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Removed the drive and ported the system over to the new HP Microserver flawlessly. Thanks for the support. Quick run-down of the steps I took, incase anyone else ends up here looking for the same answer: * Cleared the data off the drive i was removing from the array. This was really just for my own sanity. * Did a full parity check. Again, this was just for my sanity. * Stopped my array. * Unassigned the drive i was removing (in my case this was the last drive in the array). * With the array stopped i connected via telnet and issued an "initconfig" command. * Answered "Yes" when prompted (apparently it can't be "yes"..). * Logged back into the webui. * Was prompted by the webui to entirely rebuild parity - said yes to that. * Above step was left to run overnight, since it was going to take 7 hours or something. After that was completed the array was in full working order without the drive i unassigned. I could then remove it comfortably. However, since i was moving to a new server i took the following steps: * Took screenshots of the current drive layout in it's working condition. * Removed drives and put them in the caddies for the new server. * Printed labels for each drive with serial numbers (for my own sanity, i like to be able to pull the right drive if necessary). * Booted unraid. * Logged into webui. * Array is stopped and unworking thanks to the rearrangement and/or different drive controller. * Assign drives to their correct position based on serial number and screenshots. * Start array. Woo! All done.

Perfect, that's a weight off my mind! The new system hasn't arrived yet, but i'll keep at it and add solved to the original post title if it all goes okay!

Ah, sorry, i forgot to mention that! I'm running 4.7 currently, and i'm on a Plus license. Well, initconfig and new config sound fairly serious. Which stage would I be doing that? Are they for setting up the array once I've moved it, or for removing the empty drive in the last slot? I assume they're entirely non-destructive? Sorry for all the questions, just want to make sure I understand everything before I make a big step! --EDIT-- Found an entry in the FAQ, here: http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=FAQ#How_do_I_remove_a_hard_disk_that_I_do_not_plan_on_replacing.3F. This seems to outline what I need to do. I'd previously attempted the "Removing multiple drives" instructions, which were clearly for an older version. Can't believe I missed this other part! I'll have a go at that. I see there's also a FAQ entry about moving the array to a new machine, which goes most of the way towards solving my second issue. But just one clarification - when I power on the array in my new machine (with a different controller card and drive layout) will it boot with the array stopped so I can rearrange it?

Hi there, I've had an unRAID server since the beginning of 2008. My current setup is far too big and noisy so I've picked up one of the ubiquitous HP Proliant Microservers to transplant into. I've got a couple of issues I could use some help with. 1) I currently have 6 drives, but the Microserver can only take 5, so I've emptied one drive and intend to remove it from the array. I unassigned the drive but couldn't seem to make unRAID "forget" about it. The end result was having to reassign the drive and completely rebuild the "data" on it. Annoying. I'm thinking it was maybe a problem because the drive was in position 5, leaving a gap in the array. I'm moving all the data from drive 6 onto drive 5 today. How do I permanently remove a drive from the array? 2) I'm going to be moving the whole array over to brand new hardware. My intention was to note down the serial number and position of each drive so I could assign them correctly on the new machine. But my worry is that the drives will be hooked up in a different order on the new motherboard. Won't unRAID just try to power up the machine with the drives set up? How do I deal with this situation? Thanks for any advice you can give, I'm really looking forward to having my NAS back up and running!

Torrents are very commonly used to distribute linux distributions. Not exactly far removed from this situation. It's also common to see download pages link to several off-site mirrors, as well as perhaps a torrent. How much bandwidth do you think you'd be expecting? I can mirror for a while if need be.

From how much RAM to how much? I'm thinking about going from 1gig to 2gig now that unRAID supports it.

There are also Matrix Orbital LCDs that use USB rather than LPT. It'd be superb to use one with unRAID, especially the models with keypads - so you could start parity checks and shutdown the machine right from the case.

Okay, seems that i have nothing to worry about with my current spec.. But if you were me, and you were going to be buying another one or more TB drives soon, would you just stick to the same drive, or buy a 7200rpm drive to replace the parity, just because you could?

I discovered that the bios for the P5B-VM DO reports, among other things, the voltage of the 12v rail. For the troublesome power supply it reports a figure along the lines of 11.5v, whereas the working PSU reports 12.5v. Could that 11.5v be causing the problem?

I've been reading some of the threads / wiki entries regarding the "green power" WD drives. I'm left in a quandary.. My current unRAID spec is: * Motherboard: Asus P5B-VM DO * Processor: Intel Celeron 440 2.00GHz Socket 775 FSB800 * RAM: Kingston 2x512MB DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 * Hard Drives: 3x Western Digital WD1000 1TB RE2 Green Power drives As soon as i can find an affordable SATA backplane i'm going to add another 1TB drive and a couple of 500gig drives (which i have lying around), as well as upgrading to the top unRAID package (professional?). My worry is, i'm using one of the green power drives for parity, i'd prefer to buy another identical drive for consistency, but if i'd get better performance by swapping the green power drive for a faster parity drive.. that might be better. Then i can just use the old parity drive as my expansion. I'm also wondering how easy it is to swap my parity drive over! Thanks in advance guys.

Well see that's the thing, the PSU did work perfectly for four months. Then suddenly stopped! I'm fairly sure my spec isn't causing the problem (not enough power etc) because i tried without any hard drives, and the problem continued. But for completeness: Motherboard: Asus P5B-VM DO Processor: Intel Celeron 440 2.00GHz Socket 775 FSB800 RAM: Kingston 2x512MB DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Hard Drives: 3x Western Digital WD1000 1TB RE2 Green Power drives According to a calculator i tried online, i should only be drawing around 200w, so i'm thinking about going for a 500w Seasonic S12II-500 PSU, which gets great reviews.

Hey guys, Thanks for the in-depth responses! I had some progress last night, success and a little mystery. My unRAID box is housed in an Antec Sonata case (i think it's the first revision of the Sonata), and i use the Antec power supply that comes with it (i believe it's a 380 or 340w). When the problem first started to get severe, i had two ideas - either the power management settings (in the BIOS, ACPI etc) or the PSU. I tried every setting in the bios, reset it and even upgraded the bios to no avail. So i tried another power supply, out of my second Antec Sonata. The problem kept occurring. I got a bit paranoid yesterday and borrowed a power supply from a friend - a new 400w one. I fitted it and the problem was resolved! I was a little worried because switching on the PSU starts up the machine for a couple of seconds, which i thought to be the beginnings of a relapse, but bjp999 has confirmed that is the norm for this board. So the mystery.. My Antec supply worked fine in this machine for four months, with no hardware changes. Then once the problem arises i try an exact copy of the PSU and that doesn't resolve the issue. But a different newer supply does. Why could this be? Have the Antec supplies degraded in the same way? Perhaps not putting out the exact voltage that the motherboard needs? I read something about newer PSUs having "two 12v rails".. Could that be something to do with it? Thanks guys

I'm posting this in the hardware section rather than the motherboards section because i'm not sure the problem lies with the motherboard. I've been happily running unRAID for a while now, but for the last couple of weeks i've had an interesting powerup/powerdown problem. When i powered up the machine (either by the front switch, or wake on lan) the hard drives wouldn't spin up, and the screen would remain blank.. No post, nothing. I'd then switch the machine off by the power button, and after about three seconds it'd turn back on, run for a couple of seconds, then turn off. Then pushing the power button again would yield life for a few seconds, then it'd power off and power back on - booting up normally. The problem wasn't just booting up either, 4 out of 5 times i shut down the machine (via the web interface) it'd power up again 10 seconds or so after power down. I spent a while trying to diagnose it, deactivating Wake On Lan etc. With no luck. I've tried replacing the PSU, i've tried booting it without the hard drives connected, i've tried using a new case switch (incase it was jammed), i've updated to the latest bios and i've tried without the unRAID USB stick connected. No luck. This seems to be pointing to a motherboard problem, which really bothers me because i put a lot of effort into locating/purchasing the recommended unRAID motherboard, and it was too expensive to just throw away and replace without thought. Any ideas?

They certainly are! I have two of the first version. I love them, but adding more drives means i'll need to buy a SATA backplane, which isn't exactly a cheap purchase They are "GreenPower" (though i'm not entirely sure what that means). I didn't know they were SATA 1, but i'll take your word for it. I guess that means they're a bit slower than SATA II.. They're 7200rpm 500GB IDE drives with 16MB cache (model: WD5000AAKB), still quite new. That was my worry, checking parity already takes a couple of hours..

Hi guys, I've recently built an unRAID box for myself. At the moment it's: Motherboard: Asus P5B-VM DO Processor: Intel Celeron 440 2.00GHz Socket 775 FSB800 RAM: Kingston 2x512MB DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 At the moment it's housed in an Antec Sonata case (nice and quiet, with excellent hard drive access). For storage i've currently got three 1TB Western Digital RAID edition 2 hard drives. One of them acts as parity. They're SATA drives. I have two 500gig Western Digital IDE drives that i'd like to add to the machine, but i'm worried that mixing the fast SATA drives with the slower IDE drives might cause some kind of slowdown. Is this likely to happen? I know unRAID treats each drive independently, but you never know!