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Forum Discussion
ReadyNAS NV+ 2TB WD20EARS vs WD20EARX
My ReadyNAS NV+ has been working fine since a 1GB RAM upgrade last fall. The 4.1.9 firmware upgrade killed my CIFS file sharing ability, but I've managed to juggle around that by switching to using t...
There's an issue with Western Digital green drives, which is the LCC (load cycle count). I'm not a real expert, but here's what I know.
WD green drives, both the WD20EARS and I believe the newer WD20EARX help save power by periodically parking the heads. Each time they do so, it increases the LCC count by one. You can examine the LCC count on a drive installed in in a Readynas simply by checking the SMART status in Frontview.
When a WD green drive is installed in a PC, the LCC increases as the drive is used, but it increases slowly. Which is fine.
But, when the drive is installed in a Raid NAS like the Readynas (the same is also true for other brands of Linux based NAS), the LCC increases rapidly; on my Readynas NV+, which I keep powered up all the time, but don't heavily access, it hit 250,000 in 3 months or so.
Many have posted on the web that high LCC counts are a bad thing, and will contribute to early drive failure.
When I asked WD tech support about this, they told me two things:
-WD Green drives are not designed for NAS environments, only for desktop PC use
-WD tests the drives up to an LCC of about 1,000,000 but beyond that you're on borrowed time. (I was only told this once, so it is unconfirmed). On a readynas, I would expect the drive to hit an LCC of 1,000,000 in about a year.
There is a solution. WD has a utility you can easily download that will reset the so-called idle timer on the drive such that the LCC does not increase. You lose some of the greenness of the drive, but you probably increase its life expectancy. Many have posted on various forums that using a WD green drive in a NAS without running the utility first is a mistake. But who knows. YOu only have to run the utility once.
The utility is called wdidle3, and you can easily find it either on WD's web site, or on this forum. It is a DOS program; you need a PC to run it, and you must have a PC with a SATA port into which you can temporarily install the drive to run the program.
I have asked Readynas, via this forum, why they have WD green drives on the HCC (the WD20EARX is on the list now, and the WD20EARS was, as I recall, on it previously) given the LCC issue. I've not gotten an answer. (Readynas could also build a function similar to widle3 into the readynas firmware, but as far as I know they haven't)
As I recall, running widle3 is non-destructive of data, as always when monkeying with drives, backups are highly recommended. With an appropriate PC it is very quick. You may be able to run widle3 with an external drive enclosure and an esata connection, if you have one, but this is unconfirmed.
And, some say you don't have to worry about this at all with the WD20EARX drives, so you may wish to do some web searching on your own.
WD green drives, both the WD20EARS and I believe the newer WD20EARX help save power by periodically parking the heads. Each time they do so, it increases the LCC count by one. You can examine the LCC count on a drive installed in in a Readynas simply by checking the SMART status in Frontview.
When a WD green drive is installed in a PC, the LCC increases as the drive is used, but it increases slowly. Which is fine.
But, when the drive is installed in a Raid NAS like the Readynas (the same is also true for other brands of Linux based NAS), the LCC increases rapidly; on my Readynas NV+, which I keep powered up all the time, but don't heavily access, it hit 250,000 in 3 months or so.
Many have posted on the web that high LCC counts are a bad thing, and will contribute to early drive failure.
When I asked WD tech support about this, they told me two things:
-WD Green drives are not designed for NAS environments, only for desktop PC use
-WD tests the drives up to an LCC of about 1,000,000 but beyond that you're on borrowed time. (I was only told this once, so it is unconfirmed). On a readynas, I would expect the drive to hit an LCC of 1,000,000 in about a year.
There is a solution. WD has a utility you can easily download that will reset the so-called idle timer on the drive such that the LCC does not increase. You lose some of the greenness of the drive, but you probably increase its life expectancy. Many have posted on various forums that using a WD green drive in a NAS without running the utility first is a mistake. But who knows. YOu only have to run the utility once.
The utility is called wdidle3, and you can easily find it either on WD's web site, or on this forum. It is a DOS program; you need a PC to run it, and you must have a PC with a SATA port into which you can temporarily install the drive to run the program.
I have asked Readynas, via this forum, why they have WD green drives on the HCC (the WD20EARX is on the list now, and the WD20EARS was, as I recall, on it previously) given the LCC issue. I've not gotten an answer. (Readynas could also build a function similar to widle3 into the readynas firmware, but as far as I know they haven't)
As I recall, running widle3 is non-destructive of data, as always when monkeying with drives, backups are highly recommended. With an appropriate PC it is very quick. You may be able to run widle3 with an external drive enclosure and an esata connection, if you have one, but this is unconfirmed.
And, some say you don't have to worry about this at all with the WD20EARX drives, so you may wish to do some web searching on your own.
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