Hard Drive Failure Help!!

[pantera327]

Any help would be great.

I have 4 2TB drives set up in RAID 1+0. Disk Utility gave me a warning that the drive in Bay 4 was failing and when tested with Drive Genius it reported the same information. The drive was only a couple days old so Western Digital sent me a new one.

I put the failed drive in an enclosure to erase everything on it and now it passes Drive Genius's Scan. Does anyone know what is up because. I really would hate Western Digital to charge me for the new drive.

 

[diazj3]

Any help would be great.

I have 4 2TB drives set up in RAID 1+0. Disk Utility gave me a warning that the drive in Bay 4 was failing and when tested with Drive Genius it reported the same information. The drive was only a couple days old so Western Digital sent me a new one.

I put the failed drive in an enclosure to erase everything on it and now it passes Drive Genius's Scan. Does anyone know what is up because. I really would hate Western Digital to charge me for the new drive.

What kind of failure did it report?

One possible answer may be that the the enclosure does not support SMART, and/or that it does not have a temperature sensor, so perhaps there's some information left out... have you tried putting it in the MP and rescan it with/without information? Have you used DiskWarrior to rebuild the directory?

cheers!

 

[pantera327]

What kind of failure did it report?

One possible answer may be that the the enclosure does not support SMART, and/or that it does not have a temperature sensor, so perhaps there's some information left out... have you tried putting it in the MP and rescan it with/without information? Have you used DiskWarrior to rebuild the directory?

cheers!

It basically said the disc info and that it is currently unstable and replacement is suggested. Then a day later it failed completely. I did not write down exactly what it said, but expected at least 1 to be bad out of the 4 I purchased. I plan on putting it back in the MACPro and running the scan again to check it out. I will also look up the diskwarrior you suggested.

 

[diazj3]

It basically said the disc info and that it is currently unstable and replacement is suggested. Then a day later it failed completely. I did not write down exactly what it said, but expected at least 1 to be bad out of the 4 I purchased. I plan on putting it back in the MACPro and running the scan again to check it out. I will also look up the diskwarrior you suggested.

Weird, but as you say, might be expected that 1 in four drives fails.... such is life. Good thing you didn't loose info and that they'll replace the drive for free.

Too bad you don't know the exact error type. If you have already formatted the drive, Diskwarrior won't help now, since a new file directory will be built. Try reinstalling the drive into the MP and see if it's still faulty any drive utility, but I'd be prepared to send it back...

cheers!

 

[nanofrog]

If you want to do a proper surface scan (possibly do a remap if it finds bad sectors), then you need to get it attached to a PC. This isn't an Apple v. PC preference argument, it has to do with the fact that the low level information isn't passed properly in the MP (firmware is EFI, and BIOS emulation doesn't do it properly either). I and others here on MR have run into this issue when trying to scan drives prior to installing them in a RAID (saves a lot of time and effort to check them first, rather than build an array on unstable disks). For those without a PC or access to one, this is a real PITA to deal with (some have to forgo a full scan prior to installing the disks in a RAID).

I'm not sure if Disk Warrior has gotten around this issue fully or not, or what disks it can actually remap if needed (each drive maker's low level formatting implementations are proprietary), and drive vendors usually offer free software for this purpose (DOS or Windows based).

Just a thought.

 

[pantera327]

If you want to do a proper surface scan (possibly do a remap if it finds bad sectors), then you need to get it attached to a PC. This isn't an Apple v. PC preference argument, it has to do with the fact that the low level information isn't passed properly in the MP (firmware is EFI, and BIOS emulation doesn't do it properly either). I and others here on MR have run into this issue when trying to scan drives prior to installing them in a RAID (saves a lot of time and effort to check them first, rather than build an array on unstable disks). For those without a PC or access to one, this is a real PITA to deal with (some have to forgo a full scan prior to installing the disks in a RAID).

I'm not sure if Disk Warrior has gotten around this issue fully or not, or what disks it can actually remap if needed (each drive maker's low level formatting implementations are proprietary), and drive vendors usually offer free software for this purpose (DOS or Windows based).

Just a thought.

This may be a stupid question, but can I do it in Parallels. I am not sure if I can get my hands on a desktop PC with a SATA port. or would using my enclosure with a PC be just as good. I attached a picture of my error and as far a software are you talking about using something like Data Lifeguard Diagnostic (http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=120)

 

[ActionableMango]

Almost certainly your enclosure is too dumb to report issues.

It's irrelevant though. That is not a trustworthy drive and it must be replaced.

 

[nanofrog]

This may be a stupid question, but can I do it in Parallels.

Unfortunately, No.

It won't work in this instance (VM is still running under EFI, and the low level data doesn't pass properly as they're different firmware standards).

In the case of native booting (Boot Camp or a separate disk), it doesn't work either. For this case, you hit the option key, which brings up the boot loader. The user selects the Windows installation (or Linux), and that loads the BIOS Emulation portion in the EFI firmware to get it to load. Unfortunately, this does not translate the the low level information either.

So in either case, it won't work. This is why you must do it on a PC.

I am not sure if I can get my hands on a desktop PC with a SATA port. or would using my enclosure with a PC be just as good.

All you need to do, is get it attached to a PC. How doesn't matter (internal SATA, eSATA, or USB - presuming the PC won't have FW, and/or the version of Windows doesn't support FW, such as Win 7) will work so long as you're using the same port types on both the enclosure and system you're using.

I attached a picture of my error and as far a software are you talking about using something like Data Lifeguard Diagnostic (http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=120)

As per the software, Yes. That's what you'd need to run for a WD drive. Other makers have their own, so if it's a different brand, go to their site and get what they offer that's meant for the drive (some older disks use different software packages, so pay attention to the details). It's important, as each disk maker's low level methodologies are different (proprietary, as there's no standards at this level; it tells the controller how to read the disk = maps out the sectors).

 

[alphaod]

Just send the old drive back. They won't charge you as long as they get it back.