Why are new disks failing during init in RAID 5?

[mainsheetTurkey]

I just installed 3 new disks, which supposedly are appropriate for RAID. They're WD/HGST Ultrastar DC HC320 disks (data sheet). At some point during initialization, one of the two disks get flagged as failed, and it varies somewhere along the initialization process. It looks like that failure corresponds with increments to the command timeout count in the SMART info (screenshots).

Am I doing something wrong when building the array? I believe I was using 128K strip sizes. I have UPS, should I try it with different cache settings? Or different cache settings for the RAID device in Windows?

Or should this just have worked and the drives are incompatible with RAID through Intel RST? Or are the drives bad? I have a hard time believing two of the drives are DOA. I switched back to AHCI and I'm running the manufacturer's test utility currently, and it said the first drive is fine (the one flagged as failed in the screenshot). I'm just trying to determine if they're indeed faulty, or if I should just use them as single disks or in a pool in Windows Storage Spaces instead of Intel RST.

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello mainsheetTurkey

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities.

In order to check this further, could you please provide the following information?

1- Pictures from the "Intel® RST option ROM" from the BIOS to see the RAID status. The Intel® RST option ROM usually is accessed by pressing Ctrl+I when prompted after the system begins the Power On Self Test (POST). If this method does not work, please check with your system manufacturer for proper instructions.

2- Steps you followed to set the RAID 5 and configure the disks.

3-Driver version, and Software version (either "Product" or "User interface" version). Please refer to this link for steps on how to check this >> https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000031599/memory-and-storage.html

4- Intel® System Support Utility (Intel® SSU) report to this thread to gather more details about your system.

• Download the Intel® SSU and save the application on your computer: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25293/Intel-System-Support-Utility-for-Windows-
• Open the application, check the "Everything" checkbox, and click "Scan" to see the system and device information. The Intel® SSU defaults to the "Summary View" on the output screen following the scan. Click the menu where it says "Summary" to change to "Detailed View".
• To save your scan, click Next and click Save.

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[mainsheetTurkey]

1 - Ctrl+I was unavailable, I could only access RAID options in the BIOS. I'll see about updating this posts with photos soon

2 - Added the disks to the RAID 5 and chose 128K strip size, then exited BIOS.

3 - Product version 17.9.1008.0, driver version 17.9.4.1017

4 - Attached

Note that I'd substituted a fourth disk in and moved on to using a pair of RAID 0's for these disks. I don't know if there's much troubleshooting to do with my moving on to a different RAID configuration. I've already been pulling data off my seedbox and I don't think I'll be doing that over. I'm no longer in need of support but I've provided this in case you want the details of disks that fail during initialization on a RAID 5 volume. The volume seems to be able to verify under RAID 0, for what it's worth.

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello mainsheetTurkey

Thank you very much for your response and for these details. In this case, since you mentioned that you are no longer in need of support since moving to a pair of RAID 0 is working for you, we will proceed to close this thread now.

If you need any additional information, please submit a new question as this thread will no longer being monitored. We will be glad to assist you.

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician