RN424 , 4x 8TB WD Red Plus failing after 120 days? Part 2

This is the continuation of

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Using-your-ReadyNAS-in-Business/RN424-4x-8TB-WD-Red-Plus-failing-after-120-days/m-p/2122231#M193062

I just posted the reply below - it appeared as accepted and then, as I clicked "reply" again, to add all the findings of teh last two hours,  it flashed a "denied" to me, so I don't really understand what's happening

I am having problems posting my replies. I posted  the one below 3hours ago, and it never seemed to appear, but I only noticed 1h ago. Lets try again. -

===

Apologies, I thought I posted the message (within the “==”)  last week, but I must have prepared the reply but NOT pressed the “Post” button.

Then, of course, I was checking the mails for eventual replies which never came. Sorry !

==

The disk is SO dead that the WD utilities could not even see it (neither Lifeguard Diagnostic DLGDIAG 1.37 nor the “Dashboard”).

Seagate Seatools for Windows saw it, tested it and failed it

--------------- SeaTools for Windows v1.4.0.7 ---------------

Short DST - Started 30/07/2021 21:04:19

Short DST - Pass 30/07/2021 21:06:06

Identify - Started 30/07/2021 21:21:31

Model: EFAX-68KNBN0

Serial: 152D20337A0C

Firmware: Unknown

Model Number: WDC WD80EFAX-68KNBN0

Serial Number: VGJL3SDG

Firmware Revision: 81.00A81

Drive Capacity: 8.00 TB / 7.28 TiB

Max LBA: 15628053167

Cache Size: 256 MB

Power-On Hours: 2930

Drive Temperature (C/F): 46 / 115

WWN: 5000CCA0BEE46BC8

Sector size (Logical/Physical/Allignment): 512 / 4096 / 0

Rotation rate: 5400 RPM

Form factor: 3.5 inch

Specification Supported: ACS-2

Encryption Support: Not Supported

Security Mode: Supported

SMART: Enabled

Host Protected Area features: Enabled

Advanced Power Management: Enabled

Download Microcode: Segmented, Deferred

Short Generic - Started 30/07/2021 21:24:55

Short Generic - FAIL 30/07/2021 21:26:46

Victoria also saw it, as fail it immediately too.

On the 424 I run the extended disk test as adviced. The test completed on Saturday afternoon. I received an email stating that it had been completed, no mention of any Warning or Errors, I presumed it was ok, but I just downloaded the logs, and in volume.log, the last line reads:

“data        disk test  2021-07-30 20:54:30  2021-07-31 13:49:00  pass”.

The other advice was:

“The bay in the NAS might also have failed - if you have a spare disk, you might try doing a factory install (with only the spare disk inserted, in bay 1).  Then power down and move the disk to bay 2.  Power up, and make sure it works. If you try this test, label the disks by slot as you remove them.”

Do you mean a factory default as in

https://kb.netgear.com/23114/How-do-I-reset-the-firmware-on-my-ReadyNAS-OS-6-storage-system-to-factory-defaults

or  via Option 2 in the boot menu (P97 on the HM manual) – (I presume it is the same operation)

I guess that it would format the ”spare disk” (I don’t have a free one, but I suppose I can re-clone one 50Gb hd with a spare W7 copy I have)

==

Update – I eventually managed to find a free-ish SATA disk on some PC, backed it up, and low-level formatted it. I am just about  putting in the RN424 in Slot 1. I imagine it should do a factory default automatically; after that I will switch it off and try the other slots.