ReadyNAS Duo & 2Tb Hard Drives

[AaronD]

Hi

I should state, that this post is NOT intended to be a Netgear bashing. I've had a number of Netgear products over the years and they've all been pretty good and the Netgear support has always been professional and helpful. So...

I purchased a Netgear ReadyNAS Duo, after researching the whole NAS thing at this site and it came with two free 500Gb disks from Netgear. In this configuration, all went well and worked as it should. Brilliant.

I decided to up the amount of storage on the ReadyNAS. So, I check the compatibility list, buy two Western Digital WD20EARS (tried to check firmware level - but not possible at purchase point), get home, hot swap one 500Gb disk out for a new 2Tb disk and...

The new WD disk is pronounced DEAD by the ReadyNAS software, it recognises it, but will do absolutely nothing with it, no re-syncing at all. I asume it's something I've done, so I re check my steps, but they all look ok. I leave it for 36 hours - just in case, but no change.Then I start to do a google search on it, that's when I find that the new breed of large disks and the ReadyNAS don't appear to be on the same page - yet. Links below:

For info, I have checked and the WD20EARS drive is all ok. The ReadyNAS DUO is all ok too.

The issues seem to centre on :

• LCC (Load cycle Count)
• Spin down
• TLER
• 4k sector size

ReadyNas Compatibility Link
http://www.readynas.com/?page_id=82

ReadyNas Forum links:
http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=42119
http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=84&t=43079
http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=40222
http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=84&t=43079

So - where am I going with this ?

I'm asking the people who frequent here, who know a helluva lot more than I do on this subject, whether it is worth persevering to try and get these new 2Tb disks working with the DUO ?
Or do these reported issues make using the WD20EARS drives too much of a risk, considering this will be the main data storage at my home.

Any advice on this, would be very gratefully received, as I've googled it all, but I've got to say I'm not that much the wiser. It would be a shame to reduce the storage capacity, as I really like the ReadyNAS DUO and was hoping that with 2Tb inside, that would be the home storage needs covered.

Hope this all makes sense and thanks for reading.

cheers
Aaron

 

[Jesse B]

It may be due to the TLER on the drives; that has been known to cause issues. There's a tool to disable this, titled WDTLER, which is often distributed to customers by WD. It's not officially available to download, but a quick Google search will find it. I'd start there, see if it helps. Be sure to read into it more though, as I don't have any personal experience doing this.

 

[squidgy]

How did you get on with this..?

Looking at the readynas forums.. It looks like it might a bunch of issues really - which I know doesn't help at all. I'm thinking its the "old" firmware on the Sparc based Readynas. I'm referring to Raidator 4.1.6 here. The x86 Readynas devices have recieved a firmware update to correct the issue with the new 2tb disks. While we have to wait.

I commend the readynas boys n girls for ensuring they do proper testing before they release a firmware, but I really wish they'd get their butts in gear and release 4.1.7 or equivelent soon.

Issues I see are..

Drive Firmware as you mentioned
4k Sectors again.... as you said. - More how the readynas talks to the 512k sector compatability electronics on the drives.
Inactivity Spin down and parking of disk heads.