Adaptec Raid 5 (Hard drive clicking sounds)

[hierge]

I set up a Raid 5 on the Raid card and it shows "Optimal" in the
configuration. I'm using three Seagate 15K SCSI 320 drives. The
drives are brand new and there is a clicking sound on all three of them
every half second or so. This is not OS related because it does it
when I'm in the configuration utility. This doesn't seem normal. I
don't drives working all the time with no applications accessing them.
Can anyone enlighten me as to whether or not this is a problem?

 

[Alex Harrington]

Can anyone enlighten me as to whether or not this is a problem?

It's been a while since I've worked with Seagate SCSI drives but
certainly I used to have Baracuda SCSI drives that would "seek test"
every 30 seconds or so to ensure precision when accessed.

Every half second seems excessive for that kind of explanation though.

If they aren't SCA you could try powering each drive individually to be
sure they're all doing it. You'd be pretty unlucky to get 3 duff drives.

You're sure the array has finished building and is "optimal" not "quick
init" in the Adaptec BIOS?

Cheers

Alex

 

[paulmd]

I set up a Raid 5 on the Raid card and it shows "Optimal" in the
configuration. I'm using three Seagate 15K SCSI 320 drives. The
drives are brand new and there is a clicking sound on all three of them
every half second or so. This is not OS related because it does it
when I'm in the configuration utility. This doesn't seem normal. I
don't drives working all the time with no applications accessing them.
Can anyone enlighten me as to whether or not this is a problem?

I don't suppose you have a spare raid controller laying around?

 

[John McGaw]

I set up a Raid 5 on the Raid card and it shows "Optimal" in the
configuration. I'm using three Seagate 15K SCSI 320 drives. The
drives are brand new and there is a clicking sound on all three of them
every half second or so. This is not OS related because it does it
when I'm in the configuration utility. This doesn't seem normal. I
don't drives working all the time with no applications accessing them.
Can anyone enlighten me as to whether or not this is a problem?

Wild and crazy questions: which of the Adaptec SCSI RAID controllers are
you using and have you asked Adaptec about the "problem"? I suspect that
the controller is simply doing background maintenance activity and this
shouldn't cause trouble for the drives since they are built for 24 X 7
activity in server applications but Adaptec is, in my experience, very
good about answering end-user questions at their website.

 

[philo]

I set up a Raid 5 on the Raid card and it shows "Optimal" in the
configuration. I'm using three Seagate 15K SCSI 320 drives. The
drives are brand new and there is a clicking sound on all three of them
every half second or so. This is not OS related because it does it
when I'm in the configuration utility. This doesn't seem normal. I
don't drives working all the time with no applications accessing them.
Can anyone enlighten me as to whether or not this is a problem?

Well I just setup a RAID 5 yesterday and it sure does *not* do that

It may be worth a call to the mfg of your Raid controller