Failed NAS spec HDDs, struggling to find replacements…

[Big Rig]

I need some help upgrading/replacing some failed NAS spec HDD’s but I am struggling a bit. I’m not a computer hardware guru so apologies in advance if I’m asking stupid questions.

Firstly, I have 4 machines with an industrial spec Linux pc controlling them that have these 3.5” WD10EFRX RED as their main HDD. I’ve had 2 drive failures in the last 20 months. From the basic research I have done, I have discovered that WD Red don’t have a great reputation for reliability, unlike the pro version.
I’ve been looking at upgrading them to Seagate Ironwolfs (not the pro version I can’t seem to locate any atm) as they seem highly regarded, would anyone on here agree with that choice or can you offer a better alternative?





Secondly, I have 5 industrial spec Windows machines that each have 2 of these 1TB WD10JQLX Black HDDs being used in Raid 1. I’ve got several of these machines that are warning me one of the drives is degrading and needs replacing. Currently I’m struggling to find a suitable replacement. It seems 2.5 HDDs are no longer being made so sourcing the exact same drive again is seemingly impossible in the UK. I looked at the spec sheets for this drive and there are a few other alternatives currently on sale, but none of them are classed as ‘EA’ spec (Enhanced Availability, which means they can be run 24/7).
They are SATA, so well aware I cold go to SSD (enterprise grade), but from my limited knowledge I reading that SSDs in Raid 1 aren’t great due to the failure nature of an SSD drive. Happy to be told otherwise though?
Can anyone help me and suggest a suitable replacement for this drive please? Form factor will be an issue here, no thicker than the original drive at 9mm as they go into a slot.




Then finally, I have a Raid question, in my situation can I just remove the drive that the PC is telling me is degrading, or do I need to remove it, clone it, and then refit the new drive?

Thanks in advance.

[Alex Z]

On the last point, normally you swap the failing drive and the array is rebuilt from the remaining good drive(s). Depending on the device this may be an automatic process or more likely you’ll need to initiate it manually

[Brainpox]

Amazon has Ironwolf Pros in stock.

You can still get WD 2.5” black drives too but not clear if they still meet your same requirements. 2.5” hard drives aren’t favoured these days.

[dapprman]

Watching partly out of interest as I have 3 in my NAS, which have crossed over from the previous one and so are about 5-8 years old depending on disk. I did have a purple patch with 2 needing replacing, however I did find their 3 year warranty to be very good with quick replacements (though last was about 5 years back)..

[Big Rig]

Brainpox said:

Amazon has Ironwolf Pros in stock.

You can still get WD 2.5” black drives too but not clear if they still meet your same requirements. 2.5” hard drives aren’t favoured these days.

They have no pros in 1TB size though, only 2TB upwards thank you.

[Big Rig]

THought I'd found a 2.5 replaceemnt but sadly these are 15mm thick and wont physically fit into the bay slot.

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/1tb-seagate-exos-7...

[rodericb]

I've got WD reds in an old NAS which would be over ten years old. They're so old they're just Red - not pro or classic or whatever. WD Red are NAS drives so it seems out of character for them to fail. But they have so....

You could try the equivalent Seagate or even the WD gold..... Or Red Pro. For the 2.5mm there are NAS spec SSD's but they're not cheap. There's WD gold SSD's and they may as well be made from gold by the cost of them.


Selecting the right WD red depends on a few factors:
https://nascompares.com/answer/wd-red-or-red-plus-...

[maffski]

I'd dump the mirrors and switch everything to SSD.

The issue with the Red drives relates to SMR - shingled magnetic recording vs CMR (Conventional) - your current drives are CMR. WD switched lots of the red drives to SMR because they're cheaper to make but they are much worse at rebuilding after you've replaced a failed drive. So much so that they could take days before your raid is safe again.

It's not that unusual for a raid to fail while it's rebuilding, after all the remaining drives are as old as the one you've just replaced and are being worked harder than ever during the rebuild.