Another WD hdd dead

Zirax · 08-10-2011, 22:32

Well WD were my preferred drive of choice until this came about:-
http://www.ngohq.com/news/19805-crit...reen-hdds.html

I have a WD10EARS drive from June 2009 which has just died. By the sounds of things it has done well to last this long!

I do have to give a big thumbs up to a highpoint 2640, which let off a hoofing great siren when the drive went and the raid was critical

It seems that the Samsung F4's are the drives of choice at the moment, I bet someone is going to say they are rubbish now

Mark · 09-10-2011, 00:17

Given that I've got a dozen-or-so EARS's, because I've trusted them, that's not so good. That said, the eight that are in use are all in Drobos, and I tend to either use them a lot or not at all (at which point the Drobo power management takes over and spins them all down anyway).

And, to be completely fair, I've seen plenty drives other than WD with aggressive unload timings. In particular, all laptop HDs are prone to it. Indeed all manufacturers drives can die. Samsung had a particularly bad run of F1s, for example.

I will use that utility on any drives I use in future as it'll prolong the life of the drive, but unless I suffer a multi-spindle failure I'm OK. It's a timely reminder though that I must implement a backup strategy (I have some redundancy, but it's a half-hearted scatter-gun approach that will result in data-loss someday).

Zirax · 09-10-2011, 11:29

Yes I am in the process of sorting proper offsite backup.

I have a very similar usage pattern with my drives so that is probably why they lasted so long. Download speedfan and look at the LCC for each drive. They are rated at about 300,000.

In other news do not buy an OCZ SSD. They are just not worth they money. My agility 3 is going in the bin and I'll get another 120gb ssd as it routinely crashes (even with latest firmware).

Davey_Pitch · 09-10-2011, 16:56

That might explain why my 1.5TB Cavier Green drive died on me a month or so ago, though to be fair, I've had about 10 WD drives over the years and it's the only one that even so much as beeped at me, the rest have been absolutely rock solid, and will remain my drive of choice for now. I'll definitely use that utility on my new 2TB Green though, no point risking data loss or drive failure if there is a quick fix.

Toby · 09-10-2011, 18:39

Have one of the supposedly affected drives in one of my machines but can't say I've ever had a problem with it. Unsure whether to effect that fix or not really.

TBH I don't usually subscribe to the "one brand of hard drive is better or worse than another" as different people have different experiences with different makes.

That said, I've now had three Samsung F3 1TB drives fail on me so I'm staying well away from Samsung generally for now.

Mark · 09-10-2011, 19:40

I've had several WD drives go on me but they had been online constantly for several years and the problem was more the noise they were making than actual death.

I also don't subscribe to the manufacturer theory - design blunders do happen (Seagate had one not so long ago), but that's a bad model or batch, rather than a bad manufacturer (Deathstar excepted).

My OCZ Vertex has produced quite a few bad blocks (compared to a spindle), but that's normal for an SSD and the firmware is designed to deal with it. They also tend to fail towards a read-only state which at least means you've some hope of pulling the data off them.

Mark · 30-10-2011, 23:11

So I just found my Samsung SpinPoint P80 offline. Given that I don't back up very well (my fault, keep meaning to do it but keep seeing a mountain of data and wondering how I'll ever get through it all).

I'm hoping it just didn't like being thwacked with a cable because that had happened yesterday). It's come back up is taking a pounding, but I'm creating temporary backups to two spare drives I'd bought to use for offline backups. They'll do this job just fine.

Having done that, over one of the next few weekends I now plan to do what I've been putting off for about the last two years and pull the old, dead disks out of my server and replace them with - you guessed it, a pair of WD Greens.

Fear not, they'll have the firmware tweaks done first, and I'll be putting them in RAID 1 to protect against a single drive failure. They'll replace the single P80 so at least there's some extra resilience while I work out a longer-term backup plan.

08-10-2011, 22:32	#1
Zirax Goes up to 11! Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 4,577	Another WD hdd dead Well WD were my preferred drive of choice until this came about:- http://www.ngohq.com/news/19805-crit...reen-hdds.html I have a WD10EARS drive from June 2009 which has just died. By the sounds of things it has done well to last this long! I do have to give a big thumbs up to a highpoint 2640, which let off a hoofing great siren when the drive went and the raid was critical It seems that the Samsung F4's are the drives of choice at the moment, I bet someone is going to say they are rubbish now

09-10-2011, 00:17	#2
Mark Screaming Orgasm Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Newbury Posts: 15,194	Given that I've got a dozen-or-so EARS's, because I've trusted them, that's not so good. That said, the eight that are in use are all in Drobos, and I tend to either use them a lot or not at all (at which point the Drobo power management takes over and spins them all down anyway). And, to be completely fair, I've seen plenty drives other than WD with aggressive unload timings. In particular, all laptop HDs are prone to it. Indeed all manufacturers drives can die. Samsung had a particularly bad run of F1s, for example. I will use that utility on any drives I use in future as it'll prolong the life of the drive, but unless I suffer a multi-spindle failure I'm OK. It's a timely reminder though that I must implement a backup strategy (I have some redundancy, but it's a half-hearted scatter-gun approach that will result in data-loss someday). Last edited by Mark; 09-10-2011 at 00:21.

09-10-2011, 16:56	#4
Davey_Pitch I iz speshul Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Liverpool Posts: 6,296	That might explain why my 1.5TB Cavier Green drive died on me a month or so ago, though to be fair, I've had about 10 WD drives over the years and it's the only one that even so much as beeped at me, the rest have been absolutely rock solid, and will remain my drive of choice for now. I'll definitely use that utility on my new 2TB Green though, no point risking data loss or drive failure if there is a quick fix. __________________ Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

09-10-2011, 18:39	#5
Toby Absinthe Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 1,023	Have one of the supposedly affected drives in one of my machines but can't say I've ever had a problem with it. Unsure whether to effect that fix or not really. TBH I don't usually subscribe to the "one brand of hard drive is better or worse than another" as different people have different experiences with different makes. That said, I've now had three Samsung F3 1TB drives fail on me so I'm staying well away from Samsung generally for now. __________________

30-10-2011, 23:11	#7
Mark Screaming Orgasm Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Newbury Posts: 15,194	So I just found my Samsung SpinPoint P80 offline. Given that I don't back up very well (my fault, keep meaning to do it but keep seeing a mountain of data and wondering how I'll ever get through it all). I'm hoping it just didn't like being thwacked with a cable because that had happened yesterday). It's come back up is taking a pounding, but I'm creating temporary backups to two spare drives I'd bought to use for offline backups. They'll do this job just fine. Having done that, over one of the next few weekends I now plan to do what I've been putting off for about the last two years and pull the old, dead disks out of my server and replace them with - you guessed it, a pair of WD Greens. Fear not, they'll have the firmware tweaks done first, and I'll be putting them in RAID 1 to protect against a single drive failure. They'll replace the single P80 so at least there's some extra resilience while I work out a longer-term backup plan. Last edited by Mark; 30-10-2011 at 23:22.

09-10-2011, 11:29	#3
Zirax Goes up to 11! Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 4,577	Yes I am in the process of sorting proper offsite backup. I have a very similar usage pattern with my drives so that is probably why they lasted so long. Download speedfan and look at the LCC for each drive. They are rated at about 300,000. In other news do not buy an OCZ SSD. They are just not worth they money. My agility 3 is going in the bin and I'll get another 120gb ssd as it routinely crashes (even with latest firmware).

09-10-2011, 19:40	#6
Mark Screaming Orgasm Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Newbury Posts: 15,194	I've had several WD drives go on me but they had been online constantly for several years and the problem was more the noise they were making than actual death. I also don't subscribe to the manufacturer theory - design blunders do happen (Seagate had one not so long ago), but that's a bad model or batch, rather than a bad manufacturer (Deathstar excepted). My OCZ Vertex has produced quite a few bad blocks (compared to a spindle), but that's normal for an SSD and the firmware is designed to deal with it. They also tend to fail towards a read-only state which at least means you've some hope of pulling the data off them.