TerraMaster Forum

I have been experiencing lost partitions (the OS sees the drive as unformatted) on my D5-300 drives after heavy usage followed by system shutdown. Do I need to eject the drives prior to instructing the system to shutdown? (Eject may not have been possible, as 2 of the drives were unresponsive). I have been using D5-300s for years and this year 3 of my 7 DS-300 units have lost all their data (the drives can be reformatted).

Here are the details on my failed units

1. Purchased a new D5-300 to keep a backup copy of another D5-300 on a Windows 10 system. The day after the copy completed, drive was not responding. After a system reboot, the OS showed the new D5-300 as being unformatted.
Model: D5-300
SN: 190900308
Firmware Version: V0.964-203
RAID5
5 x Seagate 10TB – WDC-WD100EMAZ-00WJTA0

2. On a different Windows 10 system, I restored the lost data to another D5-300. After the restore, the computer was shutdown and the drive moved the drive to a 3rd computer to rebuild the data. This unit also appeared as unformatted when powered back on.
Model: D5-300
SN: D5300-160900022
Firmware Version: V0.962-1210
RAID5
5 x Seagate 5TB – ST5000DM000-1FK178

3. To attempt another restore, the data was moved off another D5-300. About 98% of the data moved off before the drive stopped responding. After a system reboot, the unit now also shows as unformatted.
Model: D5-300
SN: D5-300-180401187
Firmware Version: V0.964-203
RAID5
5 x Seagate 8TB - ST8000DM004-2CX188

These were all single NTFS partitions on raid5. These units were plugged directly into the computer’s USB3 port. There were no errors in the RAID Manager tool. I have been restoring the data to smaller, non TerraMaster, external drives (10TB & 12TB) over the past several months without issue.

The TerraMasters have been solid units and I really don’t want to switch manufacturers, but I’m nearing a 50% failure rate and have wasted months attempting to restore lost data. Any insight into the issue would be appreciated.

Thanks

Hi, there are there things you need to be serious concern:
1. Desktop hard drive is not built for RAID array application, if you search online, you will find a lot of negative comments about desktop hard drive in RAID. From Seagate and WD officials website, desktop hard drive also not recommended for RAID.
2. You need to check if there are bad sectors or blocks on any of your drive, any of such defective will cause your RAID failure in operation. To have a full scan, you can download the disk utility from Seagate or WD website.
3. Keep in your mind, eject your USB device before you shutdown your device every time. This the reason EJECT designed for.