pokes

Bit of a late update .. The StarTech Mini-SAS to SATA Cable is the right one It's a lot neater, stronger, etc .. so easier to install & worth the extra cost 🙂 Installed 3 new drives using the StarTech Krysma No.1 - 3 & 4 leads are still in use .. No.2 lead was not okay Plus I did replace the battery & no more bios date issue

Ordered the StarTech sata cable, when it arrives I will also replace the battery & fully check bios when I set time/date the Asus Z97-K motherboard is over 5 years old, so I should have replaced the battery before installing Unraid 💡

from https://www.startech.com/en-au/cables/drive/sas "SAS8087S450 50cm Serial Attached SCSI SAS Cable - SFF-8087 to 4x Latching SATA Connect a SATA/SAS Controller to 4 SATA drives" Reverse would be SAS Controller to 4 SATA motherboard

Lost Disk 4 on boot, it was connected to the Krysma's Mini-SAS No.2 sata cable took side off - it was kinda squashed & bent down shut down - changed it to Krysma's (spare) No.1 sata cable (previously used for parity) reboot - Disk 4 is Okay I have the same Krysma Mini-SAS SFF-8087 ~ LSI SAS 9201-8i setup on a Raid 5 System with no problems

It took almost 10 hours & I only watched it a bit at the start i5 4690 / 8GB DDR3

When adding a second parity disk (parity 2) it appeared that Unraid did writing to it, & reading from the original parity (disk 1) I didn't see any data disk activity So did it just do a parity sync between the 2 parity disks - comparing parity with stored parity or did it do a parity check, read all the data disks and the parity disk, comparing parity with stored parity If it only did a parity sync, should I now do a parity check ? & does a parity check take more time to complete with 2 parity disks ?

The only problem I had during the several cable swaps & the hard drive install, was after I disconnected power when doing these the date & time would go wonky mainly minus 12 hours & plus 20 years to 2041 etc ? To get Unraid back up & running I had to connect a monitor & keyboard to boot then "press F1 to run setup" & change date & time in bios save / exit a new motherboard battery next time I open the case?

You know they do look alike & don't seem to specify forward or reverse .. other than "one 36-pin plug .. fans out to four SATA" I'm newish to Unraid so to avoid problems & to make things simple & more reliable .. as I had 2 more 4TB disks, I used 1 of them for Parity 2 & left that Disk No.7 for future data completed 0 errors Duration: 9 hours, 41 minutes, 18 seconds. Average speed: 114.7 MB/sec

StarTech Mini-SAS to SATA Cable, 1x SFF-8087 Plug, 4x SATA Female - 50 cm The SAS8087S450 SFF-8087 to 4x SATA SAS cable features one 36-pin plug (SFF-8087), which fans out to four SATA 7-pin receptacles, providing a reliable solution for connecting up to four SATA HDDs to a SAS controller or backplane The same type as the cheap $17.50 Krysma 50cm / 0.5m Mini-SAS SFF-8087 to 4x SATA Adapter Cable I'm using

These are the $17 cables - I had them looped, bunched together & cable tied, the wire in them is very thin & not very flexible No errors since last night when I took the sides off the case, cut the cable tie & freed them up SMART short self-test: healthy Would these $50 Startech cables be any better ? - they look more like standard sata cables and a bit more insulated & forgiving, for when I put the sides back on the case

I'm a bit confused I have 8 disks all 4TB 1 x disk is the Parity disk 1 x disk (No.1) is in Share A - (18% full) 5 x disks (No.'s 2-3-4-5-6) are in Share B - (57% full) and 1 x disk (No.7) is unused & not needed for either Share.. is this disk part of the Array & can't be used except for a Share ? Can't I stop array change the unused disk (No.7) to no device Tick the box "Start will disable the missing disk ..." then disk (No.7) would be Dev 1 (spare) - assignable to what ever I wish I think that I jumped the gun by making disk No.7 active & part of the array It would have been Dev 1 if I had not ? So as it's not being used for anything can't I just reverse it out ?

JorgeB thanks for your help so far I've got orders to sit at the table for dinner from she who must be obeyed so I will be missing from action for a few hours Regards Pokes

stop array change disk to no device Tick "Start will disable the missing disk ..." then assign Dev 1 (spare) to Parity 2 ?

It's status = active smart =heathy It's not in any share I think it needs to be deactivated somehow

Can't change spare to unassigned .. only option is to change it no device & then assign to parity 2 but this greys out start array ( stopped invalid configuration)