Re: WDC WD50EFRX Self-tests fail

Hello,

Andreas Grosse wrote:
> I have a computer with six WDC WD50EFRX-68MYMN1 (WD Red 5 TB). Three of them
> are old (Two years old) and three of them are new (Bought last year).

Are all six drives connected to same (or same kind of) controller?


>   A couple
> of days ago, I noticed several I/O errors on the new disks in the kernel log.
> So I wanted to check the devices, but all self-tests (I tried Short offline,
> Conveyance offline, Extended offline) always fail with "Fatal or unknown
> error" on the new disks. I also noticed, that the new disks report a polling
> time of 6 minutes for the extended self-test routine, which I find rather
> unrealistic for a 5 TB drive. The old disks report 540 minutes, the self-tests
> run fine on these devices. They are the same "Device model" and have the same
> "Firmware Version".

There was at least one case that a vendor released an important firmware 
update without changing the reported version number 
(https://www.smartmontools.org/wiki/SamsungF4EGBadBlocks).


> Could this be some form of incompatibility or is it likely that all the drives
> are garbage? Or am I just using the tool wrong?

No, you are using the tool correctly (but try also 'smartctl -x', see 
below).


> Here is the output of "smartctl -a" for one of the new disks:
> ...
> Model Family:     Western Digital Red
> ...
>
> Self-test execution status:      (   0) The previous self-test routine completed
>                                          without error or no self-test has ever
>                                          been run.

This should match the status of the last test from the self-test log, 
but doesn't.


> SMART Error Log Version: 1
> No Errors Logged

Please try "smartctl -l xerror". Errors may only appear in the new error 
log. Also check for SATA cable problems: "smartctl -l sataphy". Both are 
included in "smartctl -x".


> SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
> Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)
> LBA_of_first_error
> # 1  Short offline       Fatal or unknown error        90%       409         -

This self-test status is rather rare. It may suggest "unexpected" problems.

If all three new drives return I/O errors and show this unusual 
behavior, I would replace these drives.

Do the serial numbers suggest that all drives are from the same batch?

Thanks,
Christian


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