The meticulous way of stressing a HDD

[Maff]

kai-

Using Roadkil's Diskwipe should achieve the same results in a Windows Environment, using an enclosure for the 3.5" HDD.

Alternatively, if your laptop supports booting up to external HDDs, you should be able to use DBAN to that HDD with no issue.

You don't even need a enclosure.
Sometimes a USB 2.0 to IDE SATA HDD Hard Drive adapter like:
http://www.amazon.com/USB-SATA-5-25-Cab ... 06&sr=8-13
or
http://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-USB-DSC5- ... =de_a_smtd
is enough.

[charred_water]

In the wikipedia RAID article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID) there is a section about "Drive error recovery algorithms" which says:

Many modern drives have internal error recovery algorithms that can take upwards of a minute to recover and re-map data that the drive fails to easily read. Many RAID controllers will drop a non-responsive drive in 8 seconds or so. This can cause the array to drop a good drive because it has not been given enough time to complete its internal error recovery procedure, leaving the rest of the array vulnerable. So-called enterprise class drives limit the error recovery time and prevent this problem, but desktop drives can be quite risky for this reason. A fix is known for Western Digital drives. A utility called WDTLER.exe can limit the error recovery time of a Western Digital desktop drive so that it will not be dropped from the array for this reason. The utility enables TLER (time limited error recovery) which limits the error recovery time to 7 seconds. Western Digital enterprise class drives are shipped from the factory with TLER enabled to prevent being dropped from RAID arrays. Similar technologies are used by Seagate, Samsung, and Hitachi (reference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TLER).

It seems like a good idea to run the appropriate TLER utility on your consumer drive if you intend to use it in a RAID configuration.

Are folks running the WDTLER utility on their WD consumer drives?

Shouldn't this be added to the Synology "How to prepare your hard disks" article?

I already used Heidi Erase to prep four WD 1TB Green Caviar drives, but it seems like I should run the WDTLER utility before I install them in my DS409+.

I asked WD tech support about the WDTLER utility and they wrote me that:
I'm sorry but there isn't a way to make a non-RAID drive RAID. You will need to purchase a RAID Edition drive in order to use the drive in a RAID array.

So while the WD Caviar Green drives are listed in Synology's list of compatible drives, because you cannot enable TLER on these drives, should a Caviar Green drive encounter an internal error they are likely to time out and be dropped by from the RAID array. This seems like a good reason not to use a Caviar Green or Black or Blue drive in a RAID array. If I had discovered this earlier, I would have ordered the Western Digital RE3 enterprise drive, which is twice as expensive but has TLER enabled.

Just wanted to point this out to folks looking to chose a drive for their RAID array.

I would be interested to hear from IT folks whether they stick to enterprise HDDs for RAID arrays. Or whether the chance of internal errors and timeouts is sufficiently low to make the use of consumer drives like the Caviar Green okay.

[crashnburn]

For those of you with Acronis True Image 11 Home: ATI 11 comes with a function called Acronis Drive Cleanser that will wipe a drive using any of a variety of pre-defined algorithms (from hard core DoD spec to simple ones). You can even custom define the algorithym.

I chose "Fast" which is a one-pass algorithm that writes "0"s over everything. I was able to wipe each of my 1TB Seagates in a little over 2 hours each. I used an extenal esata box and hooked it up to my PC.

Wow! I have Acronis Suite of software as well. I have Hirens Boot CD as well www.hiren.tk. It has a whole bunch of Tools for this kinda stuff including D Nuke.

Question: SHP - You were able to Zero Wipe 1 TB in 2 hours? Man thats fast.

Anyone please tell me how much average time it took you for 1TB HDD or similar large ones and which programs you guys used?

Maybe for interest to anyone, I'm currently preparing 5 x Seagate 1TB HDDs (ST31000340AS) to put in my shiny new DS508. I'm using an external USB/SATA connector off my Windows XP Pro laptop, each drive is taking 15 hours...zzzzz.

If anyone has an alternative program I can use let me know, maybe I'm glad the 1.5TB drives aren't yet available!

macca

Which program were you using at the time? I'd like to do the same. 15 hours is long. Did you find a better / faster alternative?

I used Western Digital's free diagnostics program to write zero (though only once) my drives. It actually works on other than WD brand drives, and will read SMART info across USB. 750G drive took about 6 hours.

I have this one as well on that Hiren Boot CD. Wow! 750G in 6 hours. I'd say thats relatively fast? Or Slow?

Please look at the following Wiki Article for a recommended procedure on preparing hard disks for use in the Synology product or regular computers.

How to prepare your hard disks

Hi Franklin,
A new way would be via the NAS itself right?
http://www.synology.com/wiki/index.php/How_to_prepare_a_Hard_Disk_whilst_installed_in_a_Synology_NAS

How safe is this? I tried doing this on my 5th new disk in my DS508, now it seems my system is wiped. How to reinstal the system and keep my old data (I cannot have it wiped, as the 5th disk was for taking the backup).
Any help?

Is this the recommended way to do it now? I have 2 x 1 TB disks. One I have installed into Disk 1 slot in CS407. Its ready with the latest NAS Firmware. Should I do the second one externally with some tool and then punch it into the CS407? Then can I take the first one out do that one? That way FIRMWARE would still be there on the second one? Or is firmware only typically installed on ONE HDD out of the array?

What do you suggest?

[scottlindner]

I'm reading this thread and wondering why these tools to prep hard drives aren't fully integrated into the DSM firmware so it's just an option to select to make this process easier for people. The tools to do it are free, so there's no reason it cannot be integrated, right?

I'm not all jazzed up to do this on 5 hard drives on one of my PC's. This is going to take days.

Scott

[HarryPotter]

This methods are not needed anymore, setup can do this now.

[joe_on_209]

How can I test my disks if they are already in a RAID 1 on my DS209 - I got a Macbook Pro only, though no way to insert the drive into a computer directly.

[joe_on_209]

NVM: I think when creating the raid it did a parity check and checked all that (took 9 hours on 2x 2 TiB)

[hasta666]

I am going to put 4 old 1TB HDD's in a new 410j. I was checking today how exactly to check for bad sectors but it seems like you can activate an option to perform this step when creating an array. The use of DBAN or any other similar software is then pointless.

[kataria]

I am a complete novice at this, hence a very basic question -

I understand that the volume setup process does a parity check to make sure the HDD is ok. My 211j with two WD 1.5TB drives did that when I set it up with SHR, and showed the end result to be "Normal". My question - Does that mean 100% sectors are ok? If there was something wrong would it show me a different result?

The reason I am so skeptical - Amazon shipped my two new WD 1.5TB EARS drives in a box ... loose without any cushion, bubble wrap or any protection. I want to stress test these drives to the point where I can be certain that they were not damaged in transit.

Thanks.

[adam1v]

is this still recommended since the article in the OP mentions this is not needed anymore?

Adam

[scottlindner]

is this still recommended since the article in the OP mentions this is not needed anymore?

Adam

My understanding is that DSM automatically does this for you, so you do not need to. I could be wrong, but I just slapped in the drives, built the array, and voila.. a NAS is born.

[suresnoi]

Hi all,

I still doubt DSM does a full disk wipe at installation. I just set-up a DS-111 with the latest DSM 3.1 built, installation only took minutes. There is no way IFAIK to perform a disk wipe that fast.

My conclusion is that the disk was only formated. I did not see any option mentionning a disk wipe option either.

I guess if you want to be sure you'll have to perform a full wipe in a computer or via a USB enclosure. Not a big deal for me since MacOS has a convenient disk wipe procedure built in (mentionned above).

Cheers

[adam1v]

i think I stand corrected.
I beleive that because of the SMART tools included with the DSM, there is no need to stress the disks?

I might be wrong.

[suresnoi]

Performing SMART tests doesn't do what a full disk wipe does, a low level format, which in the process of writing data on all the disk will spot defective sectors and remap them.

[crashnburn]

This methods are not needed anymore, setup can do this now.

I know that there is a detailed test it does. But, I've had a few drives fail on me in the NAS so I am wondering:

- What that detailed test does in DSM? - Does it to a Surface Scan/ Zero write etc? Can you please share/ elaborate?

- Can I do something (via Shell/ CMD line) on the NAS that would be a more extensive LINUX thing to push the HDD? A linux thing similar to Chkdsk/ Scandisk / Daren Boot n Nuke?

- Do something like this outside.

I'd rather give the drives a stronger burn-in and push them a bit EARLY ON and check for cracks rather than find a crumbled drive later when I have tons of Data sitting on it.