3rd WD Red Drive Failed in 3 Weeks


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I just had my third WD 3TB Red drive get disabled by UnRaid in the space of three weeks.  All three were "Disk 4," with the second being an intended replacement of the first, then the third intended to replace the second.  But the second and third drives never made it through the data rebuild process.  Data rebuild would start but immediately slow down to a crawling 195mb/sec or less, and after a while the data rebuild would stop and the disk be disabled bu Unraid.  I get the feeling it's not the drives that are the problem, but maybe the controller, or something wrong within my Unraid itself?  I've attached my most recent system log.  Ideas?  Thanks!

 

Tower_System_Log_2014-2-12.txt

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Common denominator appears to be either the cable or the port associated with "disk 4". I would say try another cable first. I don't know if you try installing the HDD on another port if that would affect the rebuild.

 

Edit: Perhaps the power plug could be iffy as well...try another power connector if available.

 

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I'd do two things ...

 

(1)  Attach the "failed" drives to a SATA port on another PC and run WD's Data Lifeguard diagnostics on them -- both the quick and extended tests; and if they work okay then do the full Write Zeroes to the drive and repeat the quick and extended tests.    If these are all error free, then your drives are okay [which is likely the case]

 

(2)  Use both a different SATA cord AND a different SATA port.    You can do this with no problem and still assign the drive as disk4 and do the rebuild.

 

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Drive failed and rebuild aborted, just like I figured in my last post.  One of the drives is doing the extended test on another PC, and I'll try a different port on the Unraid server (along with a different power connector) when I swap drives again and fire it back up.

 

Double check how you are powering that drive.  If you are using power splitters, inspect them (or totally replace them)--- both visually and mechanically (pull hard on the leads).    Don't put multiple power splitters (in series) on a single breakout plug of the power supply power cable.  The more connectors you have in series, the more likely you are to have problems!

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  • 2 weeks later...

So far, not good.  Zero percent complete, estimated speed of data rebuild already down to 294kb/sec with estimated finish of 168410 minutes.

 

Don't monitor it all the time.  In fact, close the WEBGUI and check back after about an hour.  (Some of the WEBGUI's access the drives continuously when open and they can slow things down considerably!)

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Ah, did not know that.  WebGUI now closed.  I'll report back later today.

 

Wouldn't it be hilarious if that were the entire problem in the first place?  :D

 

EDIT:  Nah, couldn't be.  This problem first occurred when copying a file from my desktop PC to Disk 4 of the Unraid, and the WebGUI wasn't open at the time.

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Just checked again.  Disk 4 disabled.

 

This is after I changed the drive (4 times), SATA cable, SATA port, power cable, and power connector on the modular power supply.

 

Think it might be time to throw in the towel and just get a Synology or WD NAS unit.  :(

 

I know this is frustrating, but you do appear to have a hardware problem with that port. It is not unRaid causing the problem.

 

Do you have hot swap cages (e.g., 5 in 3s) or do you plug the disks directly to the SATA cables?

 

Do you have a different SATA port you could use and leave this one unused?

 

What controller is this drive connected to? Are other drives also connected to that controller?

 

 

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