Newer WD Elements 5TB USB 3.0 HDD failing in Windows 10 Storage Spaces. It is being marked at “retired” and Storage Spaces (SS) will not use it anymore. Removed WD HDD from the SS pool and ran WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics tests - both short and extended - and it passed. Put drive back into SS pool and it failed again a few days later. I have 16 USB HDDs in the SS pool, and this is the only drive that has problems. Any known issues and/or fixes for this issue? Is it possible that the drive is failing and yet passes the WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics tests? Any help appreciated.
Found some pages via Google:
“Storage space cannot be repaired or disks are marked as retired incorrectly when you use Storage Spaces in Windows 8 or in Windows Server 2012”
“Storage Spaces - unmark hard drive as “retired” after SATA controller failure”
I would go for this: “Using PowerShell To Rebuild a Windows Storage Spaces Array”
Joerg, thank you for the response, but I think you have misunderstood my problem. Storage Spaces automatically reallocated all data off this WD HDD to other drives in the Storage Spaces pool. So my data is not compromised. In Storage Spaces terminology, “retired” can mean something was not working well with the drive in its ability to read/write data, so all data is reallocated to “healthy” drives and the no further data will be directed to the “retired” drive which Storage Spaces see as a degraded drive.
The issue I have is that this WD USB HDD will not work with Storage Spaces. After reading more tech specs on this model, I suspect this problem may have something to do with new built in WD “Green” technology that wants to spin down the HDD when not being used, whereas Storage Spaces wants to keep the drives in the pool all spinning all the time for server access. I really don’t know, however, I have 16 USB HDDs in the drive pool, and this is the only drive that Storage Spaces does not like and marks as “retired” and won’t let me use it. As I said, I initially removed the drive from the Storage Spaces pool, tested it with WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics (passed), put the drive back into the pool, and 2 days later failed and was “retired” by Storage Spaces yet again.
I do appreciate the time and effort you have spent in finding those links on Storage Spaces, but that is not my problem. Would you please look into the possible issue of this specific model WD USB HDD not working in Storage Spaces, possibly due to the “Green” technology on the drive and/or power supply that wants to shut down the drive. That is the only thing I can think of that is causing problems with Storage Spaces (given the HDD passed both the short and extended tests by WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics). Thank you.
Update: WD Tech Support sent me an email and advised me to RMA the drive since it is “acting up” in Storage Spaces. I may do that, but the drive has passed all WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics and is working fine as a stand alone drive. I see someone else on this forum mentioned that his WD drive (last year) was not working in Storage Spaces due to the drive going to sleep after 10 minutes. He was asking how to bypass that issue, but the thread ended without any closure. I think my issue is also related to the drive going to sleep, which is a feature of its “Green” technology. So I don’t have much confidence that replacing my current WD drive for another of the same model with “Green” technology will work any better.
Does anyone know exactly how this “Green” technology works on these USB HDDs? Can the “Green” tech be bypassed? Has anyone else used these drives in Storage Spaces and had a similar problem? Would like to know if others have had this problem before I spend yet more money to RMA an otherwise perfectly good working HDD. Thanks for any comments.
Update: I RMA’d the failing drive and received the new WD Elements 5TB USB HDD yesterday. Added it to my Storage Spaces (SS) pool of drives last night and it appeared to be working well. This morning, SS has taken the new WD Elements 5TB offline and is reallocating the data to the other drives in the pool. Same problem as before, this time with a new drive. So, I don’t think the problem is with the WD Elements drive, there must be something in the drive’s firmware that does not work with SS. I have 17 drives in the pool, of various makes and capacity (from 1TB to 5TB) and SS handles all of them without a problem, except for this newer WD Elements 5TB HDD. Other 5TB HDDs work fine in SS pool, so I know it not an issue of the 5TB capacity. I even have a 1 year old WD Elements 4TB HDD that works fine, so at one time the WD Elements drives worked with SS, just not these new drives . It’s all very confusing and frustrating.
I called tech support about the new drive failing. The Tech Support person was not very helpful in regards to the tech question. He did not know anything about Storage Spaces and tried to tell me that the WD HDD was certified for Windows 10 but not for third party software!? Wait a minute, Storage Spaces is built into Windows 10, how is that thrid party.
Then he asked if the drive was on a hub, which of course it is because it is one of 17 drives in the pool. (Did he think my computer had 17 separate USB ports? So, the tech person told me that the problem was with the hub and NOT the fault of the WD HDD. Wait another minute, I said, when the drive failed, I took it off the hub, plugged it into a standalone port on the computer, and it still was no good.
Finally, he stated that the WD Elements drive is not compatible with Storage Spaces in Windows 10, he was sorry, but there was nothing wrong with the drive and I should contact MS. At that point, I stated that I would be submitting negative customer reviews on NewEgg, TigerDirect and Amazon on this drive and warning people that WD Tech Support states that their drive is not compatible with Windows 10 Storage Spaces. Was he sure about his statement? Evidently not, because he gave me a new number for WD Tech Support Level 2 to see if they had a better answer. I called, they were busy, but they said they had my number and will give me a call back later. I hope so.
On a more positive note, at least the tech support rep understood my frustration about the new replacement drive not working any better and sent me a prepaid shipping label to return that replacement drive back to WD. I am still $150 into a drive that I cannot use in the SS pool and that is very disappointing.
UPDATE: Tonight my Storage Spaces crashed and required a cold boot on the computer. When I brought the drives back online for Storage Spaces, it reported that my (about) 8 month old WD 4TB Elements drive was being prepared for removal - meaning that Storage Spaces has rejected that drive. Out of 18 USB HDDs in my Storage Pool, only the two WD Elements HDDs have been rejected.
I have been talking with WD Level II Tech Support for about a week concerning the problem with my 5TB Elements drive being rejected in Storage Spaces, and I just sent him another email about the new issue with the 4TB drive being rejected.
None of my other brand drives have had any problems in the Storage Spaces pool. So I am thinking it must be a WD firmware issue and a problem with a MS auto update? Don’t know. I’m betting money that this 4TB Elements HDD will pass the WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics just as the 5TB dirve did.
I can say that WD Level II Tech support has been very nice to work with and they are trying to find out why the 5TB Elements drives were rejected by Storage Spaces. Now, with the 4TB Elements drive being rejected, I don’t know if that helps them in their troubleshooting, or not.
… and … ?
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