Are IronWolf Pro drives safe from the store?

urbanracer34 · September 17, 2025, 7:19pm

Hello!

I am looking to buy some IronWolf Pro drives for a great price from Memory Express in Canada. https://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX00128832

They are coming straight from the store.

Do I have to use the Drive Checker on them?

DigitalGarden · September 17, 2025, 8:22pm

Not sure I understand the emphasis there.

Of course you do not have to.

Checking SMART data isn’t an intensive operation. It couldn’t hurt The likelihood seems low that ME’s supply chain would have used drives, assuming you are purchasing them from the storefront as new and not used, but it should only take a minute/drive or so to ‘trust, but verify.’

I assume Drive Checker is just a gui over smartctl. Do note that some SMART data isn’t an open standard, but is vendor proprietary and interpretation needs reverse engineered by these SMART utilities. So there is also the chance of “false positives” if the software isn’t decoding the SMART data correctly.

keylooper · September 17, 2025, 10:42pm

After trying a bunch of different stores and sources, I’ve come to the conclusion that the only way to be sure you’re not getting a refurb, mismarked, returned, or otherwise not factory new drive is to buy direct from the MFG. If it’s a “great price” I’d be willing to bet it falls it to one of the above classifications.

urbanracer34 · September 18, 2025, 12:24am

FYI all the drives are now on order. Is there any red flags I should know when I receive them? I trust the company I’m ordering from. I think it would be VERY bad press for said company if people ordering drives from them finds out they are used already.

DigitalGarden · September 18, 2025, 2:58am

Even outside of this new drive purchase, you should have a way to monitor and view SMART data for the drives in your NAS. There are different ways to do this depending on your OS. The 45Drives Drive Checker appears to just translate the power-on hours of the drive to four tiers of how old the drive is:

You would expect a new drive to show Green in this app. But really, a healthy drive is more than that. The most robust SMART info decoder is probably Crystal DiskInfo for Windows. It has had the most development behind it. I don’t particularly like Windows, but if you do have a Windows machine around with a free drive bay or USB/SATA adapter, that program’s parsing of the various metrics and thresholds to warn on is probably the best.

On linux, any of the GUI or interprative tools are built on the smartctrl CLI program. It looks from your other posts that you are maybe running UnRAID? On UnRAID and TrueNAS you can install an app called Scrutiny tha will give you a GUI for more of the discrete SMART metrics;

I have had cases, though, where Scrutiny throws false positive warnings because it is missing some models in its database to know how to interpret some of the metrics.

If you are running Linux but not a NAS appliance there is GSmartControl;

Here are five of the metrics that are most indicative of drive health;

urbanracer34 · September 18, 2025, 3:12am

Hello!

Thanks for your insight. Yes, unRAID is the system I am running, especially with my new one I’m hoping to order soon.

I will look into Scrutiny. I’m currently using unRAID’s built-in monitor but could always use a second pair of eyes where I can.

Do you happen to have a more up-to-date guide for Scrutiny?

DigitalGarden · September 18, 2025, 4:05am

Sorry, I don’t use UnRAID (mainly TrueNAS/Proxmox), but my understanding is that although the dates on the guides might be oldish, the process of installing a community plugin hasn’t changed. Here is the Github;

github.com/AnalogJ/scrutiny

docs/INSTALL_UNRAID.md

master

# UnRAID Install

Installation of Scrutiny in UnRAID follows the same process as installing any other docker container, utilizing the Community Applications plugin

## Install the 'Community Applications' Plugin

All docker containers in UnRAID are typically installed utilizing the Community Applications plugin. To get started:
- Navigate to the plugins tab ( <UnRaid_IP_Address>/Plugins )
- Select the 'Install Plugin' tab, and enter the following address into the input field
```
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Squidly271/community.applications/master/plugins/community.applications.plg
```

You're all set with the pre-requisites!

## Installing the Scrutiny docker image

To install, simply click 'Install'; the configuration parameters should not need modification as the template within CA already defines the necessary parameters.

As a docker image can be created using various OS bases, the image choice is entirely the users choice. Recommendations of a specific image from a specific maintainer is beyond the scope of this guide. However, to provide some context given the number of questions posed regarding the various versions available:

This file has been truncated. show original

Here’s what AI tells me:

Q: is Scrutiny still a good app to run on unraid or does it have built in smart monitoring now?

A: Yes, Scrutiny is still considered a very valuable and often essential application to run on Unraid for drive health monitoring.

While Unraid has built-in SMART monitoring, Scrutiny provides several significant advantages that make it a worthwhile addition:

Historical Data and Trends: Unraid’s built-in monitoring is more of a snapshot. It will alert you to a change, but it doesn’t give you a long-term view of your drive’s health. Scrutiny, on the other hand, tracks SMART attributes over time, allowing you to see trends and identify gradual degradation that Unraid might not flag as an immediate issue. This can help you predict a drive failure well in advance.
More Detailed and Actionable Information: Unraid’s SMART monitoring is a basic pass/fail system. Scrutiny gives you a much more detailed view of all the SMART attributes and often provides context on what they mean and how worried you should be.
Customizable Thresholds: Scrutiny uses real-world failure rate data (like from Backblaze) to set its own thresholds for what constitutes a failing drive. This can be more accurate and proactive than the manufacturer-set thresholds that Unraid relies on, which can sometimes be so high that they only confirm a drive is already dead.
Centralized Dashboard: Scrutiny provides a dedicated, user-friendly dashboard for all your drives, making it much easier to get a quick overview of your entire array’s health without having to click on each individual drive in the Unraid GUI.
Enhanced Notifications: Scrutiny can be configured to send alerts and notifications, providing another layer of security in case a drive begins to fail.

In short, while Unraid’s built-in monitoring is good for basic alerts, Scrutiny is a powerful and proactive tool that can help you catch drive issues before they become critical, giving you more time to back up your data and replace the drive. It’s still a highly recommended application in the Unraid community.

Q: is there an up-to-date install guide?

A: Yes, there are up-to-date install guides for Scrutiny on Unraid, and the process is generally straightforward since it’s a Docker container available through the Unraid Community Applications (CA) plugin.

The key points to an up-to-date installation guide are:

Community Applications Plugin: The easiest way to install Scrutiny is by using the Unraid Community Applications plugin. If you don’t already have it, this should be the first step.
Docker Template: Search for “Scrutiny” in the CA store. You will likely see a few different versions. The most common and recommended ones are:

ghcr.io/analogj/scrutiny:master-omnibus (the official image from the developer)
lscr.io/linuxserver/scrutiny (a popular image from the trusted LinuxServer.io team)

Container Configuration: Once you select a template, you’ll need to configure the container. The most important parameters to set correctly are:

Port: The default port is usually 8080 , but you can change it if you have a conflict. This is the port you’ll use to access the Scrutiny web UI.
Device Paths: This is the most crucial part. You must map your host’s drive paths (/dev/sdX, /dev/nvmeXn1, etc.) to the container. The easiest way to do this is by adding a new “Device” variable for each drive in your array and cache pool. The Host Path and Container Path should be the same (e.g., /dev/sda and /dev/sda).
Capabilities: Scrutiny needs special permissions to read SMART data. You’ll need to add SYS_RAWIO to the container’s capabilities. If you have NVMe drives, you also need to add SYS_ADMIN.
Data Path: You should map a path for Scrutiny to store its historical data. This is typically done by adding a “Path” variable for the container’s /opt/scrutiny/influxdb or a similar path, and mapping it to a dedicated folder on your Unraid server (e.g., /mnt/user/appdata/scrutiny/influxdb). This ensures your historical data persists even if you need to recreate the container.

Initial Run: After installing, the collector may not run immediately. You may need to manually execute the collector command inside the container’s console for the first time to get the initial data. It will then run on a schedule (usually daily) to update the dashboard.

A note on finding guides: While guides from a year or two ago might be slightly outdated, the core process of installing a Docker container on Unraid hasn’t changed. The steps for setting up device paths and capabilities are consistent. You can find detailed, visual guides on places like the Unraid forums, Reddit communities, and YouTube. Just search for “Scrutiny Unraid install guide” to find a recent walkthrough that matches your preferred learning style.

urbanracer34 · September 18, 2025, 3:18pm

Thank you very much for this. I had a feeling it was available under the Community Applications Plugin.

keylooper · September 20, 2025, 4:35am

Register the drives as soon as you get them. That’s going to be an instant clue if they’re old/refurb.

urbanracer34 · September 20, 2025, 4:26pm

How do you do that again? It’s been a while.