Intermittently clicking HDD on a RAID1 md array
 

Hello,

One of my HDD on a 2 drive RAID1 md (linux software raid) is intermittently clicking. When this occurs, I can hear a loud clicking noise at uniform intervals and then it stops. Its like "click..click........click..click........click..click........click..click". You know what I mean ;)

It does it about 4 times per hour. I believe this drive is about to die.

Until I find a replacement drive, can I run into problems with the data on the array? I believe the mdadm utility would tell me if the drive was faulty and once I replace the drive, it would auto rebuild the array (re=copy the data to the new drive)?

Can anybody confirm this? I have over 1.2TB of data on this array I really dont want to lose everything...

thanks!

Click of death, I have never seen a good drive (installed properly) click.

Run smart on it alone out of raid to check but smart sometimes reports OK while this is going on.

Just get a new drive and fix the array, and don't wait.

2 questions:

What happens if I run the SMART test with the drive as part of the array??

If I understand correctly, I shouldn't fool around with this and replace the HDD immediately even if SMART reports no errors... Correct?

TO fix the array, can I just shutdown -> replace the HDD -> reboot and mdadm will resync the drives?

Well I guess its simple:

I will send the drive for RMA and replace with the new one. Hopefully, the mdadm utility rebuilds the array without nuking my data....

Its the 3rd hdd bought in the last year that dies... Two Western Digital and one seagate. My old Hitachi's are still running fine after 6 years..

Wonder what is causing this. Too high of heat? Voltages too low? Bad drives? I'd check the first two. I even try to keep drives as far apart and servers apart in the rack.

Mmm tough to tell... AFAIK, the tempersature shouldnt be a problem, I have 4 15cm fans running and its a large full tower case with plenty of space... Voltage, maybe, to be honest I never checked this...

6HDD + GeForce 7300GT + 4X 15cm fans + 2GB Ram + MSI K9N Platinum Mobo (all USB/COM/LPT/other ports deactivated) with a 450W PSU

RIght now I am debating with installing enterprise grade drives to replace the Seagate Barracuda LP and WD caviar green drives. Price is a bit of a concern ..