Detected increasing uncorrectable error count:

[MWilliams4]

I have two RN104 devices, both with 4 drives of 3TB Seagate Barracudas.

Both 6.4.1 (now 6.4.2)

A week ago I got a error similar to this on Unit 1 -- DISK 4

Today I saw this error on Unit 2 ---  DISK 4

Coincidence or is there an issue with the NAS system??

I find it hard to believe that two of them went out same drive...

Sun Feb 7 2016 13:28:14		Disk: Detected increasing uncorrectable error count: [24] on disk 4 (Internal) [ST3000DM001-9YN166, W1F1BDXE] 16 times in the past 30 days. This condition often indicates an impending failure. Be prepared to replace this disk to maintain data redundancy.
Sun Feb 7 2016 10:46:51		Disk: Detected high uncorrectable error count: [32] on disk 4 (Internal) [ST3000DM001-9YN166, W1F1BDXE]. This condition often indicates an impending failure. Be prepared to replace this disk to maintain data redundancy.

[StephenB · Accepted solution]

These particular errors are detected by the drive itself, and I don't see any way that the NAS firmware can create them, no matter what ATA commands it issues.

FWIW, based on postings here and other forums, I would not use a DM drive in a NAS.  If you like Seagate drives you should instead use VN drives.  The equivalent WD disk is the WD30EFRX (which is what I prefer).

DM drives are known to be trouble-prone (for instance https://www.backblaze.com/blog/3tb-hard-drive-failure/ )

[BrianL2]

Hi MWilliams4,

Drive failures can happen anytime and to be sure if the drive is faulty and needs to be replaced, kindly check this page for instructions.

Kind regards,

BrianL
NETGEAR Community Team

[StephenB · Accepted solution]

These particular errors are detected by the drive itself, and I don't see any way that the NAS firmware can create them, no matter what ATA commands it issues.

FWIW, based on postings here and other forums, I would not use a DM drive in a NAS.  If you like Seagate drives you should instead use VN drives.  The equivalent WD disk is the WD30EFRX (which is what I prefer).

DM drives are known to be trouble-prone (for instance https://www.backblaze.com/blog/3tb-hard-drive-failure/ )

[MWilliams4]

Swapped out two more drives, one on each, and both within a week are giving the same errors.

Something is wrong...and from reading the article, I guess it's my seagate 3TB's  UGH

[BrianL2]

Hi MWilliams,

You may want to run a (manufacturers) diagnostic test tool on each drive to see if they're really problematic or has some has errors in them. 

Kind regards,

BrianL
NETGEAR Community Team

[MWilliams4]

Ok I need some verification here.

I went online to http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/20641/~/readynas-hard-disk-compatibility-list and punched in my RN104 and 6TB's came up.

So I figured I'd go all in and ordered the 6TB WD RED WD60EFRX. Close to $1000.

Then, as I was looking at the spec sheet of the unit it says 16TB is the max.

Was that just when it was released that 4TB was the largest drive available?

Now, I look today and the current specs on the website say 24TB is max.

I'm assuming that 24 is good to go, correct? 

[MWilliams4]

Also, 

I have two duplicate units, RN104 both with those friendly Seagate 3TBs x 4. One is the main live LAN connected drive, and the other backs up that unit.

So when the disks come in today my plan was to pull the backup drives and number them and set them aside.

Get the new drives installed, formatted and set up, then copy data from my main drive 

Then I have 4 spares for a while on the troublesome seagate 3TBs.

Eventually getting 4 more 6TBs.

Will this plan work, or will as soon as I pull the drives will it destroy the old 16TB RAID as far as the unit goes?

Meaning... disaster and I have to recover those 4, can I just put them back in 1-4 and they will work as if the unit was just powered off?

[StephenB]

---

@MWilliams4 wrote:

Will this plan work, or will as soon as I pull the drives will it destroy the old 16TB RAID as far as the unit goes?

Meaning... disaster and I have to recover those 4, can I just put them back in 1-4 and they will work as if the unit was just powered off?

---

The system boots off the disks, and all the configuration information is also saved on the disks.

So your plan will work - if you power down the system, reinsert the original drives, and power up again, the system will boot - preserving the original data volume, apps, and configuration.

If you upgrade the firmware with the new disks, then the boot process will also update the firmware on the old disks.  The rule with new OS6 firmware is that the system figures out which is newer (boot flash or OS partition), and upgrades whatever version is older to the newer one.

[MWilliams4]

Rethinking....

Would this work?

take my current backup offline and remove disks and set aside

Move the active NAS 4 disks to the Backup machine.

Install new drives into the active machine, format, setup and copy back data from old Active (now in the backup) to new active.

When done copying, then re-install the original backup set

Or is there a better way to go about it altogether?

[StephenB]

---

@MWilliams4 wrote:

Would this work?

take my current backup offline and remove disks and set aside

Move the active NAS 4 disks to the Backup machine.

Install new drives into the active machine, format, setup and copy back data from old Active (now in the backup) to new active.

When done copying, then re-install the original backup set

This would also work.