SOLVED Realloc sector count SMART problem - are my pools in danger and how to fix it?

[Dan Tudora]

hello
glad to hear that
BUT "never say never" is a goood expression

 

[Constantin]

Glad it got resolved but another illustration how hard drive makers view us end customers more as a nuisance than an asset.

 

[Dan Tudora]

hello
is like in other industry
but IF you buy few hundred HDD maybe Seagate have other reaction
by the way, way you do not buy 3-4 hundred HDD
and after that you will be friend with Seagate
try that

 

[Constantin]

Not sure I agree.

I have seen a prominent manufacturing equipment supplier treat a client so poorly that the client eventually threw their stuff out. Consider that this this client represented over 10% of global production for that supplier for multiple years (big bucks). If that had been my customer, I would have been with the tiger team on the manufacturing floor 24/7 until the issue was resolved and the client 100% happy.

With the HDD oligopoly being what it is, I doubt customers can realistically abandon any one supplier for any length of time. There simply isn't enough capacity / choice in the industry.

 

[Chris Moore]

What would you do? Thanks for sharing you opinion!

I have a server at work with 60 of those 10TB drives installed. In the first six months of opperation, I needed to replace two drives but have had no further problems after almost two total years. Don't rule out a drive type because of one failure.

 

[Chris Moore]

Contacted Seagate on Wednesday (gave them all the data of the HDD, errors and my contact data) but hey, they didn't even bother to call or eMail me back and of course no RMA: just silence...

Why would they contact you. You setup RMA through an automated system on their website and get the RMA number and shipping data in less than 15 minutes. I have done it hundreds of times over the years. It has been this way more than a decade. You validate your warranty and request the RMA number from the web interface. It is on you and the system is automated. Then you box it up and ship it in. Replacement drive usually arrives in a week in the US. If you can't wait a week, you should keep cold spares on hand. I have a dozen cold spares for my server at home and at work I have at least five of each size drive I need to support.

 

[Constantin]

Took only nearly 1 month so hey, that's why I bought Seagate enterprise HDDs... (never ever again my friend...)

Hey Chris, just for the record @Mr. Slumber mentioned a somewhat longer time to get the issue fully resolved than your usual experience. I.e. multiple attempts to get the usual RMA process to work out as expected. I don't think he was looking for special treatment, just for Seagate to actually process his RMA in a timely manner and that does not seem to have happened.

Seagate isn't the only company I'm aware of having weird / absent senses of customer service in the EU compared to the US. Asrock EU also seems to have produced its fair share of user unhappiness as part and parcel of the C2xxx Intel processor, flash memory, and other motherboard debacles. I was fortunate in the US to be supported by iXsystems instead of ASRock as even here there were no shortage of odd support events. (i.e. ASRock sent me two defective RMA boards).

Even though my HDD RMA issues are usually resolved in a week or less, I still keep cold, burned-in spares on hand. It would be my luck to have a HDD failure right in the middle of another Thai flood or some other disaster for the HDD supply chain.

 

[Chris Moore]

Took only nearly 1 month so hey, that's why I bought Seagate enterprise HDDs... (never ever again my friend...)

This is an extremely unusual scenario. I have around 300 of Seagate drives, just in my department, where I work and have processed many warranty claims through Seagate and never had a problem like this. Please don't let one bad experience cause you to abandon a brand. With the mergers that have happened there are only Toshiba, Seagate and Western Digital. Of the three, I would take Seagate every day.

 

[Mr. Slumber]

Don't rule out a drive type because of one failure.

Yes, if you do the math you're completely right. For my 1 messed up HDD/case there are of course ten's of thousands cases which went alright if one's looking from a more global perspective. If this wasn't the case Seagate or any other HDD manufacturer would be out of business in no time.
So: agreed.

But : Wether Mr. Slumber buys every now and then half a dozen HDDs from Seagate or not of course they don't care. How could they, it's a global high volume business. So the only chance that I have, because Seagate understandably won't change a thing as mentioned before, is that I make a choice for myself (and not being Mr. Spock it's of course an emtionalley biased decision ) and that's looking at some other brands.
And of course having a least one spare burned-in HDD at hand in the future that's a good choice for the future (thanks for this @Constantin )

So thanks @Chris Moore for your replies and to all others for their thoughts and opinions on this thread! Appreciate it!

 

[Constantin]

Merry Christmas, happy holidays!

 

[Mr. Slumber]

Merry Christmas, happy holidays!

Thank you and of course also to you and to all others here in the forum too, especially in these demanding Covid19 times!

 

[Mr. Slumber]

Hi guys,

want to hear something "funny"?

The HDD that Seagate sent me on 2020.12.11 (which was the second attempt to send me a not faulty HDD because the first one the sent me was broken as to seen above) gave up today with 171 errors, "device faulted in response to persistent errors" and and and...

So this second HDD that Seagate sent me lasted exactly 45 days... 45 days...!

No further questions your honor! All doubts eliminated!

Was so happy that I followed the recommendation here in the forum to buy a cheap spare drive, thanks for that again, saved my day today!

 

[Mr. Slumber]

Wow, that was fast Complained @ Seagate on sunday evening, today ( = tuesday) a "new" HDD (we'll see if this is really a new one ) arrived.

Ok, respect Seagate, that was really fast, thanks, I appreciate it.

So I will lay the spare drive to rest in the coming days, burn in and install the Seagate HDD and will wait and see... watching carefully what will happen... Keep you posted