Is this normal sound for WD Red Pro Drives?

[James]

Hello, I have been using WD Red Pro NAS 2x 16TB Hard Drive with TrueNas for a while, but since I recently moved the system to a family room, the sound from HDD (even during idle times) has been very annoying. I have recorded the sound and attached it here for your review. I would like to know if this is normal or expected. If so, I will have to place this in a different room. I hear this noise repeatedly every 10 seconds, regardless of whether the device is idle or performing some transfers.

The drives stop making constant clicking noise when I shutdown the TrueNas. Running it on a Proxmox with HBA passthrough. I don't have any Cloud syncs or SMART tasks set up. The only task I have enabled on TrueNas that runs weekly is scrubbing, with a threshold of 35 days. Further, the drives are well-secured with a dampener or anti-vibration screws. I did some research and couldn't conclude if this is happening due to some settings within TrueNAs that I am not aware of or expected operational sound / HDD issue. Please let me know if you need any additional information. I would very much appreciate your help.

 

[artlessknave]

that is what I would call an excellent example of time to make sure you have a spare drive ready.
that is not an expected sound. it sounds like the read/write head is eating your platter...
please read the forum rules, and post your hardware and ZFS level (stripe, mirror? cant be raidz with only 2 drives)

 

[Alecmascot]

That's just the regular TrueNAS disk seeking.
If you are concerned about your disks then run a long Smart test that will do a full non-destructive surface scan.

 

[winnielinnie]

When was the last time you ran a SMART test (long or short) on your drives?

The audio has some sort of noise filter going on, which makes it difficult to gauge.

Is your System Dataset on your data pool (or on your boot pool, or on a dedicate separate pool?)

 

[elvisimprsntr]

@James

IBM (before they sold their HD division) got hit with a class action lawsuit for a similar problem with Deskstar drives. I had a few of them. They all started making clicking noises when the head crashed into the platter.

IBM hit with hard drive class action suit

Glass platter 75GXP HDD is giving pain

www.theregister.com

Make sure you have a 3-2-1 backup strategy and replace the drives ASAP!

 

[James]

that is what I would call an excellent example of time to make sure you have a spare drive ready.
that is not an expected sound. it sounds like the read/write head is eating your platter...
please read the forum rules, and post your hardware and ZFS level (stripe, mirror? cant be raidz with only 2 drives)

Hi @artlessknave - thanks for your comments. I have included more details of the hardware. Yes, you are right - it is indeed 4x 16TB (WD161KFGX) configured with Raidz2 on a Supermicro X11SCL-F motherboard with HBA passthrough (Supermicro AOC-S3008L-L8e). The RAID controller is connected via a single SATA data cable with 4-way splitters (image attached) and powered via 4-way SATA power splitters.

I didn't bother much until I moved this system to the new room, but this is how it sounded from day one. I also recently replaced it with a new SATA data cable based on the support article on WD, but it didn't make any difference. Could this be due to the RAID controller itself? Since I have virtualized TrueNas through Proxmox, is there a way to test these HDDS directly plugged into the motherboard?

 

[James]

That's just the regular TrueNAS disk seeking.
If you are concerned about your disks then run a long Smart test that will do a full non-destructive surface scan.

Thanks @Alecmascot, does the disk keep seeking always, regardless of any activity? I have never run a SMART test. Will give a try.

 

[James]

When was the last time you ran a SMART test (long or short) on your drives?

The audio has some sort of noise filter going on, which makes it difficult to gauge.

Is your System Dataset on your data pool (or on your boot pool, or on a dedicate separate pool?)

Hi @winnielinnie - thanks for your help. I have never run a SMART test, will try it today. System dataset is on a separate drive (running Proxmox). Data pools are connected via HBA passthrough.

 

[James]

@James

IBM (before they sold their HD division) got hit with a class action lawsuit for a similar problem with Deskstar drive head crashed. I had a few of them. They all started making clicking noises when the head crashed into the platter.

IBM hit with hard drive class action suit

Glass platter 75GXP HDD is giving pain

www.theregister.com

Make sure you have a 3-2-1 backup strategy and replace the drives ASAP!

Thanks @elvisimprsntr for your suggestion, I have started taking the backup of critical documents, but I don't have enough spare drives to copy everything

 

[artlessknave]

backup of critical documents,

if what you consider to be critical stuff is relatively small, there are cloud options that you can setup automatic sync tasks with in truenas, which is a newish feature.

 

[James]

if what you consider to be critical stuff is relatively small, there are cloud options that you can setup automatic sync tasks with in truenas, which is a newish feature.

I think that's a good idea. I am yet to utilize the full potential of TrueNas. Thanks for your suggestions.

 

[James]

I wanted to post an update that both long and short SMART tests were completed successfully without any errors. However, raw_read_error_rate for one of the disks reported a value of 3. Could this be the reason? Now that there are no errors from the test, what other factors could be causing that noise? I have already replaced it with a new data cable and ensured all screws are fully secured to eliminate any noise from the vibration. Should I RMA these drives? Appreciate some suggestions.

 

[Alecmascot]

Thanks @Alecmascot, does the disk keep seeking always, regardless of any activity? I have never run a SMART test. Will give a try.

Yes. every 10 seconds reporting data is saved.

 

[ChrisRJ]

The RAID controller is connected via a single SATA data cable with 4-way splitters (image attached) and powered via 4-way SATA power splitters. [..]
Could this be due to the RAID controller itself? Since I have virtualized TrueNas through Proxmox, is there a way to test these HDDS directly plugged into the motherboard?

Please have a look at the following articles from the "recommended reasdings" in my signature:
- Don't use RAID
- Virtually FreeNAS ... an alternative for those seeking virtualization