Retired block count warning in Raid0 Array

[wayneo]

Hello

One of my disks in my RAID0 configuration (8*3TB Seagate ST3000DM001) is showing a "Retired_block_count" SMART warning (Note: I have two QNAP NAS both in a RAID 0 configuration one as live and the other as backup).

Is it possible for me to clone the problem disk and swap it rather than replace it, rebuild the RAID array and then copy the data over?

If this is possible do you have any suggestions as to what software I could use to do the cloning?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

[pwilson]

Hello

One of my disks in my RAID0 configuration (8*3TB Seagate ST3000DM001) is showing a "Retired_block_count" SMART warning (Note: I have two QNAP NAS both in a RAID 0 configuration one as live and the other as backup).

Is it possible for me to clone the problem disk and swap it rather than replace it, rebuild the RAID array and then copy the data over?

If this is possible do you have any suggestions as to what software I could use to do the cloning?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

No it is not possible. When you lose "any" drive in a risky RAID0 volume you experience complete data loss of the the entire array. Such is the joy of RAID0, especially with "those drives".

Seagate ST3000DM001 Desktop Drives SATA 6Gb/s (SATA III) 3000 GB Incompatible TS-659 Pro+

1. (3TB & 4TB HDDs)
   Not applicable to TS-509 Pro. TS-639 Pro does not support >16TB disk volume.
2. This hard drive series initially passed our lab compatibility test and was included in the recommended HDD list. However, during the last few months, we have received an overwhelming number of support requests regarding this hard drive series. The high failure rate of this hard drives series has raised concerns over risks of data loss. Therefore, we have no choice but to remove this series from the recommended HDD list. For users who have already installed this series of HDD on their Turbo NAS, QNAP will continue to provide technical supports as requested.
3. The batch number, 1CH166, has passed the hard drive compatibility test.

It will take a long time to manually rebuild your 21.6TB RAID0 array. At least you have a Backup you can restore. I'd recommend replacing all 8 (16?) drives. If you were using RAID drive redundancy, you could have simply hot-swapped the failed drive by following QNAP Tutorial: Hot-swapping the hard drives when the RAID crashes, unfortunately RAID0 isn't RAID (No drive redundancy whatsoever).

I'll save you my usual spiel about RAID0. I somehow suspect you already knew it was a bad idea, but did it anyway. Why are you using these particular Seagates. Seagate does sell "recommended" RAID/NAS-specific drives too. Just out of curiousity how long does it take to restore 21.6TB of data on your NAS model via NAS-to-NAS Backups?

Wipe the 7 remaining "functioning" drives, and replace the failed one, and then you can start from scratch again. Are your NAS devices for "Home" or "Corporate" use? If they are Corporate, and you are the "IT Guy" you'll probably be billing for lots of overtime hours in order to resolve this issue.

I use RAID5 here.

If I owned an 8-Bay QNAP, I would create two RAID5/4-Drive arrays on it. I hope you get to see at least part of this weekend for happier pursuits. Good luck with your reformat/rebuild.

[wayneo]

Hello Patrick,

Thanks for your response I was hoping there was a way of cloning the 1 drive (it is still functioning , it just gives a warning) without having to rebuild and copy the data over. It would have been less time consuming than rebuilding and copying over the data again.
Incidentally ,it took about four days to do a full copy (about 20TB of data- I normally synchronise every week so it is not normally so time consuming).

The reason for choosing RAID0 was for volume and performance - I use my main QNAP NAS as a media server which can be accessed via various media players throughout the house. I archive my Blurays, DVDs and Music library so that they can be played throughout the home and the mediawall software/media players I used required the Media metadata library and all the media files to be on the same volume - so capacity was key.

I will just need to rebuild the backup server array - which maybe time consuming but is still better than re-ripping my music, blurays and dvds again.

The Seagate drives are now getting on a bit (so I am now surprised that they are getting a bit temperamental - but when I originally put them in they were a recommended drive, although I see they are no longer marked as compatible due to the volume of calls related to failed drives). In my main NAS I have 8* 6TB WD RED.

Thanks again for your help.

[pwilson]

The Seagate drives are now getting on a bit (so I am now surprised that they are getting a bit temperamental - but when I originally put them in they were a recommended drive, although I see they are no longer marked as compatible due to the volume of calls related to failed drives). In my main NAS I have 8* 6TB WD RED.

Thanks again for your help.

Good choice for drives on the second NAS. WD Reds are purpose built for RAID/NAS use. Those horrid Seagates are "Desktop" drives, that were never build with RAID use in mind. (I once owned 4 of them myself. I lost all my data, and my experience with Seagate Support was so bad, I will never purchase any product Seagate makes again).

You can probably re-task those Seagates for PC's or Backup Media going forward. They are allegedly suitable for Desktop PC use.

Rebuild/Restore time is why I never use RAID0. It is simply too risky, and too time consuming to recover when it fails. It only takes 2 minutes to hot-swap a RAID drive, and the NAS will rebuild all by itself. I'm lazy. Why give up 4 days of labour, when I can do it in 2 minutes, by simply sacrificing the drive space of a single drive to make it possible.

I regularly stream up to 5 different HD Videos to other devices concurrently on my network here. RAID5 is more than fast enough to permit these video streams to be watched without "lag" or "stutter" on multiple devices.

Like I said in my last message, I hope you get to enjoy at least part of your weekend.