[CentOS] "Enterprise Class Hard Drive" - Scam Warning

Billy Crook bcrook at riskanalytics.com
Wed Oct 2 16:28:34 UTC 2013


In fact it is prudent to completely test each drive before use.  I
recommend scripting several rounds of dd, badblocks, all smart tests,
and some hdparm interaction.

On Wed, Oct 2, 2013 at 11:24 AM, Steve Brooks <steveb at mcs.st-and.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
> I know many of us here manage RAID on our Centos based servers so this may
> be of interest to us all.
>
> I ordered three new "Enterprise hard drives" this month from a well known
> UK online retailer. The drives arrived as new in their anti-static
> packaging. Before using one of the drives in a mission critical hardware
> raid I checked the SMART attributes and was amazed at what I saw; see a
> few of the attributes listed below
>
>    1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x002f   200   200   051    Pre-fail  -   2600
>    9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   098   097   000    Old_age   -   2106
>   12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   -     80
> 198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   196   196   000    Old_age   -    398
> 200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0008   180   180   000    Old_age   -   4077
>
>
> So for a brand new packaged drive this was a bit of a surprise. "2106"
> power on hours, obviously should be zero for a new drive and "398"
> "Offline_Uncorrectable sectors" this is a well used and faulty drive. I
> contacted the (very well known) manufacturer of the drive and asked for
> information on the serial number. I was told the serial number of the
> drive was region specific to the USA and should not even be in the UK. I
> opened and tested the second and third drives with similar results. I was
> told two of the drives had already been returned under warranty and
> replaced with new drives. Wow... I was also told by the online retailer
> this is known as a grey import and is not that uncommon..
>
> So it may be a good policy to check the SMART attributes of drives before
> deployment!
>
> Cheers, Steve
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS mailing list
> CentOS at centos.org
> http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos



-- 
Billy Crook • Network and Security Administrator • RiskAnalytics, LLC



More information about the CentOS mailing list