On 01/05/2013, at 3:06 PM, James Harper <james.harper@bendigoit.com.au> wrote:
Both drives have logged read errors under Linux kernel, both report drive is healthy status (SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED), and both say "Completed: read failure" almost immediately when I do a SMART self test (short test or long).
Have you tried the same test with the drives in another machine?
Not yet. Will be doing this shortly.
Are they under warranty? Can't speak for all manufacturers, but HP drives I've had fail in self-testing were replaced immediately under warranty.
They are Seagate ES drives, so designed for 24x7 use. Not sure how long the explicit warranty is, but the consumer guarantee should ensure I get a replacement even if the part only has a 1 year written warranty. No harddisk manufacturer is going to argue that their product shouldn't reasonably be expected to last 3 years. Of course if it takes me more than an hour of time to chase the warranty it isn't worth it - disk is only around $250. Last time we had a customer with a failed Seagate harddisk I recommended they buy a new one then pursue the warranty (which is what I'm doing) as the warranty can take ages. Turns out the warranty turnaround was days, not weeks like I thought it would be, so I was impressed. Buying a new disk was still the faster option to ensure redundancy though. James