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Forum Discussion
Western Digital WD1002FBYS head click noise (#10987106)
Hi Everyone,
I need help with what appears to be a compatibility issue with the ReadyNAS Pro Pioneer and HCL approved Western Digital drives. For background please see:
Strange Problem with Western Digital WD10EADS
viewtopic.php?f=24&t=31572
Note: the difference between the WD10EACS and the WD10EADS is the size of the cache (16MB vs 32MB). Otherwise they are identical. Nevertheless, because the WD10EADS is not currently on the HCL, I removed it from subsequent testing.
Over the past three months, I have set up three entirely different Pro Pioneers with three entirely different WD1002FBYS RE3 drive sets. I have tried formatting in X-RAID, X-RAID-2 and Flex-RAID, with 1, 2, 3, and 4 disks.
In each case, after the RAID is fully set-up, re-synched and completely idle, I hear a constant head click sound every 10-15 seconds. You can download/listen to the sound at this link:
http://propaganda.com/dhl/media/click.aif
This sound is audible 20' away from the ReadyNAS. The sound only occurs when the ReadyNAS is idle. It happens with and without a network connection or data on the NAS.
I have spoken with and played the sound for WD level-2 technical support. Their engineers tell me this is *definitely not* normal behavior for these drives.
On WD's advice, I tested individual drives in a SATA dock connected to my computer. I found that they make this sound for a few seconds after mounting, then become completely quiet.
It appears that the drives are getting stuck in a calibration loop when used in the ReadyNAS.
I reported these results to WD. The WD engineers suggested a low-level SATA hardware or device-driver level incompatibility between the ReadyNAS and the drives may be the cause.
I've been reporting my findings to Netgear support (case# 9787229, now case# 10374423) for about three months.
I've been told that level-3 Netgear engineers say that this sound is normal, however, it's not clear to me that level-3 is actually testing this configuration.
These are enterprise class drives designed to run 24/7. Frankly, I can't believe these drives would pass QA with this behavior. Having the heads click every 10-15 seconds is *not* normal and can't be good in the long run.
Based on the difficulties I've read in other threads with the RE4, I suspect there may be problems with the RE3 that slipped thru the cracks.
Jedi's, I need your advice.
The only reason my partners and I bought these drives is because of WD's reputation and the fact that they were on the HCL. We need this resolved so that we can put our ReadyNAS's into production with confidence.
I'd also appreciate hearing from any other users of these drives on whether you experience these issues.
Thanks everyone for your help.
--dhl
I need help with what appears to be a compatibility issue with the ReadyNAS Pro Pioneer and HCL approved Western Digital drives. For background please see:
Strange Problem with Western Digital WD10EADS
viewtopic.php?f=24&t=31572
Note: the difference between the WD10EACS and the WD10EADS is the size of the cache (16MB vs 32MB). Otherwise they are identical. Nevertheless, because the WD10EADS is not currently on the HCL, I removed it from subsequent testing.
Over the past three months, I have set up three entirely different Pro Pioneers with three entirely different WD1002FBYS RE3 drive sets. I have tried formatting in X-RAID, X-RAID-2 and Flex-RAID, with 1, 2, 3, and 4 disks.
In each case, after the RAID is fully set-up, re-synched and completely idle, I hear a constant head click sound every 10-15 seconds. You can download/listen to the sound at this link:
http://propaganda.com/dhl/media/click.aif
This sound is audible 20' away from the ReadyNAS. The sound only occurs when the ReadyNAS is idle. It happens with and without a network connection or data on the NAS.
I have spoken with and played the sound for WD level-2 technical support. Their engineers tell me this is *definitely not* normal behavior for these drives.
On WD's advice, I tested individual drives in a SATA dock connected to my computer. I found that they make this sound for a few seconds after mounting, then become completely quiet.
It appears that the drives are getting stuck in a calibration loop when used in the ReadyNAS.
I reported these results to WD. The WD engineers suggested a low-level SATA hardware or device-driver level incompatibility between the ReadyNAS and the drives may be the cause.
I've been reporting my findings to Netgear support (case# 9787229, now case# 10374423) for about three months.
I've been told that level-3 Netgear engineers say that this sound is normal, however, it's not clear to me that level-3 is actually testing this configuration.
These are enterprise class drives designed to run 24/7. Frankly, I can't believe these drives would pass QA with this behavior. Having the heads click every 10-15 seconds is *not* normal and can't be good in the long run.
Based on the difficulties I've read in other threads with the RE4, I suspect there may be problems with the RE3 that slipped thru the cracks.
Jedi's, I need your advice.
The only reason my partners and I bought these drives is because of WD's reputation and the fact that they were on the HCL. We need this resolved so that we can put our ReadyNAS's into production with confidence.
I'd also appreciate hearing from any other users of these drives on whether you experience these issues.
Thanks everyone for your help.
--dhl
38 Replies
- Can you post the SMART data here for a random sample of your WD drives?
Do you have V4.2.5 RAIDIATOR loaded?
Are you using disk spindown? If so, try to disable. claykin wrote: Can you post the SMART data here for a random sample of your WD drives?
Do you have V4.2.5 RAIDIATOR loaded?
Are you using disk spindown? If so, try to disable.
@claykin
yes, running RAIDIATOR V4.2.5
Spindown is off, all settings are factory default. The clicking only occurs when the drives are fully spun-up but activity is idle. It does not happen during transfers or in Telnet debug mode.
Here's the SMART data from one of the drives:SMART Information for Disk 1
Model: WDC WD1002FBYS-02A6B0
Serial: WD-WMATV2658993
Firmware: 03.00C06
SMART Attribute
Raw Read Error Rate 0
Spin Up Time 1083
Start Stop Count 44
Reallocated Sector Count 0
Seek Error Rate 0
Power On Hours 258
Spin Retry Count 0
Calibration Retry Count 0
Power Cycle Count 43
Power-Off Retract Count 14
Load Cycle Count 29
Temperature Celsius 28
Reallocated Event Count 0
Current Pending Sector 0
Offline Uncorrectable 0
UDMA CRC Error Count 0
Multi Zone Error Rate 0
ATA Error Count 0
The SMART data is similar for all the other drives. Netgear support has copies of all system logs and says everything looks normal. So whatever's going on is happening at a level that the logs don't see.
Anyone else using these drives? Jedi's your thoughts?
thanks,
--dhl- Hmmm, looks OK.
Have you tried to take those disks and connect them to a PC SATA controller, power up to a DOS prompt and listen for the same sound? If they're quiet it indicates the issue is either in the WD firmware or the way the NAS/Linux talks to the disks. I wonder is other Linux users of this model disk complain about this issue?
I found this page on the WDC website that may indicate your disk does not have the latest firmware. If a new firmware is available it can sometimes be like pulling teeth to get WDC to send it to you.
http://www.wdc.com/en/library/cs/2579-701321.pdf
Also, have you checked the jumper options? Not sure I'd touch them without doing research first!!!
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg ... faqid=3335 claykin wrote: Hmmm, looks OK.
Have you tried to take those disks and connect them to a PC SATA controller, power up to a DOS prompt and listen for the same sound? If they're quiet it indicates the issue is either in the WD firmware or the way the NAS/Linux talks to the disks. I wonder is other Linux users of this model disk complain about this issue?
I found this page on the WDC website that may indicate your disk does not have the latest firmware. If a new firmware is available it can sometimes be like pulling teeth to get WDC to send it to you.
http://www.wdc.com/en/library/cs/2579-701321.pdf
Also, have you checked the jumper options? Not sure I'd touch them without doing research first!!!
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg ... faqid=3335
Yes, I took each drive and using an external SATA dock, tried them one by one with my computer. I reformatted each drive and mounted them on the desktop. In every case, the drives made the sound for a few seconds after mounting, then became quiet as one would expect for a spun-up drive at idle.
The drives are all factory-refreshed from WD and have the latest firmware. I RMAed the entire first set I purchased to eliminate the possibility of a bad drive in the set as the cause.
I also RMAed my first Pioneer Pro to eliminate it as a variable. I have tested this configuration on three different Pioneer Pros with three sets of the same drives and I'm getting the same result. The continuous clicking only happens in the ReadyNAS.
I agree that this may be a ReadyNAS SATA hardware/firmware issue. I haven't seen reports of this behavior from desktop users of this drive and WD confirms that it is not normal.- your disk listed above appears to have older firmware than what WDC lists in that document I sent.
Just because you RMA'd disks doesn't mean they checked the firmware against whats shipping with new disks. WDC has had a habit of being in firmware denial. I recall an occasion a year or so ago where I had to call their Presidents office to get someone to send me new firmware. Their tech support kept telling me I had the latest when I knew the disk in my possession did not (and had a known problem).
I just did some Google searching looking for others complaining about the head sound/click, but didn't really find anything concrete. Not sure what to tell ya. Maybe Netgear can address in the forthcoming RAIDIATOR version. - I'm sure this is the latest firmware for the RE3. The first drive set I had was at 03.00C05. If you check online with Google, you'll see many current references to the RE3 with 03.00C06 firmware. There are no references to the number cited on that WD document.
Irregardless, the RE3 has been on the HCL since 2/09. It's likely that these drives passed QA with older firmware than currently ships. I don't know if that might be the cause of the problem but if something changed since 2/09, perhaps that's a place to look. - dhl, got your PM, will see what we can do.
Could you try out the beta firmware and see if the noise still occurs, to help us diagnose further? And after that, if you could also send in system logs. - Hi Chirpa, thank you.
Yes, since the ReadyNAS is still in factory default state, I'm able to run any tests which might be helpful. Will install the beta firmware and report back.
--dhl - I've installed Beta firmware 4.2.7-T55. No change, still getting the same behavior. System logs sent, please keep me posted.
thanks,
--dhl - Just tried again with the release version of 4.2.7. Again, no change, even with the RE4 fix. Still getting head clicks every few seconds. Please advise on I should do next.
Thanks!
--dhl
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