One2go

Thanks for all the quick replies. On Thursday I will have a new drive same size. Now here are a few questions for replacing the suspect drive and I am running Unraid version 6.3.2 1. Do I need to unassign the old parity drive first or is just replacing the drive enough? 2. Do I need to preclear the new drive first? 3. Or do I just take the old drive out replace it with the new drive and then after powering up the server just start the array, tick the box for starting the parity check. Any help with an easy step by step procedure after powering down the server and replacing the parity drive would be appreciated. Thanks O2G

OK ordering a new drive now. Just replace the parity drive and then run a parity check or what else do I need to do? In my array setup I do have 2 parity drives. 2nd one is fine.

Thanks for the help and I believe I found the drive that is failing it is the parity drive here is the log that was generated from the diagnostics. HGST_HDN724040ALE640_PK2338P4H44EXC-20190129-1444.txt

There is only an enable or disable for all drives. When enabled it comes back with the error message and the prompt hit F1 to run BIOS setup. In the BIOS I hit F8 to bring up the boot menu and you can only select any of the drives that are detected once I select the USB drive it just boots up the UnRaid OS and everything is then normal as it always has been with no indication in the UnRaid GUI of a drive with a SMART status bad.

Just yesterday my Server that has been booting up faithfully for years all of a sudden stopped and showed the error: Port 4 - HGST HDN72404OALE640 - SMART status bad. Backup, exchange, replace drive. When I continue to boot it starts the array just fine and in UnRaid SMART reports are just fine. For the time being I disabled in the BIOS the check for SMART and it boots now just fine. Should I be concerned? The problem is I can't correlate Port 4 to the disc as I have 3 other discs with the same labeling it is the part that follows that is different. I have sdf, sdg, sdh & sdi (the parity) that all start with the number that the BIOS SMART test reports. I am open to suggestions but since I only check the UnRaid GUI should I correct this BIOS flagging or just keep an eye on the UnRaid SMART report?

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Just read the following: After copying the file config/super.dat from the working USB key to the backup USB key into the same location the backup USB key starts the server in the correct configuration. It has the correct Parity disc assigned as well as the proper order of data discs. It is running a parity-check at the moment and hopefully will be done in not too long of a time.

Well, I am in a similar boat except not as bad off. I have two USB drives and each with its own license. I updated the primary to the latest OS version and it shows the correct configuration and everything is running correct. The Backup USB drive and its license has an old configuration on it Parity plus 8 drives instead of Parity plus 12 drives. I tried to correct it from the GUI but because the new parity drive should be 4TB instead of the old 2TB. Trying to change the configuration from the Main tab of the Web GUI doesn't make sense since everything is correctly configured, just that the back up USB key has the wrong configuration. How do I correct this? Ideally I want to have two separate USB drives with their own license so that if one dies I just power down switch the USB keys and restart the server. Any help would be much appreciated.

Got one of those covers for where the optical drive opening is. It looks excellent but the bracket also is a very tight fit, tighter then the two drives with Nexus Double Twin adapter, but it works.

Just increase the drive size put in two 3TB drives one for parity and 1 for new data & let them synch up. If you are already on 3TB drives then you need to build a new box. I am not 100% sure if the 4TB drives work in the N36L but Neil0 would know.

I have 6 Hitachi 3TB Deskstar Coolspin drives in my box. They are running like a charm. All TV, Sports & Documentaries on the server. Highly recommended drive, a bit pricey perhaps but has high star ratings on all the sites that sell the drives.

I took the 5.25" drive bay bezel from my Antec 1200 which has honeycomb holes and stuck some black filter material behind it and then replaced the blank panel. Started to preclear drive 5 & 6 and read temps of 33 & 32 from the drives while the others ran at 31 & 32. So I am done with this server having 6 Hitachi 3TB Coolspin drives and personally I think this is one of the best solutions for a media server.

Thanks for your quick reply. I thought as much that you sort of have to twist the inner metal part to open the slot for the tray of an ODD and then remove the black plastic part. I don't do a once a month parity check but maybe every 2 to 3 months so I think temps should not be an issue. I'll look for a mesh cover with some filter material and mod the server in that fashion. On the other hand my box only runs when I want to relax in the Home Theater and watch something.

Just installed two drives using the Nexus Doubletwin adapter in the space for the optical drive and wish to know what temperature have you experienced with no grill installed? The drives are 3TB Hitachi 5K3000 Deskstar. I am considering if I have to knock out the space for the optical drive and install a mesh cover. By the way how does one remove the black blank plate from the cover for the optical drive? Thanks O2G

Where did acquire the mesh cover from and do you have a picture of it. Does it fit in the covering slot area easily?

I have been running 4 Hitachi 3TB drives now for a few months in a N40L. The 4 drives are in the cages. Have an extra controller in the PCI-e slot and am waiting now for the drives to come down in price. ProStuff please let us know how you get on with the 4TB tests, if I am not mistaken I read somewhere there might be a chip limitation for the 4TB size but I don't remember if that is N36L specific or not. If that is the case any chance to try a separate controller and see if that works as many of us use the Optical bay to run two 3.5" drives.

Jens, Thanks for that detailed description of your experience with the HP micro server. I also have one N40L model and went a similar route, but rather then using the BIOS hack installed into the one slot a HighPoint Rocket 620 PCI-Express 2.0 x1 SATA III (6.0Gb/s) Controller Card plus in the other slot I stuck a Intel EXPI9301CTBLK 10/ 100/ 1000Mbps PCI-Express Network Adapter just to make sure there are no network bottlenecks plus being able to see if the size of MTU will make a difference. It did not. I have so far installed 4 Hitachi 3TB Cool Spin drives and run 5.b14 and have not experienced any problems yet. The only observance I have had so far is that writing to the protected array is not as fast as my other UnRaid server that uses Samsung 2TB drives. I chuck this one up to the Hitachi drives just being slower. Next for me is waiting for the 3TB drives to get cheaper and then also installing the Nexus adapter for 2 additional drives in the optical drive bay. Thanks again for you write up and this whole thread makes it a lot easier for putting one of these together. O2G

That looks cool any idea how lay ones hand on that cool mesh grill thingy?