Well, there's your problem... (wobbly external drives)

iroc409

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jun 17, 2006
Messages
1,385
Several months ago I upgraded my old backup drives from Seagates that sit horizonal to EasyStores that are made to stand vertically. I started having read issues with the disks, they'd get a small number of errors listed in zpool status. Then when I'd run a scrub it'd often say they have thousands of errors and fail the drive.

I figured I was having another USB controller failure. I actually upgraded the server to something with USB 3 (wasn't a total loss, I wanted to add drives and was completely out of space). New system, still having zfs errors!

The other day I decided to just run a full dd on the drive and start over, to see if that helped (and I installed a new cable). I went into the storage area where all my network gear is, and I'm staring at the external drive. It seems my eyes are playing tricks on me. The drive is swaying back and forth ever so slightly. I have all my stuff on wire rack shelving, and the drive had slipped aside and was sitting on a small angle and while it was running dd it was just giving the slightest sway back and forth. DD also took *forever*.

So, I fixed the drive so it's running at an angle across the wire rack, and the swaying went away and so did my errors. It's possible that the cable replacement fixed it, but honestly I doubt it. The errors weren't exactly consistent.

So now I'm going to get a piece of plexiglass or something to attach to the shelf and make certain they run a little more flat in the future. So far I've done several backups and a scrub and not a single error.

Yikes!
 
Interesting. You may consider something like this.

Gorilla Grip Heavy Duty Premium 24 x 14 Inch Wire Shelf Liners, Set of 3, Value Pack, Waterproof, Plastic Liner for Wired Metal Rack Shelving and Cabinets Shelves, Kitchen, Garage, Charcoal https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RCBGYG8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_JwSWEb115MKE7

I think if I was going to run one of those external drives at sustained load for hours on end, I’d get a 40mm USB fan and position it next to the “intake” vent.
 
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Interesting. You may consider something like this.

Gorilla Grip Heavy Duty Premium 24 x 14 Inch Wire Shelf Liners, Set of 3, Value Pack, Waterproof, Plastic Liner for Wired Metal Rack Shelving and Cabinets Shelves, Kitchen, Garage, Charcoal https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RCBGYG8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_JwSWEb115MKE7

I think if I was going to run one of those external drives at sustained load for hours on end, I’d get a 40mm USB fan and position it next to the “intake” vent.

That shelf liner is a pretty good idea. I've seen them before but hadn't really connected for my application. I might just do that.

I do have a couple 120MM fans from AC-whatever running nearby to keep some airflow through there. I have an ER-L and a couple rPi's that get pretty warm without air movement. So I think that's a great idea! :) It's not directly attached to the drive but it should be pulling airflow over it so I think it is OK, but a 40MM on the drive vents are a pretty good idea. These EasyStores are ventied quite a bit better than the Seagates they replaced.
 
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