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Investigating Problems with Disks
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Topic starter
Advice? Do I verify, or re-certify this disk? And if I re-certify it, will the hours of use data be retained in the disk counter?
The warranty enclosure arrived yesterday evening. All set to go in my office and look forward to unboxing. But just before doing so, I loaded an original Seagate 4TB pre-certified disk back into the original enclosure. This disk was error-free for at least 3 years before taking it out and carefully storing it away in the tray. There were no volumes on the disk, it was left blank for when I would need it next.
Upon trying to create a new volume on said disk, I am now looking at a red-icon and 137 i/o errors. At first I didn't take stock of the reality. SoftRAID Disk column showed 4TB available and I knew there were no volumes on the disk, just the disk itself. When I went to create a new volume it only said 18.4 with no designation next to it, no GB or TB or MB. That should have been a red flag but I was tired so I just wrote in "4TB." Of course this triggered an error. In the .log file is shows "A program attempted to read or write past the end of the volume."
While attempting to create the volume, it got to "mounting" and stuck/froze. I was able to unmount all other volumes safely and the new "Test Volume" was not yet showing in Finder (just SoftRAID with a thermometer). Upon quitting SoftRAID and re-opening (every single time now), it then alerts me with this message:
Partition Map Needs Repair.
"The partition map on the disk disk20, SATA (Thunderbolt) 4TB has been damaged. This may cause some of your SoftRAID Volumes to not work correctly. Do you want SoftRAID to repair it?"
I have clicked Repair but then if I close out of the SoftRAID application and re-open it again or just restart the computer, the message re-appears.
But here's the next part that leads me to believe we just pinpointed this enclosure as the be-all-end all. When I put in a second original Seagate 4TB EXOS disk into Bay 2 to check that out, it too only showed "18.4" in the disk column by "Available." It said "Size: 4TB. Available 18.4"
This time I was on guard to not repeat the process, so I did not create a new volume, but did open the "Create Volume" option and sure enough it looked the same as the previous time...with a second 4TB Seagate EXOS disk in the same slot (Bay 2).
Not sure what that means but think I'd feel better re-certifying the disk that flashes the partition map error in case the disk actually was irreparably damaged during this process/hang/error.
I will do that using the new enclosure that I will now unbox. But before re-certifying that disk I will wait for your reply.
I see in the manual that "hours of use" will remain if the disk is initialized a second time. What about disk certification?
Posted : 08/02/2025 3:21 pm
Topic starter
Short update since the post above was way too long and it won't let me edit anything to shorten now. I re-initialized the disk to confirm that the Hours Of Use remained intact. After re-initializing the disk, SoftRAID stopped giving me the partition map damaged error. Then I re-started computer to confirm. I am now certifying the disk IN the new advance replacement enclosure that I setup *after* posting the above, which happened while still using the old enclosure. Now in the new enclosure, I'm giving the disk certification 3 passes with 15-minute random-access-testing. I'm really grateful for the service and that OWC took care of me. I'm very hopeful the saga will finally be behind me in about 36 hours or so.
This post was modified 1 year ago by GuitarFlex
Posted : 08/02/2025 11:58 pm
Were these disks sitting on a shelf for that period of time? that would explain in my eyes. Lubricant solidifies (gets thicker) over time, sitting.
Posted : 09/02/2025 8:35 am
Topic starter
Yes, that is 100% correct. Disk just passed the default 3-rounds certification with 15 minutes Random Access Testing in the new enclosure. I'm elated.
What should I know moving forward about disks on shelves? Any precautionary steps I should be aware of the more I've learned from all this?
Many thanks again.
Posted : 10/02/2025 4:37 pm
I would never plug in "cold" drives from a shelf. You are more likely to get a reallocated sector or IO error. Especially if is a few months. Warm them up a bit first.
Letting them spin up every few months or so is good practice, also, so they stay "lubricated". Otherwise, not much.
Flash Media, you MUST plug in for at least an hour every 6 months (or less), or you will lose data. they are not designed for shelf storage, a little promoted fact, especially with Thumbdrives, people let them sit in drawers, expecting them to be 100% readable after a year or two.
Posted : 10/02/2025 8:45 pm
Topic starter
I would never plug in "cold" drives from a shelf. You are more likely to get a reallocated sector or IO error. Especially if is a few months. Warm them up a bit first.
Letting them spin up every few months or so is good practice, also, so they stay "lubricated". Otherwise, not much.
Flash Media, you MUST plug in for at least an hour every 6 months (or less), or you will lose data. they are not designed for shelf storage, a little promoted fact, especially with Thumbdrives, people let them sit in drawers, expecting them to be 100% readable after a year or two.
Thanks so much. Very helpful and I'm glad you've taught me this now! When you say "warm them up a bit first," my question is simple: how do you warm them up?
As far as archival goes, would a better long-term plan be to have them in another enclosure (i.e. Elite Pro or Elite Pro Dual)? Or just as long as they're spun up every few months or so is it the about the same either way.
This post was modified 1 year ago by GuitarFlex
Posted : 10/02/2025 9:28 pm
I donb't mean putting them in an oven if that is what you are thinking, just a warm room is fine. Over the years, I have found taking a drive from storage and putting it into an enclosure, can cause instant reallocated sectors, IO errors, or worse.
So I make sure they are at least room temperature and let them spin for several minutes before doing anything with them.
Drives are generally pretty good at storage. They don't really need to be kept spinning for long term storage, just treat them like a vintage car, so to speak! (or a vintage guitar!)
Posted : 11/02/2025 2:26 am
Topic starter
@softraid-support Thank you again! This helps! I'll definitely remember this moving forward with everything. I appreciate it.
Posted : 11/02/2025 6:25 pm
