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replace parity and data drive

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I want to replace my parity WD EARS (with jumper) with a 7200 drive I'm getting and then use the old parity to replace a smaller drive.  After I preclear my new 7200 parity drive what are the correct steps I need to do to replace it? 

I found this in the wiki, is this all I need to do, my parity drive will be the same size only faster.

 

Replace a single disk with a bigger one

This is the case where you are replacing a single small disk with a bigger one:

 

Stop the array.

Power down the unit.

Replace smaller disk with new bigger disk.

Power up the unit.

Start the array.

 

thanks

  • Author

and to run the preclear 3 times is this correct?  This drive is NOT an advace format drive, its a HITACHI Deskstar 7K2000 HDS722020ALA330

 

preclear_disk.sh -c 3 /dev/sdX

 

3 pre-clears won't hurt. I've only done one but I plan to start doing more now that I have a second server with hot swap bays. You can format non-AF drives either way with no penalty. I recommend people format all new drives as 4k-aligned for simplicity. Eventually, a new version of unRAID will default to 4K-aligned.

3 pre-clears won't hurt. I've only done one but I plan to start doing more now that I have a second server with hot swap bays. You can format non-AF drives either way with no penalty. I recommend people format all new drives as 4k-aligned for simplicity. Eventually, a new version of unRAID will default to 4K-aligned.

 

5.0b3 and above does default to 4K aligned.

  • Author

I'm running 4.7 right now.  Should I use the advance format?  What would the code be

 

preclear_disk.sh -A -c 3 /dev/sdX

 

I'm running 4.7 right now.  Should I use the advance format?  What would the code be

 

preclear_disk.sh -A -c 3 /dev/sdX

 

 

Yes, and change on the settings page of the unRAID webGUI to use 4K aligned for the disk format.

  • Author

It's the same procedure then when I replace my smaller drive with my old parity correct?  Do I have to preclear my old parity drive before I use it as a data drive?

  • Author

This is not working, what am I doing wrong?  I'm trying to preclear a 2TB Hitachi HDS722020ALA330 drive.

 

preclear_disk.sh -A -c3 /dev/sdb

 

This is not working, what am I doing wrong?  I'm trying to preclear a 2TB Hitachi HDS722020ALA330 drive.

 

preclear_disk.sh -A -c3 /dev/sdb

 

 

put a space between the c and 3

This is not working, what am I doing wrong?  I'm trying to preclear a 2TB Hitachi HDS722020ALA330 drive.

 

preclear_disk.sh -A -c3 /dev/sdb

 

 

put a space between the c and 3

It would take it either way. 

 

What is not happening?  What is not working as expected?  What error are you seeing?

  • Author

it looks like its just showing me all the options

root@Tower:/boot# preclear_disk.sh -A -c3 /dev/sdb

Usage: ./preclear_disk.sh [-t] [-n] [-N] [-m e-mail-addr] [-M 1|2|3|4] [-c count] /dev/???

       where  = hda, hdb, sda, sdb, etc...

       -n = Do NOT perform preread and postread of entire disk to allow 
            SMART firmware to reallocate bad blocks in the clearing process

       -N = Do not perform read validation during postread. (skip this step)
            (basic test to check if values read are all zero as expected.
             Skipping this test will save a few miniutes, but possibly not detect
             a drive that returns non-zero values when zeros were expected as bad.)

       -c count  =  perform count preread/clear/postread cycles
            where count is a number from 1 through 20
            If not specified, default is 1 cycle.  For large disks, 1 cycle 
            can take 10 or more hours

       -t = Test if disk has pre-clear signature.  This option may NOT be 
            combined with the -c or -n options.  The test does not write to 
            the disk.  It makes no changes to a disk at all. It only reads 
            the first 512 bytes of the disk to verify a pre-clear signature 
            exists.  Note: "-t" does not read the entire disk to verify it
            it pre-cleared as that could take hours for a large disk. since
            the pre-clear-signature is written *after* a disk is entirely
            filled with zeros, if it exists, we assume the disk is cleared.

       -w size  = write block size in bytes

       -r size  = read block size in bytes

       -b count = number of blocks to read at a time

       -v = print version of ./preclear_disk.sh

       -m [email protected] = optional recipient address.  If blank and -M 
            option is used, it will default to default e-mail address of "root"

       -M 1 = Will send an e-mail message at the end of the final results 
              (default if -m is used, but no other -M option given)

       -M 2 = Will send an e-mail same as 1 plus at the end of a cycle (if multiple
            cycles are specified)   

       -M 3 = Will send an e-mail same as 2 plus at the start and end of the pre-read, 
            zeroing, post-read 

       -M 4 = Will send an e-mail same as 3 plus also at intervals of 25%
            during the long tests

       The -m, -M options requires that a valid working mail command is installed.
       One version that has worked (bashmail) is affilaited with the unraid_notify script.  
       There are others that also will work.  

       Any of these need to be configured to work with your mail server.
       The unraid_notify script will have instructions on how to 
       configure this. See http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2470.0
       for unraid_notify and http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2961.0
       for the mail script.  NOTE:  The lastest verion of mail has to be used. earlier versions of
       the mail script affiliated with unraid_notify do not support 
       the standard mail syntax needed.

       Unless the -n option is specified the disk will first have its entire 
       set of blocks read, then, the entire disk will be cleared by writing 
       zeros to it.  Once that is done the disk will be partitioned with a 
       special signature that the unRAID software will recognize when the 
       drive is added to the array.  This special signature will allow the
       unraid software to recognize the disk has been pre-cleared and to skip 
       an initial "clearing" step while the server remains off-line. 

       The pre-read and post-read phases try their best to exercise the 
       disk in a way to identify a drive prone to early failure.  It performs 
       reads of random blocks of data interspersed with reads of sequential 
       blocks on the disk in turn.  This program also uses non-buffered reads 
       of the first and last cylinders on the disk, the goal is to perform 
       those reads in between the others, and to keep the disk head
       moving much more than if it just read each linear block in turn. 
root@Tower:/boot# 

 

it looks like its just showing me all the options

root@Tower:/boot# preclear_disk.sh -A -c3 /dev/sdb

Usage: ./preclear_disk.sh [-t] [-n] [-N] [-m e-mail-addr] [-M 1|2|3|4] [-c count] /dev/???

       where  = hda, hdb, sda, sdb, etc...

       -n = Do NOT perform preread and postread of entire disk to allow 
            SMART firmware to reallocate bad blocks in the clearing process

       -N = Do not perform read validation during postread. (skip this step)
            (basic test to check if values read are all zero as expected.
             Skipping this test will save a few miniutes, but possibly not detect
             a drive that returns non-zero values when zeros were expected as bad.)

       -c count  =  perform count preread/clear/postread cycles
            where count is a number from 1 through 20
            If not specified, default is 1 cycle.  For large disks, 1 cycle 
            can take 10 or more hours

       -t = Test if disk has pre-clear signature.  This option may NOT be 
            combined with the -c or -n options.  The test does not write to 
            the disk.  It makes no changes to a disk at all. It only reads 
            the first 512 bytes of the disk to verify a pre-clear signature 
            exists.  Note: "-t" does not read the entire disk to verify it
            it pre-cleared as that could take hours for a large disk. since
            the pre-clear-signature is written *after* a disk is entirely
            filled with zeros, if it exists, we assume the disk is cleared.

       -w size  = write block size in bytes

       -r size  = read block size in bytes

       -b count = number of blocks to read at a time

       -v = print version of ./preclear_disk.sh

       -m [email protected] = optional recipient address.  If blank and -M 
            option is used, it will default to default e-mail address of "root"

       -M 1 = Will send an e-mail message at the end of the final results 
              (default if -m is used, but no other -M option given)

       -M 2 = Will send an e-mail same as 1 plus at the end of a cycle (if multiple
            cycles are specified)   

       -M 3 = Will send an e-mail same as 2 plus at the start and end of the pre-read, 
            zeroing, post-read 

       -M 4 = Will send an e-mail same as 3 plus also at intervals of 25%
            during the long tests

       The -m, -M options requires that a valid working mail command is installed.
       One version that has worked (bashmail) is affilaited with the unraid_notify script.  
       There are others that also will work.  

       Any of these need to be configured to work with your mail server.
       The unraid_notify script will have instructions on how to 
       configure this. See http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2470.0
       for unraid_notify and http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2961.0
       for the mail script.  NOTE:  The lastest verion of mail has to be used. earlier versions of
       the mail script affiliated with unraid_notify do not support 
       the standard mail syntax needed.

       Unless the -n option is specified the disk will first have its entire 
       set of blocks read, then, the entire disk will be cleared by writing 
       zeros to it.  Once that is done the disk will be partitioned with a 
       special signature that the unRAID software will recognize when the 
       drive is added to the array.  This special signature will allow the
       unraid software to recognize the disk has been pre-cleared and to skip 
       an initial "clearing" step while the server remains off-line. 

       The pre-read and post-read phases try their best to exercise the 
       disk in a way to identify a drive prone to early failure.  It performs 
       reads of random blocks of data interspersed with reads of sequential 
       blocks on the disk in turn.  This program also uses non-buffered reads 
       of the first and last cylinders on the disk, the goal is to perform 
       those reads in between the others, and to keep the disk head
       moving much more than if it just read each linear block in turn. 
root@Tower:/boot# 

 

Then try it with the space as suggested.  (I thought that it would take it either way, but I could be wrong)
  • Author

nope, tried that and same thing?  ???

download the newest version of the preclear script then try again.

nope, tried that and same thing?  ???

What version of preclear_disk.sh are you using?

 

Type

preclear_disk.sh -v

to find out

  • Author
:o thanks Joe, that was it, had to upgrade.  It is OK to use the -A option to preclear a drive that is not an Advance format drive right?

yes, that is fine.

 

So long as the drive is not a WD EARS Green drive with the jumper installed you are fine to use the -A switch

:o thanks Joe, that was it, had to upgrade.  It is OK to use the -A option to preclear a drive that is not an Advance format drive right?

Yes, you'll just never be able to us unRAID 4.6 or prior with it and read its data. They won't recognize the partition.
  • Author

So I just upgraded my parity drive, do I need to hit the start button?  It says its rebuilding parity but not sure if I need to start the array first?  All I did was pre-cleared the drive and then pulled out the old parity drive and put in the new one.

 

edit....if I would have read my first post I would know that I have to hit the start button, doh

parity.jpg.f78a9844f4781e258b85e4ce5af0e2c7.jpg

  • Author

Do I have to preclear my old parity drive to use as a data drive?  If so is this correct for a WD EARS drive WITH jumper?

 

preclear_disk.sh -a -c3 /dev/sdx

 

  • Author

So I just added the drive and started the array and now it says this and is clearing the drive on its own and the array is stopped.  Is this normal?

 

PROTECTED_EXPANSION, unRAID ARRAY is STOPPED 7 disks in array.    PARITY NOT VALID: DISK_NEW

So I just added the drive and started the array and now it says this and is clearing the drive on its own and the array is stopped.  Is this normal?

 

PROTECTED_EXPANSION, unRAID ARRAY is STOPPED 7 disks in array.    PARITY NOT VALID: DISK_NEW

looks normal. 

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