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Investigating Problems with Disks
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Topic starter
I have several RAID 5 setups using SoftRAID. I am using Thunderbay 4 and Akiti JBOD enclosures. How do I go about finding which disk to replace when one fails?
Each bay has a label on it with a unique number (1, 2, 3, ...). I had hoped to keep a small file with that unique number tied to hard drive information.
SoftRaid is not picking up any information from the label on my HGST drives that is unique. All SN match on drives that are the same. I have also found that noting the disk identifier "disk3, disk15, etc." also can change if a case is powered off. Maybe my observations are wrong and I hope so.
Can anyone give some pointers or help before I get a failure and mess this up?
Posted : 06/10/2017 10:04 am
SoftRAID will display the serial number which is unique. The SoftRAID disk label will show in log entries also.
Use the "blink disk light" feature to identify the physical disk associated with each disk in the disks column. Then put a SoftRAID label on each, like B1-A, B1-B, etc. Then you can easily see which is which.
Posted : 06/10/2017 3:53 pm
Topic starter
Thanks for the Blink Light heads up. :-)
Here is a screen shot. These numbers don't match the SNs on the physical hdds.
?dl=0
Posted : 10/10/2017 9:42 am
That is the fault of your enclosure, which is reporting an enclosure serial number, not the disk serial number.
Posted : 10/10/2017 1:26 pm
Topic starter
Thank you. I would advise everyone stay away from Akitio 4 bay enclosures if this feature matters (and it should matter).
Posted : 10/10/2017 1:58 pm
re: "that is the fault of the enclosure"
I am using the Mercury Elite Pro Quad. I have a similar issue.
Luckily SoftRAID does identify the bay, and the "blink disk light" command works, so I can find the disk that way.
But the lack of other basic information is disturbing.
Make, model#, serial numbers don't match anything on the disk.
Instead of the disk model, it lists the enclosure name.
see images.
This disk completed verification.
If I take it out and put it back in the bay, it shows the same (arbitrary) serial number. So at least it's consistent that way and would correspond to the log notes.
The "Add Disk Label" command is greyed out. Not sure if that would help.
Posted : 05/10/2021 12:57 pm
Many USB enclosures do not make the drive available. it hides it behind the USB chipset, so all you see is the enclosure information. the Mercury Elite Pro does not pass through the drive model/serial.
Once you initialize the drive, you can add a disk label to each disk, so you can identify it.
Posted : 05/10/2021 1:21 pm
I have the same question for the Mercury Pro U.2 Dual with OWC shuttles : how do I identify the faulty SSD stick in a raid configuration (luckily everything works well so far) ? There's no individual 'blink disk light' on the enclosure.
Posted : 17/10/2021 7:15 am
I think you need to go by drive serial number. Its something I will inquire about.
Posted : 19/10/2021 8:34 pm
