The meticulous way of stressing a HDD

[nyerinsd]

@nyerinsd

Yes, the enclosure that is needed has a SATA interface, and will connect to a computer using a USB/eSATA connection.

Hope this helps

Thank you, Frankin. I found an enclosure at a local electronics store, and I received my ds207+ today, so I'm ready to go. Actually, its not really an enclosure. It's a small block that allows you to plug a bare drive directly into it, with the drive sticking out of the top. Looked interesting, and it was the only thing they had for SATA drives.

[macca]

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

[tpg0007]

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.

[Neo]

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?

[luxfam]

Just so I understand this correctly...

I have a Mac Pro. I can install the drives in one of the Mac Pro's bays and write zeros using 10.5's Disk Utility. These drives can then be used in my DS408, correct?

I'm just concerned that after being installed in my Mac Pro, the DS 408 would not recognize the drives.

Thanks,

Chris

[HarryPotter]

Just so I understand this correctly...

I have a Mac Pro. I can install the drives in one of the Mac Pro's bays and write zeros using 10.5's Disk Utility. These drives can then be used in my DS408, correct?

I'm just concerned that after being installed in my Mac Pro, the DS 408 would not recognize the drives.

Thanks,

Chris

No problem, the DS408 is not interested on what was on your HDD before. It will reformat your HDD for its own need.

[luxfam]

Excellent. Thanks for the reply.

– Chris

[pip44]

What can I do if wiping do not work?
The hard drive works fin in any PC

[bluto]

I read How to prepare your hard disks and How to prepare a Hard Disk whilst installed in a Synology NAS and the procedures described seem overly complex to me.

Mapping bad sectors before use is critical, but preventing forensic data recovery is optional. You can use a drive-wiping program to accomplish both at the same time, but not by filling every sector with zeros. You have to use a pattern set specifically designed for that purpose which could require three, seven, or even more passes over the entire surface of the disk to secure it against recovery.

I just ordered the DS209j and 2 x WD10EADS for a RAID 1 setup. When it's delivered, I'm going to be in the situation where I have to prepare the drives using the NAS itself. In my case, I don't need to wipe the drive but I do need to map the bad sectors.

Why can't I use mkfs.ext3 to prepare the drives instead?

from mkfs.ext3(8) - Linux man page:

mkfs -c : Check the device for bad blocks before creating the file system. If this option is specified twice, then a slower, read-write test is used instead of a fast read-only test.

If the NAS uses the -cc option to format the drives, then I need do nothing because the bad sectors will be mapped during the initial setup.

If it doesn't, manually formatting the drives using -cc would be the fastest and easiest way to get the bad blocks taken care of, and I could wipe the drive after I have an idea of how long each pass will take.

Has anyone done this, or can anyone provide ideas or advice, or is there something I've overlooked?

Thanks in advance!

[pale.writer]

Um - define: "meticous" por favor?

[charred_water]

I was getting ready to prep four WD 1TB drives for installation in my DS409+. I went to the "how to prepare your hard disks" wiki article I had bookmarked earlier: http://forum.synology.com/wiki/index.ph ... hard_disks

However, the article now says "This article has been archived - in the Synology Disk Station Manager Firmware, version DSM 2.2 and above, has improved functions and resiliency against disk errors when creating a volume within the Disk Station. As such, there is no need to perform the steps listed in the article below to prepare a disk before using the disk in the Synology Disk Station"

I would like to know whether DSM 2.2 really fixes the time out problem folks have been having when bad sectors have to be remapped and the system times out and marks the disk as bad.

Are users still doing drive prep under DSM 2.2?

Are users still seeing bad sector timeouts under DSM 2.2?

Thanks!

[Zouk !]

Hello charred_water,

Since Synology does not give any explanations of this "new reliability" and new handling about bad sectors even after asking in a topic (New Reliability: Transparent bad sector remapping (...)), I strongly advise you to still perform the preparation of all your disks, several safety measures will not hurt at all your system.

Best Regards,
Zouk !

[m]

I would like to know whether DSM 2.2 really fixes the time out problem folks have been having when bad sectors have to be remapped and the system times out and marks the disk as bad.

Are users still doing drive prep under DSM 2.2?

Are users still seeing bad sector timeouts under DSM 2.2?

I am using DSM2.2 and my system drive is a WD20EADS which I prepared earlier this year (DBAN or Disk Utility, not sure). It already had 16 reallocated sectors. Yesterday while copying files to that disk, the system went crazy, what I posted here: http://forum.synology.com/enu/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=17905&start=0

After the system repaired itself I realized that the number reallocated sectors had been increased from 16 to 27. I will exchange the disk and will make sure that it will be prepared (DBAN, Disk Utility or DSM built in feature) before installing it again.

[charred_water]

Hi,

I booted my laptop from the DBAN CD but it couldn't see my external HDD which contained the disk to be prepped.

DBAN's download page refers to an Eraser windows program which uses the same algorithms. I was able to install Eraser and used it to erase my external HDD.

Question?

Is there any disadvantage to using Eraser rather than DBAN for drive prep?

Does Eraser do sector by sector erase like DBAN?

What am I giving up by using Eraser rather than DBAN?

Thanks!

[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+.