Is it normal for initialization to occur when new?

[jonathanm]

I just purchased an 8TB DX4000 today. After completing the setup, I was surprised to a message in the window that said "Initializing..." along with a percent. It's progressing very slowly, about 0.02% a minute. At this rate, it will take several days for it to finish. The system is brand new and has no data on it at all (other than the default folders, of course). I only completed the initial setup. The manual says that "Initializing" means "The RAID system is initializing the storage; this is similar to Verifying." Looking at the description of "Verifying," it says "RAID system was shut down inadvertently. It is validating and correcting the integrity of the RAID array."  The system hasn't lost power unexpectedly and was only restarted during the initial setup, which IIRC the manual states will happen.

Is this normal? Has anyone else experienced this? It's very frustrating to have spent so much money on this system, only to not be able to use it for 4 days.

[diehard]

I believe this is normal, I have the 2 bay unit and that one took a few hours to initalize. I'm guessing that since the drives are new, they must be setup in the RAID. This should only happen once. Unless you loose power, then it could take up to 5 days for the 4 drive units according to other posts. This is why you should use a UPS and also get the 2nd power brick.

If this unit had a high end RAID controllers then the initization or rebuild would be a lot faster, but that would cost a lot more and for this form factor, it would not fit.

[jonathanm]

Well, it seems I have no choice to wait.  Strange that no review I was able to find mentioned anything about a long initializing process when the unit is new. I would think they would mention that.  Several did talk about how long the rebuild process is after a drive is removed (as part of their testing of the unit), but that seems like a different case. I haven't removed any drives and there haven't been any abrupt power losses or hard shutdowns. The unit is on a UPS.

[Chaos311]

Just FYI, I think that SmallNetworkBuilder's review talked about it. As a general rule, I think they have some good reviews.

[GHoward]

Having just setup an 8GB DX4000 for our office, I can say this did NOT happen on our unit.

Initializing/verifying a RAID array is only needed when there is believed to be a chance of inconsistency between drives/parity. Since the array was started fresh during unit setup, there is no data to verify originally, and thus no need for a consistency check.

I would contact WD support and submit a ticket with whatever information they request, as this sounds like a bug in the setup process.

[Gramps]

You can still use it, performance just may be a bit slower

[padosd]

I purchased mine a couple of days ago and it has been working on initializing ever since.  Should it be doing this out of the box?  It does not seem normal for it to do this unless it is rebuilding.  Dashboard is slow and so are file transfers due to "initialization".  I called tech support and they said that it is the initial formatting of the raid 5.  I thought that that is done in the factory to raid 5.  I did have a server update running out of the box-Microsoft push.  Maybe there was an abrupt shutdown and that is why it is rebuilding?

I am getting another unit in a couple of days and if that one does it as well, then it is the way it was designed.

[Seisiiuneer]

I just picked up one of these 8 TB servers last night and my experience is the same as yours. From a fresh startup of a new system, it does want to initialize the RAID 5 array and I'm guessing, based on the rate of progress, is going to take several days to complete. Hope this is a very occasional thing, slows the box to a crawl. I had considered returning it, as this is a bit ridiculous, but since it replaces my failed Windows Home Server, going to a Drobo or other non-Windows server based solution doesn't appeal to me. So, I'll let the RAID 5 do it's thing and hope it's fast and useful once it's complete. Not having dealt with RAID 5 rebuilds before, is it OK to use the server while it's doing the initial RAID 5 initiailization or do we need to wait until it's complete?

[Gramps]

You can use it no harm, it will just be slow.  I mean if you really want to, install connectors and let it start backups.  OTH, you may say GEEZ this slow and throw it out the window

Reguardless, you will "eventually" be as happy with this as you were WHS V.1  Good Raid and tons of space. (Better than DE)

Gramps

[Seisiiuneer]

That's what I figure, I'll just be patient and wait for it to complete the initialization. I would imaging they get a lot of unhappy customers when they find themselves having spent a small fortune for a shiny new server only to find that it needs to spin away for a week before it's useful.