===============================================================================
Ok, only drives I've had issues with them NOT automatically re-allocating
a bad sector are the early 4TB drives with 64MB cache, (those made in
2013-2014), the newer drives with 256MB do not have this issue, nor do other
sizes, and issue with the early drives can be worked around by running a self
test. If it gets to where that won't fix it, the drive has degraded to the
point where I really do not want it in service anymore.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
On Tue, 11 Mar 2025, Mark wrote:
> Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2025 20:46:35 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Mark
> To: Robert > Subject: Re: Status on Various Things
>
> Bob,
> For all of my PATA/SATA hard drives with rotary media, I have used it to
> condition and maintain data read-write accuracy and recover from 'weirdness'
> on drives that spin-rite was able to read and correctly move data to valid
> sector locations. Class of work = PATA/SATA JBOD drives on desktops, no SAS
> or SCSI.
> NO hardware controller arrays.
>
> Should work on Software RAID but you would have to pull the drives and put
> them
> on a non "UFEI boot only" MB and boot from thumb drive/CD boot image.
>
> I have used earlier versions previously on ST-506/MFM ST-416/RLL drives.
>
> Flash drives also can be processed per vendor info, not my direct experience,
> but drive performance apparently can be restored to a high degree for certain
> data types (written but not read).
>
> I refer to the vendor for details on that stuff.
>
> For your situation, it may just be easier to replace the drive when it
> becomes quesitonable... drives are so much cheaper now.
>
> Mark
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> On Tue, 11 Mar 2025, Robert wrote:
>
>>
>> I am sorry but not clear on what you have successfully used it for?
>>
>>
>> -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
>>
>> On Tue, 11 Mar 2025, mark wrote:
>>
>>> Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2025 09:46:53 -0700 (PDT)
>>> From: mark
>>> Subject: Re: Status on Various Things
>>>
>>> Perhaps, if you are interested, a drive utility I have used
>>> successfully for many years is Spin-Rite. (See ref. URL
>>> <https://www.grc.com/>or<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpinRite>)
>>>
>>> Current version is 6.1, Cost for License is $89 USD. This version
>>> requires the the drive to be booted from a DOS compatible system BIOS,
>>> will not work on UFEI-only boards until version 7.0. Effective on
>>> some SSD characteristics also.
>>>
>>>
>>> Mark
>>> --
>>> __,_._,__
>>> _
>>> _
>>> _
>>> _
>>> __
>>> _______________________________
>>> On Tue, 11 Mar 2025 02:26:44 -0700 (PDT)
>>> **************************************** wrote:
>>>
>>>> I found a situation where software raid MDRAID RAID1 does not
>>>> work well, and that is when a drive doesn't just go bad in which case
>>>> you can or the system might automatically mark it as failed and the
>>>> array continues to operate on one drive, but when the drive fails in
>>>> a way that the system can not see it at all, the RAID array fails to
>>>> assemble even in degraded mode and can't even be forced to assemble.
>>>> Since one of my drives in Inuvik failed in this manner, I am not
>>>> quite sure how to recover from this quite yet. I may try hand
>>>> editing in the new drive in the conf file bypassing mdadm. Not sure
>>>> yet becuse that won't write the raid header to the drive and it won't
>>>> match the old UUID. May end up just building a new RAID array and
>>>> restoring from backups. I was hoping to get it working in degraded
>>>> mode so I could torture the CPU a bit while waiting on the
>>>> replacement drive.
>>>>
>>>> The issue stems from the way Linux dynamically assigns a
>>>> /dev/sdX during boot and that order may change. I understand there
>>>> is a way to fix this with custom udev rules but still researching
>>>> that. It would make life simpler if /dev/sda where always /dev/sda
>>>> and not sometimes /dev/sdc or whatever device responded first during
>>>> boot-up.
>>>>
Ok, only drives I've had issues with them NOT automatically re-allocating
a bad sector are the early 4TB drives with 64MB cache, (those made in
2013-2014), the newer drives with 256MB do not have this issue, nor do other
sizes, and issue with the early drives can be worked around by running a self
test. If it gets to where that won't fix it, the drive has degraded to the
point where I really do not want it in service anymore.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
On Tue, 11 Mar 2025, Mark wrote:
> Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2025 20:46:35 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Mark
> To: Robert > Subject: Re: Status on Various Things
>
> Bob,
> For all of my PATA/SATA hard drives with rotary media, I have used it to
> condition and maintain data read-write accuracy and recover from 'weirdness'
> on drives that spin-rite was able to read and correctly move data to valid
> sector locations. Class of work = PATA/SATA JBOD drives on desktops, no SAS
> or SCSI.
> NO hardware controller arrays.
>
> Should work on Software RAID but you would have to pull the drives and put
> them
> on a non "UFEI boot only" MB and boot from thumb drive/CD boot image.
>
> I have used earlier versions previously on ST-506/MFM ST-416/RLL drives.
>
> Flash drives also can be processed per vendor info, not my direct experience,
> but drive performance apparently can be restored to a high degree for certain
> data types (written but not read).
>
> I refer to the vendor for details on that stuff.
>
> For your situation, it may just be easier to replace the drive when it
> becomes quesitonable... drives are so much cheaper now.
>
> Mark
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> On Tue, 11 Mar 2025, Robert wrote:
>
>>
>> I am sorry but not clear on what you have successfully used it for?
>>
>>
>> -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
>>
>> On Tue, 11 Mar 2025, mark wrote:
>>
>>> Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2025 09:46:53 -0700 (PDT)
>>> From: mark
>>> Subject: Re: Status on Various Things
>>>
>>> Perhaps, if you are interested, a drive utility I have used
>>> successfully for many years is Spin-Rite. (See ref. URL
>>> <https://www.grc.com/>or<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpinRite>)
>>>
>>> Current version is 6.1, Cost for License is $89 USD. This version
>>> requires the the drive to be booted from a DOS compatible system BIOS,
>>> will not work on UFEI-only boards until version 7.0. Effective on
>>> some SSD characteristics also.
>>>
>>>
>>> Mark
>>> --
>>> __,_._,__
>>> _
>>> _
>>> _
>>> _
>>> __
>>> _______________________________
>>> On Tue, 11 Mar 2025 02:26:44 -0700 (PDT)
>>> **************************************** wrote:
>>>
>>>> I found a situation where software raid MDRAID RAID1 does not
>>>> work well, and that is when a drive doesn't just go bad in which case
>>>> you can or the system might automatically mark it as failed and the
>>>> array continues to operate on one drive, but when the drive fails in
>>>> a way that the system can not see it at all, the RAID array fails to
>>>> assemble even in degraded mode and can't even be forced to assemble.
>>>> Since one of my drives in Inuvik failed in this manner, I am not
>>>> quite sure how to recover from this quite yet. I may try hand
>>>> editing in the new drive in the conf file bypassing mdadm. Not sure
>>>> yet becuse that won't write the raid header to the drive and it won't
>>>> match the old UUID. May end up just building a new RAID array and
>>>> restoring from backups. I was hoping to get it working in degraded
>>>> mode so I could torture the CPU a bit while waiting on the
>>>> replacement drive.
>>>>
>>>> The issue stems from the way Linux dynamically assigns a
>>>> /dev/sdX during boot and that order may change. I understand there
>>>> is a way to fix this with custom udev rules but still researching
>>>> that. It would make life simpler if /dev/sda where always /dev/sda
>>>> and not sometimes /dev/sdc or whatever device responded first during
>>>> boot-up.
>>>>
