Hard Drive Replacement - Which One?

[canachi]

Hi Guys, I need to add more capacity to my server. In the past 6 months I added very old HDs to Unraid, waiting for prices to fall. 

1. Which of the following 2 hard drives would you replace first, considering the smart report shown:

a. WDC WD15EARS (1.5 TB)
» load_cycle_count=33336
» current_pending_sector=1
» multi_zone_error_rate=1

b. Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS (500 GB)
» reallocated_sector_ct=1
» spin_retry_count=1
» udma_crc_error_count=1

2. How likely is the second drive to fail?

3. I've seen that many of you have RMA'ed WD drives, can somebody please to point where can I find information about the RMA process and requirements. The WD drive shown above is more than 3 years old, does it qualify for RMA?

Regards.

[BobPhoenix]

Hi Guys, I need to add more capacity to my server. In the past 6 months I added very old HDs to Unraid, waiting for prices to fall. 

1. Which of the following 2 hard drives would you replace first, considering the smart report shown:

a. WDC WD15EARS (1.5 TB)
» load_cycle_count=33336
» current_pending_sector=1
» multi_zone_error_rate=1

b. Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS (500 GB)
» reallocated_sector_ct=1
» spin_retry_count=1
» udma_crc_error_count=1

2. How likely is the second drive to fail?

3. I've seen that many of you have RMA'ed WD drives, can somebody please to point where can I find information about the RMA process and requirements. The WD drive shown above is more than 3 years old, does it qualify for RMA?

Regards.

Since the WDEARS drives had a 3yr warranty it is NOT a candidate for RMA most likely but just try the WD check warranty link to find out for sure.

[canachi]

Thanks Bob, I checked the link and the drive is under warranty, so I RMA'ed it.

What about the other questions?

Regards.

[BobPhoenix]

1. Which of the following 2 hard drives would you replace first, considering the smart report shown:

Since you already found out the WD is in warranty it has already been answered when you RMA'd the WD.

2. How likely is the second drive to fail?

That really depends on the drive.  It could go for a long time that way or the relocated sectors could start to climb.  I would watch it.  I've got a drive with 4 and it has been that way for at least 6 months.  I did switch it to a secondary unRAID one that gets less use but it is otherwise still working I just don't completely trust it.  If drive prices get back down to pre-flood prices I will likely replace it.

[dikkiedirk]

If drive prices get back down to pre-flood prices I will likely replace it.

When will that happen, might be wishfull thinking.

[c3]

The smaller drive because it has the higher costs.

The magic of unRAID is low cost. You acquire (discard) storage space based on cost. When additional storage is needed, shop for $/TB and install. The operating costs are very similar for most drives, with green drives being X regardless of size and 7200 drives being Y. So replace the smaller drive will get the best return for the new drive purchase.

I know people try to match all the drives. But really a lot of effort has been put into unRAID so that you can mix drive sizes and expand over time.

If you want (24) 2T drives with RAID6, hot spare, etc, check out mdadm, a core Linux function. What's missing?  an ability to use mixed sized drives and easy expansion. 

[BobPhoenix]

If drive prices get back down to pre-flood prices I will likely replace it.

When will that happen, might be wishfull thinking.

True.  I may have to replace them earlier if relocated sectors start to climb.  This has become a problem because I have to replace 12 drives now due to failed case fan and overheated drives not caught on a parity check until it was 98% complete.  I wouldn't be using marginal drives if is wasn't for that.  They were my backups for problems just didn't expect to have 12 failing drives all at once.  I'm having to buy between 3-6 drives even using those marginal drives so a >$20 price difference means between 1 and 2 less drives I have to purchase if they come down - the wishfull thinking.  Then there is the time to copy the 18TB of data.  Luckily 3 of the 12 drives were empty so if I loose free space and only replace 9 with data.  I could get by with 3 new drives purchased and 6 existing spares.  Several of them have there own problems but are in better shape than the overheated drives long term.