3rd time disk failure?

[bardsleyb]

I have replaced a WD 3TB Red drive 2 times in the past 6 to 8 months. It has been replaced via Western Digital's warranty replacement procedures. That replacement drive (now on the 3rd drive from WD) has failed today. This drive has been replaced around Christmas, so it has not even made it one whole month. I have read that the 3TB series of WD Red drives have had some issues, but really? It even says that it is passing smart tests. I have posted the zip file from the last diagnostic dump on the array so hopefully this will help somebody tell me what went wrong with this drive so I can tell WD correctly maybe. I can't just say its failing smart tests because it doesn't say it is failing the smart tests at all. Any help would be much appreciated. I imagine the folks at WD are going to put me on a watch list if I keep sending drives in to them... This is getting very frustrating having to replace this SAME drive every month or 2, or 3. I just want it to work already....

unbrandon-diagnostics-20160118-1507.zip

[bardsleyb]

Also I noticed that my array home page is showing the following. Why are all my drives showing unassigned and assigned? Is this an update to unraid in the last update? I am not doing anything with my array until I get some reassurance! lol

[JonathanM]

What makes you think the drive itself failed and not the controller or cable?

[garycase]

I suspect this is NOT the actual drive failing, but either a bad controller port;  bad cable; or some configuration issue in your system [the screen you posted showing both assigned and unassigned status certainly implies there's some config issue => I don't use the unassigned devices plugin, so am not sure what might be causing this ... hopefully somebody who does can weigh in on this.].

 

[bardsleyb]

What makes you think the drive itself failed and not the controller or cable?

 

well, there is an LSI raid card flashed to IT Mode but i would think if that was the issue, more drives would be failing since there are multiple drives attached to that LSI card. About half of my array is on that card. I suppose when I replace or reattach this drive, I can replace the SATA cable entirely and change the SATA port on the MB this drive attaches to. I really have no idea what is causing this.

[bardsleyb]

I suspect this is NOT the actual drive failing, but either a bad controller port;  bad cable; or some configuration issue in your system [the screen you posted showing both assigned and unassigned status certainly implies there's some config issue => I don't use the unassigned devices plugin, so am not sure what might be causing this ... hopefully somebody who does can weigh in on this.].

 

I was wondering if it was normal for this plugin or not. As you can see by the pic I posted, I just ordered and threw in a new Seagate 8TB so I was thinking about rebuilding the array with that drive until I figure out what to do with this failing or not failing drive. The 8TB is precleared and ready to go luckily.

[JorgeB]

Since you have a precleared disk ready to go I'd use it to rebuild.

 

Although unusual, in my experience disks from RMA are much more likely to fail again, so much so that I only use them on backup servers.

 

This particular disks looks healthy, but it has 8751 hours of use, repaired disks usually come with reset SMART, so maybe someone sent it for repair but passed some WD internal testing and was sent back to you.

[garycase]

I agree with Johnnie that it's best to not use the refurbished drives you get from an RMA in your primary array.  Use them for backups or some other non-critical function.

 

[bardsleyb]

I agree with Johnnie that it's best to not use the refurbished drives you get from an RMA in your primary array.  Use them for backups or some other non-critical function.

I had the drive under warranty which was the reason I sent it back and got a replacement. I hope the seagate shingled 8TB drives I'm adding into my primary array are rock solid though. That's the route I'll be going from now on providing they don't start to give me troubles.

[garycase]

You certainly want to take advantage of drive warranties and get bad ones replaced -- but as you may/may not be aware, the drives you receive back from warranty RMA's are re-furbished drives.    We're simply noting that it's a good idea to find other uses for those drives, as they're not likely to be as reliable as new drives.