agw

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  1. Thanks Joe. The mechanical crusher seems a bit over-the-top for me, but I do have a couple of toddlers that I could give the hard drive to and they would probably inflict a comparable amount of damage in about the same amount of time. But then I wouldn't be able to RMA the drive . . . I'll throw the preclear script at it and see what happens.
  2. Thanks guys. I don't really have any top-secret or incriminating data that I'm that concerned about, but I do have photos, movies, taxes, etc that I'd prefer to have erased from my parity drive before I put it into someone else's hands. Even if it's not completely erased, anything that makes it harder for someone to reconstruct / sift through the data is my goal. And I am currently running just my one data drive and the parity drive. The parity drive is about 2.5 years old - probably been using in my unRAID server for a little over a year. I ran a parity check the other day and at about 85% it started kicking back all kinds of read errors and the parity check slowed to a crawl. The SMART data started showing increasing pending sectors on a subsequent parity check, so I pulled the drive and ran Samsung's diagnostic utility and it failed a full surface scan and then a low-level format. So, I'm going to RMA it while I still have a few months of warranty coverage. AGW
  3. 1. I assume that most people wipe a flaky disk before they RMA it? If so, what's the general suggestion on how to go about getting a secure erase (as best you can get with a failing drive)? What about running the pre-clear script? 2. Is wiping a failing parity drive even necessary? Or just worry about the data drives? Appreciate your thoughts - about to send back a Samsung 1TB drive I was using as parity. AGW
  4. Any chance this could be used to see / re-format a ReiserFS HDD that I pulled from unRaid and would like to re-purpose for the Windows environment? I'm not trying to save any of the data on the drive, I just want to wipe and format as NTFS so that I can use in Windows.
  5. I verified that I was running the current BIOS. So, I took a look through the syslog that you posted and compared it to what I was getting and I could see that something was off with how mine was set up. So, I reset the BIOS to the optimized defaults and the board seems to be much better behaved now. Still a bit slow on the boot in my opinion - as if it's not booting at 2.0 speeds (not that important really). Parity check with just the two 1TB drives is now running over 100MB/sec at start - essentially double what I was getting previously. AGW
  6. Raj I picked up the GF6110-e-e this week, thinking it would be a good board to use in an effort to shrink down the size of my server. Couple of questions, if you don't mind: 1. What BIOS version is your GF6100-e-e? You did not need to update the BIOS, correct? 2. I can get unRAID to boot, but the flash drive is clearly not running at USB 2.0 speeds. I have the BIOS selected to enable 2.0, but doesn't seem to be helping (takes over 1 minute to boot). I can boot the same flash in my 740G machine and it boots in a fraction of the time. (unRAID 4.5.6) 3. Copy speed from a Samsung EcoGreen drive is 29-31MB/sec - probably OK? 4. I started a parity check, just with the 1TB EcoGreen and a 1TB 7200RPM drive and it was around 55MB/sec. Seems a bit slow. 5. I'm wondering if I don't have an older BIOS or I'm missing a setting somewhere that will get USB 2.0 operational. And is there an AHCI setting somewhere? I'm not at home currently, or else I'd grab a syslog. Any thoughts? Thanks AGW
  7. I use the free version of Macrium Reflect to image my machines directly to the unRAID server. Works fine. I believe the paid version has a lot more capability, but I already use Syncback SE for all of my normal backup needs so I only needed Reflect for the drive imaging capabilities. I've not yet had to restore from a Reflect image, however I've not had any problem mounting any of the images and browsing for files, etc.
  8. If I mount a disk outside of the protected array - using unMenu or S.N.A.P. . . . is that drive accessible in any way other than using the command line? What I would like to do is add a hot-swap drive bay to my server and backup my video files to this drive, and then move the drive off site. I would plug the drive back in once a month or once a quarter or something, backup new files and then move the drive off site again. I know (at least I think I know) that I can use rsync to accomplish this - but I would prefer that the drive be accessible to something like Syncback that runs on my desktop and carries the backup duties to / from the server currently. But this requires that the drive be accessible as a network share (i.e. from windows explorer), and I don't know if that's possible on a drive outside the array? agw
  9. Thanks GK. For $20 I may just throw one on the shelf for a future htpc build. This PSU dropped my desktop from 81W to 65W at idle.
  10. I was in Frys yesterday and picked up this power supply - I think it is in-store only. 80+ Bronze. No rebate required.
  11. I don't mean to hi-jack your thread aht, but I clicked on the Fractal Design link in your message because I was not familiar with that brand I am very impressed with your case choice. From the pics, looks like very high quality. Looking forward to your comments after your build. I also noticed this guy: http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=product&category=2∏=39 Wow - looks like the perfect case for those eyeballing the Supermicro X7SPA mini-itx board. Very interesting. Of course, doesn't appear to be readily available here in the States . . .
  12. FWIW, I was using a Foxconn A7GM-S motherboard with unRAID. I sent an email to their tech support through the website to ask about using the x16 slot for non-graphics card apps - and they replied within about a day or so that the slot could be used for non-graphics applications such as expansion cards. Might just shoot them an email and see what you learn before you commit any $$.
  13. What about power usage? Do you have a Kill-A-Watt or similar to monitor power consumption?
  14. Ditto - my testing was probably not as controlled as what GaryMaster has planned. But replacing my BE-2400 2.3GHz dual core with a 1.6GHz single core had no measurable effect on parity speed or copy speed.
  15. agw

    Free Backup Software

    I use SyncbackSE. Highly recommend. They have a freeware version also: http://www.2brightsparks.com/freeware/freeware-hub.html