Marty, I didn't see anythign that specifically said Manufacture Date, but on the label all three of them had: Date Code: 10356   Site Code: TK It appears that they were made around the same time and at teh same place? Thanks for the link to the QNAP list! I didn't even think to check their site. The Box that had the three failed drives was using Firmware 3.5 or 3.6, but I've upgraded it to 4.0.3 last week. Our other NSS 326 was still running firmware 1.1.0, but I've upgraded it to QNAP 3.5.0 this week, and will probably take it up to 4.0.3 soon. Thanks again for all your help. I really can't thank you enough. Thanks, Chris ... View more

Marty, I don't believe the serial numbers are that close, but then again, I'm not familiar with their numbering system. SN: 6VPEN7L4 SN: 9VP5B1L6 SN: 9VP56XTB All three drives are Seagate ST31000528AS 1TB drives. Two of them are firmware CC38 and one is CC46. I'll defintiely take that advice. I've actually unknowingly been doing that already. All three drive's I've ordered have come from different places. I've almost bought a spare a couple of times, but didn't. In the back of my mind I've been thinking I should have, but now I'm glad I didn't. I have been checking that list when I order drives, although I wonder when it was last updated. When I search the web for some of the drive models, some of them do not seem to be very prevalent. This leads me to believe they may be becoming outdated and there could be newer models available that are suitable replacements, although not listed. Thanks, Chris ... View more

Marty, I completed the backup, replaced Drive #5, ordered a new drive to replace #1, and set up the test schedule. I was surprised to find that, first of all, the schedule was not set up, but also that some drives had not been tested in over two years, and some had never been tested at all. In any event, during the first weekly Rapid Test, the status of Drive #4 changed to Normal. Then yesterday, after I replaced Drive #1 and while the RAID was being rebuilt, Drive #4 failed. I received several emails about it, with the first one stating "Level: Warning" and "Rebuilding Skipped" I've already ordered a replacement drive, and hopefully won't lose any more drives before I am able to replace that drive and rebuild the RAID. This makes 3 drive replacements in less than a month. Is there something I need to be looking at that could cause multiple drive failures in such a short period of time? Our other NAS, which is identical except for Hard Drive sizes and Firmware version, is not having these issues. Thanks, Chris ... View more

Marty, The first copy job is underway! Are the Shared Folders the only place data is stored? I've tested all five drives. The 1st drive came back as NORMAL, but the other 4 came back GOOD. Does that mean the SMART Information under Disk Management  > Volume Management not a realtime status, but the status from the  last time the drives were manually tested? I also noticed that drives 3, 4 and 6 said they had not been tested, but had a status of GOOD. Does that mean that the status of an untested drive displays as GOOD, or that perhaps those three drives were replacements and the previous drives in those slots tested GOOD? So, do I replace Drive 1 now, or wait until it fails completely? Should I do a full scan on it and see what that says? If the status doesn't change, is there anything I can do to try to repair it, or should I not chance it? Your earlier comments: You could boot the NAS with NO drives installed, start the wizard and  use the "bad" drive to create a new volume. (Single drive) The NAS will  let you know if that drive is bad. If it is good you could boot with ALL  drives again and the array should rebuild. If it is bad, boot with all  BUT that drive. Is there any step by step documentation on this procedure, or is it pretty straight forward? Thanks, Chris ... View more

Thanks Marty, I am defintiely not doing anything until I have the files backed up. Speaking of which, what is the best way to back up the device? I started dragging and dropping files, but was concerned files would be missed. I'm also dealing with multiple shared folders, so it's a pain. Is there a way to backup everything at once to an External HD? About doing a SMART Scan, is that something done manually? The reason I ask, is that under Volume Management in the web interface, the other 5 drives say GOOD in the SMART Information column. Thanks, Chris ... View more

Thank you Marty. I ended up calling support shortly after posting this to start a new case. When a tech called back, he walked me through what you described. The chassis booted up fine without the drives. When I inserted the drives I had the same issue. We tried removing only drive 6, since that was the only one with the indicator light that was lit, but the issue persisted. He recommended repeating the process with the other drives. I got lucky and when I removed the next drive, number 5. The system booted up as it normally does, although in degraded mode. I am in the process of backing up all the files to the other NAS, and have ordered a new hard drive to replace drive 5. The odd thing is that there was no indication of a failed drive, so I'm not 1000% confident that is the issue. Once all the files are backed up, I am going to repeat the test with the other drives, just to see if it will boot. Would it be worth reinserting drive 5 to see if the problem resolves itself. Or, format the drive and inserting it to see if the RAID is rebuilt with the formatted drive? Or, should I not take any chances and just insert the new drive when I get it and be done with it? Thanks for your help. Chris ... View more