BobPhoenix

Is your data important or easily replaceable? Also if you don't use preclear then when you add a disk to the array the whole array will be unavailable while unRAID writes zeros to the drive. The time will vary based on drive size but for a 2TB drive it will likely be ~9 hours. If you preclear it first your array stays available while the drive is being precleared. The other reason to preclear a drive is to exercise a drive to find a bad drives. Most drives die within the first ~100 hours or run to their warranty period or longer.

It's an x1 slot not an x4. It has a special slot for the IPMI card which is at the end of the x1 slot. The IPMI card plugs into both - I have one. So it would not be usable for an MV8 card. You could use a SAS expander and LSI controller to go to 24 drives on the x16 slot. Or you could use a two port card like the High Point 620 for two more drives.

I put one of these in my N40L. It is a tight fit but I got it in. That way I can have the top on.

Here is my final report on a WD RED 3TB on a Quad Core CPU clearing station. I'll let you be the judge on if your results are ok or not. They don't seem out of line to me. ========================================================================1.13 == invoked as: ./preclear_disk.sh -c 3 /dev/sdb == WDC WD30EFRX-68AX9N0 WD-WMC1T0852162 == Disk /dev/sdb has been successfully precleared == with a starting sector of 1 == Ran 3 cycles == == Using :Read block size = 8225280 Bytes == Last Cycle's Pre Read Time : 8:18:13 (100 MB/s) == Last Cycle's Zeroing time : 8:22:34 (99 MB/s) == Last Cycle's Post Read Time : 16:59:51 (49 MB/s) == Last Cycle's Total Time : 25:23:24 == == Total Elapsed Time 84:23:53 == == Disk Start Temperature: 30C == == Current Disk Temperature: 32C, == ============================================================================ ** Changed attributes in files: /tmp/smart_start_sdb /tmp/smart_finish_sdb ATTRIBUTE NEW_VAL OLD_VAL FAILURE_THRESHOLD STATUS RAW_VALUE Temperature_Celsius = 118 120 0 ok 32 No SMART attributes are FAILING_NOW 0 sectors were pending re-allocation before the start of the preclear. 0 sectors were pending re-allocation after pre-read in cycle 1 of 3. 0 sectors were pending re-allocation after zero of disk in cycle 1 of 3. 0 sectors were pending re-allocation after post-read in cycle 1 of 3. 0 sectors were pending re-allocation after zero of disk in cycle 2 of 3. 0 sectors were pending re-allocation after post-read in cycle 2 of 3. 0 sectors were pending re-allocation after zero of disk in cycle 3 of 3. 0 sectors are pending re-allocation at the end of the preclear, the number of sectors pending re-allocation did not change. 0 sectors had been re-allocated before the start of the preclear. 0 sectors are re-allocated at the end of the preclear, the number of sectors re-allocated did not change. ============================================================================

You say that post read is comparing values. So what is the defining factor in post read speed? CPU? If is is that would make sense since my MB (ASUS C60M1-I) has SATA3 controller but a weak CPU. It has to perform more operations on a post read so a slower CPU would perform slower than a faster one. But even increasing the processing speed can only do so much.

Post read has more to do it has to compare the value read to zero. The preread just reads the disk and throws the value away. So yes the post read is much slower than the preread.

As Johnm said in your UCD thread. You need to use the HP USB tools and make it bootable before extracting these to it. I did it, just as it showed in the provided png image - after that I extracted the zip to the drive but the machine refused to boot from it. It could be a bios setting I suppose but otherwise I haven't had any problems getting my systems to boot from USB thumb drives. Make sure it shows up in the bios as bootable and is first in the boot list which I'm sure you have already. Maybe try to make it bootable again. Sorry out of ideas. This time I tried again, but tested the USB stick on a Lenovo laptop were it booted just fine. When I move it to the NAS, were I first of all reset all BIOS settings and made sure the USB was 1st boot, I only get a black screen... Would it be possible to install XP or Ubuntu and flash from in there? If so, what files would I need to flash via those OS? There was someone that posted how to use the UEFI bios on the X9SCM to flash M1015 to IT mode but the thread (if it isn't in a prior post on this thread) escapes me. You might try looking through earlier posts in this thread or searching for it. I am apparently search challenged because I never seem to find the posts I'm looking for.

As Johnm said in your UCD thread. You need to use the HP USB tools and make it bootable before extracting these to it. I did it, just as it showed in the provided png image - after that I extracted the zip to the drive but the machine refused to boot from it. It could be a bios setting I suppose but otherwise I haven't had any problems getting my systems to boot from USB thumb drives. Make sure it shows up in the bios as bootable and is first in the boot list which I'm sure you have already. Maybe try to make it bootable again. Sorry out of ideas.

As Johnm said in your UCD thread. You need to use the HP USB tools and make it bootable before extracting these to it.

I flashed 4 (soon to be 5) M1015's on a SuperMicro C2SBA+II.

More expensive but I would bet any of these will work with M1015. The X7SBE does but only has a single x8 PCIe slot and is 2nd most expensive.