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ReadyNAS reports dead drive - replacement shows the same
I received notification that one of my Seagate Constellation ES.2 (i.e. designed for NAS applications) drives had failed. I managed to find an exact replacement and it arrived today. However, once I installed the replacement drive, it still shows as dead. A reboot did not change that status. Now, it's possible that the replacement is a dud, but these drives are very robust (I have zero errors on all four drives in over 50,000 hours of operation) and I think it's not that likely.
So, could this "dead drive" error actually be a hardware fault with the chassis?
I'm running the latest firmware (4.2.31) with RAID-X (4 drives of 3 TB each). Hard drives are Seagate ST3300650NS.
Re: ReadyNAS reports dead drive - replacement shows the same
It is possible that the SATA port for that bay has failed.
I suggest testing the replacement disk with Seatools (and perhaps also test the original disk while you are at it).
Also, you could try powering down the NAS and removing the power cord for a bit (say 15 minutes) - in order to clear any state maintained by the bios. Then remove all the disks (labeling by slot), and try a fresh factory install using the replacement disk - putting it in one of the known working bays. After you verify the install, power down the NAS and move the disk to the failed bay, and see if the NAS boots properly.
Re: ReadyNAS reports dead drive - replacement shows the same
It is possible that the SATA port for that bay has failed.
I suggest testing the replacement disk with Seatools (and perhaps also test the original disk while you are at it).
Also, you could try powering down the NAS and removing the power cord for a bit (say 15 minutes) - in order to clear any state maintained by the bios. Then remove all the disks (labeling by slot), and try a fresh factory install using the replacement disk - putting it in one of the known working bays. After you verify the install, power down the NAS and move the disk to the failed bay, and see if the NAS boots properly.
Re: ReadyNAS reports dead drive - replacement shows the same
Thanks Stephen. I tried option #2 as I don't have any reasonably easy way to connect the drives to my desktop in order to use Seatools. I used an old drive installed in slot 1 (known good), did a factory reset and it came up successfully. After powering down, I moved it to slot 3 (where the disk failure occurred) and it successfully booted again. The SATA port thus appears to be fine and the likely suspect is the replacement drive.
Last question: Since the ReadyNAS has been reset, is there any procedure for re-installing my old drives (other than ensuring they go into their original slots)? If re-installed, will it boot up as before the most recent reset? I'd hate to put a foot wrong and lose the still good data on the three remaining drives.
Re: ReadyNAS reports dead drive - replacement shows the same
Thanks again everyone. Rather than take another chance (and wait another 7-10 days) for an exact replacement, I stopped off at a local retailer and picked up an IronWolf 4TB (ST4000VN008). It's ostensibly slower (5,900 rpm vs. 7,200) and isn't on the officially-supported list (which is hopelessly out of date for legacy NAS units in any case), but it should be a good-enough replacement. Best of all, it was accepted by the NAS and is busy synching as I type. I'll sleep better once the array is redundant again.
Much appreciated for the quick and accurate responses.
Re: ReadyNAS reports dead drive - replacement shows the same
I hope the mix of drive speeds gives you no trouble. When I was swapping out all drives on a NAS recently (under OS 6.9.2, I believe) and the newer ones had a slower speed, it gave me a warning about mixed drive performance when I swapped out the first one. I know it was a problem with some drives under OS 4.2.x, but have not seen it in 6.x. In 4.2.x, I had to turn off spin-down because one of the slower drives (not always the same one) in a mixed drive configuration (all on the compatibility list) would sometimes come up too slow compared to the others and be marked "dead" by the OS.
I hope the mix of drive speeds gives you no trouble. When I was swapping out all drives on a NAS recently (under OS 6.9.2, I believe) and the newer ones had a slower speed, it gave me a warning about mixed drive performance when I swapped out the first one. .
They do have that warning. If you have a mix of drive speeds, the overall RAID performance will be limited by the slowest drive. It should't create any operational issues.
The spin-up issue is quite different. I know of no reason why a slower RPM drive will spin up more slowly. In fact, you'd think it would reach it's full speed more quickly.
Re: ReadyNAS reports dead drive - replacement shows the same
The spin-up current of many lower RPM drives is also lower. That is likely due to the use of a lower torque motor that can take longer to spin up to full speed, even when that speed is lower.
The spin-up current of many lower RPM drives is also lower. That is likely due to the use of a lower torque motor that can take longer to spin up to full speed, even when that speed is lower.
I have mixed 5400 rpm and 7200 rpm drives in the past, and never have had an issue doing that. However I haven't done this with OS 6.
The timeouts should be set so that 5400 drives can spin up, no matter what the mix of drives is in the NAS (including SSD). They are error conditions after all.
