WD10EALS RAID 1 lost it’s S.M.A.R.T.S

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dydxdx

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Jan 10, 2016
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My WD10EALS HDDs lost there S.M.A.R.T. status. My Win7 OS sees the drives as generic, not supporting SMART. The BIOS indicates OK on startup (see screen capture link below), but WD Lifeguard pulls up jibberish for model; and serial number, and won't test SMART. Other HDD tools, like HD Tune, also shows no SMART available.

Drives make no clicking noise, haven't notice any performance problems. Sectors all check OK with no bad ones.

This is a hard one to google because the HDD is visible, but SMART is not. It did have SMART at one time, but lost it. My PC builder said he never saw anything like this.

Appreciate any thoughts on what might be going wrong. Thanks in advance.

http://www.pbase.com//image/162307094.jpg
 
Solution
drtweak
It is NOT an issue with the drive. Just RAID is not designed to pass though SMART status because the OS does NOT see two hard drives! It sees ONE virtual drive!

If you had a RAID 5 of 10 hard drives and it was 1 virtual Drive how it is suppose to know what smart status does to what drive it is only see 1 virtual drive?

Replacing your Drives will NOT fix this issue! They will how the same thing as well. Again the only way to do this is

1) Do your research on a RAID card that allows SMART passthrough (Very VERY few high end cards do) or

2) Do a software RAID but that will tax your CPU and also require a Pro version of windows or higher.

You at least have the SMART testing on startup as if this was a REAL RAID card (an Add-in...
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SuperSoph_WD

SuperSoph_WD

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Jul 30, 2014
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Welcome to the TH community, dydxdx!

I'm sorry to see you struggle with your WD Blue RAID 1 configuration! :( I'd suggest you to try access your data from the other drive and make sure you do a backup and have the files somewhere safe before proceeding with the troubleshooting. Can you also share some more details regarding your PC configuration?
Afterwards, I'd recommend you to check your BIOS settings and make sure that SMART is enabled there. I'd also check the SATA controller drivers from your motherboard manufacturer's website and make sure they are up-to-date as well.

Keep me posted with the troubleshooting!
SuperSoph_WD
 
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dydxdx

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I've decided to replace both 5-year-old HDDs, since there is no problems with access, and data can be easily transferred to the new units.

I have a 3rd drive on my desktop that I use for junk (250 GB WD2500JS), and it shows the correct smart info with all the various HDD diag tools. Makes me think the controller is OK, maybe the firmware in the bad one got corrupted, or fried. All sectors on the bad unit(s) check out OK. Defrag woks OK.

BIOS settings have SMART enabled. It's been a while, so I can't remember exactly when, but I routine ran DiskCheck on these units, and were OK.

So replacement it is, and apprerciate your interest, and any thoughts/advice you might have on the replacements.
Cheers.
 
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drtweak

drtweak

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Sep 17, 2012
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Most RAID's you WILL lose the ability to see the SMART status as most RAID cards do NOT forward this info on past the RAID. Only HBA (Host Bust Adapters) can forward it. If you use Onboard RAID like Intel you will NOT be able to see this info.

If you have a software RAID setup inside of windows then yes you will see it because it sees each drive where as a RAID the RAID card sees the Hard drives but Windows ONLY sees a Virtual Disk and not any Physical Disk.

If you ever wish to see the SMART status you need to plug them into a PC or a Port on that PC that doesn't have RAID turned on and then check the RAID.

Also Turning the SMART on or off in the BIOS does NOTHING to prevent you from seeing them status is simply just enables monitoring of it though the BIOS so if the drives are BAD it will say so when you start up the PC. Again even THIS can not pick up SMART status from RAID drives. The only way you will know if a RAID drive fails is when you boot up and it will say RAID Status FAILED or DEGRATED. Some higher end cards like the LSI RAID cards you can use their Storage Software to monitor hard drives on the RAID card but again it does not give you SMART status but just Good or Bad status.

The only RAID card I have used that allows it though, well it isn't really a RAID card but a HBA is the Dell SAS 5 HBA which i use on my media server at home mainly for the reason that I can see the SMART status. It only support RAID 1 and 0 and up to 4 SAS/SATA drives and is only SATA II but if all you use is HDD"S and not SSD's then you won't see a difference.
 
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SuperSoph_WD

SuperSoph_WD

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Jul 30, 2014
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Well, I'm sorry that you needed to replace them, though. :( I just hope your data is okay and there's nothing important on the drives that is not backed up.
My recommandation would be to consider getting RAID/NAS drives that are specifically designed for such environments and workload. For example, our WD Red incorporates a specific NASware 3.0 firmware that further optimizes the drive allowing it to support up to 8-bay storage systems. This is a good option, especially if you plan to expand the RAID array in the future. The hard drives are also energy effient due to their IntelliPower RPM, because it reduces power consumption and lowers the operating temperatures. The WD Red is also backed by a 3-year limited warranty for greater peace of mind.
You can check more details about this HDD here: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=bb1C99

Hope I was helpful. Best of luck! :)
SuperSoph_WD
 
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dydxdx

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Jan 10, 2016
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Thanks guys for your interest, and extensive post. I do wonder why RAIDs lose their SMART visibility.....is this something to do with age on all HDDs, or is it the RAID config that makes it more vulnerable? The spare 250 GB WD2500JS drive I also have connected (not RAID) is much older, and I can still see it's SMARTs.

Also, this seems to be a somewhat rare event: most of my Googling pulled up HDDs not visible, very rare to find a post regarding SMART not visible.

So, do you think replacement of both WD10EALS will enable SMART to be visible on new drives?

Thanks again to both @drtwek and @SuperSoph_WD for your valuable info on this topic.
Cheers.
 
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drtweak

drtweak

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Sep 17, 2012
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It is NOT an issue with the drive. Just RAID is not designed to pass though SMART status because the OS does NOT see two hard drives! It sees ONE virtual drive!

If you had a RAID 5 of 10 hard drives and it was 1 virtual Drive how it is suppose to know what smart status does to what drive it is only see 1 virtual drive?

Replacing your Drives will NOT fix this issue! They will how the same thing as well. Again the only way to do this is

1) Do your research on a RAID card that allows SMART passthrough (Very VERY few high end cards do) or

2) Do a software RAID but that will tax your CPU and also require a Pro version of windows or higher.

You at least have the SMART testing on startup as if this was a REAL RAID card (an Add-in Card) you wouldn't not even have this. There is nothing you can do at this point to see that SMART info in windows without either changing how your do your RAID or dumping RAID all together.
 
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Solution
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dydxdx

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Jan 10, 2016
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Thanks drtweak, you saved me lots of $$$. I did not know that SMART data was not visible on a typical RAID. I hope your explanation will be prominent in Google searches so that other RAID users will be able to pull up.

Thanks again.
Cheers
 
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