On Wed, 29 May 2013 00:21:48 +0100 Wayne Stallwood ALUGlist@digimatic.co.uk allegedly wrote:
On 28/05/13 12:16, Chris Walker wrote:
So 2 questions. Does anybody have any recommendations for discs or are the Western Digital discs ok? And second, should I replace both or is one ok for the time being?
Depends on the hours on the drives. I find non NAS grade HDD's in an always on setup tend to bail (on average) after 3 years.
Then I have had drives where an array of 3 drives have all failed within 1000 hours of each other. Worse still the array rebuild can uncover problems with the remaining drives you didn't know you had.
I have been following this discussion with some interest (and concern) because I have just a week or so ago built my first debian based software RAID server. (Actually, my second, but the first one doesn't count because it was a series of trial runs on a retired box).
I built it to replace a disparate set of NAS boxes (D-Link DNS 320 and 313 and three NSLU2s) which between them probably consumed as much power as the single new "server" (which idles at 46-48 watts). It also centralises my network filestore in one box running a stock wheezy which I think is more in keeping with my needs.
I'm running two WD 2TB 3.5" SATA-III "Caviar Green" disks in RAID 1. I chose them for their power characteristics and because I had been very impressed with how quiet the disks are when I installed one in my desktop recently. I confess, however, that I have no idea of their reliability or longevity. I was hoping that RAID 1 would give me the security I need for my data - now I'm not so sure.
I am now investigating how best to monitor the disks using smartctl!
Mick ---------------------------------------------------------------------
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