Why not switch some of the drives from the enclosure into the MSS? Only the System Drive is position-dependent.

_________________
....JBick

EX475, 2 GB, LE-1640
PC1: Vista-->W7 Ultimate/32, (D-Drive RAID-5 Array)
PC2: Lenovo Laptop, Win XP Home SP3
2xLinksys WRT54G v1.1 and 2xNetGear GS105 Gbit switch

Yes, this is one of the things I'm trying.

The snag is that reproducing the problem is very hard (unlike Eidos who got it easily by initiating a backup), it happens very rarely so eliminating suspects is quite a slow process. Rotate/remove 1 drive, wait for the next auto-update, repeat...

I have one suspect right now that I've removed from the MSS/TR4M, I need to run WD tools on it. It's still too soon to know if I found the right one.

_________________
Ben.

HP EX470 w/PP3, 8.0TB (2x500GB, 5x1TB+1x2TB WD Green Drives, 2GB RAM), TR4M-B
PC1: Desktop, Windows 7 Ultimate (x64)
PC2: Media Center, Windows 7 Home Premium (x32)
PC3: Desktop, Windows XP Pro SP3 (x32)
PC4: EeePC, Windows 7 Home Premium (x32)

Try shutting down your server and removing the drives in your SATA tower and put them in a PC to run Seatools if they are Seagate. Please note that the short term generic test passed but the drive I had failed on the long term test and fortunately for me it failed quickly. The cause was bad sectors that were obviously working at one time and had data on them and then the failed. The drive seemed to hang up there and caused the server to lock up and show the blue flashing light and no other drive blue lights as it tried to reboot. After replacing the drive that was bad I am running backups and restored my shared folders with massive amounts of data.

No problems.

I agree with you, there some issue with the eSATA tower and drive issues that don’t like to play nice with the WHS.

Finally, the problem is solved!

As was suggested before, the WHS booting problems were caused by a defective drive in the TR4M. It took a few months to identify the culprit drive, but now that I found and removed the right one, this week was the first successful reboot after an auto-update.

I have tested the drive separately and still cannot find any real errors with it, it is a 1TB WD1000EACS drive that I bought early last year. The WD diagnostic tools refuse to run on it and say "Cable Test:Write sector error" for that drive only. I have tested the drive connected via an eSATA enclosure, an USB enclosure, and directly to my desktop PC (internal SATA), all with the same results.

For fun I tried SeaTools, I expected it not to work with non-Seagate drives but it worked fine, all tests pass (even the long one).

I guess the next step is to talk to WD and get the drive replaced under warranty...

Thanks to all for your support!

_________________
Ben.

HP EX470 w/PP3, 8.0TB (2x500GB, 5x1TB+1x2TB WD Green Drives, 2GB RAM), TR4M-B
PC1: Desktop, Windows 7 Ultimate (x64)
PC2: Media Center, Windows 7 Home Premium (x32)
PC3: Desktop, Windows XP Pro SP3 (x32)
PC4: EeePC, Windows 7 Home Premium (x32)

Sounds like the exact same problem I experienced with an EACS 1 TB. Smart showed no problems, WD Smart diagnostics would run ok but not the other tests, dying with "Cable Test:Write sector error". My DIY server would not boot with the drive in the system but the MSS would boot but throw out 7 gigs of error messages on a daily basis. The only difference I see is mine ran for a year before I experienced those symptoms. I RMAed the drive on-line and received new drive in 7 days.

_________________
HP EX470, 4 GIG, 4200+ EE SFF, WHS V1, Production
HP EX485, 4 GIG, E5800, WHS 2011, Stablebit Drive Pool, Transfer Server, Backup Server
HP EX490, 4 GIG, Q9400S, WHS 2011, Stablebit Drive Pool, Mediaserver
HP EX485, 4 GIG, Q8200S, WHS 2011, ITUNES Server

Hmm, same here, the drive that caused problems is about a year old... worked flawlessly during that time (though it was running 24/7). Maybe we got a bad batch

_________________
Ben.

HP EX470 w/PP3, 8.0TB (2x500GB, 5x1TB+1x2TB WD Green Drives, 2GB RAM), TR4M-B
PC1: Desktop, Windows 7 Ultimate (x64)
PC2: Media Center, Windows 7 Home Premium (x32)
PC3: Desktop, Windows XP Pro SP3 (x32)
PC4: EeePC, Windows 7 Home Premium (x32)

Continuing saga--I got a recertified drive after paying 20$ for quick turn around. I have had so much trouble with the seagate drives I purchased a USB/eSATA HDD Dock for 23$ to test drives without tearing apart a computer. I had 3 drives not yet tested and a new recertified drive just received.

The new drive is DOA! Yep! It will not boot up at all nor will it run seatools as it cannot be recognized at all.

Another drive failed the generic short term test and the long term test.

I recommend that you all buy one of these external HDD Docks to do testing with. They are inexpensive and work well. I got mine at Buy.com with free shipping and for about 23$. Here is a link. http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=209889033 They are sold out but all sites have them and there are many good brands.

You know I recall reading something a long time ago regarding WD Green Drives in an external enclosure were causing problems not because they were bad but because they would goto sleep and not wake up properly. Something like that but what I do not recall being mentioned was the model numbers of the drive. I remember after my EX470 filled up and I added a 4 bay port multiplier I was a little reluctant to add WD Drives to the enclosure but I did anyway and all my WD Green Drives are EADS and had 4 of them in my port multiplier and no noticible issues.

@ erail ~ when you had the problem with the EACS was it in your port multiplier or in the MSS? There is one more model WD Drive I think its like EARS that others have reported having some issues but I could have the model number wrong.

I have only been using WD Green drives since Jul or Aug of 2009 and knock on wood they have served me well. I own 6 1TB and recently I purchased a 2TB model all are EADS. I also added 2 2TB Hitachi Desk Star drives within the past month and they have been running extremely well, very quiet and I am not hearing the noise alot of people are reporting so I am sticking with the same model numbers on the Hitachi Drives.

Whats important to me right now is reliablilty. I am working on a new server which will house 32 drives between the server and a custom hard drive enclosure and while over time failure is to be expected I just want to avoid adding drives that are known to have issues. Why the EACS drives have caused issues when the utilities report them to be fine may indicate what I recall reading in that when they goto sleep they do not wake up well like me in the morning or the EX49x and maybe its just the time frame issue who knows.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

The new WD drive series is the EARS as you have indicated. The difference with that one is, primarily, the sector size. For a good description take a look at http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=240784. I doubt this will interfere with the sleep patterns but it does cause problems some controllers and logic -- including the WHS OS. There is a discussion of that somewhere around here... For large files this will be more efficient in storage. But foe very small files there will be more wasted space. (Same arguments about this today when the sector sizes were changing on the floppy drives years ago!)

_________________
....JBick

EX475, 2 GB, LE-1640
PC1: Vista-->W7 Ultimate/32, (D-Drive RAID-5 Array)
PC2: Lenovo Laptop, Win XP Home SP3
2xLinksys WRT54G v1.1 and 2xNetGear GS105 Gbit switch

Thanks for the info! Its good to know and puts another thing on my plate to consider. So you happen to know if the Sil3124 can handle these drives? I have a PCI-X SATA/eSATA card in my Proliant and its working perfectly with my RSV4 which has the CFI-B43PM card in it and as soon as I can get some standoffs hopefully today I am going to test the CFI-B53PM card for 5 drives which is right now the back plane card used by Back Blade and is the same card used in the TRM5 for my custom 30 drive hard drive enclosure I am about to build. I still have to purchase a 4 port eSATA card. I chose to start with the 2 Port eSATA which also has 2 SATA connections on the card which I tabled to provide me a full 4 eSATA ports to start off with and to test. The Prolient only has 1 half height and 1 full height PCI-X slots available to me. I could change to PCIe but it would mean my having to purchase a new riser kit from HP so its PCI-X. This also means that whatever I purchase I will have to also purchase a set of spare cards that way I will stay in good shape for many years to come.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

Wow, I had no idea such a thing even existed. This will be an incredibly useful gadget, thanks for sharing!

_________________
Ben.

HP EX470 w/PP3, 8.0TB (2x500GB, 5x1TB+1x2TB WD Green Drives, 2GB RAM), TR4M-B
PC1: Desktop, Windows 7 Ultimate (x64)
PC2: Media Center, Windows 7 Home Premium (x32)
PC3: Desktop, Windows XP Pro SP3 (x32)
PC4: EeePC, Windows 7 Home Premium (x32)

I got my "faulty" 1TB EACS drive RMA'd with the online form at WD, and they shipped me a new drive without questions, I should receive it tomorrow or friday. Yay!

I'm quite surprised it was this fast and this easy to replace a drive under warranty, I expected them to fight me at every step... The longest step by far was wiping the drive before packaging it for its return trip. Wiping 1TB takes a loooong time...

On a side note, I find it quite humorous that you only get 30 characters on the RMA form to describe the problem you have with the drive, it's as if they just don't care!

Through all this adventure, no data was lost, so this thread is another success story for WHS.

_________________
Ben.

HP EX470 w/PP3, 8.0TB (2x500GB, 5x1TB+1x2TB WD Green Drives, 2GB RAM), TR4M-B
PC1: Desktop, Windows 7 Ultimate (x64)
PC2: Media Center, Windows 7 Home Premium (x32)
PC3: Desktop, Windows XP Pro SP3 (x32)
PC4: EeePC, Windows 7 Home Premium (x32)

30 Characters to describe your problem...hmm that where you write:

SEE ATTACHMENT FOR PROBLEMS:

Then write a detailed listing of the problems. If you have a military back round then you could simply write (and I apologize in advance) N.*.G



I have a Thermotake Docking Station its both eSATA and USB. It can handle 2 drives if connected eSATA and only 1 if USB but it works with both 2.5" and 3" drives. That sucker saves so much time its worth every penny. Most places that sell hard drives will sell them I got mine at Best Buy last year and it comes in very handy.

I also have another device which connects via USB and its a cable and an interface Block that has connections for both 2.5" and 3.5" PATA Drives as well as SATA Drives which comes in handy when I am working with older units.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

hi! am new to this forum, i have a question regarding the thermaltake usb dock for internal hd. i recently added a 2tb wd caviar green (WD20EADS) to my ex485, i thought it was added with no problem. but the ff day i started having a problem getting to the server console and rdp. after reading this thread, i removed the hd that i just added and everything started to work well on my ex485 again. i tried docking the wd 2td caviar green to the thermaltake usb dock and when win7 tried to install the driver for the hd, i got an error installing the driver. i looked at the device manager and in the usb devices the hd have a code 10 error. did i miss something? does this really happen if you remove a drive from the server and put it in the usb dock? i already send the drive for replacement thinking it was defective since the server started acting up after adding it and the unsuccessful usb access through the dock. am getting the replacement soon and would like to know if i am doing something wrong. thanks in advance for your help.

amleht,

I also have a Thermaltake docking station but mine can handle 2 drives if connected eSATA and only 1 drive if connected USB. I use it primarily to service drives without having to install them in the computer.

You should have no issues with plugging in any drive from your server in the docking station. If you shut your server down you can remove active drives and read them without issue.

Connect another drive in your docking station and if all goes well then you can attribute the problem to the drive you returned. If you get the same error when installing another drive then there may be something wrong with your docking device. At this point in time I would say the problem was with the drive and not your docking station.

Since the drive was returned then there is not much more to add or expore but you did nothing wrong from what I can see.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8