WD Red 6 TB $289.99


mdoom

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http://smile.amazon.com/Western-Digital-3-5-inch-IntelliPower-WD60EFRX/dp/B00LO3KR96/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1412510195&sr=8-5

 

I think WD Red's in 6TB are fairly new.  I haven't heard yet of anyone using them in unraid to see how they go, but being Red drives, seems to be a decent option compared to other 6 TB drives out there in this price range

 

There are several folks on this forum who are using them -- they seem fine, although clearly it's early in their life, so there's not a huge amount of feedback yet.    The only potential issue is whether the new 1.25TB platters have any issues due to the increased density -- but I haven't seen any reported; and the higher density means they have notably better performance than their smaller cousins.

 

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I have ordered about 20 of these drives in the last month.  Some of them where tested with preclear for 3 passes and they all passed fine.  Some did not get tested but I have not heard anything negative so I assume they are working fine.

 

This is great to hear! It may finally be time to upgrade from my array of 3 TB drives.

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I have one in the first preclear cycle now.  I plan on running a total of five.  If it is going to fail, I want it to fail now.  I want to make sure it is good as it will be my new parity drive.

 

The first unit I received had issues.  It made a weird noise, not a grinding noise but another weird noise that is hard to describe.  When it was attached to my Supermicro controller, it would not let the server boot.  Connected to the Syba controller, it would boot but would throw all kinds of errors for the drive.

 

Returned it to New Egg and they shipped me a new one.

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I have ordered about 20 of these drives in the last month.  Some of them where tested with preclear for 3 passes and they all passed fine.  Some did not get tested but I have not heard anything negative so I assume they are working fine.

 

mother of god, how long did it take to pre-clear one of these guys?

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== invoked as: ./preclear_disk.sh -c 1 -w 32768 -r 32768 -b 1000 /dev/sdi

== WDCWD60EFRX-68MYMN1  WD-WX11D4417439

== Disk /dev/sdi has been successfully precleared

== with a starting sector of 1

== Ran 1 cycle

==

== Using :Read block size = 32768 Bytes

== Last Cycle's Pre Read Time  : 21:48:25 (76 MB/s)

== Last Cycle's Zeroing time  : 12:50:45 (129 MB/s)

== Last Cycle's Post Read Time : 37:06:20 (44 MB/s)

== Last Cycle's Total Time    : 71:46:30

==

== Total Elapsed Time 71:46:30

 

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I have ordered about 20 of these drives in the last month.  Some of them where tested with preclear for 3 passes and they all passed fine.  Some did not get tested but I have not heard anything negative so I assume they are working fine.

 

mother of god, how long did it take to pre-clear one of these guys?

For

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ever

 

 

 

Only thing that saved me was the fact that I have a test server that can preclear 6 drives at once.  I also have an HP microserver that can be pressed into preclear service if need be.

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So I'm guessing you are going to be looking at 24hr+ long parity checks?

No, it was not that long.  preclears take longer because of the read/write/read that is does.

 

If I remember correctly it was some where between 10-12 hours for a parity check.

 

I completed a parity check with a WD 6TB Red drive as parity yesterday:

 

Last checked on Wed 08 Oct 2014 04:54:44 AM EDT (yesterday), finding 0 errors.

> Duration: 17 hours, 29 minutes, 49 seconds. Average speed: 95.3 MB/sec

 

As for the preclear I had set it for 3 cycles, but gave up after 2 completed as it had already been days...

 

Does anyone know what ever happened to bjp999's modification to the preclear process that helped reduce time? I had helped beta test with him, and it definitely shaved time off. Given how long 6TB disks are taking, and with 8TB and 10TB in the not too distant future it may be worth trying to update the preclear script.

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I completed a parity check with a WD 6TB Red drive as parity yesterday:

 

Last checked on Wed 08 Oct 2014 04:54:44 AM EDT (yesterday), finding 0 errors.

> Duration: 17 hours, 29 minutes, 49 seconds. Average speed: 95.3 MB/sec

 

That's actually slower than I'd expect.  I assume this system has other drives as well -- correct?    That would explain the speed; as in that case the 6TB drive's speed is irrelevant, since the max speed at any given point in the testing is limited by the slowest drive still involved in the test (so only the last 2TB are at the speed of the 6TB unit; and by that time it's approaching the slower inner cylinders).

 

 

As for the preclear I had set it for 3 cycles, but gave up after 2 completed as it had already been days...

 

Does anyone know what ever happened to bjp999's modification to the preclear process that helped reduce time? I had helped beta test with him, and it definitely shaved time off. Given how long 6TB disks are taking, and with 8TB and 10TB in the not too distant future it may be worth trying to update the preclear script.

 

Not sure if Brian ever completed that or not.    It was nice to have a bit of a speedup, but the reality is it still takes a long time .. and when something takes days to run, it doesn't seem all that big a deal just how many days it is.    I do a bit of a different process to "qualify" my new drives, and it's a bit quicker than multiple pre-clear passes.  I run WD's Data Lifeguard on the drive (attached to a Windows box) and do the Quick test, then the Extended test, then write zeroes to the entire drive, then repeat both the quick and extended tests.    ANY errors and the drive goes back.    If it passes, then I put it in the UnRAID box (actually a spare system I use for pre-clears), and do a single pre-clear pass.    Drives that pass that regimen have been exceptionally reliable (I have RMA'd a few that didn't pass this set of tests).

 

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I completed a parity check with a WD 6TB Red drive as parity yesterday:

 

Last checked on Wed 08 Oct 2014 04:54:44 AM EDT (yesterday), finding 0 errors.

> Duration: 17 hours, 29 minutes, 49 seconds. Average speed: 95.3 MB/sec

 

That's actually slower than I'd expect.  I assume this system has other drives as well -- correct?    That would explain the speed; as in that case the 6TB drive's speed is irrelevant, since the max speed at any given point in the testing is limited by the slowest drive still involved in the test (so only the last 2TB are at the speed of the 6TB unit; and by that time it's approaching the slower inner cylinders).

 

There are a couple of 4TB WD Reds, and a mix of 3TB/4TB WD Greens in the system.

 

As for the preclear I had set it for 3 cycles, but gave up after 2 completed as it had already been days...

 

Does anyone know what ever happened to bjp999's modification to the preclear process that helped reduce time? I had helped beta test with him, and it definitely shaved time off. Given how long 6TB disks are taking, and with 8TB and 10TB in the not too distant future it may be worth trying to update the preclear script.

 

Not sure if Brian ever completed that or not.    It was nice to have a bit of a speedup, but the reality is it still takes a long time .. and when something takes days to run, it doesn't seem all that big a deal just how many days it is.    I do a bit of a different process to "qualify" my new drives, and it's a bit quicker than multiple pre-clear passes.  I run WD's Data Lifeguard on the drive (attached to a Windows box) and do the Quick test, then the Extended test, then write zeroes to the entire drive, then repeat both the quick and extended tests.    ANY errors and the drive goes back.    If it passes, then I put it in the UnRAID box (actually a spare system I use for pre-clears), and do a single pre-clear pass.    Drives that pass that regimen have been exceptionally reliable (I have RMA'd a few that didn't pass this set of tests).

 

I think Brian left it up to Joe_L if I remember correctly (as I think Joe_L was the author of the original script, right?). I am not sure if anything happened beyond that. While I do sort of agree with your belief, if it's basically 3 days for a single pass on a 6TB drive, you can extrapolate to 4 days for 8TB and 5 days for 10TB. When doing 3 passes you could be looking at 15 days for a 10TB drive - if you are an unfortunate soul who has a defective drive and don't have a pre-cleared spare ready to go, the two weeks of exposure is going to be very disconcerting. Anything that can be done to reduce that would be helpful for all of us.

 

Personally I may switch to your process since I only buy WD drives, so it's only a single toolset I need to rely on.

 

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Really? My parity drive is 3TB and takes 10 hrs to finish...

 

I suspect your system has other (slower) drives in it.    A parity check is always limited by the slowest drive currently involved in the check ... and if you have multiple sizes, it's also slowing down appreciably as each drive reaches the slower inner cylinders.    The only real test of how fast a particular drive is for parity checks is to do a check on a system with ONLY that specific drive model in it.

 

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Really? My parity drive is 3TB and takes 10 hrs to finish...

 

I suspect your system has other (slower) drives in it.    A parity check is always limited by the slowest drive currently involved in the check ... and if you have multiple sizes, it's also slowing down appreciably as each drive reaches the slower inner cylinders.    The only real test of how fast a particular drive is for parity checks is to do a check on a system with ONLY that specific drive model in it.

Yup, and this system has 10 of the 6TB Red drives in it.  They are quick that is for sure.

 

I was seeing speeds in the 155 MB/sec range when starting out the check.  I don't remember ever seeing it dip below 105 MB/sec

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When doing 3 passes you could be looking at 15 days for a 10TB drive - if you are an unfortunate soul who has a defective drive and don't have a pre-cleared spare ready to go, the two weeks of exposure is going to be very disconcerting. Anything that can be done to reduce that would be helpful for all of us.

 

Agree -- "Anything that can be done to reduce that would be helpful for all of us."  ==>  and there's a very simple thing that anyone can do to not only reduce, but completely eliminate that time:  Keep a pre-cleared spare  :)

 

... of course by far the best way to reduce the discomfort of a system that's running at risk is to be sure you have good backups.

 

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When doing 3 passes you could be looking at 15 days for a 10TB drive - if you are an unfortunate soul who has a defective drive and don't have a pre-cleared spare ready to go, the two weeks of exposure is going to be very disconcerting. Anything that can be done to reduce that would be helpful for all of us.

 

Agree -- "Anything that can be done to reduce that would be helpful for all of us."  ==>  and there's a very simple thing that anyone can do to not only reduce, but completely eliminate that time:  Keep a pre-cleared spare  :)

 

Always a good idea, but not always feasible.

 

... of course by far the best way to reduce the discomfort of a system that's running at risk is to be sure you have good backups.

 

Boy... it's like 6 degrees of separation with you isn't it? No matter the conversation start point it can always be brought back to good backups. :)

 

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