MP 7,1 Promise Pegasus J2i Causing Drive SMART Issue “#188 Command Timeout” and SLOWer R/W speed

[zhpenn]

I put 1x 14TB and 1x 16TB Seagate IronWolf Pro in 2 bay of Promise Pegasus J2i

I have check SMART info after a few days of use
All 2 of the drive shows the SAME Drive SMART Issue “#188 Command Timeout”

The count of aborted operations due to HDD timeout. Normally this attribute value should be equal to zero and if the value is far above zero, then most likely there will be some serious problems with power supply or an oxidized data cable.

Is it normal?

Also, I found the speed in the J2i is slower than when I use USB enclosure for both 2 drives
In enclosure normally can be 230-250MB/s Read and Write
But in J2i is just about 170-195 MB/S Read and Write

 

[bxs]

I have the J2i with the stock 8TB Toshiba and as a 2nd HHD the 16TB Seagate Exos HDD. Both are doing just fine with absolutely no errors, and they've been powered up and used for 152 hrs. When they were empty they delivered a good 220 MB/s. Now they have dropped down to around 190 MB/s, but this is normal as they do get slower as the disks fill up.

 

[AidenShaw]

Promise Pegasus J2i Causing Drive SMART Issue “#188 Command Timeout” and SLOWer R/W speed

The J2i is just a metal bracket and SATA/power cables that plug into Apple's logic board. Any problems are with the drives or the logic board, or possibly bad cables.

 

[bsbeamer]

The ONLY time I've ever seen the #188 error in DriveDx was on a drive enclosure that had a PSU fail shortly after. I'd recommend you back up your data to an external drive ASAP to avoid a larger issue later.

Assuming you're using the supplied cable(s) with the J2i? They're supposed to be warrantied. I'd at least file a support "complaint" to have this documented in case full replacement is required.

 

[bob_stan]

I am using the enclosure with 2 Toshiba 8GB drives in RAID 0 config. Roughly 290 Mbs which has stayed the same since i put them in.

 

[C2R]

No problem too (since more than 1 month) I change the Toshiba by two 8To Exos drives in Raid O . I have an average of 330 Mbs R and W , with 7, 5 To of data on it.

 

[AidenShaw]

but this is normal as they do get slower as the disks fill up.

This is true, but perhaps not for the reason that you imply.

Modern spinning disks are "banded", meaning that the outer tracks of the disk have more octets per track than the inner tracks. A revolution reading or writing the outermost track has more octets per revolution than an inner track. Assuming that a disk is filled from LBA 0 (outer) to LBA n-1 (inner), the bandwidth will decrease in a step function as the heads move into bands with fewer octets per track. This happens even if the disk is perfectly optimized (no fragmentation).

If, as is typical, the disk is both written and read, and files are deleted, then new files are written into the "holes" created when files are deleted. Before long, the holes are often too small to hold a larger file, so that it is written to several holes. This means that head motion delays are added to the time to read or write a file.

So yes, spinners do slow down as they fill up - but there are two different factors in play.

 

[zhpenn]

does anyone know what is the SATA power supply voltage on the MacPro 7,1 motherboard?
because of some Seagate drive needs 5V to run the drive, if it is 3.3v may have a problem, will it be this problem? about the 3.3V Power Disable problem, will this be the reason of the 188error?
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does anyone also using IronWolf Pro?

 

[Slash-2CPU]

does anyone know what is the SATA power supply voltage on the MacPro 7,1 motherboard?
because of some Seagate drive needs 5V to run the drive, if it is 3.3v may have a problem, will it be this problem? about the 3.3V Power Disable problem, will this be the reason of the 188error?
[automerge]1581474912[/automerge]
does anyone also using IronWolf Pro?

The pins only provide 12V and 5V. There is no 3.3V on the internal header.

Likely bad cable, or the cable isn't fully plugged in. Hope it's not a problem with the Mac Pro not providing enough current on the header.

 

[Snow Tiger]

If your current SMART utility has the ability to sector scans of your HDDs , then now would be a good time to run them . It can take a long time , but you'll get a better idea of the condition of those rusty spinners .

If your utility cannot perform that function , you might consider SMART Utility by Volitans .

https://www.volitans-software.com

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does anyone know what is the SATA power supply voltage on the MacPro 7,1 motherboard?
because of some Seagate drive needs 5V to run the drive, if it is 3.3v may have a problem, will it be this problem? about the 3.3V Power Disable problem, will this be the reason of the 188error?
[automerge]1581474912[/automerge]
does anyone also using IronWolf Pro?

I think the Mac Pro 7,1 is new enough a machine to deal with Power Disable . If not , Apple screwed up . The Mac Pro 4,1 and 5,1 cannot handle it as the backplanes are too old .

 

[zhpenn]

If your current SMART utility has the ability to sector scans of your HDDs , then now would be a good time to run them . It can take a long time , but you'll get a better idea of the condition of those rusty spinners .

If your utility cannot perform that function , you might consider SMART Utility by Volitans .

https://www.volitans-software.com

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I think the Mac Pro 7,1 is new enough a machine to deal with Power Disable . If not , Apple screwed up . The Mac Pro 4,1 and 5,1 cannot handle it as the backplanes are too old .

Thanks a lot, there is a self-test on DriveDx, I will run it and see the result, thanks a lot
btw is the self-test is the same as the surface scan?

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Did you install their utility/driver. I suspect using their bracket without their utility will improve things. 3rd party drivers often cause trouble

 

[Snow Tiger]

Thanks a lot, there is a self-test on DriveDx, I will run it and see the result, thanks a lot
btw is the self-test is the same as the surface scan?

Unfortunately , I am not familiar with DriveDx .

surface scan is the old name for a sector scan , I believe .

I rarely checked drives in Macs until recently , since I have awful memories of drives getting corrupted just by running the tests from like 20 - 25 years ago .

 

[zhpenn]

Did you install their utility/driver. I suspect using their bracket without their utility will improve things. 3rd party drivers often cause trouble

Does the J2i need to install the driver? Since just SATA ports I think just plug and use? it just feel like simple as plug in an usb drive

 

[jasonmvp]

Does the J2i need to install the driver?

No. Just connect the drives up and go.

 

[bsbeamer]

No mention of actual surface scan in their overview:

DriveDx - Online Help

Everything you always wanted to know about SSD and HDD health diagnostic but were afraid to ask.

binaryfruit.com

Short Self-test
The primary goal is to quickly identify if the drive is faulty. Usually it consists of a collection of test routines like: electrical and mechanical (HDDs only) performance tests as well as the read performance test of the drive. Does read scan of a small area of the media (area is vendor-specific, test time is limited). Electrical tests might include a read/write circuitry test, a test of buffer RAM, and/or a test of the read / write head elements. Mechanical test usually includes seeking and servo on data tracks. Checks the list of Pending blocks that may have read errors. (Usually under 2 minutes).

Full (Long / Extended) Self-test
Longer, much more comprehensive and thorough version of the Short self-test, does read scan of the entire media, with no time limit. Can be used to validate the results of the Short self-test because Short self-test time constraint may not provide sufficient test time to identify a fault condition.


Self-tests are safe and can’t damage drive or any user data. All tests can be performed during normal system operation, but running self-test can, however, degrade current performance of the device.

Self-test will take longer to complete if drive is busy.

 

[killerovsky]

No mention of actual surface scan in their overview:

...
Full (Long / Extended) Self-test
..., does read scan of the entire media, ....

Please read more carefully.

 

[bsbeamer]

DriveDx is excellent and that is a very a good test for errors, but that is not the "surface" scan that was referred to earlier in this thread. The only standalone application for macOS that still does this (that I'm aware of) is Scannerz. Haven't used that in at least 5 years.

 

[killerovsky]

DriveDx is excellent and that is a very a good test for errors, but that is not the "surface" scan that was referred to earlier in this thread. The only standalone application for macOS that still does this (that I'm aware of) is Scannerz. Haven't used that in at least 5 years.

It is a surface scan. Full self-test of HDD includes full disk surface scan, it takes several hours, depending on HDD read/write speed and its size. In the case of surface scan error, it will report the address of the first sector where read (or write) error occurred. Please see real-world screenshot:

 

[zhpenn]

It is wired that I have run a self-test on a very old USB 5TB HDD
Shows no error, but it got a lot of SMART error
is the drive safe to use?

 

[tsialex]

It is wired that I have run a self-test on a very old USB 5TB HDD
Shows no error, but it got a lot of SMART error
is the drive safe to use?



View attachment 893915

View attachment 893916

View attachment 893917

No, it's dying. Don't use HDDs that SMART shows uncorrectable errors, it will corrupt your data in unpredictable ways.

 

[zhpenn]

No, it's dying. Don't use HDDs that SMART shows uncorrectable errors, it will corrupt your data in unpredictable ways.

Thanks a lot

 

[GamerZer0]

My initial J2i setup drove me crazy!

I got it with 2 16TB Seagate EXOS. I set it up in the J2i in RAID O... formatted to Encrypted APFS. I copied some +20TB of content from a Synology NAS. Took over 4 days if I remember.

All is fine... but a few days after that... the drive wouldn't MOUNT. Tried everything... no use... searched forums... tried all Terminal commands advised to make the drive mount. NOTHING.

I was lucky I didn't delete the NAS copy... its years of personal files and videos and photos.

Ended up deleted the whole thing and just formatted the RAID 0 to "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)"... ZERO issues!

APFS is not "mature" yet in some setups...

 

[zhpenn]

My initial J2i setup drove me crazy!

I got it with 2 16TB Seagate EXOS. I set it up in the J2i in RAID O... formatted to Encrypted APFS. I copied some +20TB of content from a Synology NAS. Took over 4 days if I remember.

All is fine... but a few days after that... the drive wouldn't MOUNT. Tried everything... no use... searched forums... tried all Terminal commands advised to make the drive mount. NOTHING.

I was lucky I didn't delete the NAS copy... its years of personal files and videos and photos.

Ended up deleted the whole thing and just formatted the RAID 0 to "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)"... ZERO issues!

APFS is not "mature" yet in some setups...

Yes, I tried APFS on my Lacie USB HDD, it just die immediately never mount again