Hard drive clicking

[Makaveli6103]

The other day after a restart of my system a hard drive started to click. First thing I thought is that the hard drive is failing. So I let it boot up and checked for errors. There are no alerts on the GUI and the pool status is in good health with no errors. I haven't noticed and speed changes. Should I replace it or wait?

 

[ProtoSD]

Run a long SMART test: smartctl -t long /dev/ada_your_disk

Wait for it to finish and view the results with: smartctl -a /dev/ada_your_disk

Print out the results and replace it.

The SMART test is probably pointless, the disk is failing and the GUI doesn't really report those types of errors yet.

 

[Makaveli6103]

Run a long SMART test: smartctl -t long /dev/ada_your_disk

Wait for it to finish and view the results with: smartctl -a /dev/ada_your_disk

Print out the results and replace it.

The SMART test is probably pointless, the disk is failing and the GUI doesn't really report those types of errors yet.

Ok thanks. I just need to listen closely to see exactly which disk it is. But what is the point of printing out the results? And Thanks for the help

 

[ProtoSD]

Sometimes when you do an RMA, they like to see them. If you're not sending it back, then it doesn't matter.

I wouldn't mess around and waste any time, depending on your configuration you could lose data if that disk dies completely.

 

[Makaveli6103]

Sometimes when you do an RMA, they like to see them. If you're not sending it back, then it doesn't matter.

I wouldn't mess around and waste any time, depending on your configuration you could lose data if that disk dies completely.

Do you have an easy way to figure out with disk is clicking? I cannot figure out which one it is.

 

[ProtoSD]

I've found that something like this stethescope for $3 is useful to figure out which drive is clicking:

http://www.harborfreight.com/mechanics-stethoscope-41966.html

You just hold the tip against the end or side of each disk and wait for it to click.

 

[Makaveli6103]

I've found that something like this stethescope for $3 is useful to figure out which drive is clicking:

http://www.harborfreight.com/mechanics-stethoscope-41966.html

You just hold the tip against the end or side of each disk and wait for it to click.

Good idea. I will use the stethoscope I have.

 

[paleoN]

I've found that something like this stethescope for $3 is useful to figure out which drive is clicking:

ROLF. It's no doubt effective though and if you don't see other indicators...

 

[ProtoSD]

ROLF. It's no doubt effective though and if you don't see other indicators...

Yeah, it's definitely low tech, but I had one of my Hitachi drives clicking and nothing in SMART that helped, I just happened to have one of these stethoscopes for my truck and it worked. It was a lot easier than disassembling everything.

The only warning I have is, if your drive mounts don't use the rubber grommets, the sound can transfer through the mounting brackets. You have to listen to each drive and see which one sounds louder when it clicks.

 

[Makaveli6103]

Yeah, it's definitely low tech, but I had one of my Hitachi drives clicking and nothing in SMART that helped, I just happened to have one of these stethoscopes for my truck and it worked. It was a lot easier than disassembling everything.

The only warning I have is, if your drive mounts don't use the rubber grommets, the sound can transfer through the mounting brackets. You have to listen to each drive and see which one sounds louder when it clicks.

They are stacked close to each other in the bracket so I am going to have to take them out and lay them down to listen to them individually.

 

[ProtoSD]

They are stacked close to each other in the bracket so I am going to have to take them out and lay them down to listen to them individually.

I don't know what your stethoscope is like, but you should be able to leave them in the case. You only need to make contact with the end of each disk. I guess if you're using a standard stethoscope it might be too big.

 

[tingo]

I suddenly get these images in my head:

Does it hurt here?
No doctor
Ok, how about here then?
No doctor

Thanks for giving me a laugh

 

[Makaveli6103]

I currently have a 4x Samsung F4 2TB. If I replace it with the WD Red 2TB drive, will it cause any problems (going from sataII to III and my board supports III)?

 

[ProtoSD]

You shouldn't have any problems, but some drive manufacturers make drives that are slight smaller in capacity and if you try to replace a drive in ZFS with a smaller one it won't let you. If you let FreeNAS create swap space at the beginning of your drives when you first created your pool, you can manually replace the disk from the command line and leave out the swap space and things will work fine like that.

 

[Makaveli6103]

I took a drive offline and disconnected it. But when I turned the system back on I heard clicking again. Is it ok to move the drives around and put the hard drive I thought was bad into a different sata port?

 

[paleoN]

Is it ok to move the drives around and put the hard drive I thought was bad into a different sata port?

Should be just fine. ZFS will find & update the correct disks.