HDD disconnects when BlueIris recording

F

flatface

Young grasshopper
Apr 29, 2023
44
18
North America
I am using BlueIris on PC. This is my first setup, so I am not just popping in a new drive.

The drive seems to disconnect from the PC, but only when recording with BlueIris.

Here are my specs;

CPU: i7-7700k (used)
MoBo: MSi z270 PC Mate (used)
RAM: 16gb of crappy RAM (used)
PSU: be Quiet! Power Pro 11 550W 80+ Plat
M.2: Samsung NVME
SATA: WD Purple Pro 12TB WD121PURP
PcIe: 2 x NIC
OS: Windows 10 Home 64-bit



I have BlueIris and the OS installed on the NVME, as well as the BlueIris database.

"New" and "Stored" folders are set to the 12TB HDD.

I have my 2 cameras set to record continuously to New, which then transfers to Stored after 1TB / 7 days. It is also set to record on ONVIF alerts using tripwires set up in-camera. (5442)

I can never get through the night without the HDD dropping out. Sometimes it happens within minutes, other times it records for 6 hours before happening.

It happened today while I was using it, it sounded like the power to the disk dropped, or (yikes) it powering down after a disk being hit.

When it disconnects, I have to shut down the PC to get Windows to be able to initialize it again.

I have ensured I am not connecting to a SATA port that is blocked by the use of the NIC PcIe, nor the M.2.

I have swapped the PSU cord, the modular PSU plug-in location, the SATA cable, and SATA port.

I wonder if the case I am re-using vibrates too much for the drive. However this only seems to happen when running BlueIris.

I did a slow format of the drive yesterday which took 18 hours of constant disk use and it didn't have any issues.

I stress tested on another PC using DISKSPD today and again there were no issues that I could see.



Any idea what else I could try? Is there any way I could have messed up Blue Iris or camera settings?
 
Windows 10 home Power plan might be set to spin down the drive by default.
1688024271681.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: looney2ns
I had something similar happen to one of my BI recording drives with BI complaining that it couldn't write to it and the drive letter having the same ? against it.

In my case it turned out to be a combination of a possible bad drive and badly connected SATA cable which had somehow worked loose. I ended up just replacing the cable and also replaced the drive just in case. Tested the drive in another rig and although Seatools first said there was something wrong with it a full test showed nothing but I then ran something like another 5 tests on it and once up to temps it seemed to have bad sectors which Seatools remapped. The drive now reports as OK but I'm sort of reluctant to reinstall it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Flintstone61
It could be a flaky drive. It happens. Was it a refurb?
I have 6 TB WD Blue drive that passes all the tests. but it has a sluggish response to opening video files, and moving contents of folder is just fine. But when it's plugged in it seesm like it slows my system down when it's tasked with fetching things, Kinda like an old man
" where'd I put that damn phone now!"
 
  • Haha
Reactions: SouthernYankee
Flintstone61 said:
It could be a flaky drive. It happens. Was it a refurb?
I have 6 TB WD Blue drive that passes all the tests. but it has a sluggish response to opening video files, and moving contents of folder is just fine. But when it's plugged in it seesm like it slows my system down when it's tasked with fetching things, Kinda like an old man
" where'd I put that damn phone now!"
Click to expand...

This is the results from Crystaldisk, I know that not all these numbers are to be taken seriously and that different manufacturers put different numbers in different spots, but I have never had a drive show yellow on reallocated sectors, and I have beat up a mix of Seagate and WD for a long time now.

wd test - Copy.png


I did a slow format that took 12+ hours with 100% disk writing time (I don't know how W10 does it's formatting when not 'quick format', but as it took so long I would think similar to DBAN with full 00000 overwrite?) I figured if anything that would stress test it a bit. It worked no problem.

I can try using an external hotswap bay and see if it fails with BI then. I did replace the SATA cable with a brand new CableMatters, and tried different SATA ports, blew the dust from the ports, changed the power cable.

Edit: It was a new drive from a 3rd party Amazon seller, but I figured they just pull from the same bin at the Amazon depot anyways so might as well go with the cheapest seller.
 
Last edited:
IAmATeaf said:
I had something similar happen to one of my BI recording drives with BI complaining that it couldn't write to it and the drive letter having the same ? against it.

In my case it turned out to be a combination of a possible bad drive and badly connected SATA cable which had somehow worked loose. I ended up just replacing the cable and also replaced the drive just in case. Tested the drive in another rig and although Seatools first said there was something wrong with it a full test showed nothing but I then ran something like another 5 tests on it and once up to temps it seemed to have bad sectors which Seatools remapped. The drive now reports as OK but I'm sort of reluctant to reinstall it.
Click to expand...
Thank you, I am considering just submitting an RMA and replacing the drive.
 
  • Love
Reactions: Flintstone61
The drive report has Caution and it looks like it’s re-allocating bad sectors. BI hitting a bad sector when trying to write could well result in the drive disconnecting after timing out.

You need to download whatever tool WD provide and then perform a full scan on the drive to see if it re-allocate all bad sectors, then run the full scan again and again until it stops finding and re-allocating bad sectors. The drive status should then change to green but I’d still be wary of using it.

If it’s under warranty run a quick scan and see what it finds, record whatever it reports, save the log and also take a screenshot and then start an RMA.
 
It's junk
 
Amazon and western Digital resellers.
Lots of problems with store fronts that buy Amazon returns and mark them refurbished. they have no idea if the thing really works.
unload that drive back to Amazon quick. screen shot them the reallocated sector issue.
 
Last edited:
heres an IP Cam store on ebay with a whole inventory of WD PurP products with a decent sales to complaints ratio on 31,000 pieces of Merch.

Security Measure

www.ebay.com www.ebay.com
 
As an eBay Associate IPCamTalk earns from qualifying purchases.
1688066086187.png
 
Flintstone61 said:
Amazon and western Digital resellers.
Lots of problems with store fronts that buy Amazon returns and mark them refurbished. they have no idea if the thing really works.
unload that drive back to Amazon quick. screen shot them the reallocated sector issue.
Click to expand...
It's just over 30 days since I received the drive (45) so they are not willing to return, they are saying I need to RMA. Frustrating, but my fault for taking so long to look at the issue.
 
IAmATeaf said:
The drive report has Caution and it looks like it’s re-allocating bad sectors. BI hitting a bad sector when trying to write could well result in the drive disconnecting after timing out.

You need to download whatever tool WD provide and then perform a full scan on the drive to see if it re-allocate all bad sectors, then run the full scan again and again until it stops finding and re-allocating bad sectors. The drive status should then change to green but I’d still be wary of using it.

If it’s under warranty run a quick scan and see what it finds, record whatever it reports, save the log and also take a screenshot and then start an RMA.
Click to expand...

I can't get the WD tool to install, but I opened a support request with WD and they just said to RMA it without asking me to test anything. Assuming it is a legit WD 12tb, then it should be well under the 5 year warranty as it's basically brand new.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom