Give it to me straight, how long does this partiy drive have left :/

[d8a7ed]

this parity has been switching to a "faulty" state every few weeks, the only fix is to stop the array, do a "new config" command and then power down the machine and bring it back up. then completely rebuild the parity array, is there anyway around this ?

[danioj]

Replace it now. Drive is done.

 

No drive with any pending sectors is OK. AFAIK you cannot use it to re-construct the same sectors on any other disk in the array if they were to fail.

 

If it's an option. RMA it.

Edited March 19, 2017 by danioj

[RobJ]

In this case, it's not really a matter of how long it has, but that it's *already* useless as a parity drive, so you might as well remove it now.  I don't see any indicators of mechanical issues, so if this drive had had files and folders, you would probably have had plenty of time to copy them off.  But it doesn't!  Parity drives don't have a single bit of data on them so there's nothing to save!  What it does have is lots of bad sectors, obvious media surface damage, at such a young age, and therefore the drive cannot be trusted.

 

I'd pull it now, and run without parity until you get a replacement for it.  I can't think of any advantage to keep using it, and it's slowing down all writes, for nothing.  What danioj said is exactly correct.

[d8a7ed]

yea i very recently RMA'd this one  THIS IS THE REPLACEMENT, i guess ill try again... jeez

[JorgeB]

2 hours ago, d8a7ed said:

THIS IS THE REPLACEMENT

 

Refurbished disks ?

[SSD]

Agree that drive is done. 

 

Drive manufacturers run some diagnostics on returned drives and clear the smart data and call that refurbished.  Their standard of a "good disk" is well below what you and I think. Often the original issue is not resolved. I think of a drive as largely a single unit, and not something that can be taken apart, a few parts swapped out, and then put together good as new. If the controller fails, which is sort of a bolt on, that can be replaced. But things inside the enclosed disk are not going to be "fixed".  "Luckily" people don't know what they're doing and return lots of perfectly good disks thinking the disk is bad. It can take a few tries to get one of those.

 

(This is mostly conjecture about what drive manufactures do, but consistent with experiences we see in the forums)

[d8a7ed]

well in any case i have an advanced return coming my way (10 bucks!) but i decided to rebuild the parity array just for the LOLS, and my smart attributes are showing green now???? in any case, here is a pic that is showing the only issue as reallocated sector count  

[danioj]

I just want to reiterate my advice (just in case you are tempted to do otherwise) that the drive in question should be replaced ASAP!

 

As i believe I have mentioned before, there is nothing wrong with having the odd reallocated sector. All modern drives are designed to reallocate any dodgy sectors to a spare location on the disk. So for the occasional reallocated sector (and assuming the value remains reasonably constant) this can be fine.

 

A much more serious issue is (as you have) if you start getting regular pending sectors. These are dodgy sectors that are in use and can't be reallocated because the drive can't successfully read them to reallocate the data contained on them.

 

I again reiterate - you have started getting these, so my advice is to replace the drive ASAP (ok I won't say this again).

 

I want to also reiterate though (for readers of this post sometime in the future) if you simply have a few reallocated sectors, the drive is probably fine (assuming there are no other warning signs).

 

I would however ensure (if I did get a few) to watch the count doesn't start getting out of control. I'd say the odd increase is ok but anything more significant - get that drive replaced!!

 

*kudos to @garycase as I did glance at my notes for this one and his name was referenced there!

[garycase]

The only thing I ever use RMA replacements for is as an offline backup disk => as already noted, they tend to be refurbished disks [and while I'm not quite as skeptical as Brian (bjp999) as to the process, I DO think these are not as reliable as new drives => I think they DO replace platter assemblies in a cleanroom if these show errors.

 

And FWIW your drive does NOT have "a few reallocated sectors" => it has over 3,000 of them !!    A few are fine; but when the number is that large, I'd absolutely not use the drive for anything except an effectively static backup drive.

 

[SSD]

9 minutes ago, garycase said:

The only thing I ever use RMA replacements for is as an offline backup disk => as already noted, they tend to be refurbished disks [and while I'm not quite as skeptical as Brian (bjp999) as to the process, I DO think these are not as reliable as new drives => I think they DO replace platter assemblies in a cleanroom if these show errors.

 

And FWIW your drive does NOT have "a few reallocated sectors" => it has over 3,000 of them !!    A few are fine; but when the number is that large, I'd absolutely not use the drive for anything except an effectively static backup drive.

 

 

The absolute number is less important than if new sectors continue to be identified as needing relocation. If you preclear the disk through 3 cycles (or run 3 consecutive parity checks) and the number of reallocated sectors stay the same and pending sectors do no re-appear, I MIGHT trust a drive with fewer reallocated sectors. But over 3000 I'd have to say off with its head.