6TB Precleared "fine" (2 cycles, 0 reallocations) but made rattling noise during

...trust the Preclear, or RMA that sucker to be safe?  I hate to push my timetable back another week, but I'm leaning towards better safe than sorry.

This is noticeable noise through a Fractal R4 (insanely quiet) case, and the hard drive in question is an HGST 7200rpm NAS 6tb.  Every ten seconds or so on a read, every minute and a half or so on write.  Like a normal hard drive "crunch" on steroids; it was almost a "fart" at first (for lack of a better descriptor), but it's smoothed out into something closer to heavy hard drive activity noise (but still the first drive activity noise I've heard through this case, which has run 2-cycle Preclears on 12 other drives now).

Any advice from the hard drive experts around would be greatly appreciated!

Post smart report for the drive.

Look at load cycle counts, it seems like the drive might be using agressive parking.

Smart report attached.

Everything SEEMS fine.  It's that damn noise (also, fact that it consistently ran at 51-52 degrees C) that's freaking me out.  Go for a third cycle, or RMA before the weekend hits?

smart.txt

I read on Reddit that HGST are aware of a firmware issue with the 6TB Deskstar NAS.  I can't find the thread now, unfortunately, but the user there was reporting similar grinding and clicking noises.

The wild part is that I cleared an identical drive in the identical way in the identical box not two weeks ago - no noises.  Unless this is a brand new firmware issue and I just happened to catch the gap between versions, would it be weird for two drives in the same run to have different performance like that?

I'd RMA it ... it's clearly behaving differently than the other identical drive you already had -- and you're going to be worried about it every time you hear the noise, so just follow the "better safe than sorry" adage.

That's the direction I've been leaning since the noises started at the beginning of the first Preclear... Oh well, week-long turnaround, 3 days for another 2 cycles, and I can finally say Project Quiet Box is complete.  Well, complete-ish.

Good choice -- you should NOT be hearing this sound through an R4's insulation ... the drive is clearly making an "unnaturally loud" noise.

Drive RMA'd, and its replacement is almost done with its two Preclear cycles; funny thing is, drive STILL makes audible noise through the case, but it's WAY tamer than the last one.  Normal hard drive access noise, during the read parts of the Preclear - nothing like that insanely loud "farting" noise from the first one.  I'm still a little concerned that I'm hearing anything at all, but at least it's a "normal" hard drive noise now.  Assuming I come home to a clean set of Preclear results, I'll probably keep this one... Wish I'd've paid more attention to my first HGST 6tb NAS Preclear process and noticed whether it'd made any noise at all during Preclear reads, but I didnt, so I'll likely just take the "sounds better than the last one" approach and keep my fingers crossed!

If you want to check the noise levels of your older drive, try this:

(1)  Download Data Lifeguard for DOS  [The download here is fine: http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=612&sid=2〈=en ]

(2)  Follow the instructions to create a bootable USB flash drive

(3)  Now you can shut down your UnRAID server; then boot it to the flash drive you just created (simply unplug your UnRAID flash drive and plug in the Data Lifeguard one); and then you can run the Quick and Extended tests on your drives.    The Extended test starts with a seek test, so the first few seconds of that should be the noisiest the drive will get.

Note:  The WD Site indicates Data Lifeguard is only for WD drives, but it works just fine with all drives I've ever used it on, regardless of manufacturer.

So it's kind of crazy: the first 6tb DOES make a pretty loud noise when the test is run, but you can't hear it through the case.  With the case open, it was actually hard to tell the difference in the noises - maybe the internal positioning?  6tb #1 is currently in the cage sitting next to the PSU, while #2 is in the top "hotswap" (white caddy) slot.

Noise aside, I decided to try adding 6tb #2 to the array and running a parity check.

Which consistently kept 6tb #2 at 53-55 degrees Celsius the whole damn check.

The closest drive to that in temperature was a 4tb situated directly below the 6tb (mid-40s); a 2tb in the 5.25 slot directly above the 6tb (little more metal separation there?) was low 40s, and everything else (including the 6tb parity drive in the PSU-adjacent cage) was hanging in there at 40 or less.

So, noise isn't weird, but temperature is.  I really don't want to find myself stuck buying another $300+ drive or sweating out a sale in the near future, so my instinct is to RMA over the temperature issue alone... Any suggestions before I pull the trigger and mail the sucker out tomorrow?

From what I've read, 60c is the limit on the newer 6TB drives. Read the PDF's.

There was even a Seagate article somewhere that stated this.

I had one of mine peak at 59 during a grueling 4 pass badblocks in a less them well ventilated area (at the top of the Fractal R4).

But since I've moved it to the middle of the case area it's been better.

you might want to investigate what positions you have the drive in.

I purposely put the 6TB's in the middle positions so the 2 140MM fans are covering all 4 6TB drives.

root@unraidb's password: 
Last login: Sat Mar  7 06:49:24 2015 from e6510-pc.cotrone.net
D#   Device      Status         ID
0    sdi  -      DISK_OK        HGST_HDN726060ALE610_NAG1DEKP
1    sdc  - md1  DISK_OK        ST3000DM001-1CH166_W1F1GTFJ
2    sdf  - md2  DISK_OK        ST3000DM001-1CH166_Z1F2WFKV
3    sdg  - md3  DISK_OK        ST4000VN000-1H4168_S3012W7N
4    sdj  - md4  DISK_OK        HGST_HDN726060ALE610_NAG1D7TP
5    sdd  - md5  DISK_OK        ST6000DX000-1H217Z_Z4D0EE7M
6    sde  - md6  DISK_OK        ST6000DX000-1H217Z_Z4D0EEDV
7         -                     
8         -                     
State: STARTED
root@unRAIDb:~# smartctl -a /dev/sdi | grep emper
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0002   157   157   000    Old_age   Always       -       38 (Min/Max 13/45)
root@unRAIDb:~# smartctl -a /dev/sdj | grep emper
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0002   162   162   000    Old_age   Always       -       37 (Min/Max 13/59)
root@unRAIDb:~# smartctl -a /dev/sdd | grep emper
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022   074   054   045    Old_age   Always       -       26 (Min/Max 12/42)
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   026   046   000    Old_age   Always       -       26 (0 12 0 0 0)
root@unRAIDb:~# smartctl -a /dev/sde | grep emper
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022   074   049   045    Old_age   Always       -       26 (Min/Max 15/44)
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   026   051   000    Old_age   Always       -       26 (0 15 0 0 0)

Running another parity check, and it's 51-53 degrees; middle of the case 6tb (parity) is hanging in there at 38 degrees. At the rate the last one finished, this'll be done by tomorrow after work - if temperatures stay consistent, I'll try moving 6tb #2 down to an empty gap in the middle of the cage (right next to the other 7200rpm 6tb, which should be fun) and Parity checking again to monitor temperatures...

For context, everything else in "the stack" (white caddies) is almost consistently 40, except the bottom drive at 36. (they're WD Green 2TBs plus a Seagate 2tb).  An HGST 4tb (@~44-45) is physically right below the hot 6tb.  The two 2tbs (WD Green) in the least ventilated, 5.25 slots are ~32-33 each.

This is a nigh-on-full case, by the way - two in the 5.25s, every caddy slot filled, and 3/4 slots in the PSU-adjacent cage filled.

It seems like a weird variance in temps across the box to me, but I'm not exactly experienced in this area...

51-53C is a little on the high side, but not unexpected.  Similar to what I see with my 4TB HGST Deskstar NAS drives when rebuilding an array.  My Toshiba MC04 5TB (which are 'proper' enterprise level drives) tend to run in the low 50C area all the time.

7200rpm drives with 4 or more platters do run pretty warm compared to 5900rpm drives like the WD Red and Seagate Green.

A seemingly minor difference in airflow can make a very noticeable difference in temperature.    I suspect the temps are simply due to the placement in the case ... your next parity check after moving the drive will confirm whether that's the issue.

Don't forget that these are also 7200rpm drives, which are always going to run warmer than their "green" 5900 rpm "cousins".

You may want to add a fan to the top to add a bit of airflow that should help with the top cages ... I'd put it in the forward fan position on top.