QNAP - When hard drives go "BAD"

[pardysound]

Hi,

I have been running my QNAP 839 in a RAID 6 for about 3 years.. in that time I have had to replace about 4 of the HDD's (2tb WD cav green) I have just put new one in, reformatted and used the old drives for other non crucial things.

My question is once the NAS's SMAART tells me that a drive is bad.. is it permanently bad even after being reformatted.. can I use the old drive back in the NAS again once its been reformatted ?

 

[pardysound]

I'm asking now because I have 2 that smaart is telling me have gone from "GOOD" to 'NORMAL' which in my experience means I have a few weeks until they go to 'BAD' and the nasty red lights show up.

 

[L&LD]

I would not be using a 'green' series drive in a NAS.

They stay bad: don't believe it is good even if it (somehow) indicates it is so after a format.

I would recommend the Red series drives for NAS use instead.

 

[TonyH]

Hi,
All RED drives in my box. if it was just bad spots on the drive format will take care of it,
otherwise I wouldn't trust the drive. Not to be loaded with critical data files.

 

[stevech]

high failure rate you have!
I have just a few: 4 consumer grade 7200RPM and one green drive, in two systems. No failures. One system has run 24/7 for some 5 years.

 

[pardysound]

Thanks I was considering increasing to the 3tb drives anyway so I will go to reds next time. I agree it is a high failure rate... I wonder if my usage is just hard on them... I use a Raid 6, the capacity is nearly full (less than 1tb spare) and there is not a lot of traffic on them, but it is running 24/7..

 

[stevech]

Maybe too little airflow/cooling?
Flaky power supply?

 

[pardysound]

They are in a QNAP 839 Nas, I have not heard of them having a problem with overheating... the average temp according to the NAS is 29C. Not sure how I can verify if the PSU is bad, but the NAS seems stable overall.

 

[matt6789]

I know this is a little late...

You can check the power supply with a meter to see what it is putting out. Definitely use a digital. You may find something and may not due to load difference.

The other thing you might want to check is house power. Lower voltage will strain the power supply. That can result in bad power output or failure. Quick failure is better, and may save other things from failing due to bad output.

The reason I mention this is that a base I was stationed at had unpredictable power and brownouts were common. The problem was so bad that everyone had a UPS under the desk to avoid losing work. A few of us were talking about personal PSUs going bad and we put it all together. We got UPS systems and never had another problem. They took up the slack and provided good, conditioned power.

 

[stevech]

They are in a QNAP 839 Nas, I have not heard of them having a problem with overheating... the average temp according to the NAS is 29C. Not sure how I can verify if the PSU is bad, but the NAS seems stable overall.

I have a 1500VA UPS ($125 or so) running my NAS, router, ISP modem, 8 port switch, office PC, and a few other things.

If you live in a stormy weather area, or some rural areas with flaky power, obviously a UPS is vital.

 

[philmiami]

Never use GREEN drives for a NAS, they go up and down on power to be "green"
Red drives are probably the best they are designed for a NAS 24/7 BUT not like in a data center with 1000's or read/writes a day, but SOHO use they are good/small biz
I got a TS-419P+ and don't keep it on all the time, I needed more archive than media server at home. I got 4x2TB Seagate Barracuda XT Hard Drives in a RAID 10 config (3.89 TB) because I wanted something that would last for years, and since I don't keep it on all the time they should last for 15 years (got a UPS in the lightning capital of the world, South Florida, too).
Just never use green drives. They are not saving money. If you got a old PC that needs a hard drive for your kid or parents, then use one.
If you serve 5+ users 10 hours a day or more constant read/writes then start looking at SSD drives like if you are run Citrix terminals or something like that.