How to do a clean re-install of the total Unraid server


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I recently had a lot of hardware problems, which made xfs_filesystem repairs necessary.

So I end up with hundreds of GB Lost & Found file/share, with the moved data, due to the failures.

 

I think the problems are because my server is rather old hardware and the timer in disk settings for waiting before shutdown, was improperly short set to only 90sec. Although I am not running any VM's and normally close dockers manually and stop the disk array manually before pushing the shutdown button in Unraid web-gui, it may be not shutdown correctly and therefore caused the problems...

 

I now consider a clean new install of my total Unraid server.

I have recent backups of:

- USB -stick

- AppData folder

- external Paperless-NG folder consisting of all documents for this app

- Ebooks with Calibre database

- all other data is still available offline as well

 

So how to do a clean reinstall ?

 

The unraid Wiki explains the steps for 'getting started'.... but I want to 'get re-started' - that could be a difference as the disks are not empty

 

Also: How do I manage the Unraid OS plus license ?

Should I start the USB stick with the .zip backup instead of the clean Unraid OS software ?

 

Please advice the best way for a clean re-install of the server

I do not want to keep the mess, which has occurred with 360Gb of Data moved to lost and found with lots of data even unreadable

 

Many thanks...

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What do you mean exactly by a "clean reinstall"? Unraid is a clean install at each boot.

 

The OS is contained in archives on the flash drive, and those archives don't change except when you install a new version of Unraid.

 

Those archives are unpacked fresh into RAM at each boot, and the OS runs completely in RAM. Think of it as firmware except easier to work with.

 

On next boot, those same, unchanged archives are used again to install Unraid into RAM again.

 

Your flash drive also has a config folder, which contains your license and any settings you have made in the webUI, including disk assignments.

 

So, what are you wanting to accomplish by a "clean reinstall" that isn't already accomplished by rebooting?

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Clean re-install:

I am using Unraid as a simple NAS - just a fileserver plus two applications:  Paperless-NG and Calibre

 

Recently I had to repair XFS file system on one of my Data-disks. Result is, that 360Gb of data is moved in the lost&found folder.

As this is from moved from all shares (incl. Appdata, system, etc...) to the lost and found folder, I am dependent on this folder and cannot this 360GB of mess (partly unreadable)

 

So I want to make a clean re-install without a need for a 360GB Lost & Found

Erase all shares and build them new - possibly by uploading 100000 files or more with rsync from offline data storage...

Do I need to erase and reformat the disks as well ?

 

I am just looking for a safe procedure to erase the large lost & found-folder

 

 

 

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