Need help with Disabled Disk

[dbezerra]

Hello all,

 

One of my Hard Drives always fall back to a disabled disk if I shutdown the server for sometime (usually a week or so). The first time I just rebuilt the disk content and everything went fine. Now, I just came back from a week vacation to find the same drive flagged as disabled again after power up the server.

 

Based on my first experience, once the disk is rebuilt all content is intact and frequent parity checks never gave me any errors. But I am concerned with this drive anyway. Looking at the smart log (attached), I don't see anything obvious but I am not an expert on SMART logs - can someone take a look at it? Is there anything else I should try to do?

 

This problem doesn't sound like a cable issue since once I rebuild the drive all content is fine until I power down the server - even if only 6 months later.

 

Thanks!

smart.txt

[Frank1940]

I would have a look at the spin_up_time parameter.  As I understand it, this is the time required for the drive to come up to operation speed.  If you have anther drive of the same make and model, compare the data on this and other parameters.    (I know I had a drive about fifteen years ago that I had to change the BIOS to do a full memory check to allow that drive to get to speed before the BIOS attempted to boot from it.)

[dbezerra]

I will check the BIOS settings. Now, is there a good way to try it out? Will Unraid " try again" to enable the disk with a reboot? Or at this point I do need to restore the disk content before try a new shutdown and see if the BIOS settings will resolve it?

[Frank1940]

I will check the BIOS settings. Now, is there a good way to try it out? Will Unraid " try again" to enable the disk with a reboot? Or at this point I do need to restore the disk content before try a new shutdown and see if the BIOS settings will resolve it?

 

Let me be clear about this:  That computer was running Windows 95 and that BIOS and a modern BIOS are two entirely different animals!  (Even the memory was much slower!  Adding the full  memory check, added at least thirty seconds to the boot time!!!)  As I recall if I got the message that the BIOS could not locate a bootable disk, I could push the reboot button and the machine would then boot in the normal manner  as the drive had had enough time to get to speed.  I opted to add the memory check as my wife also used the computer and she did not deal well with any type of problem.

 

IF I were in your position with the problem as you describe it, I would definitely try the reboot option in the GUI as part of  a troubleshooting procedure.  If the drive motor is only having difficulties spinning up the drive when the drive is cold (Cold drives are the hardest to get to speed because everything is configuration to slow down speed build-up), that could allow the drive enough time to spin-up and be available when checked during the reboot-up.  Once that drive is online, the heat from all of the other electronics could be assisting in all subsequent spin-ups.  You could then check parity (I would use the non-correcting option) to see if the array has any problems.

 

However, if you do find that the spin-up time on that drive is a problem, I would be looking to replace it as soon as possible!