I know it's an SMR drive and that's a bad idea for ZFS or any RAID
but it's a stopgap to hopefully keep the array redundant until prices get
less crazy. Please don't just say "don't use SMR", I'd really prefer not to.
I have a ST6000DM003-2CY186 and it keeps dropping off the controller
with the messages below showing up in dmesg. How can I
figure out more specifically why it's dropping and get it to stay?
I've had the drive in 2 different bays in my hotswap cage, used 2 different
cables connected to 2 different motherboard ports and now having it running
next to the server directly attached to take the hotswap bay out of the
picture. I set a loader hint to downgrade to SATA 2 but that hasn't helped
either. I'm very much running out of ideas. What really drives me crazy is
that (other than the total time taken because of the internal SMR
housekeeping) it made it through the initial resilver without a problem.
There doesn't seem to be much of a pattern to the drops. It doesn't
correlate with any activity or specific span of lack of activity that I've
been able to identify.
ada1 at ahcich3 bus 0 scbus3 target 0 lun 0
ada1: <ST6000DM003-2CY186 0001> s/n ZF200T9W detached
(ada1:ahcich3:0:0:0): Periph destroyed
ada1 at ahcich3 bus 0 scbus3 target 0 lun 0
ada1: <ST6000DM003-2CY186 0001> ACS-3 ATA SATA 3.x device
ada1: Serial Number ZF200T9W
ada1: 300.000MB/s transfers (SATA 2.x, UDMA6, PIO 8192bytes)
ada1: Command Queueing enabled
ada1: 5723166MB (11721045168 512 byte sectors)
ada1: quirks=0x1<4K>
The SMART data is:
```
smartctl 7.5 2025-04-30 r5714 [FreeBSD 15.0-RELEASE-p12 amd64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-25, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Seagate BarraCuda 3.5 (SMR)
Device Model: ST6000DM003-2CY186
Serial Number: ZF200T9W
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 0a4eaf8d3
Firmware Version: 0001
User Capacity: 6,001,175,126,016 bytes [6.00 TB]
Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate: 5425 rpm
Device is: In smartctl database 7.5/5706
ATA Version is: ACS-3 T13/2161-D revision 5
SATA Version is: SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 3.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is: Mon Aug 10 17:42:31 2026 EDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x82) Offline data collection activity
was completed without error.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: ( 0) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 1) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 798) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
SCT capabilities: (0x30a5) SCT Status supported.
SCT Data Table supported.
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000f 073 064 006 Pre-fail Always - 20195647
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0003 098 092 000 Pre-fail Always - 0
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age Always - 85
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 010 Pre-fail Always - 0
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000f 070 060 045 Pre-fail Always - 10214727
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 726h+57m+29.053s
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 097 Pre-fail Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age Always - 63
183 Runtime_Bad_Block 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
184 End-to-End_Error 0x0032 100 100 099 Old_age Always - 0
187 Reported_Uncorrect 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
188 Command_Timeout 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 0 2
189 High_Fly_Writes 0x003a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022 060 044 040 Old_age Always - 40 (Min/Max 39/40)
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 94
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 315
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 040 056 000 Old_age Always - 40 (0 16 0 0 0)
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered 0x001a 073 064 000 Old_age Always - 20195647
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0010 100 100 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
240 Head_Flying_Hours 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 237h+57m+03.832s
241 Total_LBAs_Written 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 8646277300
242 Total_LBAs_Read 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 888924720
SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged. [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]
SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
The above only provides legacy SMART information - try 'smartctl -x' for more
```
--
Jonathan
but it's a stopgap to hopefully keep the array redundant until prices get
less crazy. Please don't just say "don't use SMR", I'd really prefer not to.
I have a ST6000DM003-2CY186 and it keeps dropping off the controller
with the messages below showing up in dmesg. How can I
figure out more specifically why it's dropping and get it to stay?
I've had the drive in 2 different bays in my hotswap cage, used 2 different
cables connected to 2 different motherboard ports and now having it running
next to the server directly attached to take the hotswap bay out of the
picture. I set a loader hint to downgrade to SATA 2 but that hasn't helped
either. I'm very much running out of ideas. What really drives me crazy is
that (other than the total time taken because of the internal SMR
housekeeping) it made it through the initial resilver without a problem.
There doesn't seem to be much of a pattern to the drops. It doesn't
correlate with any activity or specific span of lack of activity that I've
been able to identify.
ada1 at ahcich3 bus 0 scbus3 target 0 lun 0
ada1: <ST6000DM003-2CY186 0001> s/n ZF200T9W detached
(ada1:ahcich3:0:0:0): Periph destroyed
ada1 at ahcich3 bus 0 scbus3 target 0 lun 0
ada1: <ST6000DM003-2CY186 0001> ACS-3 ATA SATA 3.x device
ada1: Serial Number ZF200T9W
ada1: 300.000MB/s transfers (SATA 2.x, UDMA6, PIO 8192bytes)
ada1: Command Queueing enabled
ada1: 5723166MB (11721045168 512 byte sectors)
ada1: quirks=0x1<4K>
The SMART data is:
```
smartctl 7.5 2025-04-30 r5714 [FreeBSD 15.0-RELEASE-p12 amd64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-25, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Seagate BarraCuda 3.5 (SMR)
Device Model: ST6000DM003-2CY186
Serial Number: ZF200T9W
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 0a4eaf8d3
Firmware Version: 0001
User Capacity: 6,001,175,126,016 bytes [6.00 TB]
Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate: 5425 rpm
Device is: In smartctl database 7.5/5706
ATA Version is: ACS-3 T13/2161-D revision 5
SATA Version is: SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 3.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is: Mon Aug 10 17:42:31 2026 EDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x82) Offline data collection activity
was completed without error.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: ( 0) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 1) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 798) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
SCT capabilities: (0x30a5) SCT Status supported.
SCT Data Table supported.
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000f 073 064 006 Pre-fail Always - 20195647
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0003 098 092 000 Pre-fail Always - 0
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age Always - 85
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 010 Pre-fail Always - 0
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000f 070 060 045 Pre-fail Always - 10214727
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 726h+57m+29.053s
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 097 Pre-fail Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age Always - 63
183 Runtime_Bad_Block 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
184 End-to-End_Error 0x0032 100 100 099 Old_age Always - 0
187 Reported_Uncorrect 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
188 Command_Timeout 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 0 2
189 High_Fly_Writes 0x003a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022 060 044 040 Old_age Always - 40 (Min/Max 39/40)
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 94
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 315
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 040 056 000 Old_age Always - 40 (0 16 0 0 0)
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered 0x001a 073 064 000 Old_age Always - 20195647
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0010 100 100 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
240 Head_Flying_Hours 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 237h+57m+03.832s
241 Total_LBAs_Written 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 8646277300
242 Total_LBAs_Read 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 888924720
SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged. [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]
SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
The above only provides legacy SMART information - try 'smartctl -x' for more
```
--
Jonathan