RAP2

@ Frank1940: Just circling back to your earlier comments. I did not have a problem seeing the drive model and S/N in UNRAID. The problem I had was in Windows - so that I could make sure I was adding the correct drive to the array. In the end - and just to get started - I unplugged all my drives, except the 2 new ones. (Parity and Data) That way I could not accidently add the wrong drives. Once I did that, I added my first NTFS data drive that needs to be copied to the new XFS data drive. That's where I'm stuck. I can mount and view the drive but how do I copy it? Seems to me it should load some kind of explorer window that lets you see the mounted NFS drive - plus any drive available in the array - like those old school explorer windows. File copying - IMHO - should be easy and intuitive. Its 2021 after all; I can do this on my phone. More: - Been doing some reading and now I'm concerned about not being able to keep the files structures created on my Windows machines. - I've also noticed that one of my Windows partitions had an exclamation mark in it. Its been replaced by an underscore: "_" Is this a Linux thing? - The Parity drive has an orange exclamation mark saying "Parity is invalid" I'm assuming this goes away once the build is complete?

@ Frank1940: My drives are all in what is now a Windows 10 machine. It used to be a Windows 2008 Server. I am currently running UNRAID on this machine. At the moment, I have a new 10TB parity drive and a new 8TB data drive as Disk 1) - in my (started) array. Parity is being built - the status bar is stating: Parity-Sync / Data-Rebuild 31.0% So its probably about 6 hours away. Yes - its why I installed Unassigned Devices; in hopes of facilitating copying files from NTFS volumes. When I mount the drive, I can see the partitions and when I click on them, I see the directories and the files; but no indication on how to copy files.

I disconnected all but my new parity drive and a new 8TB data drive. I added the two drives and started the array. The Parity drive is building, The data drive - brand new but originally formatted for NTFS says "unmountable" - so I formatted it; now it is XFS. Same deal with the Cache NVMe. Except it is saying the FS is btrfs? So now I need to copy my first data drive - which is an NTFS volume inside the same machine. I installed "Unassigned Devices" - so I can mount and view the NTFS drive contents... but there is no obvious way to copy files. Do I have to create shares first?

@ itempi: That makes sense. Thanks! @ Frank1940: Yea - Except, I need to identify the drives set up in Windows Disk Management with how the drives are presented in UNRAID; and that does not seem straight forward. I see no way of doing this from Disk Management or indeed Device Properties. SN's are not available there. If I try to run the CMD: "wmic diskdrive get model,name,serialnumber" - the serial numbers are there - but the physical drive numbers... are these the "Disk" numbers shown in Disk Manager? They do not seem to match the disk #'s in Disk Management. I'm hoping I don't need to disconnect all drives and attach them one at a time, reboot and drill down....

Hmmm... the LSI SAS 9207-8i was defined as compatible OOTB - and it is not RAID - it shows as HBA controller and by default in IT mode. In fact it was advertised as such. See here: Hardware Compatibility - Unraid | Docs Anyway, the LSI 8-port controller - all used BTW - was about the same price as the MZHOU 6-port controller from your Amazon link. The board came with 2x 4-port SAS to SATA cables for around $100 CAD. I also was waiting for an Intel dual-port server NIC. Finally, I ended up getting a WD Gold 10TB drive that was on sale. I will use this for my parity drive. BIOS/BOOT: I had to fuss with the BIOS again to get the UNRAID to boot. (For some reason it did not keeping the setting for the USB flash drive as the primary boot device.) It seems my BIOS does not store the USB device as the primary. I want it saved this way so that if I yank the UNRAID USB device - it will boot from a Windows 10 drive automatically - but if the UNRAID USB is inserted, it does that since it is primary. Is this not possible without going into BIOS each time? PARITY: Easy-peazy to identify and select my new WD Gold 10TB drive - its the only one I have. CACHE: In the UNRAID MAIN page I do not see a place to set the CACHE drives - that are in various videos and help pages. Does this need to be activated somewhere first? DATA DRIVES - IDENTIFYING WINDOWS DRIVES: I have no way of identifying the drives with what UNRAID tells me. I need to sort out how to do this so I can properly select the correct (BLANK) data drive to add to the array - and then copy files from my original Windows NFS drive to the first data drive . (Then turn on Parity on to protect that drive.) I took snapshots of my Windows Disk Manager and Hard Disc Sentinel reports - but neither shows a unique drive identifier - and of course I cannot see Windows names. I'm really wondering if UNRAID is for Linux guys - and I am in a Windows centric network - or - its really set-up to start from scratch and "who cares" what drives one selects. All the on-line examples seem to be based on starting an UNRAID system from scratch. I'm sure this happens, but it seems to me that most folks are NOT doing that. (Certainly most that comes from existing Windows systems.) Looking for ideas on how to deal with this last item will allow me to actually start building my array - then create shares to test on my Windows network. (After reading all about the SMB issues, I have to admit, I'm getting worried.) How do I do this? My evaluation is based on setting up one parity drive and one data drive and a cache - then test shares on Windows - before I I fully commit to UNRAID. Certainly, before I transfer the other 56 TBs of media, one drive at a time. Thanks again all...

Thanks Fuxdom... I think I got the UNRAID boot USB sorted... BIOS setting was set to Windows EUFI (under Secure Boot) As soon as I set it to Other OS, all my ports worked and I tested a few sticks - they all worked too! On boot, GUI was not working (black screen) - but speculation is that is not configured yet in the GUI. Over the weekend I will web access in and see. I'm still waiting for some hardware - an LSI SAS 9207-8i. I've decided to get a 12TB Ironwolf NAS Pro for my parity - and the 8TB version I had already purchased will instead be used for my first data drive to start the migration. I still have a ton of questions - so I need to pose them over the next 10 days or so, because as soon as hardware arrives I need to start the process. Thanks again and have a great weekend!

Not yet... I will try tonight. Right now, I need access to shares as a Windows 10 machine. I'll report on the weekend. Thanks for your help!

Yea... that was the logical implication. I will turn it on and have some net rather than no net. (safety not network) 🙂 Thanks all who participated here in my education here. 🙂

I went back to the BIOS - there is no straight ahead option to "Disable Secure Boot". I cleared the Secure Boot keys. Restarted; same result: black screen and flashing cursor.

OK... my BIOS Boot settings were for WIndows UEFI - I set it to "Other OS" - it worked! Man - that initial menu to select the boot mode, auto-loaded too fast for a new user... I did not get through reading the items before it simply launched in the first one and asked for a login... I did a CTRL-ALT-DELETE and it stopped services and exited gracefully. 2nd time around I select UNRAID OS w/GUI. That option gives me a black screen with a flashing cursor... not what I expected for a GUI Is there a video that shows basic start-up procedures?

Ahhhh... No I did not. I did not enter the "Customize" settings at all... I guess I assumed "standard" settings worked. I recreated the drive using that option, then used the bat to make it bootable, checked BIOS that it was seen and had boot priority and this was some difference. Now I am getting a message in RED: ====SECURE BOOT VIOLATION==== Invalid signature detected. Check Secure Boot Policy in Setup. [OK] Hitting enter (OK) caused the system to boot into Windows 10. I'm assuming that this is a BIOS setting and will review shortly...

OK... nonetheless your idea was easy enough to try... I did the above to one of my USB 3.0 keys and the USB 2 key - and tried both in a USB 3.0 rear-port, as well as a USB 2.0 front-panel port. No joy. In both cases, UEFI BIOS sees the UNRAID USB device... it just won't boot it. Is there some other BIOS setting? (SATA is in AHCI)

Just check UNRAID instructions for UNRAID's USB Flash Creator: "Click Write to create the bootable flash." Is this not accurate?

NO - I thought that UNRAID's USB Flash Creator takes care of this and only if using the manual process, this is necessary... I'll re-review the instructions. Thank-you!

@ Fuxdom - thanks - that is exactly the case. I'm not some data-centre that has budgets for this kind of thing. Not here in Canada! 🙂 Please review, if this is possible: Start with a new parity and one new data drive. Turn parity off. Copy all files from my first NTFS drive to the first XFS data drive. Turn on parity. Ensure that I have a secure system. Turn parity off. Take the first (copied) NTFS drive and format to XFS and add to UNRAID. Repeat steps 2 and 3 with each drive until complete. (8 x 8TB drives) This is the only way I can think of to ensure - before formatting my data drives in UNRAID - that I have a some amount of failure protection. In step 3 - I suppose I can leave parity on and just extend the entire copy process; but what I do not understand is why I would leave parity off for the entire copy and simply "cross my fingers" - and hope? If turning parity on and off between each drive is a non-starter, then I would probably just turn parity on and leave it on during the entire migration; that's the only way I have some redundancy in case of a drive failure. There is a high probability that I will NOT have a drive failure during the copy: I use Ironwolf NAS drives and Hard Disk Sentinel to manage health status and routinely do random surface tests. If I lose the odd file due to some more recent drive issues - well - not much I can do about that ...and frankly that's why I'm here. This is also happening on a brand new server build - not some old thing that has a greater chance of failing. I will also not start migration for a week or so, to make sure the new build is stable. The server will also be on a relatively a new UPS, since my last one failed a short time ago. Love to hear more comments about the migration process - as I really am a newbie on UNRAID - AND - I am still struggling to actually get a UNRAID USB key to work on my system. (a separate post under pre-sales support.) Cheers!

I've now tried 3 different USB sticks: 3, 3.1 and 3.2 storage devices with the USB Flash Creator (All 32GB's) and none of them will start up after setting BIOS to boot first from the detected device. Finally I dug up an older and smaller 8GB USB 2 key - but it did not help. Again, I used the USB Flash Creator. But I can't get it to start into UNRAID. Ports: I tried the two USB3.2 Gen 1 and Gen 2 ports on the back as well as the USB 2.0 front panel (via MB header) - Windows 10 always starts although each time I enter the UEFI BIOS, it sees the storage device and I set it to boot from it. Asus TUF Gaming X570-PRO MB with AMD Ryzen 5 5600X CPU on a new build. Ideas?

Been looking at some UNRAID videos - and it seems that you cannot just ingest a drive into UNRAID... you have to copy files from a source NTFS drive, to a destination UNRAID drive that is already formatted and part of UNRAID. Is that accurate as a basic overview? Does anyone have a video on how best set up a UNRAID system for migration of a large amount of materials? One factor, is that I don't have two servers, I don't have double the drive capacity. So I guess its set-up a parity drive and a new data drive and then one drive at a time, copy files over... then take the latest ingested drive, add it to UNRAID, reformat for XFS and repeat... for probably a week? (I am not specifying specific operational requirements in UNRAID - just trying to assess the overall approach. Rob