Certifying 8 x 16TB Drives. Faster on the 2nd and 3rd Pass? - Managing Disks - Certify, Verify, Initialize https://forums.softraid.com/managing-disks-certify-verify-initialize/certifying-8-x-16tb-drives-faster-on-the-2nd-and-3rd-pass/ SoftRAID Discussion Board en-US Mon, 20 Apr 2026 23:09:04 +0000 wpForo 60 RE: Certifying 8 x 16TB Drives. Faster on the 2nd and 3rd Pass? https://forums.softraid.com/managing-disks-certify-verify-initialize/certifying-8-x-16tb-drives-faster-on-the-2nd-and-3rd-pass/#post-22428 Sat, 05 Oct 2024 21:16:21 +0000 @llh 

Again, a lot of coding for no real result. No, drives are not totally consistent.

]]> Managing Disks - Certify, Verify, Initialize SoftRAID Support https://forums.softraid.com/managing-disks-certify-verify-initialize/certifying-8-x-16tb-drives-faster-on-the-2nd-and-3rd-pass/#post-22428 RE: Certifying 8 x 16TB Drives. Faster on the 2nd and 3rd Pass? https://forums.softraid.com/managing-disks-certify-verify-initialize/certifying-8-x-16tb-drives-faster-on-the-2nd-and-3rd-pass/#post-22425 Sat, 05 Oct 2024 19:04:07 +0000 If that slow down at the end of a pass is a known occurrence, and it's consistent, couldn't you factor that into SoftRAID's time estimation to have a more accurate/realistic estimation, rather than have the massive fluctuations?

]]> Managing Disks - Certify, Verify, Initialize llh https://forums.softraid.com/managing-disks-certify-verify-initialize/certifying-8-x-16tb-drives-faster-on-the-2nd-and-3rd-pass/#post-22425 RE: Certifying 8 x 16TB Drives. Faster on the 2nd and 3rd Pass? https://forums.softraid.com/managing-disks-certify-verify-initialize/certifying-8-x-16tb-drives-faster-on-the-2nd-and-3rd-pass/#post-14707 Sun, 20 Feb 2022 16:45:10 +0000 @softraid-support Excellent. Thanks for the clarification! I appreciate the help. 

]]> Managing Disks - Certify, Verify, Initialize bjayjones https://forums.softraid.com/managing-disks-certify-verify-initialize/certifying-8-x-16tb-drives-faster-on-the-2nd-and-3rd-pass/#post-14707 RE: Certifying 8 x 16TB Drives. Faster on the 2nd and 3rd Pass? https://forums.softraid.com/managing-disks-certify-verify-initialize/certifying-8-x-16tb-drives-faster-on-the-2nd-and-3rd-pass/#post-14706 Sun, 20 Feb 2022 16:41:08 +0000 @bjayjones 

the estimate is for all remaining passes. Note you are at 15TB. That is the slowest part of the first pass. Then when it starts reading back pass 1, it will show many less hours, which will slowly increase.

]]> Managing Disks - Certify, Verify, Initialize SoftRAID Support https://forums.softraid.com/managing-disks-certify-verify-initialize/certifying-8-x-16tb-drives-faster-on-the-2nd-and-3rd-pass/#post-14706 RE: Certifying 8 x 16TB Drives. Faster on the 2nd and 3rd Pass? https://forums.softraid.com/managing-disks-certify-verify-initialize/certifying-8-x-16tb-drives-faster-on-the-2nd-and-3rd-pass/#post-14705 Sun, 20 Feb 2022 16:39:05 +0000 @softraid-support Thanks for the quick reply. That all makes complete sense, especially at that size!

Should I expect each pass to take a week to complete? Or would all 3 passes collectively take a week? I guess I'm curious if the "time remaining" is estimating the time of each individual pass or all 3 passes together. 

Upon posting this morning, the "time remaining" and jumped up to 160+ hours from the original 130 hours. I'm hoping that estimate decides to level out soon!

1350

 

]]> Managing Disks - Certify, Verify, Initialize bjayjones https://forums.softraid.com/managing-disks-certify-verify-initialize/certifying-8-x-16tb-drives-faster-on-the-2nd-and-3rd-pass/#post-14705 RE: Certifying 8 x 16TB Drives. Faster on the 2nd and 3rd Pass? https://forums.softraid.com/managing-disks-certify-verify-initialize/certifying-8-x-16tb-drives-faster-on-the-2nd-and-3rd-pass/#post-14702 Sun, 20 Feb 2022 16:28:21 +0000 Certify proceeds at the max speed of the disks. 8 drives will not saturate the Thunderbolt bus, either.

The reason the estimated time varies widely, is we use a simple estimate of current speed vs TB remaining. So as the disk nears the end of pass one, it gets much slower, that is a function of HDD"s, then the second pass will start out fast, and gradually slow down.

16TB drives should take a full week, yes, you are writing/reading 96TB of data.

it is worth it as drives are shipped untested.

]]> Managing Disks - Certify, Verify, Initialize SoftRAID Support https://forums.softraid.com/managing-disks-certify-verify-initialize/certifying-8-x-16tb-drives-faster-on-the-2nd-and-3rd-pass/#post-14702 Certifying 8 x 16TB Drives. Faster on the 2nd and 3rd Pass? https://forums.softraid.com/managing-disks-certify-verify-initialize/certifying-8-x-16tb-drives-faster-on-the-2nd-and-3rd-pass/#post-14694 Sun, 20 Feb 2022 13:01:31 +0000 After 24 hours of certifying my 8 x 16TB drives simultaneously, the time remaining continues to increase. What began at 70 hours when beginning the certification process is now +130 hours. 

I understand that this process requires time! But will the 2nd and 3rd pass take nearly as long? If so, at this rate, this process may take over a month to complete. Is this to be expected? And is this normal behavior?

I'm running this certification via an OWC Thunderbay 8 (B&H purchase link) over Thunderbolt 3 with 16TB Ironwolf Pro Drives 7200rpm. My Mac Mini specs are attached below. 

Thanks in advance!

1345 1346]]> Managing Disks - Certify, Verify, Initialize bjayjones https://forums.softraid.com/managing-disks-certify-verify-initialize/certifying-8-x-16tb-drives-faster-on-the-2nd-and-3rd-pass/#post-14694