I've been using my Netgear NV+ 4000 v1 for a month and so far have been happy with it. However, last night I received a dead drive error on slot 1.
The drives are 2x WD Green 2TB - WDC WD20EARX-00PASB0 - firmware 51.0AB51 - RAIDiator 4.1.9
Disk 1 has a high Lp stat events count and it's growing: it was 404 when the drive 'died' after 30 days 24/7 use. Disk 2 has Lp stat events at 4 and stable.
I reformatted Disk 1 in Windows and put it back in the array. Resynced fine and appears to be working, but the Lp stat events are climbing: 530 now, versus 4 on Disk 2.
Disk 1:
Spin Up Time 5291 Power On Hours 739 Load Cycle Count 59032 Lp stat events 530 Hard disk resets 1 Retries 1
Disk 2:
Spin Up Time 6150 Power On Hours 740 Load Cycle Count 59647 Lp stat events 4 Hard disk resets 1 Retries 0
Disk 1 isn't faulty as far as Western Digital's tools are concerned. Should I replace this drive? This model WD Green drive is on Netgear's hardware compatibility list, but should I have used a dedicated RAID edition drive?
I suggest that you watch your disks load cycle count, it is increasing rapidly. Mine got over 750,000 which is well above the limit of 300,000. Because of this my WD20EARX are failing. They hang every few minutes. The solution is to use 'wdidle3' and increase or even remove the idle timer (Google to get some info)
Benoit ReadyNAS Ultra 6 6 x WD20EARX firmware 51.0AB5
Benoitmabille - I have an WD30EZRX which has a load cycle count around 970K and it still quite happy. I have another with an LCC around 600K. I did move them to a desktop a while ago. The hangs you are seeing could be related to the high LCC, or they could be something else.
Cluster2k - Generally I am phasing out desktop "green" drives in my NAS. Both Seagate and WDC make grren drives tuned for home NAS use. I haven't used the Seagates, but have had good luck with the WDC Reds. Though the NAS drives are a bit more expensive, they also have a longer warranty than desktop drives, which in my view is enough to justify the higher price. If drive one misbehaves again I'd suggest getting a WD RED WD20EFRX (also on your hcl) and possibly re-deploy the EARX somewhere else.
Also, I suggest that you implement a backup strategy for your NAS.
Thank you for this feedback. My best guess is the disks are failing, a trusty old Dlink dns-323 next to the Ultra6 is much slower but experience no freeze and streams quite happily. It backs up the Ultra6 using rsync. I have looked at the Ultra6 for possible other problem but found none in my configuration. It will be a pain to replace the 6 drives so I would be happy with another solution but found none. And you are right, i purchased these desktop drives without knowing, the low power and rpm appealed to me. Next time it will be red ! Happy to hear your drives are ok. I would tolerate the freeze during copy operations but streaming is interupted every few minutes so I have to find a solution. And i would prefer to use the ultra as.main streaming NAS, not the Dlink (although with alternative Alt-F firmware it is nothing less than superb 🙂 Cheers Benoit
Have you checked the network stats? Also if you use ReadyDLNA or have had the NAS a long time, you might want to enable ssh and look at the free space on the OS partition. It is possible to move the ReadyDLNA database to the C volume, which can save quite a bit of OS space.
If you do go ahead with the drive replacement (definitely expensive to do all at once!) you might consider rebuilding the NAS from scratch, and restoring the data from the dlink. Keeping the original drives intact gives you a fallback if something goes wrong - and since you have some evidence that writes can cause freezes/lockups - doing 6 resyncs might be risky. Also, I suggest going with fewer/larger drives - perhaps 4x3TB. Often that is cheaper, and it gives you more expansion options.
Tx for the suggestions You think there could be swapping resulting in freezes ? I will check (i use twonky not readydlna but principle remains i guess) About the disks, i totally agree. No resync 6 times. I have a faint hope that WD may accept replacement under warranty. Otherwise I will go for the 3TB ones. Cheers
WD sent me replacement 6 x new WD20EARX - Bravo for their excellent service ! --> unfortunately freezes remain Netgear exchanged my ULTRA 6 - Bravo for their excellent service ! --> unfortunately freezes remain I purchased 4 x WD30whatever RED, on the HCL - Bravo for my wallet ! --> unfortunately freezes remain
The Netgear switch GS116E is changed for a 3COM. Both Gigabit-capable and Jumbo-capable. Tried numerous times with or without jumbo. A lowly D-Link NAS plugged next to the ULTRA6 suffers no freeze. Freezes are experienced from various clients on my LAN. Add-ons installed : enableSSH, ReadynasPhotosII, ReadynasRemote & Twonky server 7.11
Am I doomed ? I see no other route to go and spent much time on this already. A hint anyone, before I give up ?
I am thinking that you should check the fullness of the OS partition with ssh (using "df .")
If the OS partition isn't full, then maybe you could try rebuilding the NAS from scratch (factory reset, reinstall add-ons, reinstall config, restore data from backup). A variation is to do a clean install using a couple of the old disks, restore enough of your data to get by, and see if the freezes stop.
