Two Questions

[rfielder]

Two questions:

1> what is the ideal operating temperature for hard drives? I am testing a new build, and under the best load I could create, the hottest drive in the seven drive system is hitting 33 degrees C.

2> can someone please point me to the instructions on how to remove and replace a failed drive under FreeNAS? I have built a seven 2Tb drive system using RAIDZ2, using the drives from my Windows Home Server. Some of the drives are older, so I anticipate they will not last forever. It would be good to know how to replace a drive when the time comes.

On a semi-related note, of all the drives I have used in the Windows Home Server over a 12 - 13 year period, the ones that failed the fastest were two WD Gold 2Tb drives. Both have a manufacturing date of 16 FEB 2018. They will be replaced under warranty, since the Gold series has a 5 year warranty. Still, this seems odd.

Thanks in advance!

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

Hi @rfielder

1> what is the ideal operating temperature for hard drives? I am testing a new build, and under the best load I could create, the hottest drive in the seven drive system is hitting 33 degrees C.

Check out this link about temps and humidity.

2> can someone please point me to the instructions on how to remove and replace a failed drive under FreeNAS?

I would suggest the User Guide as the first place to look for anything like that.

On a semi-related note, of all the drives I have used in the Windows Home Server over a 12 - 13 year period, the ones that failed the fastest were two WD Gold 2Tb drives. Both have a manufacturing date of 16 FEB 2018. They will be replaced under warranty, since the Gold series has a 5 year warranty. Still, this seems odd.

Disk failure rates have two periods of time with a higher failure rate; when the drives are new and when they have many hours on them with the failure rate of the latter being higher. After you do a full burn in of your disks etc you hope to have weeded out any disks that will have new-drive failures.

 

[rfielder]

Hi @rfielderCheck out this link about temps and humidity.

Thanks - I will go over that document.

Found the details in the FreeNAS user guide. Not sure how I missed it before....

Disk failure rates have two periods of time with a higher failure rate; when the drives are new and when they have many hours on them with the failure rate of the latter being higher. After you do a full burn in of your disks etc you hope to have weeded out any disks that will have new-drive failures.

Understood. I just found it interesting that it was two drive with five year warranties and the same production dates that failed the quickest. Perhaps a bad batch of drives?

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

Understood. I just found it interesting that it was two drive with five year warranties and the same production dates that failed the quickest. Perhaps a bad batch of drives?

Certainly possible. Some folks have been known to intentionally buy drives from different batches. I don't go that far; I just buy drives with warranty. :)

Found the details in the FreeNAS user guide. Not sure how I missed it before....

No worries, I hope it helps.

I will say that I 100% support your approach here; test your system and know how to use it and maintain it before you put data on it and forget it.

 

[rfielder]

I will say that I 100% support your approach here; test your system and know how to use it and maintain it before you put data on it and forget it.

Just to be perfectly clear - this is my second FreeNAS system. The first one, details in my sig, has been up and running for a wee while.

The second one is to use the parts left over from my Windows Home Server. This one is named miniNAS, and has only seven 2Tb drives. Was to have been eight, but I ordered an M.2 SATA drive by mistake. It was to have been an M.2 NVMe drive, so that all eight SATA ports were available, but that is not how it worked out.

Nets out to about 8.2Tb free space, which is sufficient for what it will be used for . The big system started with 40Tb free, and is now down to 12Tb free. Time to stop keeping all the shows and movies, I guess.....