First off, thanks to all of the forum participants! I'm almost up and running on my first unRAID build due largely to all the useful information in this forum!
My dilemma: Copy data from a Windows HTPC to new unRAID server (running 4.7). Windows box has two 1.5 TB drives setup in RAID 0 (hardware). One of the two drives in the raid 0 setup has bad sector(s).
unRAID: Currently has two drives, one 3TB to be used for parity, one 2TB to be used for data. The drives have been precleared and I'm ready to build my array (neither has been assigned to an array yet).
I have read posts suggesting that the parity drive be added to the array prior to any copying, but I'd like to copy the buik of the data before adding the parity drive in an effort to copy as quickly as possible. I would then add the parity drive to the existing array before deleting any data on the existing drives.
1) Can I add a drive to an array, format to ReiserFS using unRAID, pull the drive out, connect to HTPC and copy files directly (most likely using a live ubuntu drive)? Would this cause issues with the preclear or problems when adding the drive back to my unRAID box?
2) Is it better to copy directly over the network and wait it out? Alternatively, should I copy using an external drive as an intermediary?
3) Since one of the RAID 0 drives has caused issues in my Windows HTPC, I'm a bit worried about the system hanging when copying files. Is there a recommended program to use for copying files from a drive with bad sectors? I use TeraCopy in Windows and have read about ultracopier for linux, but I'm not sure how either will do when/if they encounter bad sectors.
4) If possible, I would like to use both 1.5 TB drives from my HTPC in this setup. I realize this may not be a good idea due to bad sectors on one of them and I may be left with one good drive. Depending on the number of bad sectors, could the bad disk still pass preclearing and be used for the unRAID array? Am I crazy to consider using a disk that already has bad sectors? I'm not sure how badly the drive is doing at the moment.
Sorry if the post was too wordy...
Thanks again!