Reallocated Sectors increasing on Disk 1

[BobHarris1042]

I have a ReadyNAS Duo that is about 2+ years old. Very good device. It is redundant with 2 Seagate Drives, each 1 TB. They are ST31000528AS drives. Firmware is current, 4.1.8. I don't think this unit can be updated to the Firmware 5.x.x series.

Drive #1 (the left hand drive) has been replaced twice. Each time the Reallocated Sector count started to increase. The current drive has started this same behavior. The Reallocated Sector count went from 0 up to 106 over the last 4 weeks. I removed the drive today and connected it to my PC and ran SeaTools to diagnose it. I used the DOS version so that Windows could not be interfering with the utility. I ran only the short test as frankly I didn't have time for the long test (hours). SeaTools found no errors and there are no ATA errors listed by the ReadyNAS. In the past the drives had failed the SeaTools tests. This one may do so in due course (I hope not!)

I'm wondering if the ReadyNAS itself could have a defect that might cause the drives in Disk 1 position to develop the need for Reallocated Sectors and ultimately fail. Has anyone else seen this behavior? If so, what, if anything can be done?

Finally, I'm wondering about the advisability of using SeaTools to erase the drive and let the ReadyNAS rewrite to it. Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated also.

I do keep full backups of the NAS as the data is important.

Thank you very much for any thoughts!

--Bob Harris

[mdgm]

I'd run the long SeaTools test.

I'd suggest you open a tech support (http://www.readynas.com/support) and seek their opinion. Edit the thread title (i.e. subject of first post in the thread) to include your case number.

You are correct that the Duo (v1) runs RAIDiator 4.1.x and cannot be upgraded to the new 5.3.x firmware which is just for the v2.

[BobHarris1042]

Thank you for the suggestion of Tech Support. I'll do that.
--Bob

[mdgm]

Just to be clear should have said open an online tech support case at my.netgear.com (details in the link I gave). Phone support is free for the first 90 days after purchase and you're well beyond that.

[BobHarris1042]

Thanks, again. I did create the ticket so we'll see what is suggested.

Bob

[PapaBear]

I have 10 of those drives in service and have had a 40% failure rate over two years. I have one currently in service in an NVX (2x3TB Hitachi + 2x1TB ST1000528AS) and was starting to increase the ATA error, but then they stopped increasing over a month ago. I am just in a wait position now, as I know from experience that the drive will not fail SeaTools until the error count gets higher. I just have spares sitting by. While I do not care to use refurbished drives, given the number that have been replaced by Seagate, I am now forced to until I can get in a postion to replace more of my 1TB Seagates with 3TB Hitachi.

I would recommend that you a) keep your backup current (always a good idea) and b) keep a spare drive ready.

[BobHarris1042]

Yes, I keep current backups. Too risky not to!! As I mentioned in my original post, this issue always occurred only on Disk 1. When I related this to Netgear they offered to exchange the ReadyNAS! I am very pleased with their response.

By the way, the drive did pass the SeaTools long test.

Now I'm wondering if after the new unit arrives if I should delete the partition on the drive with the reallocated sectors and let it get resynced with the other drive. That way I would be sure that all the data was at least new. I'm not really sure if I should do that. I m!

--Bob

[StephenB]

Since the disk has > 100 reallocate sectors, I think you should replace it.

[BobHarris1042]

I guess that really is the best idea after all. Start with a 'mostly' clean slate!

Bob

[emk]

Bob, I had a disk recently give me problems on SATA resets and resyncing. I took it out and ran every Seatools test available, multiple times and all of those tests passed. The last thing I did was the 'Full Erase (SATA)' option in Seatools. Then I hot-added it back to the NAS and it seems to be stable at the moment. I only had 5 reallocated sectors.

[StephenB]

Bob, I had a disk recently give me problems on SATA resets and resyncing. I took it out and ran every Seatools test available, multiple times and all of those tests passed. The last thing I did was the 'Full Erase (SATA)' option in Seatools. Then I hot-added it back to the NAS and it seems to be stable at the moment. I only had 5 reallocated sectors.

Bob has over 100, his situation is clearly different from yours. Netgear suggests replacement at 50 reallocated sectors.

[BobHarris1042]

Final Resolution:
I just have to relate this as I think it is a case where everything went well in the end and Netgear really came through.
I contacted Seagate and they did swap the drive with the increasing reallocated sectors. I also had created a ticket with Netgear. Netgear responded that I should send my ReadyNAS back under RMA and they would swap it. I was really surprised as this was not a new unit by a long shot. I did as instructed and today the replacement ReadyNAS Duo arrived by FedEx. I was not looking forward to setting up the network settings all over again.

I connected the unit and then went to my router so I could see what IP address had been assigned. When I set these up I always use static IPs. Surprise! There was the NAS using the same IP address as before! I went into it and found that Netgear had transferred all of my settings to the new unit. I am convinced this is not my same old unit; it does not have the same identifying marks.

I am very impressed with the client service I got from Netgear and also Seagate. To my mind it is unheard of for a company like Netgear to migrate my settings! Great client service!

Just thought you guys should know.

--Bob