Time to replace disk? Long sob story :)

[internetfriend]

So last month I had an issue where disk 2, my parity and my cache drive went nuts with reallocation errors. Disk 2 needed to be RMA'd and cache drive and parity drive seemed to correct themselves after a preclear.

 

I just ran through my monthly parity check; and the parity drive threw 533 errors on the disk, but 0 errors on the parity summary. Smart is below. I'm trying to figure out if I should RMA, and if not, next steps? Should I run another preclear on the disk or just keep an eye on it and see if it sorts itself out?

 

smartctl -a -d ata /dev/sdd (parity)
smartctl 5.39.1 2010-01-28 r3054 [i486-slackware-linux-gnu] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-10 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model:     WDC WD20EARS-00MVWB0
Serial Number:    WD-WCAZA1020507
Firmware Version: 51.0AB51
User Capacity:    2,000,398,934,016 bytes
Device is:        Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
ATA Version is:   8
ATA Standard is:  Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated
Local Time is:    Thu Mar  1 07:19:18 2012 PST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x84)	Offline data collection activity
				was suspended by an interrupting command from host.
				Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0)	The previous self-test routine completed
				without error or no self-test has ever 
				been run.
Total time to complete Offline 
data collection: 		 (40500) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: 			 (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
				Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
				Suspend Offline collection upon new
				command.
				Offline surface scan supported.
				Self-test supported.
				Conveyance Self-test supported.
				Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003)	Saves SMART data before entering
				power-saving mode.
				Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01)	Error logging supported.
				General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine 
recommended polling time: 	 (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: 	 ( 255) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: 	 (   5) minutes.
SCT capabilities: 	       (0x3035)	SCT Status supported.
				SCT Feature Control supported.
				SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x002f   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0027   165   162   021    Pre-fail  Always       -       6716
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       656
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x002e   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   088   088   000    Old_age   Always       -       9464
10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       93
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       29
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       2530
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   120   115   000    Old_age   Always       -       30
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       7
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0008   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       1

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Short offline       Completed: read failure       90%      9082         3511387976

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

 

Thank you!

[Influencer]

That drive is on its way out. Just from that information I'd RMA the drive.

 

Reallocating sectors is normal once drives get old, but you never want it to reallocate a huge chunk. Also, it seems the only smart test it reported on had a read failure after just 10% of the test. That is not a good sign either. Be wary because preclearing a drive or just running a low-level format will usually fix read failure errors, but its not going to fix the drive.

 

 

[Joe L.]

That drive is on its way out. Just from that information I'd RMA the drive.

 

Reallocating sectors is normal once drives get old, but you never want it to reallocate a huge chunk. Also, it seems the only smart test it reported on had a read failure after just 10% of the test. That is not a good sign either. Be wary because preclearing a drive or just running a low-level format will usually fix read failure errors, but its not going to fix the drive.

 

I'm not sure where the other users figured out the drive is on its way out.  It has 7 sectors pending re-allocation the next time they are written.

 

There are several thousand spare sectors on most modern disks.  To "fix" the bad/un-readable sectors all that should be needed is a normal correcting "parity check"

 

It should, on the read failures of those sectors, re-write those sector based on the data from the other working drives.

 

If the number of un-readable sectors continues to climb in the coming months, then you can think about replacing the drive.

 

Joe L.

[Influencer]

I was responding not so much to the current pending sectors but the OP said the drive had previously "went nuts" with reallocation errors a month ago, and now has more sectors that are pending. I know the drive can reallocate the sectors and run fine now, but if its doing it month to month, and a RMA is an option, why wait for the drive to get worse to RMA it?

 

Also, I do realize that last month to this month doesn't exactly prove a trend, maybe I'm just a little more paranoid about drives going out. I am a unRAID noob, and am use to not having any drive failure protection, so the first sign of trouble is usually enough for me to RMA if its an option.

[lionelhutz]

I don't recall the whole story, but with so many drives acting up I'd still have to question your hardware. Something just does not seem right to have a bunch of your disks start throwing bad sectors at the same time.

 

Peter

[internetfriend]

Hey Lionelhutz, I think it was the power supply on a previous pc the server was in. Its in an all new step now so the trouble hardware is removed, its now just the drives that may have been messed up due to it left over.

 

I'll keep an eye on the drive and see what happens.