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Preferred RAID-5 consumer hard disk

A

Alexdi

n00b
Joined
Jul 21, 2010
Messages
37
I've got this configuration:

RAIDCore RC5252-08
7 x 2TB Hitachi 5K3000

The system is unstable in such a way that requires the occasional hard reset. I can't ensure a future system won't require a similar reboot. The RAIDCore card doesn't have a battery, so every second or third occurrence, I end up having to rebuild the array.

My solution (outside of fixing the system) was to buy an IBM M5014 with a BBU.

I need to buy at least one additional drive to start the new array before I move everything over. The only Hitachi drives available are used or new old stock.

I'm out of the loop, what's the current preferred 5400-5900 RPM 2TB+ drive that won't cost a mint and won't drop from the array? Thanks!
 
Sounds like your drives are dropping due to APM, they are taking too long to wake up, and the raidcard marks the disk as bad.
 
All seven disks have power management disabled. They never spin down when the system is on (I'd actually prefer if they did; the RAIDCore card appears not to support this) and problems persist even when the system is warm-rebooted. The drives never drop when the system is actually running. This all suggests to me a battery issue, but I guess I'll find out with the new card.

So the WDC Red is the best drive now? The reviews on the 3TB version are disturbing, I hope there's some selection bias at work there.
 
Alexdi said:
So the WDC Red is the best drive now?
Click to expand...

Incorrect. If you can't find Hitachi 5K3000's then the new Toshiba 1TB/2TB/3TB (and 4TB supposedly coming Q1/Q2 of next year) are basically the spiritual successors since they're being manufactured at same plant (HGST) and essentially restickered Hitachi's.. Already a few Toshiba threads with part#'s here if you search.
 
odditory said:
Incorrect. If you can't find Hitachi 5K3000's then the new Toshiba 1TB/2TB/3TB (and 4TB supposedly coming Q1/Q2 of next year) are basically the spiritual successors since they're being manufactured at same plant (HGST) and essentially restickered Hitachi's.. Already a few Toshiba threads with part#'s here if you search.
Click to expand...

FWIW- the images of 2TB and 3TB drives on Newegg (DT01ACA200 and DT01ACA300 - so 7200 RPM) even show both Toshiba and Hitachi logos on the drive sticker.
 
Awesome, thanks. For just the moment, I've picked up a couple of used 2TB Hitachi drives for $75 a pop. I remember paying $60 for the same drives new two years ago. Hurts a bit.
 
WDC red is overpriced and after WD black 2tbs being blocked from being used via the tdler adjustment it's seagate all the way. The seagate Barracuda drives list NAS and desktop raid support yes they are 7200rpm ( not what you are looking for ) but they are $109 at newegg at the moment. Where as the WDC red is $129 and the seagate 2TB ST2000VM002 5900rpm is $119. If you are having trouble sourcing Hitachi drives for cheap don't buy the extra drive work on saving up for that new array that your data can grow into, but i did see you managed to find a couple of drives. There's always ebay. ;)
 
Raid 5 and consumer doesn't go together well. How long does the rebuild take? 7 huge slow disks in raid 5 is a bad idea because if one microscopic thing goes wrong in one of those long rebuilds, you could be toast. I hope you have a backup plan

Businesses either dont use raid parity, or do it with faster, smaller disks. They do that because they have better things to do than deal with toasted arrays all the tine like you see on forums like this.
 
Raid 5 and consumer doesn't go together well. How long does the rebuild take?
Click to expand...

Depends on the raid subsystem and drives. On linux software raid it will generally be a 10% or so longer than it takes to full format a drive. For example at work it takes 8.5 hours to fully rebuild a 12 x 2TB drive software raid6 on a core2quad using 2010/2011 class 7200 RPM SATA drives. However on some low end hardware controllers it can take days especial for users who do not use a BBU or did not change the defaults for the desired rebuild rate.

7 huge slow disks in raid 5 is a bad idea because if one microscopic thing goes wrong in one of those long rebuilds, you could be toast.
Click to expand...
That also depends on the raid subsystem. from my testing I expect to recover from 3 drives kicked out of a raid 6 array provided that at least 1 of the kicked out drives is mostly readable.

I hope you have a backup plan
Click to expand...

That part I fully agree. RAID is no substitute for a backup.

Businesses either dont use raid parity, or do it with faster, smaller disks.
Click to expand...

Well at least for me. We do have backups. Right now that means around 300 tapes.
 
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For all the hoo-ha about UERs, I've done over a half-dozen rebuilds on this array and previous large-drive iterations with no problems. They typically take about 30 hours. The array is also scrubbed once a week. As above, my rebuilds are the result of a drive becoming inconsistent by way of power loss (though this arguably shouldn't occur, it still does), not actual drive failure.
 
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