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Managing Disks - Certify, Verify, Initialize
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Topic starter
Mac Mini 2020 32GB OWC RAM
Catalina 10.5.5
Softraid 5.8.3 Driver 5.8.3
Secureboot disabled
Two ThunderBay 4s, one with four 8TB drives, and the other with four much older 3TB drives.
I started with one Thunderbay 4 and four brand new 8TB drives all same make and manufacturer. Certified the drives with no errors and created two volumes in RAID 5 across the drives. I had this configuration up and running for a few weeks. Copied all my data off an older Drobo. Accessed the data (read/write) just fine over the last few weeks, so everything on the single Thunderbay 4 seemed to be working just fine and no errors showing.
Now I decide that I am Mr. wannabebigtimeRAIDguy and I get another Thunderbay 4. I decided to take four of the old 3TB drives out of my Drobo and see if they will certify in the new Thunderbay 4.
Connection Scheme: MacMini Thunderbolt 3 Port to original Thunderbay 4 via Thunderbolt 3, Original Thunderbay 4 to new Thunderbay 4 via Thunderbolt 3 in daisy chain.
Here’s where the problems start. These drives were old (4-5 years), and I didn’t expect them all certify at all. However, I didn’t expect the certify process to completely hang the whole system multiple times. I had to reboot numerous times and I was able to get one of the drives to successfully certify. The other three had various #s of sector errors (very few) and all said “disk failure predicted,” but really I don’t think they ever got vary far in the certification process, maybe halfway through the first pass at the most before they would hang the system.
I still wanted to see if I could at least get the other three drives to get all the way through the certification process. So I took the original Thunderbay 4 out of the equation and connected the new Thunderbay 4 with the older drives that I am trying to certify straight to the MacMini via Thunderbolt 3.
I reboot after taking the original Thunderbay out of the equation and right now the older three drives in the newer Thunderbay 4 are going through the certification process just fine. Still finding less than a half dozen sector errors and on the second pass.
Is there any known issues with running two Thunderbay 4s in daisy chain via Thunderbolt 3? I’m thinking having both Thunderbay 4s connected at the same time is what was causing the certification process to hang on the three old drives. Since now that I only have the new one connected, the three old drives seem to be chugging right through the certification process.
Should I run the two Thunderbay 4s from separate ports individually? Would that help?
Is the issue that the Softraid is seeing all the exact same type and size of drive and getting confused in some way? I highly doubt this as there has to be more than just me running this type of setup.
Anyway I have four new 8TB drives in route to put in the new Thunderbay 4. I’d like to try to rule out some issues before I spend two weeks trying to certify those. Right now, I have my other older Thunderbay 4 disconnected entirely just to get through the certification process. I’d really like to leave it connected so I can access the data from it when I go through the certification process on the four new 8TB drives in the new Thunderbay 4.
Any ideas on how I can rule out what is causing my certification hangs when two Thunderbay 4s are connected in daisy chain?
Posted : 12/06/2020 1:03 am
When a drive fails certification, it is a hardware problem. Its possible it is not the drive, but you know for a fact your system is not reliable.
When drives report "reallocated" sectors, etc, this is data coming from the drives. They are failing if even 1 sector reallocates. When there are multiple reallocated sectors, just stop using them, they may fail at any minute.
If the drive has "unreliable" sectors, these may get repaired by a certify. Or they may reallocate, which again points to imminent failure, statistically.
The Drobo does not support SMART, so yes it is possible for multiple drives to be failing.
The hangs are probably the disks retrying and retrying, to read the bad sectors on the media.
If the drives "Pass" certify with only one Thunderbay, but fail with two, there is a faulty cable ot enclosure, as you can easily certify with 2 enclosures daisy chained.
Let us know what you determine.
Posted : 12/06/2020 11:22 am
Topic starter
Small Update:
One of the three 3TB older drives from the Drobo shows 4 unreliable sectors and I got a message that the certify process hung but it did not lock up Softraid this time. The other two are showing one unreliable sector each but still chugging along coming up on pass three.
More to follow.
Posted : 12/06/2020 11:41 am
In my experience, "unreliable" means a power issue, as often as it is a drive issue.
Certify should either clear the state in the drive, or force the sectors to be reallocated, so you know if the drive is OK or not. That is the beauty of a certify. Any time you have a drive fail certify for any reason, it means the hardware is not reliable, and you should not use it for data until you know what you have.
Sometimes it is not the drive, but the cable, enclosure, AC power, etc. It can take some methodical testing sometimes to figure it out.
Posted : 12/06/2020 5:03 pm
Topic starter
I ended up letting the certify run for a while so that I was more confident that it was a drive issue vs. other hardware. I will check back when the new drives arrive and I go through the certify process on those.
Should I do anything before certifying? Or just plop the drives in and go straight to certify?
Posted : 12/06/2020 9:50 pm
Just certify, yes.
Posted : 13/06/2020 12:22 am
Topic starter
I have completed the certification of the four new drives in the second Thunderbay 4 while daisy chained with no issues. Thank you for the help.
Posted : 20/06/2020 12:22 pm
