Preclear failed - repeatedly! :(

I'm building up an unRAID server, and just tried to preclear the first of 3 drives. Sadly, it failed. From what I can tell, two sectors failed to read back 0's... Is that correct? Any help appreciated. I'm pasting the summary below, and will try to figure out how to attach the detailed logs. I'm running a memory test overnight, so we'll see what that turns up.

 

Should I just RMA this drive?

 

========================================================================1.9
== invoked as: ./preclear_disk.sh -A /dev/sda
==
== Disk /dev/sda has NOT been successfully precleared
== Postread detected un-expected non-zero bytes on disk==
== Ran 1 cycle
==
== Using :Read block size = 8225280 Bytes
== Last Cycle's Pre Read Time  : 6:26:30 (86 MB/s)
== Last Cycle's Zeroing time   : 5:50:16 (95 MB/s)
== Last Cycle's Post Read Time : 13:34:17 (40 MB/s)
== Last Cycle's Total Time     : 25:52:30
==
== Total Elapsed Time 25:52:30
==
== Disk Start Temperature: 19C
==
== Current Disk Temperature: 37C, 
==
============================================================================
** Changed attributes in files: /tmp/smart_start_sda  /tmp/smart_finish_sda
               ATTRIBUTE   NEW_VAL OLD_VAL FAILURE_THRESHOLD STATUS      RAW_VALUE
     Raw_Read_Error_Rate =   100     252           51        ok          3
          Power_On_Hours =   100     252            0        ok          25
     Temperature_Celsius =    63      64            0        ok          37
  Hardware_ECC_Recovered =   100     252            0        ok          0
   Multi_Zone_Error_Rate =   100     252            0        ok          0
No SMART attributes are FAILING_NOW

0 sectors were pending re-allocation before the start of the preclear.
0 sectors were pending re-allocation after pre-read in cycle 1 of 1.
0 sectors were pending re-allocation after zero of disk in cycle 1 of 1.
0 sectors are pending re-allocation at the end of the preclear,
   the number of sectors pending re-allocation did not change.
0 sectors had been re-allocated before the start of the preclear.
0 sectors are re-allocated at the end of the preclear,
   the number of sectors re-allocated did not change. 
============================================================================

 

edit: Sorry - full build specs are here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=12523.0 - it's a Samsung Spinpoint F4 2TB drive.

preclear_start_sda_2011-05-03.txt

preclear_finish_sda_2011-05-03.txt

The SMART reports look good. If the memtest passes, reseat the cables to this drive and try the pre-clear again.

The SMART reports look good. If the memtest passes, reseat the cables to this drive and try the pre-clear again.

unlikely to be the cables unless they are loose, but yes, give it another try. 

 

Most of these turn out to be the memory, followed by the disk, and then the motherboard/disk controller, lastly, the power supply.

 

Joe L.

I ran the memtest for ~7 hours with no errors, so I'm preclearing the drive again to see what happens. Troubleshooting sure does suck when it takes a whole day to test each change!

 

The SATA cables are locking, so I'm pretty sure they weren't loose. I reseated them anyway, just to be sure.

 

I'll report back when the preclear completes (late, late tonight).

Welp, the drive failed again, with only 1 sector this time. I'm running a preclear on a different drive to see how it goes. Since if it gets through 2 passes, I'm just going to RMA the first drive.

 

 

========================================================================1.9
== invoked as: ./preclear_disk.sh -A /dev/sda
==
== Disk /dev/sda has NOT been successfully precleared
== Postread detected un-expected non-zero bytes on disk==
== Ran 1 cycle..
==
== Using :Read block size = 8225280 Bytes
== Last Cycle's Pre Read Time  : 6:28:46 (85 MB/s)
== Last Cycle's Zeroing time   : 5:46:49 (96 MB/s)
== Last Cycle's Post Read Time : 13:34:42 (40 MB/s)
== Last Cycle's Total Time     : 25:51:43
==
== Total Elapsed Time 25:51:43
==
== Disk Start Temperature: 32C
==
== Current Disk Temperature: 36C, 
==
============================================================================
** Changed attributes in files: /tmp/smart_start_sda  /tmp/smart_finish_sda
                ATTRIBUTE   NEW_VAL OLD_VAL FAILURE_THRESHOLD STATUS      RAW_VALUE
       G-Sense_Error_Rate =   100     252            0        ok          2
No SMART attributes are FAILING_NOW

0 sectors were pending re-allocation before the start of the preclear.
0 sectors were pending re-allocation after pre-read in cycle 1 of 1.
0 sectors were pending re-allocation after zero of disk in cycle 1 of 1.
0 sectors are pending re-allocation at the end of the preclear,
    the number of sectors pending re-allocation did not change.
0 sectors had been re-allocated before the start of the preclear.
0 sectors are re-allocated at the end of the preclear,
    the number of sectors re-allocated did not change. 
============================================================================

 

Have you updated the firmware on this one. You can search here for more details about these drives and their firmware problems.

 

Second (with cue from your build) - your HD reached 39 deg. There is nothing wrong with that but there were some reports in the past regarding that Samsung drives are not reporting the actual temperature. From your setup ( ) it will be easy to touch the HD with medical thermometer to check the drive actual temperature and to compare it to the one shown on your monitor.

I did run the firmware update on the hard drive. I have an IR thermometer I can zap it with to see if that temperature is accurate. My gut is that it's close, since even though it's open air, there's no active cooling on it...

 

 

 

 

I did run the firmware update on the hard drive. I have an IR thermometer I can zap it with to see if that temperature is accurate. My gut is that it's close, since even though it's open air, there's no active cooling on it...

 

No active cooling?

 

Some time ago I did upgrade the parity disk and ran the WD20EARS I bought without active cooling just like you. But it was intentionally as I wanted to thermally stress the drive during the first preclear cycle. The temperature went to 44 deg. C. I did add an extra fan for the second cycle to lower the temperature to mid 30. The drive was OK.

 

Later I read an article from data recovery lab that states that the newer WD HDD are very heat-sensitive and it is not recommended to use them above 40 deg.C.

And now I wont thermally challenge any new hard drive as I used to do before. 

 

 

Just checked, and with the computer reading, 34 deg. C, the highest reading I got with my IR thermometer was 33.9 deg. C, right in the center of the top of the drive. Various parts of the drive were up to 7 or 8 deg. C cooler.

 

I don't know where the thermal sensor for the drive is, but that's pretty darn accurate!

Welp, the preclear of the second disk finished with the same type of errors as the first. I don't have any spare DDR3 RAM to swap in, but I can try pulling one stick, then the other. At the same time, it did pass 8ish hours of memtest86+. Is there a better testing tool?

 

Any suggestions for next steps? I was thinking I'd download Seatools from Seagate and run a scan with that, but I'm starting to lean toward a bad mobo. Again, no spare to test with right now.

 

RMA is always an option.

Welp, the preclear of the second disk finished with the same type of errors as the first. I don't have any spare DDR3 RAM to swap in, but I can try pulling one stick, then the other. At the same time, it did pass 8ish hours of memtest86+. Is there a better testing tool?

 

Any suggestions for next steps? I was thinking I'd download Seatools from Seagate and run a scan with that, but I'm starting to lean toward a bad mobo. Again, no spare to test with right now.

 

RMA is always an option.

Try with one RAM strip, then the other.

Looks like it was a bad memory stick after all. I yanked one of the two and ran preclears on both drives with no problems. Thanks for the support, Joe L! Time to case it up!