SOLVED WD Red 8TB drives make clicking noise

[Platter7]

In my new build rig I found out that my four brand new WD Red 8TB drives make a clicking noise every 5 seconds.
When the sata cables are not connected the clicking stops. Different sata cables and different sata port make no difference.
I've searched the forum and found nothing much but this thread:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/hdd-heartbeat-at-idle.40899/
Outcome unclear however

according to WD the noise seems to be normal...
https://support.wdc.com/knowledgebase/answer.aspx?h=p2&ID=20933&lang=en&p=2005


Wonder what your experience, advise or opinion is with these kind of noises...

This is the outcome of smart of one of the drives... they seem to be ok...

Code:

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:	 Western Digital Red
Device Model:	 WDC WD80EFAX-68KNBN0
Serial Number:	VAG57EVL
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000cca 099c261cf
Firmware Version: 81.00A81
User Capacity:	8,001,563,222,016 bytes [8.00 TB]
Sector Sizes:	 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate:	5400 rpm
Form Factor:	  3.5 inches
Device is:		In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   ACS-2, ATA8-ACS T13/1699-D revision 4
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.2, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:	Thu Oct 18 20:07:22 2018 CEST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x82) Offline data collection activity
										was completed without error.
										Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status:	  (   0) The previous self-test routine completed
										without error or no self-test has ever
										been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection:				(   87) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:					(0x5b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
										Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
										Suspend Offline collection upon new
										command.
										Offline surface scan supported.
										Self-test supported.
										No Conveyance Self-test supported.
										Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:			(0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
										power-saving mode.
										Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:		(0x01) Error logging supported.
										General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time:		(   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:		( 871) minutes.
SCT capabilities:			  (0x003d) SCT Status supported.
										SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
										SCT Feature Control supported.
										SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME		  FLAG	 VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE	  UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate	 0x000b   100   100   016	Pre-fail  Always	   -	   0
  2 Throughput_Performance  0x0004   127   127   054	Old_age   Offline	  -	   112
  3 Spin_Up_Time			0x0007   157   157   024	Pre-fail  Always	   -	   516 (Average 520)
  4 Start_Stop_Count		0x0012   100   100   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   36
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   005	Pre-fail  Always	   -	   0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate		 0x000a   100   100   067	Old_age   Always	   -	   0
  8 Seek_Time_Performance   0x0004   128   128   020	Old_age   Offline	  -	   18
  9 Power_On_Hours		  0x0012   100   100   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   422
 10 Spin_Retry_Count		0x0012   100   100   060	Old_age   Always	   -	   0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count	   0x0032   100   100   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   36
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   100   100   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   52
193 Load_Cycle_Count		0x0012   100   100   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   52
194 Temperature_Celsius	 0x0002   171   171   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   38 (Min/Max 19/58)
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   100   100   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0022   100   100   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0008   100   100   000	Old_age   Offline	  -	   0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count	0x000a   200   200   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description	Status				  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Extended offline	Aborted by host			   60%		16		 -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
	1		0		0  Not_testing
	2		0		0  Not_testing
	3		0		0  Not_testing
	4		0		0  Not_testing
	5		0		0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

(END)
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   100   100   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0022   100   100   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0008   100   100   000	Old_age   Offline	  -	   0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count	0x000a   200   200   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description	Status				  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Extended offline	Aborted by host			   60%		16		 -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
	1		0		0  Not_testing
	2		0		0  Not_testing
	3		0		0  Not_testing
	4		0		0  Not_testing
	5		0		0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

~
~
~
~
...skipping...
 12 Power_Cycle_Count	   0x0032   100   100   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   36
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   100   100   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   52
193 Load_Cycle_Count		0x0012   100   100   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   52
194 Temperature_Celsius	 0x0002   171   171   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   38 (Min/Max 19/58)
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   100   100   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0022   100   100   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0008   100   100   000	Old_age   Offline	  -	   0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count	0x000a   200   200   000	Old_age   Always	   -	   0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description	Status				  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Extended offline	Aborted by host			   60%		16		 -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
	1		0		0  Not_testing
	2		0		0  Not_testing
	3		0		0  Not_testing
	4		0		0  Not_testing
	5		0		0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

 

[sretalla]

194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0002 171 171 000 Old_age Always - 38 (Min/Max 19/58)

That drive got hot... 58 celsius. you should be keeping it at or under 35-40 on average.

 

[Platter7]

That drive got hot... 58 celsius. you should be keeping it at or under 35-40 on average.

So I see. It took me some time before getting the fanscript (spinpid2.sh) to work, further I had a 140mm noctua-fan which just quit spinning due to a wrong threshold.
still I was not aware of this rather extreme temperature... it was not for a very long time though.

 

[Arwen]

Could be the heads parking. Not usual for NAS drives. My media server has a laptop drive in it, and it does head parking too much. So I disabled that function. Can't tell you how to do it on FreeNAS, (my media server runs Linux).

 

[cods69]

In my new build rig I found out that my four brand new WD Red 8TB drives make a clicking noise every 5 seconds.

The only time I've ever heard clicking sounds from drives is when they are about to die (or are dead), or there is not enough consistent/adequate power. That's not to say that something else can't cause this, such as something nasty in the SATA connection/controller, etc.
Head parking every 5 seconds is not normal, in any scenario.

 

[Platter7]

The only time I've ever heard clicking sounds from drives is when they are about to die (or are dead), or there is not enough consistent/adequate power. That's not to say that something else can't cause this, such as something nasty in the SATA connection/controller, etc.
Head parking every 5 seconds is not normal, in any scenario.

I checked the disks again, also by connecting them one by one to another motherboard. After some testing I found out that is was actually one disk making the clicking noise (also referred to as the click of death..). Apparently I made a mistake by not disconnecting this specific disk during earlier testing (it was late...). After sending the clicking harddisk back to the supplier I received a new disk the same week! The clicking-noise is gone!
All in all it was very educating to see how FN reacts after rebooting when I had disconnected one or more disks from a pool, as was to see how one could replace a failed disk easily by a new one and restoring the pool.