Smart error on disc WD2002FAEX - like to change to bigger discs

[torstein_osborg]

Hi

One of my 2gb disc's Western Digital WD2002FAEX gives me a SMART error:

"Detected increasing uncorrectable errors[172] on

disk 3 [WDC WD2002FAEX-007BA0, WD-WMAY00807383].

This often indicates an impending failure. Please be prepared to replace this disk to maintain data redundancy."

My question is:

I have 5 discs of same type and age, runnin x-raid2. I will change all of them, and put in, if possible, only 3 bigger discs.

I like to increase disc size to bigger than 2 gbyte, preferably 6 gbyte.

So what disc's do you recommend and how do i do the change from 4 pcs 2gbyte to 3 new bigger ones, or do i have to use 5 discs when changing all 5?

Thanks in advance!!

My setup

Hostname:	NNNNxxxNNN
Model:	ReadyNAS Ultra 6 Plus [X-RAID2]
Serial:	2H1xxxxxxxxxx
Firmware:	RAIDiator 4.2.28
Memory:	1024 MB [6-6-6-18 DDR2]
IPv4 address: 1:	Not Connected
IPv4 address: 2:	192.168.0.5
Volume C:	Online, X-RAID2, 5 disks, 84% of 7399 GB used

Torstein

[StephenB]

I think you meant 6 TB, not 6 GB...

There are some expansion limits with 4.2.x firmware.

1. You cannot expand a volume over a 16 TiB ceiling
2. You cannot expand a volume more than 8 TiB from its starting point.

If you started with 5x2TB then you hit both these limitations at about the same time - you can grow the volume from 8 TB to 16 TB but no further.

So if you stay with 4.2.x firmware you can upgrade to 5x4 TB, but not 5x6 TB.

If you want to go higher you can convert your ReadyNAS to run OS 6.  That doesn't have these expansion limits.  Netgear doesn't support that conversion, but many people have done it, and there is information here on how to do it.  The process does require a factory reset, so you would need to restore all the files from backup after the process is finished.

You do want to be careful on when you choose very large disks - manufacturers are shifting to alternative mounting positions on the drives, so you should make sure that enough mounting holes are aligned with the tray so you can screw them in.  Usually you can google this info.  Also, you should avoid SMR drives (Seagate archival drives for example).  They are cost effective for archival, but aren't well suited for RAID.

---

@torstein_osborg wrote:

So what disc's do you recommend and how do i do the change from 4 pcs 2gbyte to 3 new bigger ones, or do i have to use 5 discs when changing all 5?

---

You have to replace at least two drives to get space increase - the capacity formula for XRAID single redundancy is "sum the drives and subtract the largest".  I always hot-swap - removing the first drive and replacing it with the NAS running.  Then after the volume resyncs, repeat the process with the next.  Be sure the process is done.

As far as drives go, I personally go with NAS-purposed drives (I use WDC Reds, though Seagate Ironwolf is another option).  These aren't quite as fast as enterprise drives, but they run a lot cooler.  Enterprise-class is of course also an option, for instance the WDC Red Pro drives.

[torstein_osborg]

Thanks StephenB.

I have now 5 pcs new 4 TB disks ready. (WD Red 4TB 3.5" NAS HDD)

I am currently uploading all data to jottacloud.

I will not update OS this time.

When backup is finish i will replace one bye one, wait for resync in between.

I have 2 of 5 old disks reporting SMART error.

q:

Should i start to change the disks with errors first, or should i start from top and change one by one (1+2+3+4+5 from top and down)?

Hostname: Mamma

Model: ReadyNAS Ultra 6 Plus [X-RAID2]
Serial: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Firmware: RAIDiator 4.2.30
Memory: 1024 MB [6-6-6-18 DDR2]

IPv4 address: 1: 192.168.0.4

IPv4 address: 2: 192.168.0.5

Volume C: Online, X-RAID2, 5 disks, 84% of 7399 GB used

[StephenB]

---

@torstein_osborg wrote:

I have 2 of 5 old disks reporting SMART error.

Should i start to change the disks with errors first, or should i start from top and change one by one (1+2+3+4+5 from top and down)?

---

It always risky when two disks have errors.  If you can make a backup first you should.

You want to replace the disk in the worst shape first.  If you aren't sure which one that is, perhaps post the SMART errors you are seeing on the two drives.

After that replace the other disk with errors.

[torstein_osborg]

Hi

thanks for answer StephenB!

I start with to hot swap no 3 if nobody obejects.

Newest SMART/Error messages on top:

13. jan 17 (today friday 13.......)

Detected increasing pending sector count[123] on disk 3 [WDC WD2002FAEX-007BA0, WD-WMAY00807383] 15 times in the past 30 days. This often indicates an impending failure. Please be prepared to replace this disk to maintain data redundancy.

Today:

SMART Information for Disk 3

Model: WDC WD2002FAEX-007BA0
Serial: WD-WMAY00807383
Firmware: 05.01D05
SMART Attribute
Raw Read Error Rate 2
Spin Up Time 6241
Start Stop Count 1287
Reallocated Sector Count 0
Seek Error Rate 0
Power On Hours 47013
Spin Retry Count 0
Calibration Retry Count 0
Power Cycle Count 150
Power-Off Retract Count 65
Load Cycle Count 1221
Temperature Celsius 40
Reallocated Event Count 0
Current Pending Sector 111
Offline Uncorrectable 172
UDMA CRC Error Count 0
Multi Zone Error Rate 185
ATA Error Count 0

7. jan 17

Detected increasing pending sector count[265] on disk 2 [WDC WD2002FAEX-007BA0, WD-WMAY00875116] 15 times in the past 30 days. This often indicates an impending failure. Please be prepared to replace this disk to maintain data redundancy.

 Today:

SMART Information for Disk 2
Model: WDC WD2002FAEX-007BA0
Serial: WD-WMAY00875116
Firmware: 05.01D05
SMART Attribute
Raw Read Error Rate 20
Spin Up Time 6466
Start Stop Count 1294
Reallocated Sector Count 0
Seek Error Rate 0
Power On Hours 46993
Spin Retry Count 0
Calibration Retry Count 0
Power Cycle Count 150
Power-Off Retract Count 65
Load Cycle Count 1228
Temperature Celsius 42
Reallocated Event Count 0
Current Pending Sector 39
Offline Uncorrectable 2
UDMA CRC Error Count 0
Multi Zone Error Rate 21
ATA Error Count 0

1. jan 17

Detected increasing uncorrectable errors[172] on disk 3 [WDC WD2002FAEX-007BA0, WD-WMAY00807383]. This often indicates an impending failure. Please be prepared to replace this disk to maintain data redundancy.

Hostname:	Mamma
Model:	ReadyNAS Ultra 6 Plus [X-RAID2]
Serial:	2Hxxxxxx
Firmware:	RAIDiator 4.2.30
Memory:	1024 MB [6-6-6-18 DDR2]
IPv4 address: 1:	192.168.0.4
IPv4 address: 2:	Not Connected
Volume C:	Online, X-RAID2, 5 disks, 84% of 7399 GB used

[FramerV]

Hi torstein_osborg,

I would suggest that you do a back-up first before attempting to sync it. Given that you have a 2nd drive that might fail also.

Regards,

[StephenB]

---

@FramerV wrote:
 I would suggest that you do a back-up first before attempting to sync it. Given that you have a 2nd drive that might fail also.

---

Yes, I suggested that above also.

Disk 3 does appear to be in worse shape

[Sandshark]

I wanted to add the "why" there is such a risk with two drives in bad shape.  Resync is very intensive on all the drives, so a drive that is on the edge of failure is at high risk to be pushed over that edge.  While a new drive is in re-sync, your array is no longer redundant.  If you lose another during the process, you lose the entire volume.

Backup is much less intensive, and even if you lose one drive during it, you have not lost the volume.  And if you do lose one, that will let you lknow for sure which to replace first.

Also, a word of warning:  Be absolutely certain you are pulling the right drive.  If you pull the wrong one, it will need to re-sync when you put it back in, placing a heavy load on both of your borderline drives.

[torstein_osborg]

Hi

Thanks for all info. I have backup (jottacloud.no)

I changed disc 3 from 2 to 4 TByte friday, worked as a charm. Took about 15h to resync.

Disc 2 did produse a few error messages today, so i did a change today. So at the moment disc 2 is resyncing now. Tomorrow i change disk 1, then disk 4 and 5, they are a bit newer.

Hostname:	Mamma
Model:	ReadyNAS Ultra 6 Plus [X-RAID2]
Serial:	2Hxxxxxx
Firmware:	RAIDiator 4.2.30
Memory:	1024 MB [6-6-6-18 DDR2]
IPv4 address: 1:	192.168.0.4
IPv4 address: 2:	Not Connected
Volume C:	Online, X-RAID2, 5 disks, 84% of 7399 GB used

Hostname: Mamma

Model: ReadyNAS Ultra 6 Plus [X-RAID2]
Serial: 2Hxxxxxx
Firmware: RAIDiator 4.2.30
Memory: 1024 MB [6-6-6-18 DDR2]

IPv4 address: 1: 192.168.0.4
IPv4 address: 2: Not Connected

Volume C: Online, X-RAID2, 5 disks, 84% of 7399 GB used
 

[torstein_osborg]

Hostname:	Mamma
Model:	ReadyNAS Ultra 6 Plus [X-RAID2]
Serial:	2Hxxxxxx
Firmware:	RAIDiator 4.2.30
Memory:	1024 MB [6-6-6-18 DDR2]
IPv4 address: 1:	192.168.0.4
IPv4 address: 2:	Not Connected
Volume C:	Online, X-RAID2, 5 disks, 84% of 7399 GB used

Hostname: Mamma

Model: ReadyNAS Ultra 6 Plus [X-RAID2]
Serial: 2Hxxxxxx
Firmware: RAIDiator 4.2.30
Memory: 1024 MB [6-6-6-18 DDR2]

IPv4 address: 1: 192.168.0.4
IPv4 address: 2: Not Connected

Volume C: Online, X-RAID2, 5 disks, 84% of 7399 GB used
 

[torstein_osborg]

Hi

semms to go OK. I got this info from system after reboot and forced check:

***** File system check forced at Mon Jan 16 14:50:13 CET 2017 *****

fsck 1.42.12 (29-Aug-2014) e2fsck 1.42.12 (29-Aug-2014) Pass

1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes Pass 2: Checking directory structure Pass

3: Checking directory connectivity Pass

4: Checking reference counts Pass

5: Checking group summary information
/dev/c/c: 818793/121716736 files (7.5% non-contiguous), 1651946556/1947467776 blocks

Any who can enlighten me regarding point 5?

Hostname: Mamma

Model: ReadyNAS Ultra 6 Plus [X-RAID2]
Serial: 2Hxxxxxx
Firmware: RAIDiator 4.2.30
Memory: 1024 MB [6-6-6-18 DDR2]

IPv4 address: 1: 192.168.0.4
IPv4 address: 2: Not Connected

Volume C: Online, X-RAID2, 5 disks, 84% of 7399 GB used
 

[torstein_osborg]

 Hi

3 new discs. as you can see disk 1 (the one i replaced after 3 and 2) is now acting as a Spare. 

Why is this happening?

Device Description  Status

Disk 1WDC WD40EFRX-68WT0N0 3726 GB , 37 C / 98 F , Write-cache ONSpare

Disk 2WDC WD40EFRX-68WT0N0 3726 GB , 39 C / 102 F , Write-cache ONOK

Disk 3WDC WD40EFRX-68WT0N0 3726 GB , 37 C / 98 F , Write-cache ONOK

Disk 4WDC WD2002FAEX-007BA0 1863 GB , 44 C / 111 F , Write-cache ONOK

Disk 5WDC WD2002FAEX-007BA0 1863 GB , 42 C / 107 F , Write-cache ONOK

In RAID Configuration page i see this status:

Configuration:	RAID Level X-RAID2, 5 disks
Status:	Restriping 36% complete, Time to finish 33 hr 8 min, Speed 30.5 MB/sec

Should i wait ~33h before i replace disc 4?

Home page

Hostname: Mamma

Model: ReadyNAS Ultra 6 Plus [X-RAID2]
Serial: 2hxxxxxxxxxxx
Firmware: RAIDiator 4.2.30
Memory: 1024 MB [6-6-6-18 DDR2]

IPv4 address: 1: 192.168.0.4
IPv4 address: 2: Not Connected

Volume C: Online, X-RAID2, 5 disks, 67% of 9255 GB used

[StephenB]

I'd wait.