Spin Retry Count eSATA H/W RAID5 (Mediasonic HFR2-SU3S2)

[Hard_Disk_Howie]

Hello!

I'm trying to better understand/diagnose significant number of Spin Retry Count entries in the Log for all 4 drives in this enclosure:

Mediasonic HFR2-SU3S2 PRORAID external enclosure
eSATA connection
Currently via on-board Asmedia 106x SATA Controller (AHCI) [VEN: 1B21, DEV: 0612] Version: 3.3.5.0, 6-24-2020
(previously mostly connected via SYBA / IOCrest SD-SA2PEX-2E PCIe SATA card with Marvell controller )

Containing:

4 x Hitachi Deskstar 3TB drives model HDS723030ALA640
In RAID5 configuration

• Enclosure and drives purchased and put into service in July 2011.
• Configured for RAID5 from the start, and never changed.
• The enclosure has been pretty rock solid and reliable for 11 years, used until recently with Windows 7 (now Windows 10.)
• HD Sentinel first installed July 2020

Prior to purchasing and using Hard Disk Sentinel, I did not know much about the health or status of the hard drives. Initially, I mostly used HD Sentinel to monitor drive temperatures (which led me to add additional external fan for cooling.) But over time, I've noticed the HDS Log indicating a fair number of Spin Retry entries for all four drives, beginning shortly after I installed the software. The enclosure has been attached much, but not 100% of the time the computer is used.

Since the spin retry issue is logged for all drives, I'm guessing it's more likely due to power supply issue, but also wondering whether perhaps this particular enclosure's "normal operation" might function in a way that reports a problem in HD Sentinel that might not actually be a problem? I Could Not Find much specific to this enclosure and this particular issue here in the forum or online in general, so I'm hoping to get some feedback.

I will use the "send test report to developer" option as well.

THANKS!

[hdsentinel]

Hello!

Thanks for your message and the information - and increasing attention to such interesting case.

Yes, generally Hard Disk Sentinel (as we expect) detects and reports the changes in the status, so reports if the Spin retry count attribute changes with time.

I completely agree that it is more than interesting that such issues happening at the same time for all drives. Yes, first I'd surely think about the power supply: a 11 year power supply (assuming that it is as old as the enclosure itself) may not able to provide enough power to spin up all drives at the same time (especially 7200 RPM drives).
Not sure, but if possible, I recommend to please try with a different power supply/adapter (just may be hard because of the special plug) to verify if things are better, more stable.

Personally I'd also try to disable hard disk spin down at power management settings to prevent frequent spin up / spin down cycles.

Maybe if you see that the Spin retry count attribute changes for one or more hard disk drives, please send a new developer report: then it is possible to compare with the current situation.

[Hard_Disk_Howie]

I’m back with an update (which I’m keeping short, because I forgot how quickly this site logs users off, and I just lost the entire post I typed because it logged me off without warning.)

I’ve replaced my PCIe eSATA card with a USB 3.1 Gen II card. I’ve actually tested three different USB cards, but have settled on the third one as the best choice. All three use the Asmedia ASM3142 chip.

With my Mediasonic enclosure connected via USB to any of the three PCIe cards, I have had zero entries in the HDS log for Spin Retry Count!

This seems to indicate the error issue was related to the SATA communication, and definitely not an issue with the enclosure’s power supply. Perhaps the SATA hardware implementation in the enclosure produced this issue, since it occurred when connected to both motherboard and PCIe cards eSATA ports.

Anyway, I hope this little extra information helps with your continued accumulation of data points, which can improve your already great software!

Cheers.

[hdsentinel]

Thanks for the information, really good to know, can be useful in such/similar situations.