agw

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Everything posted by agw

  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
  16. I'm currently using an older MSI K9AGM2-FIH AM2 motherboard in my unRAID server. Normally it runs a BE-2400 processor - 45W, dual core @ 2.3 GHz. Power supply is PC Power & Cooling Silencer 500. I'm only running two drives at the moment, 4.5 beta 11. I got my hands on a 2650e processor: 15W TDP, single core @ 1.6 GHz. I was expecting that I might drop this in my board and be able to shave 20+W off my idle power draw. BE-2400 2650e 55W --- 48W --- Idle, disks spun down 68W --- 61W --- Idle, both disks spun up 89W --- 71W --- Parity check* * Currently running a parity check while streaming a dvd to a laptop, at 9% parity check progress the 2650e is doing 109,024 KB/sec (granted, only one data drive and parity) - which is similar to the BE-2400. And it's showing 96% idle as per the unMenu Top Processes view. So this is encouraging as far as cpu capability. I guess I'm a little surprised at the minimal power drop from the 2650e on this motherboard. I'm wondering if it's just not 'optimized' for the 2650e, as the board and the BIOS are a few years old and the 2650e is relatively newer? The board does not have any undervolt / underclock capability, unfortunately - otherwise I'd probably stick with the BE-2400 and try to cut it back that way. I'm going to run with this 2650e for a while and see how it works out. The numbers do suggest that it might provide more benefit in a higher power use environment. We'll see. Any comments?
  17. joikd I do intend to someday get back in and update the s3 wiki page with the new and improved script (again, unless someone beats me to it!). I've recently swapped motherboards in my desktop and server, and have been waiting for 4.5 to go 'final' before I spend the time to try and set the new machine back up with all of the little tweaks like s3. And I would never try to write a wiki article describing the use of a script that I've not stepped through on my own. So, that's my excuse. With respect to your most recent post, it sounds like it might be a good exercise for you to simply test the sleep command and magic packet wake-up function manually for a while. Until you know that you can reliably put the server to sleep and wake it up back up using the magic packet - you don't really need to concern yourself with the go script, bwm-ng or any of the other details. Have you done Steps 1-6 from the wiki article? If so, post back which steps are giving you trouble and the community (most are much smarter than me) can probably get you moving in the right direction. agw
  18. Thanks prostuff1 and Joe L. I tried both of your suggestions . . . multiple times. But my server had some kind of a death grip on the old MAC address from its initial build. Ultimately I had to edit the network.cfg file, unplug both my modem and my router for several minutes and then bring everything back online before i got the serve up with its own unique MAC address. Very frustrating. Prompted me to add a wiki page in the 'HowTos' section. agw
  19. I recently swapped motherboards between my unRAID server and my desktop. I had a 780g Foxconn motherboard in my server that I wanted for my desktop and a 690g MSI motherboard in my desktop that I put back in the server. At the same time, I took the desktop from 32-bit XP to 64-bit Windows 7. No problems getting either machine up and running, except I was having a conflict when both machines were online that ReneV quickly pointed out was likely an IP conflict. Well, it's not so much an IP conflict as it is a MAC address conflict!? The MAC address for my original 780g server moved to my desktop - as I expected. But the unRAID server using the 690g MSI board still wants to use that same MAC address! I have edited the network.cfg to delete the "HWADDR=" line as suggested in this thread: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=3923.0 Nothing I do seems to erase unRAID's memory of the old MAC address. I even reset my router back to original settings thinking maybe it was somehow involved and getting confused, but no help. If I log into unRAID (with the desktop off, of course) it still reflects the old MAC address in the setup screen. Any ideas? Can I manually assign my own MAC address to the unRAID server using the network.cfg file? agw
  20. I just upgraded my desktop machine to Win 7 64 bit. Oddly, I can't really access unRAID from this machine. It essentially times out whenever I try to access the webgui, telnet in, etc. Every now and then if I point directly to the unRAID IP address, for example, it will pull up the webgui after a very lengthy delay. At the same time, my wife's laptop has Win 7 32 bit. It accesses the server wirelessly with no problems . . . until I boot the desktop. As soon as the desktop comes online, the unRAID server becomes unresponsive even to my wife's laptop. Desktop off - unRAID seems to return to normal. What am I missing? Why would simply having the desktop machine online and in the same workgroup cause the server to become essentially unusable? Syslog attached if it helps. Currently using 4.5b11. agw
  21. Very nice ReneV. I am going to implement and test for a while before updating the S3 wiki page, unless someone beats me to it. But it looks like you have cleanly rolled in all of the various topics that we've been discussing in this thread. (I am about to leave for a week - so it may be a while) One thing, and I hesitate to even mention it yet because I really haven't isolated the problem - but I suspect that some of the issues I've had with my server lately where it would just go unresponsive after moving large files back and forth may be related to operation after wake from S3. More specifically, I think it might have to do with the forcing of a Gb connection after sleep, when my server would normally only have negotiated a 100Mb connetion. Originally I thought it was a 4.5b7 issue, but I reproduced the problem quite easily in 4.4.2 which was an otherwise very stable release for me. I implemented that Gb force line in my S3 script without extensive testing, so I want to make sure it gets due attention . . . agw
  22. My first hiccup with 4.5 beta 7 . . . Over the weekend, I was installing Windows 7 on my wife's netbook. First thing I did was image the netbook recovery partition to the unRaid server. It was about 2.5GB I believe. No problems. Then I installed Windows 7, updated drivers, etc. After getting the new OS partition in a nice clean state, I tried to image this partition to the unRaid server. It was about a 10gb file. After it got to just about the end of the backup, the imaging software errored out with a "Network Device No Longer Available" message (it was being done wirelessly - something that I had done many times before with even larger images). I closed the imaging software and tried to get to the unRaid server and found the following: 1. I could telnet in and get past the login / password stage. Anything beyond that and the server simply did not respond. I could not get syslog from a telnet session. 2. I could get to the server main page via http://tower.'>http://tower. 3. Occasionally, I could get to unMenu by http://tower:8080'>http://tower:8080 - but I could only get to the main screen. It would not respond to any of the sub-screens (mymain, syslog, etc). And it was random whether or not I could even get to the main unMenu page. 4. The only way to get to the syslog was via the web interface and http://tower/log/syslog.'>http://tower/log/syslog. 5. Yes the server had been awake and asleep a couple of times that day, whether or not that is relevant I am not sure. 6. I was able to stop the server from the http://tower main page and get it to properly shutdown from there as well. 7. Upon powering back on, it initiated a parity check. I let the parity check run (it was in the evening) and let the server sleep by itself afterwards. This morning I woke it back up and it was happy with no parity check errors and no additional errors in the smart history page of unMenu. Syslog files were too large to attach, so I stuck them in my dropbox. Links are here: http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/283470/unraid%20syslog%2010-25-09b.rtf - 10-25-09 is the log from the crash http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/283470/syslog-2009-10-26.txt - 10-26-09 is the subsequent log after reboot, parity check and one sleep / wake cycle. I can't make a lot of sense of these syslog files, but I will make a general statement that the log files seem a lot busier than I remember them being. Next I will revert to the cozy comfort of 4.4.2 and try to send the same image wirelessly and see what happens. I'll post syslog when I get a chance. agw
  23. Adding the same command 'ethtool -s eth0 speed 1000' to the post-sleep section of the script seems to be working for me also. I've only done a handful of wake-ups since yesterday, but previously the reduced network speed happened 100% of the time after the first boot. So it seems to be a good fix. Good idea Fibblebot. I've been running 4.5beta7 - it did not fix the s3 problem for me.
  24. I still have the same issue - please post back if you have any break throughs! System negotiates a gigabit connection on boot, but then every subsequent wake from S3 comes back at 100Mbps. I can telnet in and set back to 1000Mbps using ethtool - but I've not tried to automate it using the sleep script - not sure that's going to be successful. agw