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obsidian-yanxin/notes/Unraid Drive Replacement Plan.md
2026-04-04 17:10:03 -07:00

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Unraid Drive Replacement Plan

Goals

  • Replace the 3 worst drives (both parity + Disk 3) with enterprise CMR
  • Remove the smallest drive (Disk 4, 4TB) — too small to be useful
  • Keep the 4 healthiest data drives running
  • Reduce from 8 to 6 HDD drives
  • Stay under 20% cumulative failure risk
  • Total budget: ~$440

Current Array (as of 2026-03-28)

Slot Model Serial Size Age Est. AFR Health Action
Parity 1 ST8000DM004 SMR ZCT2K65B 8TB 5.3yr ~4.5% Had 180 GP errors (cleared) Replace
Parity 2 ST8000DM004 SMR ZCT2K5PQ 8TB 5.3yr ~3.5% Had 19 GP errors (cleared) Replace
Disk 1 ST8000DM004 SMR ZCT2K3FF 8TB 5.3yr ~2.75% Clean, same batch as parity Keep
Disk 2 ST8000DM004 SMR ZCT2K51K 8TB 5.3yr ~2.75% 1 CRC error, otherwise clean Keep
Disk 3 ST8000DM004 SMR ZCT3XAEJ 8TB 4.8yr ~3.5% Had 10 GP errors, 2 CRC, 72K load cycles Remove
Disk 4 WD40EFRX CMR WD-WCC7K2YF4TDJ 4TB 6.6yr ~2.5% Pristine SMART, only 1.7TB used Remove
Disk 5 ST8000DM004 SMR ZR14W632 8TB 2.5yr ~1.75% 56C lifetime max, otherwise clean Keep
Disk 6 ST8000DM004 SMR ZR150CVS 8TB 2.5yr ~1.75% Clean Keep
Cache Samsung 970 EVO S5H9NS0N831296A 1TB 1% wear, excellent Keep

Total data stored: ~25TB, growing ~1TB/year

Drive Buyer's Guide

Only 3 manufacturers make 3.5" HDDs: Seagate, WD, and Toshiba. All others (Samsung, Hitachi, HGST, Maxtor) were acquired.

Brand Line Tier CMR RPM Workload MTBF Warranty ~16TB Price
Seagate BarraCuda Consumer SMR 5400 2 yr ~$250
IronWolf Home NAS CMR 7200 180 TB/yr 1M hrs 3 yr ~$210
IronWolf Pro Pro NAS CMR 7200 300 TB/yr 1.2M hrs 5 yr ~$230
Exos (X18/X20/X24) Enterprise CMR 7200 550 TB/yr 2.5M hrs 5 yr ~$220
WD Red Light NAS SMR 5400 180 TB/yr 1M hrs 3 yr ~$210
Red Plus Home NAS CMR 5400-7200 180 TB/yr 1M hrs 3 yr ~$210
Red Pro Pro NAS CMR 7200 300 TB/yr 1M hrs 5 yr ~$230
Ultrastar Enterprise CMR 7200 550 TB/yr 2.5M hrs 5 yr ~$220
Toshiba N300 Home NAS CMR 7200 180 TB/yr 1M hrs 3 yr ~$200
MG Series Enterprise CMR 7200 550 TB/yr 2.5M hrs 5 yr ~$210

Avoid SMR drives (BarraCuda, WD Red no suffix) — terrible for Unraid parity rebuilds. Home NAS tier (CMR) is perfectly adequate; enterprise is worth it when the price gap is small (<$15/drive). Best deals typically appear during Black Friday / Cyber Monday (20-40% off).

Shopping List

Drive Model Purpose Est. Price
Seagate Exos X18 16TB ST16000NM000J Parity 1 ~$220
Seagate Exos X18 16TB ST16000NM000J Parity 2 ~$220
Total ~$440

Why 16TB parity for 8TB data drives: when a data drive eventually dies or fills up (~2030), you can drop in a 16TB replacement without touching parity. Buying 8TB parity now would mean buying parity drives again later — more expensive overall. The Exos X18 should last 8-12+ years in a home NAS, outlasting multiple generations of data drives.


Phase 0 — Now (free)

Goal: Remove Disk 4 (WD Red 4TB) — too small to be useful

Disk 4 only has 1.7TB used. Other drives have 14.5TB of free space.

  1. Open Unbalance plugin in Unraid WebGUI
  2. Source: Disk 4
  3. Destination: Disk 3, Disk 5, Disk 6 (most free space)
  4. Start transfer (~30 min for 1.7TB)
  5. Verify Disk 4 shows 0 bytes used
  6. Stop array (Main → Array Operations → Stop)
  7. Click on Disk 4 slot → set to No Device
  8. Start array → check "Yes I want to do this" → confirm
  9. Parity sync runs automatically (~12-18 hrs, array is usable during sync)
  10. Once sync completes: power down, physically remove the 4TB drive, power up

Keep the WD Red 4TB as a cold backup drive — pristine SMART despite its age. Good for periodic offline backups via USB dock.

Result: 8 → 7 drives.


Phase 1 — April 2027

Goal: Replace Parity 1, remove Disk 3

Cumulative failure risk reaches ~20% around this time. First purchase.

Buy: 1x Seagate Exos X18 16TB (~$220)

Step 1: Replace Parity 1

  1. Stop array
  2. Power down server
  3. Locate Parity 1 drive (sdb, serial ZCT2K65B) and remove it
  4. Install the new Exos X18 16TB in the same physical slot
  5. Power up
  6. Main page → verify new drive appears in the Parity 1 slot
  7. Start array
  8. Parity sync begins automatically (~12-18 hrs)
  9. Array is fully usable during sync — avoid heavy writes for best performance
  10. Wait for sync to complete (progress shown on Main page)

Step 2: Remove Disk 3

After parity sync completes:

  1. Open Unbalance plugin
  2. Source: Disk 3 (~4.3TB after absorbing some of Disk 4's data)
  3. Destination: Disk 1, Disk 2, Disk 5, Disk 6
  4. Start transfer (~2-4 hrs)
  5. Verify Disk 3 shows 0 bytes used
  6. Stop array
  7. Click on Disk 3 slot → set to No Device
  8. Start array → confirm → parity sync runs (~12-18 hrs)
  9. Once sync completes: power down, physically remove Disk 3, power up

Disposal

  • Old Parity 1 (ZCT2K65B): Recycle — worst error history in the array
  • Old Disk 3 (ZCT3XAEJ): Recycle — GP errors + CRC errors + high load cycles

Result: 7 → 6 drives.


Phase 2 — June 2027

Goal: Replace Parity 2

Buy: 1x Seagate Exos X18 16TB (~$220)

  1. Stop array
  2. Power down server
  3. Locate Parity 2 drive (sdc, serial ZCT2K5PQ) and remove it
  4. Install the new Exos X18 16TB in the same physical slot
  5. Power up
  6. Main page → verify new drive appears in the Parity 2 slot
  7. Start array
  8. Parity sync begins (~12-18 hrs)
  9. Wait for completion

Disposal

  • Old Parity 2 (ZCT2K5PQ): Recycle — 19 GP error history

Result: Still 6 drives. Migration complete.


Final Array (June 2027)

Slot Drive Size Used Age Health
Parity 1 Seagate Exos X18 (new) 16TB New Enterprise CMR, 5yr warranty
Parity 2 Seagate Exos X18 (new) 16TB New Enterprise CMR, 5yr warranty
Disk 1 ST8000DM004 (kept) 8TB ~6.6TB 6.3yr Clean
Disk 2 ST8000DM004 (kept) 8TB ~6.5TB 6.3yr 1 CRC, otherwise clean
Disk 5 ST8000DM004 (kept) 8TB ~5.2TB 3.5yr Clean
Disk 6 ST8000DM004 (kept) 8TB ~5.2TB 3.5yr Clean
  • Usable capacity: 29.2TB (4 × 7.3TB)
  • Data stored: ~25TB, ~4TB free
  • Growth runway: ~4 years at 1TB/yr before needing bigger data drives
  • Annual failure rate: ~8% (down from ~19%)
  • 2 empty drive bays for future expansion

Cost Summary

When What Cost
Now Remove Disk 4 $0
Apr 2027 Exos X18 16TB (Parity 1) $220
Jun 2027 Exos X18 16TB (Parity 2) $220
Total $440

When a Data Drive Eventually Dies or Fills Up (~2030)

Since parity is already 16TB, just buy one replacement data drive up to 16TB. No parity upgrade needed.

Recommended replacements (for brand diversity):

  • Toshiba MG08/MG10 16TB (~$200) — enterprise CMR
  • WD Ultrastar HC550 16TB (~$230) — enterprise CMR

Procedure:

  1. Stop array, power down
  2. Swap the failed/full 8TB with the new 16TB
  3. Start array → rebuild (~18-20 hrs)
  4. Done — you just gained 8TB of usable space

Each time you replace an 8TB with a 16TB, your usable capacity grows:

  • 1 replaced: 37.2TB usable
  • 2 replaced: 45.2TB usable
  • 3 replaced: 53.2TB usable
  • All 4 replaced: 61.2TB usable

Drives to Recycle

Wipe before recycling if concerned about data:

Drive Reason
Parity 1 (ZCT2K65B) 180 GP error history
Parity 2 (ZCT2K5PQ) 19 GP error history
Disk 3 (ZCT3XAEJ) 10 GP + 2 CRC + 72K load cycles

Drives to Keep as Spares

Drive Use
Disk 4 — WD Red 4TB (WD-WCC7K2YF4TDJ) Cold backup via USB dock. Pristine SMART. Monthly rsync of irreplaceable files (photos, documents, configs).

SMART Test Schedule (already running)

  • Weekly short: Sundays 2:00 AM
  • Monthly extended: 1st of month 3:00 AM
  • Configured via User Scripts plugin
  • Monitor results in Main → click any drive → SMART attributes

Pending Config Fixes

Can be done anytime from WebGUI, no downtime needed:

  • Remove compose.manager plugin (Settings → Plugins → click X next to it)
  • Disable disk shares (Settings → Global Share Settings → Enable disk shares → No)
  • Set user share security to Private for exported shares (Shares → isos → SMB Security → Private; repeat for any other exported shares)
  • Move domains share to cache (Shares → domains → Primary storage → Cache → Cache Pool → cache)
  • Set up email notifications (Settings → Notification Settings — use Gmail + App Password)
  • Configure UPS auto-shutdown (Settings → UPS Settings — CyberPower CP1500, USB, battery level 20%)
  • Enable XMP in BIOS at next reboot (G.Skill DDR3 running 1333 MT/s, rated 1600 MT/s)
  • Verify appdata backups work — test a restore of one container