Formatting Cache Drive - No options available

[oddj0b]

Hello!

 

New user here so please bear with me.

 

I've managed to add a 4-drive array (3 data and 1 parity) on Unraid 6.9.1 and I was looking to add an SSD as a cache drive.

 

The SSD is from my previous Windows PC and is (probably) formatted in NTFS.  I was hoping I could format the drive to xfs within Unraid, but I am struggling to figure out how to do this.

 

I have tried (see screenshots):

1. Installing the Unassigned Drives plug-in and trying to format the drive here - however the Format button is greyed out.
2. Adding the drive to a new 'cache' pool and then going to the pool settings. I tried pushing the 'Erase' button hoping it would format the drive, but it doesn't appear to do anything. I also noticed that it says Partition Format: Unkown.  I'm thinking that I might need to re-partition the drive before formatting?

 

I've done some research and the only other possibility I found was to pre-clear the drive, but haven't tried this yet as I understand it's not necessary for SSDs / cache drives.

 

Any guidance would be appreciated!

 

Thanks.

[ChatNoir]

hello @oddj0b, you need to look at the bottom of the Main page, in the Array Operation.

There should be a list of the drive awaiting to be formatted near the Start Array button.

[oddj0b]

Thanks @ChatNoir.

 

If I navigate to the Main page, I can't see any relevant options near the Start Array button to format the drive. 

 

I can see is the drive listed under Unassigned Drive, with the Format button greyed out.

 

I've added another screenshot of what the Main page looks like for me. Might it be that the 6.9 update changed how to format drives?

 

Also, I just tried running the command below in order to re-partition the drive, but I get the error message saying "BLKDISCARD ioctl failed: Operation not supported".

blkdiscard: /dev/sdf

 

Cheers.

[ChatNoir]

You have to assign you cache drive to a pool first I think.

Then Unraid will format the drive when starting the Array.

[oddj0b]

Got it sorted.  You were right - the array needed to be started in order.  An option to format the drive appears at the bottom of the main page, and all is working now.

 

Thanks again.