WD Can one Re-Use a repaired HDD/Disk to plug in into a degraded array

[JPG_master]

Hi,
the SITUATION is

• Synology embedds S.M.A.R.T. functionality into the HD-Management
• When a drive fails by bad sectors. SMART does in many cases NOT complete and gets stuck at 90%.
• Stopping the SMART process THAN causes the Failure to stay "valid".

Solution 1 could be:

• I simply could plug in a brand-new drive
• I already have TWO used drives on my shelf now and want to avoid the third.

Solution 2 could be ( ??? ) and is preferred:

• Westen Digital has ( had ) a toll, called "Western Digital Data LifeGuard Diagnostics" on windows
• The tool CAN REPAIR Sectors ( exclude them from use etc )

Question

• Can I use such a repaired HD ?
  a.) the tool is on windows, so I MUST previously unplug the Drive
  b.) all data get lots in running the WD-Tool ( which is not the problem but just a fact )
  c.) I BELIEVE, when I once did try tu plug in a used HD ( NOT SURE IF I RAN THE REPAIR on that one ), DSM on NAS declined to us that disk.

DOES ANYONE KNOW, IF I CAN PLUG-IN AN externally REPAIRED / REFRESHED HD ( e.g. Western Digital Data LifeGuard Diagnostics ) AS NEW INTO THE RAID
A-N-D SYNOLOGY DSM ACCEPTS THAT DISK?

If there is a YES, is there anything special to regard ???:

• e.g. does the Disk need any previous initilisation? How?
• do i need to WIPE the disk previously ) like initialisation )

thanks guys ... it is urgen ( brandnew Disk is available and Storage Manager is on Warning !!! )

 

[Jan Janowski]

I would not trust a ‘repaired/refreshed’ drive. There are far too many of them being sold right now.

 

[JPG_master]

I would not trust a ‘repaired/refreshed’ drive. There are far too many of them being sold right now.

Hi, ok, I WAS NOT Precise enough:
It is MY OWN DISK i pulled from the NAS the other day.
AND as the drive showing errors ONLY has 33000 hours it is far below lifetime, so I want to basically REPAIR that myself.

Does that make it clearer ? I am not going to buy repaired drives. thx

 

[Deleted member 5784]

Once an old HDD (ie not at the start of its life) starts getting bad sectors, it will almost inevitably get more and more and quickly.
As soon as the WD software maps out bad sectors, more will occur and you'll be back in the same situation with SMART errors etc.

If you want to avoid this, replace the failing drive with one that is new / not failing. HDDs are one of the things that imo are not worth trying to squeeze every last hour out of once they start going bad. Of course, you may see things differently.

 

[JPG_master]

Once an old HDD (ie not at the start of its life) starts getting bad sectors, it will almost inevitably get more and more and quickly.
As soon as the WD software maps out bad sectors, more will occur and you'll be back in the same situation with SMART errors etc.

If you want to avoid this, replace the failing drive with one that is new / not failing. HDDs are one of the things that imo are not worth trying to squeeze every last hour out of once they start going bad. Of course, you may see things differently.

Thank you for your reply!
I am totally aware of what you wrote.

Nevertheless I would like to grab the knowledge and of people using this forum, if anybody would have an answer on my question !!!!

-- post merged: 20. Oct 2022 --

DOES ANYONE KNOW, IF I CAN PLUG-IN AN externally REPAIRED / REFRESHED HD ( e.g. Western Digital Data LifeGuard Diagnostics ) AS NEW INTO THE RAID
A-N-D SYNOLOGY DSM ACCEPTS THAT DISK?

DOES ANYONE KNOW, IF I CAN PLUG-IN AN externally REPAIRED / REFRESHED HD ( e.g. Western Digital Data LifeGuard Diagnostics ) AS NEW INTO THE RAID
A-N-D SYNOLOGY DSM ACCEPTS THAT DISK?

 

[Deleted member 5784]

So we've told you this is not a good idea. That is the 'knowledge of the forum' speaking. But you understand this and still want the original Q answering pedantically. All I can do therefore is to answer equally pedantically:

Yes, you can plug in a repaired drive. The connections will work and the drive will power on.
Yes, DSM will likely 'ACCEPT THE DISK' if it has been repaired and the bad sectoprs mapped out. At some point, DSM will complain again as new bad sectors appear and SMART errors accrue.
This might happen as soon as you plug the drive in; or it might happen days/weeks/months later. The only way to know is to try it.

Does this help?

 

[JPG_master]

So we've told you this is not a good idea. That is the 'knowledge of the forum' speaking. But you understand this and still want the original Q answering pedantically. All I can do therefore is to answer equally pedantically:

Yes, you can plug in a repaired drive. The connections will work and the drive will power on.
Yes, DSM will likely 'ACCEPT THE DISK' if it has been repaired and the bad sectoprs mapped out. At some point, DSM will complain again as new bad sectors appear and SMART errors accrue.
This might happen as soon as you plug the drive in; or it might happen days/weeks/months later. The only way to know is to try it.

Does this help?

@Fortran in order to reply in highest available precision and pedantry:
YES, that does help.
to add:
Thank you very much

Personal note:
The facts do meet my expectations.

Additional personal remark:
As a project and program manager in IT in a regulatory environment, pedantry is
a.) helpful
b.) indispensable
One does not want to understand which day it is when asking for the hour. ;-)

have a good day.

 

[Deleted member 5784]

@Fortran in order to reply in highest available precision and pedantry:

Additional personal remark:
As a project and program manager in IT in a regulatory environment, pedantry is
a.) helpful
b.) indispensable
One does not want to understand which day it is when asking for the hour. ;-)

Agreed. Equally, this is a public forum for all levels of Synology users, and so our answers here are geared towards the general non-technical user in the first instance, and if there is no indication otherwise.
So, sometimes, if a user asks 'can I do x' they will also get some more general advice about whether x is even advisable, or is risky etc.
As a technical user in a regulatory environment I'm sure you encounter similar issues around diverging expectations / knowledge levels all the time, and also adjust your own approach to issues accordingly.

have a good day.

And you.

 

[Jan Janowski]

I’m doing an experiment with 13-14 year old Barracuda’s now. After being used for 4-6 years in a custom Raid6 array at TV Station 24/7/365, they were retired, firmware updated, and then I used them for~8 years in a Raid0 Array for video editing... And now they reside as SHR in a 720+...... So these drives have been around the block. They are throwing out bad sectors weekly: Confirming what I, and other poster’s have said.
I’m doing this expressly to test the V7 rebuild and recovery portion of Storage Manager. I am doing it with test data. I stand by my first post: Don’t Bother with “Repaired or Restored" Drives: No Matter the MFG.

 

[JPG_master]

So we've told you this is not a good idea. That is the 'knowledge of the forum' speaking. But you understand this and still want the original Q answering pedantically. All I can do therefore is to answer equally pedantically:

Yes, you can plug in a repaired drive. The connections will work and the drive will power on.
Yes, DSM will likely 'ACCEPT THE DISK' if it has been repaired and the bad sectoprs mapped out. At some point, DSM will complain again as new bad sectors appear and SMART errors accrue.
This might happen as soon as you plug the drive in; or it might happen days/weeks/months later. The only way to know is to try it.

Does this help?

@Fortran in order to reply in highest available precision and pedantry:
YES, that does help.
to add:
Thank you very much

Personal note:
The facts do meet my expectations.

Additional personal remark:
As a project and program manager in IT in a regulatory environment, pedantry is
a.) helpful
b.) indispensable
One does not want to understand which day it is when asking for the tohour. ;-)

have a good day.

I’m doing an experiment with 13-14 year old Barracuda’s now. After being used for 4-6 years in a custom Raid6 array at TV Station 24/7/365, they were retired, firmware updated, and then I used them for~8 years in a Raid0 Array for video editing... And now they reside as SHR in a 720+...... So these drives have been around the block. They are throwing out bad sectors weekly: Confirming what I, and other poster’s have said.
I’m doing this expressly to test the V7 rebuild and recovery portion of Storage Manager. I am doing it with test data. I stand by my first post: Don’t Bother with “Repaired or Restored" Drives: No Matter the MFG.

I was not in doubt on what you said.
Google recently publsihed a study, saying:
when a drive doesn't fail in the fisrt year it statistically does not fail within 4 years, idependent fro read / write rates.
AFter the 4th year the fail rate is linked to read / write intensity .... Interesting.
But also the study says ... not necessarily failing after 4 years.

whatever that helps ;-)
So your 13 years experiment can go into either direction.
I recently retire a server with disks of 2010 ... with no failures in a windows raid.

 

[JPG_master]

One more Question in that context:
I could use a "repaired" HDD/Disk, that previously did reside in another NAS.

For the first Disk - I assumed I repaired it, but I am not a 100% sure - I plug in again in the SAME NAS, the NAS immediatley recognized that disk to be failling.

Question:
Is there a database on the Synology NAS the keep track of the disks and therefore recognises a disk thet previously was marked a failling
OR
is this just a typical user error - because I failed in book keeping my "HDD refresh states"? ( which I now corrected )

thanks for replying

 

[Telos]

Question:
Is there a database on the Synology NAS the keep track of the disks and therefore recognises a disk thet previously was marked a failling

Yes. It may be edited, or you can edit the drive ID. However, DSM will redetect a faulty drive.

 

[JPG_master]

Yes. It may be edited, or you can edit the drive ID. However, DSM will redetect a faulty drive.

@Telos thank you very much.
either here or in a side conversation:
Can you tel me how / where?
( I once was a Oracle developer and have a little unix knowledge )
I simply want to find out and try - I am curios.

 

[Telos]

Can you tel me how / where?

Database edit is here.

 

[JPG_master]

Database edit is here.

looks good, thanks