MurrayW

Is this one 4 TB drive, two 2 TB or some other combination of multiple drives?

That's it. Just assign it, then start the array. Thanks...everything is back to normal now with the new drive.

When I stop the array it is available for assignment and lists the model/serial numbers. Do I just assign it and then the array will rebuild and incorporate it with the other disks? Or is there another step to get it into the array? thanks,Murray

I ran pre-clear on a new 2TB drive 3x and it was successful (no errors). I restarted my server with the new disk (same size as the old disk) in the same location (disk 6). The main page shows this disk as not installed. Where do I go from here to add this disk to the array? Disk 6 is showing up as not installed. thanks, Murray

I opened up my server and all the disks that are missing/not installed are on the same icy dock 5/3 tray. These 5 disks are connected to 5 of the motherboard SATA connectors. The other 5 disks that are showing green are in a second 5/3 tray with one SATA connection from the motherboard and the other 4 from two SATA pci cards. I disconnected the drive that was originally the only red drive and booted the server and now all the drives that are connected show as green (just like I originally saw before my first reboot that made the others go red). Would one bad disk when connected within a 5/3 tray make the other 4 disks connected in that 5/3 tray show as Missing? So it appears to me that I have a bad disk and I need to follow the procedures for replacing a bad disk. Does that seem logical?

I'm going to open my server up and dig into it this weekend. Can I cause any irreversible problems in troubleshooting by swapping out cables, disk controllers, drive bays among the disks that show up and those that are missing? thanks, Murray As long as you do not connect a data disk in place of your parity disk your data should be OK. Just be careful... ground yourself so you don't zap any electronics. (purchase an electrostatic wrist strap ... and use it) Unplug the server so you don't electrocute yourself. (unlikely, but good advice regardless...) Make a copy of your disk assignments page so you'll know how you had them connected. Make a copy of your config folder, so we can help you regroup if needed. To make it easier on yourself, make the copy with the array stopped. Joe L. Sorry for asking so many questions. I searched but probably did not have the correct search terms. How do I make a copy of my config folder? And is the first screen shot I posted in this thread the disk assignments page? thanks, Murray

I'm going to open my server up and dig into it this weekend. Can I cause any irreversible problems in troubleshooting by swapping out cables, disk controllers, drive bays among the disks that show up and those that are missing? thanks, Murray As long as you do not connect a data disk in place of your parity disk your data should be OK. Just be careful... ground yourself so you don't zap any electronics. (purchase an electrostatic wrist strap ... and use it) Unplug the server so you don't electrocute yourself. (unlikely, but good advice regardless...) Make a copy of your disk assignments page so you'll know how you had them connected. Make a copy of your config folder, so we can help you regroup if needed. To make it easier on yourself, make the copy with the array stopped. Joe L. Thanks Joe. I thought I would start out with the unraid flash drive unplugged and just work in the bios to see if swapping cables/etc. made a difference on which disks were detected. I'll make copies of the two items you suggested above. So how exactly do I prevent connecting a data disk in place of my parity disk? Does that mean if my parity disk is now connected to SATA controller 1, that I leave that connection alone when doing the troubleshooting?

I'm going to open my server up and dig into it this weekend. Can I cause any irreversible problems in troubleshooting by swapping out cables, disk controllers, drive bays among the disks that show up and those that are missing? thanks, Murray

When you say reboot, it implies a powered restart. Have you totally shut down and powered off? Actually I did it both ways. The first time a reboot. The second time I powered it off, reseated all my drives in the drive cages then powered it back on.

I had already rebooted the server (twice) last night before I got the initial log. Attached is the log from a few minutes ago after the two reboots last night. The reboots did not bring the missing drives back online. After the first reboot was when disks 4,5, and 7 went from flashing green to red and "missing". An yes, I know about the UPS...the most embarrassing thing is that I have one sitting right next to the server but had never shut down the server to connect it to the UPS! thanks for your help, Murray syslog.txt

I have been running 4.7 for more than 6 months without any problems and I haven't added any disks since I started. Last night I went to a folder on the unraid server to find a file and the folder structure was all there, but all the folders except the Movies folder were empty. The Movies folder was never assigned to all the disks in the array. I logged on via the web interface and all disks were flashing green except for disk 6 which was red. We had a storm a few days ago when we lost power and the server rebooted (yeah I know I should have had it connected to a UPS). When I saw this red disk, I rebooted the server in hopes that it would magically come back on line with a reboot. After the reboot, disk 4,5 and 7 now show as missing and 6 (the original red disk) shows as not installed. The other disks are blinking green. What should I try to get the array back up and running? thanks, Murray

I have 8 2TB drives and 1 500G drive that I am going to use for my cache drive. For each of the 2TB drives I used the -A option in the preclear. For the 500G drive I left the -A out but did not put in the lower case -a. Since my options are set for 4K aligned, it looks like I 4K aligned this 500GB drive. Is that going to be a problem since it is not an advanced format drive? Do I need to redo the preclear on this disk?

I read the tutorial...what a great tool for new users like me! I have two questions. Does this mean I shouldn't try to do all 9 of my drives at once? I have an i3 if it is processor dependent. I am going to be moving files from my traditional raid array (around 1TB) to the unraid array. These are windows files, movies, music, etc. Would these typically contain unicode characters? thanks, Murray

You would put the -c as follows: preclear_disk.sh -c 3 -A /dev/sda or preclear_disk.sh -A -c 3 /dev/sda basically, anywhere between the command name itself and the disk name being cleared. (the disk must be at the end of the command line) I suggest you do one cycle first, and then, if a disk passes, do another 2 cycles on it. I would strongly suggest you install and use "screen" and then run the pre-clear commands under it. It will make your task a lot easier. Also, you can pre-clear all the disks in parallel. No need to do them one at a time. You just need to invoke them under separate "virtual screens" This tutorial will help: http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Configuration_Tutorial#Introduction Make sure you download the most recent version of the preclear script. ( I updated it only a few days ago ) Joe L. Joe, thanks a lot for your thorough explanation. I just downloaded the preclear script last night so I have the most recent version. I'll take a look at screen...I like 3 days much better than 30 days!

I am starting my first server build with 9 new 2TB disks. I have read through parts of this topic, but not all 60 pages. I know I want to use this command: preclear_disk.sh -A /dev/sda, but if I want to run it 3 times, where would the -c argument go? And do you append "3" to the c so you can specify how many preclears you want to run? From my understanding, it will take at least 24 hours to preclear a 2TB drive. Running 3 preclears on 9 drives will take approximately 1 month until the drives are ready to use. Is there any faster way to do this, like running preclears on multiple drives at once using the same computer? If not, should I perhaps preclear 3 drives at first, set up my array, then add a new drive every 3 days as I preclear each one? Sorry for so many questions. Murray

@SuperW2, thanks for the picture!

I am building my server this weekend with the same case and icy docks. Right now I only have 2 cages and not sure when or if ever i would need 4. But if that time comes, what did you do with the power/reset module that takes up the top slot that limits the stock case to 11 bays? thanks, Murray I popped that whole panel off, then removed the Power/Reset switch from it, and run the power wire to the MB through a hole in the back of case on the bottom. I need to fasten it, or get a replacement switch that is a little "neater", but it's pretty well hidden at the back of the case on the bottom. If it is not too much of a pain to get to the back of your server, could you post a picture so I can get a better idea how you did it. Again, it may be years or never until I would ever need to do it, so if it is too much trouble don't worry about it and if you can do it, I am in no rush so do it at your convenience. thanks, Murray

Don't bundle power cables with SATA data cables. (it can sometimes cause weird induced noise on the SATA cables causing difficult to find random disk errors.) Yeah, I wasn't planning on doing that. That's one of the reasons that I was asking about securing cables to the case. I have way more power cables than I need to use and am trying to neatly keep them out of the way.

I am building my server today and need some advice on securing cables. I plan to use zip ties to keep the cables bundled together, but there are some places where I would like to secure the cables to the case but there are no places to zip tie it in the locations where I need. I the past I have used tape, but that always seems to peel sway after a while. Thanks!

I am building my server this weekend with the same case and icy docks. Right now I only have 2 cages and not sure when or if ever i would need 4. But if that time comes, what did you do with the power/reset module that takes up the top slot that limits the stock case to 11 bays? thanks, Murray