by the power and/or SATA cabling to the drive.   You could try running an extended DMART test on the drive as a health check.

[PeteBa]

@itimpi Thanks for the response. I recall the CRC errors occurred many years ago due to a faulty sata cable that was replaced at that time. However, the drive has just started showing a "yellow thumbs down" on the Dashboard page and I'm getting daily e-mails quoting read error messages as below. I took a closer look at the SMART log attached above and it suggests the only recent error was a UNC error. Not sure what that is and whether it is terminal or not. I have run a few Extended SMART Test and they have all said PASSED. So this is a bit confusing 8(. Do you think I can just click acknowledge on the "thumbs down icon" and monitor ? Thanks again.

   

Most recent error from the SMART log:

Error 90 [1] occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 21475 hours (894 days + 19 hours)
  When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

  After command completion occurred, registers were:
  ER -- ST COUNT  LBA_48  LH LM LL DV DC
  -- -- -- == -- == == == -- -- -- -- --
  40 -- 51 04 f8 00 00 30 05 f9 28 00 00  Error: UNC at LBA = 0x3005f928 = 805697832

 

Recent notification emails from unRAID:

 

Event: Unraid array errors
Subject: Warning [SERVER] - array has errors
Description: Array has 1 disk with read errors
Importance: warning

Disk 2 - HGST_HTS721010A9E630_JG40006PG3RD0C (sdd) (errors 159)

 

Event: Unraid Parity-Check
Subject: Notice [SERVER] - Parity-Check finished (1 errors)
Description: Duration: 3 hours, 10 minutes, 47 seconds. Average speed: 87.4 MB/s
Importance: warning

 

Event: Unraid Status
Subject: Notice [SERVER] - array health report [FAIL]
Description: Array has 6 disks (including parity & pools)
Importance: warning

Parity - HGST_HTS721010A9E630_JR1020BN0J90DE (sdg) - active 21 C [OK]
Disk 1 - HGST_HTS721010A9E630_JR1000D31PL5WE (sdf) - active 26 C [OK]
Disk 2 - HGST_HTS721010A9E630_JG40006PG3RD0C (sdd) - active 26 C (disk has read errors) [NOK]
Disk 3 - HGST_HTS721010A9E630_JG40006PG6PP7C (sde) - active 27 C [OK]
Disk 4 - HGST_HTS721010A9E630_JS1020620JGW6W (sdc) - active 26 C [OK]
Cache - Samsung_SSD_960_EVO_250GB_S3ESNX1JB30291E (nvme0n1) - active 35 C [OK]

Parity is valid
Last checked on Sun 12 Nov 2023 03:10:48 AM GMT (yesterday), finding 1 error.
Duration: 3 hours, 10 minutes, 47 seconds. Average speed: 87.4 MB/s

 

[JorgeB]

If you didn't reboot yet please post the diagnostics.

[PeteBa]

@JorgeB, I haven't rebooted the server so hoping the attached diagnostics are useful? Many thanks.

server-diagnostics-20231120-0951.zip

[JorgeB]

It's logged as a disk problem, if it happens again, and also considering the power on hours, I would probably replace it.