TLER / CCTL / ERC thread

john4200 said:
In my opinion, if an HDD has to go into deep recovery mode to try to read a sector correctly, I want to replace that HDD as soon as possible. The deep recovery occurrences are rare enough, in my experience, that I interpret them as an indicator that the HDD is much more likely to fail more seriously (i.e., more than just a bad sector) in the near future, as compared to an HDD that has never gone into deep recovery.
Click to expand...

THANK YOU. this is also why I insist that healthy WD drives with zero bad/reallocated sectors that are dropping from arrays within 24 hours aren't doing so because they're going into an error recovery sequence. There is something else going on.

Drives of different makes and models run different firmware. Drives of different makes and models employ different algorithms to correct themselves internally. Therefore demanding that ALL manufacturers provide an end-user tool to adjust the timeout value of a drive's internal operations to an arbitrary value = lunacy. An answer looking for a problem, or just the wrong problem. Not to mention the first people in line for an RMA after a timeout-modified drive incurs data loss will be the same people that demanded a tool in the first place.

Just because the WDTLER tool made certain models of WD drives seem more stable in raid arrays doesn't mean you can extrapolate the phenomenon to the entire industry of desktop class drives, nor that modifying the timeout will be the cure-all for what are more likely case-by-case firmware issues unrelated to error-correction that are causing dropouts from arrays.
 
Last edited:
mitgib said:
I found this setting works with the WD20EADS, Hitachi 7K2000 and Samsung HD204UI
Click to expand...

you say the 7-second timeout setting works with those drives, but did you first test the Hitachi 2TB drives *without* the setting and see any drops? i'd be very surprised if so.
 
Cheers mitgib, but I've already seen the various tools that can issue a command. None of them is compatible with Windows and my Areca controller. Further, non of them survives a power cycle, so implementing them isn't really a solution.

As previously mentioned, I'm not going to engage in any further debate - I'm just interested in a solution thanks...

oyyy.co.uk have a WD RE4 2Tb drive for £125, which is the best value I've found so far for an enterprise drive. It's still a huge premium over the £70 for a non-enterprise drive though.
 
odditory said:
you say the 7-second timeout setting works with those drives, but did you first test the Hitachi 2TB drives *without* the setting and see any drops? i'd be very surprised if so.
Click to expand...

The only Hitachi to drop out turned out to be an actual bad drive. I've been very impressed with Hitachi overall, but like everyone else, they seem to have an excessively high bad out of the bag rate, much higher then I remember it being 10-20 years ago. I'm speaking overall, and no manufacture seems to escape from this fault.
 
Hello. I'm resurrecting this thread to ask a question about the 7K3000 2tb hdd.

What is the CCTL status of this model? I'm interested to know the factory default. Do they allow for a normal long deep recovery interval? Or is it a short limited time like a few seconds and then they cease the recovery procedure?

Can we set the CCTL value? Can we enable/disable CCTL?

Keep in mind that I need this drive for a desktop setup, not RAID configurations.
 
I had forgotten about this debate. Entirely.

If it's a consumer drive not marketed as a RAID drive, it's going to take its time recovering data.

Any modifications to CCTL are not going to survive a power cycle - earlier in this thread I think that's mentioned.

Unless you have a specific usage and you know what you're doing and what you're asking for - I.E. in my case where I wanted my RAID controller to handle error recovery (and notify me!) - the drive is set up to run on its own, out of a RAID array, just fine. You shouldn't need to change anything.

This thread discusses the issue and is recent/ongoing: http://forums.servethehome.com/show...000-7K3000-7K2000)&p=7683&viewfull=1#post7683 It actually mentions your model drive specifically. Both the question poser and the responder seem to be somewhat uninformed and they sort of butt heads, so I would take what they say with a grain of salt!


Unless you are using the drive in a RAID array or NAS server, you do not need to modify anything. CCTL and TLER only matter in RAID environments and in RAID environments they might only matter when the drives are on HARDWARE RAID controllers - not in software RAID controllers (I.E. Intel built in controllers like mine. It's likely I don't need TLER because the software RAID controller won't drop them from an array regardless. However, if I had a hardware RAID card I might have had issues.) Someone else will have to confirm the lack of relevance to built in mobo software controllers. I can promise that arrays set up using Windows/Linux software RAID will have no issues with TLER/CCTL.


Anyway, regardless, just to state it a third time - CCTL/TLER/other error recovery settings do NOT matter on consumer drives used on their own. The manufacturer sets them to what they need to be. Modifying the drive's settings from their manufacturer defaults when you do not have to is taking unneeded risks for no benefit. If you intend to use the drive alone - do not modify these settings.
 
This is what I thought too. That they should set up the appropriate values for a desktop hdd.

And yes this is marketed as a desktop drive. However if you look on their official webpage:

http://www.hgst.com/internal-drives/desktop/deskstar/deskstar-7k3000

Under the "Quick facts" tab, the last line of the "Applications / Environments" listing says:

---> Video editing arrays

That's where the uncertainty was spawned from.
 
That's kinda funny. I wouldn't want to use a drive I'd put in to a USB enclosure in a video editing array! :D
 
oh lordy this

Truth be told the TLER debate has followed the same trajectory as reality TV, it was fun and honest at the beginning, now its the equivalent of a guy banging a pot on his head with a wooden spoon. Enjoy.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top