WD HD reliability

Discuss and share your WD drive experience
gbusoni
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WD HD reliability

Post by gbusoni »

Hi all,
I currently have a QNAP 453PRO with 4 4TB WD Red Drives. I have chosen these drives just because my budget didn't allow me to buy more expensive ones, but on my server (where I have 6 4TB drives in RAID6) I only used WD RE drives, that I know are much more reliable.
Now I am planning to upgrade to an 8x6TB drive configuration, in RAID6. My question is: are WD Red drives still a good choice for such a configuration or the URE is too high?

PS: I catch the occasion to ask another question: as far as I understand QNAP uses software raid. How are QNAP software raids dealing with URE? An hardware raid with 1 failed disk that gets an URE stops rebuilding and you have basically lost your data (yes you can try to recover....). What happens for a QNAP where 1 Disk is failed and gets an URE while rebuilding? Is it losing thw whole array or can it save most of the data and just lose a few files?
TsuTey
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Re: WD HD reliability

Post by TsuTey »

I still can recommend WD-Red drives. Never had a failure with them, I am running multiple NAS-Devices with them.
But keep in mind: Even the best drive can fail
Sprocket
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Re: WD HD reliability

Post by Sprocket »

I just had three WD drives fail within a week so I'd definitely suggest caution.

Firstly, an 2Tb unit that I use as an off premises backup simply wouldn't start when I took it out of storage for a regular sync update. No previous issues with the drive (or I wouldn't have been using it). Sadly, it was out of warranty by six months so it went in the crusher and I used a spare.

More alarmingly, just a couple of days later a ten month old WD Red 4Tb drive in my NAS which is half of my principal RAID 1 storage, started to give read error warnings and so I took it out and ran the WD diagnostics tests which it failed. Back to WD who replaced it promptly with no comment.

Even more alarmingly, when I installed the brand new drive the RAID quit rebuilding after only a minute citing bad block errors on the other 4Tb unit in the pair. Took that one out, ran WD Lifeguard and although it passed the extended test the SMART test showed a fail and the NAS said it was ABNORMAL when I tried it just to see what would happen. Back to WD with that one too. No comment but the guy in the service centre didn't seem surprised - they should train them to look agast!

The replacement seems to be OK and the RAID rebuilt but I won't be sticking with WD for the next purchase.
My system: PC running Win 10 x64 / i7 processor with 12 Gb RAM/ Gigabit wired LAN / ZTE F660 fibre modem-router in bridge mode / Asus DSL-N55U_C1 Router / QNAP TS651. Drives arranged as Vol 1=2 x 4Tb WD Red mirrored RAID 1; Vol 2 = 1 x 6Tb WD Red Single; Vol 3= 1 x 2Tb Seagate Single; Vol 4 2 x 4Tb HGST RAID 1;
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Toxic17
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Re: WD HD reliability

Post by Toxic17 »

I've had one fail in 2 years and was under warranty. Only issue i found was WD did not support advanced replacement at the time my drive failed. I ended up buying a new one and using the one that WD replaced as a spare as it was taking too long to replace.
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storageman
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Re: WD HD reliability

Post by storageman »

Toxic17 wrote:I've had one fail in 2 years and was under warranty. Only issue i found was WD did not support advanced replacement at the time my drive failed. I ended up buying a new one and using the one that WD replaced as a spare as it was taking too long to replace.
Who does support advance replacements?
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aarbee
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Re: WD HD reliability

Post by aarbee »

I had 3 fails in half a year on a customers 221.
That where the 2.5" 1TB version.
I am using them myslef had no issue during 4 years with 2 disks at all.

My advice would be never to buy the whole bunch of disks at the same time. Spread it out over 6 months.
It is more likely that if one fails and the others are of the same set the others fail too, within the same period.
Or mix different brands.
For the eye it looks better to have 4 the same. But pratically? I do not think there will be a difference. Though the smaller and slower always wins.

For the rest I have WD Red 4 TB and HGST 3/4 TB.

Besides I am not sure if the Re still exists. I think they where replaced by the Pro? Eventhough the Pro existed allready during that time.
Friendly Greetings,

RobB

Main NAS:
Model: TS-253D - 20200725
Boot:- Raid 1: 2x 1 TB m.2 WD Red
Disks - 6TB WD Red, 350GB WD blue 2.5"

BACKUP NAS (On 2 hours a day due to Electricity costs)
Model: TvS-673 40GB (2*32+2*4) - 20170215
Boot:-Raid 1: 2x Crucial M.2 275GB 2x
Disks Raid 1:-3.5" 2x Toshiba 10 TB
UPS: Back-UPS Pro BR900G-GR
---

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Sprocket
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Re: WD HD reliability

Post by Sprocket »

Buying the drives over a period of time simply isn't possible when you're starting out with a NAS. Maybe I should have at least got them from different dealers so I was paying the price....
My system: PC running Win 10 x64 / i7 processor with 12 Gb RAM/ Gigabit wired LAN / ZTE F660 fibre modem-router in bridge mode / Asus DSL-N55U_C1 Router / QNAP TS651. Drives arranged as Vol 1=2 x 4Tb WD Red mirrored RAID 1; Vol 2 = 1 x 6Tb WD Red Single; Vol 3= 1 x 2Tb Seagate Single; Vol 4 2 x 4Tb HGST RAID 1;
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Johnno72
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Re: WD HD reliability

Post by Johnno72 »

With all these HDD failures are these Desktop HDD's or are they NAS rated HDD's? Desktop HDD's are not designed for NAS environments and will fail considerably faster than the NAS HDD
OS: Win10 Professional v2004 OS Build 19041.388 x64
NAS: QNAP TS-EC2480U-RP 16G 24 Bay - Firmware: v4.4.3.1421 build 20200907. Updated from v4.4.3.1400 Build 20200817 Official
StoragePool / DataVol: Storage Pool 1 / DataVol1: Single 29.04TB - Thick Volume: 29TB
HDD's: Western Digital - Model: WDC WD4001FFSX-68JUN0 Red Pro NAS 3.5"
HDD Size: 4TB - HDD Firmware all HDD's: 81.00A81
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kherr4377
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Re: WD HD reliability

Post by kherr4377 »

8 X 3TB going strong for 4+ years ....... (2 NAS's)
Production :
TVS-673 4.3.4 0387
4 X 3TB WD RED : 1 X 4TB HGST DESKSTAR R5
32GB
LAN-10G1SR-D, FiberHal for Cisco SFP-10G-SR
NETGEAR ProSAFE SS3300-28X

Backup :
TS-469L 4.3.4 0387
4 X 3TB WD RED R5
3GB
Located detached garage .. cheap offsite solution ...

2nd TS-469L awaiting drives and reassignment for front-line duty .......
raysvq
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Re: WD HD reliability

Post by raysvq »

As of Friday a 3rd (and it looks like a fourth one is giving signs of not wanting to play the game anymore) WD Red 4TB has failed in 12 months. Prior to that I was using WD 2TB hdd's and 2 of those failed (luckily I always backup my data - so no data loss thanlfully). When the 2 x 2TB hdd's failed it gave me the opportunity to upgrade to 4TB drives.
After this latest failure I am going to switch to Seagate 4TB hdd's.
I know failures can happen but it just seems that WD units are not as reliable as they used to be.
BTW my NAS is a QNAP TS-459 Pro II which I have had for a few years.
TS-459 Pro II (No longer thinking about the TS-453A - I have placed an order for it)
4 x 4TD WD Reds (Migrating to Seagate Constellation 4TB - soon)
v4.2.6 (20140729)
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dolbyman
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Re: WD HD reliability

Post by dolbyman »

I have 3 WD Red 3TB they run 24/7 for 2 1/2 years now
before that I had 4 2TB (modified) WD Green, they ran for 5 years until one showed rwlkcated sectors..I swapped them all for the WD Reds
zagan
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Re: WD HD reliability

Post by zagan »

Johnno72 wrote:With all these HDD failures are these Desktop HDD's or are they NAS rated HDD's? Desktop HDD's are not designed for NAS environments and will fail considerably faster than the NAS HDD
Wd red drives are nas drives, but 4tb and up drives have all the ltitle extras to keep the drives good, the 1 2 3 tb reds don't have these extras, these drives are rated safe for 3 years max beyond that and you are lucky or like the risk either way you look at it.

Wd red pros have all the extras but rated good for 5 years, free lifetime replacement, free lifetime data pulled from dead drives

Gold is the enterprise drives rated good for 10 years, the above replacement and data pull but in 24 hour or 48 hour world wide service for free.
P3R
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Re: WD HD reliability

Post by P3R »

zagan wrote:Wd red drives are nas drives, but 4tb and up drives have all the ltitle extras to keep the drives good, the 1 2 3 tb reds don't have these extras...
Ahh, back trolling again are we? What exactly are those mysterious "little extras"? Please present a reliable source backing those claims.
Wd red pros have all the extras but rated good for 5 years, free lifetime replacement, free lifetime data pulled from dead drives
What free lifetime replacement? WD Red Pro have a 5 year limited warranty.
Gold is the enterprise drives rated good for 10 years...
Please present a reliable source (like WD maybe) backing that statement.
RAID have never ever been a replacement for backups. Without backups on a different system (preferably placed at another site), you will eventually lose data!

A non-RAID configuration (including RAID 0, which isn't really RAID) with a backup on a separate media protects your data far better than any RAID-volume without backup.

All data storage consists of both the primary storage and the backups. It's your money and your data, spend the storage budget wisely or pay with your data!
elkhornsun
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Re: WD HD reliability

Post by elkhornsun »

I rely on the published reports of drive failures by Backblaze. At this time they have 98,046 drivess and 77,166,235 drive days with reported failure rates. One should appreciate that this includes older drives than may be more or may be less reliable than what is being shipped today or will ship tomorrow. Good example is the HGST drives with that company now owned by WDC. Undoubtedly changes have been made in production and quality assurance and this will be reflected in future drive failure rates.

Looking back over 5 years of drive history their two least reliable drives have been the WD30EFRX 3TB and WD60EFRX 6TB drives. Drive sample size is very small and so the failure rate may not be as bad overall as what they reported.
jon96789
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Re: WD HD reliability

Post by jon96789 »

I have three NAS devices, a TS-453 Pro with four 6TB WD Red drives, a TS-673A with five 6TB Red drives and a TS-853A with eight 4TB drives.

I just picked up the TS-673A and currently initializing it. The storage right now is configured at 21.1TB with one bay to spare.

My two-year old TS-853A had seven 4TB drives configured in a RAID-6 array (the others are in a RAID-5 config)... I decided to fill the final bay with another 4TB drive to match the capacity of the TS-673A. I just bought a drive on 5/16 and added it to the array. It took 36 hours to migrate the NAS data and now stating it will take another 32 hours to rebuild the array. One hour into rebuilding, the drive in bay-2 failed. Luckily it was in a RAID-6 otherwise I would have lost everything. This NAS is only used once or twice a week to backup my primary NAS, the TS-453 Pro which is on 24x7x365.

Getting back to the point, my three NAS devices have a total of 18 WD Red drives. Just in the past year alone, i had to replace six drives! Four 4TB drives and two 6TB drives. I would think the drives would last longer than what I am getting, especially on the TS-853A where three drives died. One drive shows only 14 hours on it and the rest varies from 100 days to 600 days.
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