soulman1949

Apologies for the delay in responding. The upgrading of the 3TB drive to 8TB and consequential data rebuild was delayed, but has now been completed. Many thanks for the various responses, as a newbie to unRAID, they're very much appreciated and hopefully, I'll start to ponder on the comments over the coming week to decide on a course of action. Alan

Hi folks, thanks for the replies. Firstly, I'll say, I'm a relative newbie to unRAID so I'm open to suggestions. The following is my rationale for using "most free". I have drives varying from 8TB down to 5TB, 4TB and 3TB. The 8TB drives were new at the time the NAS was built. The other drives had been used in other PCs, some Linux, some Windows. I wanted to make sure that the 8TB drives were used first but then once 3TB had been stored on each of them, to start to store data spread equally between the 8TBs and the 5TB. Then when another 1TB had been stored on all drives to store data across the 8, 5 and 4TBs and so on. Don't know if that makes sense. In all shares only the top directory is split - so, for photos the top directory is the year directory for each year 2010, 2011, 2012 etc, then udnerneath that, folders by date, then the individual photos. For TV programmes this folder is the programme name, underneath this are series/season folders, then individual programmes themselves. * When I'm adding files to the NAS, it could be anything from radio programmes, tv programme, films, photos, downloaded utilities, etc. My understanding is that my system keeps series together, individual years for photos together, etc. Unless my logic is wrong? As regards moving the files around, I put forward Krusader and I've had suggestions for Midnight Commander and unBalance. Wondering what are the relative merits and otherwise of these options. As I said, I'm a relative newbie so I have a lot to learn! Thanks Alan * PS I am finding that as I am adding items, my system is telling me that the drives are full for that share.

@jonathanm I think you've misunderstood my intentions. Replacing the drive will give me around 5TB extra storage in the array. When I replace the old 3TB drive (which has approx. 2TB used and 1TB free) and rebuild, the new 8TB drive will have 2TB used and 6TB free space. The idea of the rebalance is to soak up some of the new spare capacity with data from the other drives. The allocation method on the shares is "most-free" so, assuming I can spread the data around evenly, then I should end up with around 14TB spare capacity spread across the 8 data drives (compared to the current 9TB free). In that scenario, each drive would have around 1.75TB free compared to the current 1.1TB. So, what's the best of doing this?

I have an existing NAS array consisting of 8 drives plus parity drive. Three of the data drives and the parity drive are 8TB, the others are a mix (2 x 3TB, 2 x 4TB and 1 x 5TB). 34TB of the 43 TB in the array is used and only 9TB free. Most of the drives have only around 1TB free. Until now I've not been able to afford to expand the drives but over the weekend I plan to replace one of the 3TB drives with a new 8TB. This will give me approximately an additional 5TB storage. (Hopefully in the next few months I plan on another similar HDD upgrade from 3TB to 8TB). The shares are arranged so that only the top level directory is split and I want to keep it that way. What I need to do is to balance the drives better by redistributing the data and I'm wondering what would be the best way of doing it. I am considering using Krusader, but would welcome recommendations. Thanks Alan

No, I did. All was fine with the original setup. The problems have arisen since I tried to restore my settings after the recent problem referred to in my original post in this thread.

Correct. Ah, that sorted it, thanks. Sorry I don't understand what you mean. I tried to delete this and start over but ended up screwing the settings. I've tried to reinstall it but it's asking me to enter something in Host Path 1 and presumably Host Path 2.

Hmm no change. :-(

Running the system check again I now get errors and warnings as per the first screenshot. I'm totally bewildered I don't remember having to do any of this when I originally installed them. I've also attached screenshots of the current Docker containers screen and Docker Notification Settings. As you may have gathered I don't have a clue as to what to do with this lot, LOL. Thanks Alan PS I am better uninstalling and reinstalling Krusader?

I've set it to "prefer", I've a sneaky feeling that's what it was previously. As for the sizes, I've attached the updated screenshot.

Ok I've copied over the plugins folder and now get a warning "Fix Common Problems: 12-10-2017 14:29 Warnings have been found with your server. Investigate at Settings / User Utilities / Fix Common Problems" Warnings Found Suggested Fix Share appdata is an implied array-only share, but files / folders exist on the cache Set Use Cache appropriately, then rerun this analysis I'm not sure what I need to do. I've attached two screenshots, the first one is all of my User shares and the second one is of appdata settings. Thanks Alan

Thank you. Yes, the cache disk problems are fixed. Many thanks

I had some problems earlier in the week that meant one of my cache drives seemed to develop a problem and I was unable to format it. At the same time I lost my connection to my Windows PC. Prior to that the system had been stable and working for over 2 weeks without any problems. Although I hadn't previously taken a backup of the boot device, I have now copied over its contents. Consequently I reformatted the boot USB and copied over my unRAID key and original super.dat. I've gone through an initial setup updating: System Settings: Date and Time, Disk Settings to enable autostart, Identification and Network Settings Users: Password I've also copied over the Shares folder from the original settings and all seems to be in order on that front. So now I'm back to a basic working system and I need to retrace my steps to get back to where I was just before my system went belly-up! I get the impression that all the configurations settings are stored in the config folder and subfolders, so I'm not sure if all I need to do is to copy them over from the original settings, presumably a few at a time, in case anything is corrupted.. I notice as regards plugins I only have the Dynamix webGui and unRAID Server OS on the system and the other plugins are not there - presumably I need to just copy over the plugins folder from my original settings? My Dashboard shows Krusader and PlexMediaServer present. Although both are set for autostart, Krusader is Red (Stopped). When I start PlexMediaServer it seems to have "lost" all the previous libraries already setup, although the data is intact on the array. I'd appreciate some advice on how to get myself back to where I was before, please. If it helps I can upload the current contents of the Flash drive and also the previous contents of the old working system. Many thanks Alan

As ever, johnnie.black, many thanks, problem solved.

Hi Until a few days ago I had a working 8 drive Array consisting of 7 data drives and one parity drive and a 2 SSD cache pool. Unfortunately I hit a problem with one of the SSD drives in the cahce and lost the network connection to my Windows PC. Following advice, I reformatted the boot USB drive and copied over my Pro.key and the super.dat files from the config folder. I've temporarily lost my share settings etc etc but at least I have my network connection back. I've been able to reformat the cache drives without problem. The difficulty I now have is that even if the array is online, if I subsequently restart either by a reboot or a cold start, when I do power up, I notice that my array is offline. Just wondering if anyone has any ideas? I'm not sure what information is needed to help you as I'm a relative newbie, so pleasr yell! Many thanks. Alan

Thanks johnnie.black, I redid the flashdrive and copied the files you recommended. I've added the two SSDs to the cache and all is well and also now have my network back, many thanks. I'll start a new topic on restoring the various plug-ins etc as this particular issue has been resolved. Many thanks again.

Hmm looks like I've got major problems here. I managed to get the system to finally accept a format but that doesn't complete. It starts OK but the format process seems to freeze after a few minutes. I notice that the installed Plug-ins are there ok and all my shares are showing and seem to be correct content-wise. But the Dashboard no longer shows PlexMediaServer and Konqueror and I can't get a network connection to my Windows PC even though my router recognises the connection and web access is available. It looks like the config is well and truly screwed and unfortunately I hadn't yet taken a backup. :-( Unless I'm mistaken I need to do a full reinstallation. I have a number of array drives with media on them and presumably the data on them needs to be removed before I do anything else. Fortunately I have a number of unassigned drives attached which I can use to accommodate the data and presumably I can attach some external drives via USB to accommodate my data. Do I need to redownload a new image of unRAID? I'm not sure if that gets changed during configuration changes. Perhaps someone could confirm how I should proceed. Thanks Alan

Sorry, should have said..... Unfortunately I have lost the network connection to my Windows PC so I can only access the NAS using the unRAID GUI.

Correct. Diagnostics attached. Sorry I'm a newbie here and can't work out how to do a screenshot in unRAID. nas1-diagnostics-20171009-1655.zip

Thanks johnnie.black but it won't let me do that, the Format button is greyed out and I can't enter a tick in the "Yes I want to do this" box. :-(

I have an 8 drive 40TB array (7 data plus one parity drive) and a cache pool consisting of two 500GB SSD drives. I am still at the stage where I am transferring data from my other PCs to my NAS and have temporarily switched off using the cache in the various user shares I have set up. I was taking the array offline to enable me to switch settings so I can use two LAN ports and it seemed to take ages to go offline - the progress message near the bottom of the screen was still showing "Spinning up all drives... Stopping services...". I clicked away from Main to another page and when I went back to the Main page, I noticed some inconsistent messages. Firstly it was still showing "Spinning up all drives... Stopping services...", but underneath in Red it said "Array Stopped", yet above in the Array Operation section the green light was still alongside "Started" (but with the "Stop" on the same line greyed out). I then noticed a "Fix Common Problems" message popping up and that the first drive of my cache pool was now showing as unmountable. The "Fix Common Problems" warning is telling me to "run the file system checks" in unRAID Main but I can't see that option on the page. There won't be any media data on the cache but I'm not quite sure what I should be doing next. Many thanks Alan

Hmm just looked at my Tools menu and there is no "Scheduler", is this a Plugin? [EDIT] Ah found it in Settings >>> User Prefs.

Thank you so much for these responses Frank1940. The dual parity link makes interesting reading, it's certainly counter-intuitive! Thanks again, Alan

At this stage my system consists of 7 data drives and one parity drive, total storage space for the array is 40TB, of which 20.7TB is currently used. Very shortly I'll be adding a further 3 hard drives bringing the total array space to 49TB. 1. I've noticed that a parity-check happens automatically every week on Saturday evenings and the current array takes just over 22 hours to complete the parity-check. I know I can do a parity-check manually but can I change the timing of the automatic check? Also is it possible to pause and unpause the check? 2. What activities are suspended during a parity-check? If I add new data to the array during a parity check will this data be parity protected? 3. Are there any recommendations as to the percentage free storage space on each drive? 4. Given my current system setup at what stage is it recommended to have two parity drives? Thanks Alan

Thank you, I'll do that! :-)

Hi I've recently installed a 4 drive unRAID NAS and I'm in the process of migrating data from 6 drives on a Linux Mint PC. At this stage I have plenty of space left on my new NAS. The drives on the Linux PC will ultimately be re-used in the NAS. What I would like to do, rather than transferring the data across the network is to move the HDDs now into my NAS and then transfer files internally and when I've finished with that part of the process for each drive, then to make it part of the NAS. It just means I can do the physical move and close the cases so my apartment doesn't get too cluttered! Is this possible and if so what steps do I need to take? Many thanks Alan