Drive Status: Fault

My Cloud OS 3 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud EX4
1

I’m setting up my new WD EX-4. I bought it empty, planning to use my WD Green drives I had in my old Linksys NAS 200. I keep getting this error when putting in the first disk. It’s a WD10EVVS. 

I have three other drives in the NAS 200. The WD10EADS and WD15EADS models. But can’t move them over yet as they have data on them. I need to move one drive at a time and copy over. So I can’t test these other drive models. 

I tested the WD10EVVS drive via USB connection to Windows 8. Format in NTFS and used the WD “Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows”. It tested good and I was able to read and write to the drive, no problem. 

Anyway, could this be a drive incompatibility issue? Or defective unit? 

Are the WD20EFRX Red drives the recommended ones for this unit and the ones it is shipped with when drives are included? I got that off the whitelist. ( http://www.wd.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1170#tab9))

I could buy new drives. I’ll need 2 TB drives in a year or two anyway. I don’t want to spend the time and money if that’s not likely the issue. Is there another way to test the unit to see if it’s good first? 

Any additional advice and opinions are appreciated. 

Thank you. 

2

Assuming you are installing them in JBOD mode…because with RAID you’ll need identical drives. Not sure if that’s the reason behind the error not…just wanted to rule out the obvious.

3

Yes, just JBOD, at least for right now. I have 4 drives in the old NAS and can only move one at a time without losing data.

The error appears within about a minute of adding the first drive to bay 1. That’s as far into the setup I am able to get. It won’t format.

I have a strong hunch it is drive incompatibility. I went ahead and ordered two WD20EFRX Red drives, which the system iks designed to be used with. At least that will elimiate that as a possibility.

Any other ideas or insight would be appreciated.

4

Ok, then I unfortunately don’t have an answer to your issue. Had thought maybe you were trying to setup RAID and not JBOD.

5

TomScott wrote:

 

I have a strong hunch it is drive incompatibility. I went ahead and ordered two WD20EFRX Red drives, which the system iks designed to be used with. At least that will elimiate that as a possibility.

 

Even though WD states that the Red drives are compatible, and I personally believe they are better suited for NAS operations, you should be able to use most other WD (or even other brand) hard drives…esp. WD’s green drives. I have seen severalpeople here report that they use green drives on their WD NASes without issues. The only thing I fear is they are taking a huge risk if they plan on using the green drives for a long term…a couple months or so, you’d be okay…but using it for always-on, multiple simultaneous disk write usage that is typica of NASes, isn’t meant for the green drives. But it shouldn’t cause an issue at the beginning - it will just **bleep** out much sooner than a typical Red drive would. Of course you could be lucky and might get longer usage out of a green drive (depends on your usage) but it’s still taking a cchance for long-term usage. However, you should be able to load a green drive up into your EX4, esp. one that you have verified using their diagnostic tool (as long as you ran the full test and not the quick test).

6

I plan to use the NAS only for archive of old data, personal and business records, family photos, video, etc. That’s for two of the bays, so I have two copies of everything. Or I may set up as RAID 1 **. The other two bays are for backup of my and my wife’s laptops.

** My concern with RAID 1 vs having two JBOD, seperate disks with one copied to the other manually (via cmd: xcopy line command, which works really well), is if I accidentally delete a file or folder, it would be gone from both. Or other mishap such as that. Having them seperate protects me. Any thoughts on this line of thinking?  

So, since I’m not using it as a full-time file server, I think Green might even be a little better choice for its power saving features, perhaps, though the extra couple dollars a month on the power bill won’t make a difference for me. Backups run once a day overnight and I even keep my current NAS with the two archive drives turned off when I’m not using it.

I agree that any SATA drive should work. That is true for desktop or external, USB case applications. Right? So why not with the EX4?

I just checked the specs of the WD10EVVS. It’s SATA-300 w/ 8 MB cache and looks like it was designed for DVR use. ( http://wdc.custhelp.com/ci/fattach/get/245082/0/filename/WD+AV-GP+Specifications.pdf).

The Red, WD20EFRX is SATA-6G/s and 64 MB cache and designed specficially for this device. Or vice-versa.

( http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-771442.pdf).

I ordered two of the Red drives above from Amazon. (I’d have to in about a year anyway as the 1 TB archive drives are running out of space). They should be here by the end of the week and I’ll know for sure.

The other three Green drives I have are different models, noted above. Maybe one or all will work ok for bays 3 and 4 for backup purposes. We shall see and I’ll report back.

Anyone else care to share their insights and ideas, I would like to read it.

7

Cybernut1 wrote:

Ok, then I unfortunately don’t have an answer to your issue. Had thought maybe you were trying to setup RAID and not JBOD.

No problem. Appreciate the effort. Thank you.

8

Tom your drive may be perfectly fine

The NAS trows an error everytime it descovers that a read/ write error ocurred or a bad block was found

please try the long term test and see if it throws again

if you have questions about your drive just connect it to a sata port on your pc and install hard disk sentinel and see the status

9

DavidSucesso wrote:

Tom your drive may be perfectly fine

 

The NAS trows an error everytime it descovers that a read/ write error ocurred or a bad block was found

 

please try the long term test and see if it throws again

 

if you have questions about your drive just connect it to a sata port on your pc and install hard disk sentinel and see the status

I don’t have any desktop PCs, but have a SATA to USB cable.

Would the WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows, “Full Test” be the way to go? Or another app?

Thank you

10

TomScott wrote:> Would the WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows, “Full Test” be the way to go? Or another app?

Thank you

Do the full test of WD Dataguard tool…I did mention that at the very end of my earlier post as well. That’s the best and surest way to know if the WD drive has any problems. And if the drive(s) are found to be defective and are still under their warranty terms, you can call WD and provide the results and they will send you replacements right away. Their warranty department usually require that you run the full test before they offer the warranty replacement.

11

Cyber,

I did see that. I was hoping the Quick Test would be good enough, considering how long the Extended Test takes. The short cuts are rarely the best way to get the job done right, I well know by now.

I ran the Extended Test. After about two hours, I noticed it was stuck on a sector for about 5 minutes. It was still running the random read test. Each second elapsed added 2-3 second to the time remaining. I stopped the test. The log file shows this:

Test Option: EXTENDED TEST
Model Number: WDC WD10 EVVS-63M5B0
Unit Serial Number:  
Firmware Number: 0A01
Capacity: 1000.20 GB
SMART Status: Not Available
Test Result: FAIL
Test Error Code: 08-Too many bad sectors detected.
Test Time: 20:48:12, July 13, 2014

I checked on the warrantee via the serial number. Manuf date is 07/21/2009 and warrantee expired 01/23/2013.

I thought I would try the “Write Zeros” test. After about 10 minutes, it indicated 72 hours remained. I could let it run if I thought it would help. As it was running, I tried to learn more about that. All I read was that it completely wiped the drive and performed a low level format. Would that help?

I thought I would try the Extended Test again. It’s now on the next phase after the Random Read Test, “Running Extended Test”. 10 minutes elapsed, 16 hours 42 minutes to go.

Please let me know if you think the “Write Zeros”, low-level formatting may help repair this drive. Could it be the higher level formatting and sectors are corrupt? I don’t know, are the sectors “created” by the higher level formatting?

Thank you for your help and advice.

12

I am no expert, but I think your drive is clearly failing. Happens quite normally to many drives with long term usage. Magnetic properties of hard drives and the mechanical parts have a limited life…just like a car does. Sooner or later it will start to fail. And like a car, you can continue to use it risking greater and greater data loss…and might get lucky for sometime…but given that it already has a lot of bad sectors it’s time to toss this drive…or keep stuff that are definitely backed up elsewhere.

13

Cybernut1 wrote:

I am no expert, but I think your drive is clearly failing. Happens quite normally to many drives with long term usage. Magnetic properties of hard drives and the mechanical parts have a limited life…just like a car does. Sooner or later it will start to fail. And like a car, you can continue to use it risking greater and greater data loss…and might get lucky for sometime…but given that it already has a lot of bad sectors it’s time to toss this drive…or keep stuff that are definitely backed up elsewhere.

Sounds good. New, 2 TB Reds are only $99 on Amazon. Not worth risking data or wasting more time on it, even with backup, which I always do anyway. 

Thanks again. 

I’ll update this thread with drive test results and how the EX4 is working with the forthcoming, new WD20EFRX drives.  

14

do not throw your drive away

when you can install hard disk sentinel and let us see the results

you may have to create partitions on your hard drive to get more out of it… since the warranty expired

hard disk sentinel is a more complete tool… but you can use WDLG :slight_smile:

write zeros is a good option… but i wouldnt do just that 

15

I’ll consider the Har Disk Sentinel option. I’m trying the “Write Zeros” option with a laptop we don’t use anymore and SATA to USB cable. 9 hours down. 66 to go. :-O   

I just got a reply from WD tech support, below. So perhaps the drive would work, if good, and WD just doesn’t support it. Perhaps not. Who knows? $99 for a new and certified compatible 2 TB WD20EFRX, I’ll just go with that for the EX4. On the way from Amazon.

I’m not sure how much time I want to invest in the other drive that’s almost 4 years old, worth about $50, and showing signs that it is failing. Worth risking my data with it, too, even if only as a backup? 

-----

Thank you for contacting Western Digital Customer Service and Support. …

 

The reason why the WD AV-GP (WD10EVVS) drive shows to be faulty in the WD My Cloud EX4, but works with no problem in your computer, is because this drive is not compatible with the NAS enclosure.

 

Please see the following link for a list of compatible drives with the EX4:

WD Support: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1170

-----

16

TomScott wrote:

 

The reason why the WD AV-GP (WD10EVVS) drive shows to be faulty in the WD My Cloud EX4, but works with no problem in your computer, is because this drive is not compatible with the NAS enclosure.

 

I have seen a handful of folks on this forum use non “compatible” drives in their EX2/EX4 and were able to run it fine.

But for both the sake of peace of mind from using brand new drives and the sake of using a “compatible” drive, it’s a good idea to use your newly ordered Red drives. Still make sure you run these new drives through the full diagnostic checks…if you can be patient enough once you get them. I have seen on a different forum ( http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=10054240#post10054240 )customers discover drive failures after running full diagnostic checks on brand new WD drives…doesn’t happen too often, but happens. Plus this way, you’d be ruling out the new drives to be behind any issues.

17

Update as promised.

Side note: Sorry for the delay. I’ve had a **bleep** of a time with my Internet and Bright House Networks. Dozens of phone calls, hours on the phone, 8 technicians to my house, and 1/2 dozen different modem / routers in various combinations to get it working over the last 4 weeks. I’m exhausted. But almost undertstand criminal insanity. It took all I could to keep my composure with these people.

Anyway, I got the two WD20EFRX drives, loaded them up, and it worked perfectly. I got all my data copied over, then tried my other drives, a WD15EADS and two WD10EADS drives. All three worked perfectly. (I kept the 2 x 1 TB in there, but needed to load the 1.5 TB drive to help with moving the data over). So, I guess that first drive was just bad and, perhaps, not compatible with the device. I did some research and it was designed for DVRs.

After that, setup was smooth and easy. A little complicated in some spots to figure out, like once a drive is formatted, then set up as a volume, either RAID or JBOD. Then… set up a share. Then… the share folder can be mapped.

I’m using drive bays 1 and 2 as RAID-1 for storage of about 20 years of family records, photos, and videos. Bays 3 and 4 are for my wife’s and my laptop backup, respectively, so configured as JBOD. (No need for RAID on a backup drive, right?) I added the last drive yesterday and just about have all the files where they need to be. It’s performing very well.

Anyway, thank you everyone for your help. My WD EX4 so far is performing flawlessly with the right drives in there.

18

Great it worked fine with the new drives.