February 23, 20242 yr I have 11 hard drives in my array with 2 parity drives and a cache pool with SSD's. I have a large video collection, Family pictures and so on. I was wondering, is there a "rule of thumb" on how long Unraid folks keep their HDD's in use. I have been using Unraid for roughly 10 years, and only replace a disk when they go disables more than once. This just happened the other day. I replaced the data disk and in the process one of the parity disks started acting stupid. Just wondering. do you pull it when the warranty runs out? which seems like a waste. or do you pull it like after five years or whatever.. Ever time I have to replace a disk (which isn't often) my Wife throws a fit. lol.
February 23, 20242 yr A disk getting disabled may not be because of the disk. And waiting for them to get disabled might not be a good idea either. You should be considering SMART reports. Do any of your disks have SMART ( 👎 ) warnings on the Dashboard page?
February 23, 20242 yr Author interesting, no, all my disks show healthy. I'll keep a close eye on SMART reports. I have only got a unhealthy 👎 notice when a disks goes disabled, by than yeah, I know I have a problem. I never gave much thought otherwise to the SMART reports.
February 23, 20242 yr A SMART warning for UDMA CRC error is also not a disk problem. It is a connection problem. Maybe it would cause a disk to get disabled, maybe not. I usually just acknowledge (click on the 👎) the occasional CRC, maybe replug the connector next time I'm in the case if I remember to. If it increases a lot you should investigate. UDMA CRC error means the disk has received inconsistent data. The disk firmware does a checksum on data received and if it doesn't pass, the UDMA count increments. The data is resent, so often there is no problem. And bad connections might not even cause UDMA, since the disk never received any data to checksum. An extended SMART self-test might be a good idea if you are concerned about the age. Do you have Notifications setup to alert you by email or other agent as soon as a problems is detected?
February 23, 20242 yr Author Yes CRC errors are usually bad cabling if I remember correctly. I unchecked that error box. Notifications via email is a pain in the butt to setup I tried and I could't get to work so I have only browser alerts, which is fine cause I'm on the computer most of the day.
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.