Hard drives keep being disabled

[Oesi369]

Hi, I've problems with my unraid server (v6.9.2), where my hard drives unexpectedly get being disabled after a couple of days in use.

 

For the pairity drive, I was able to solve this issue with the "pairity disk swap" trick (disable raid, unselect pairity disk, restart raid, stop raid, select hard drive as new pairity disk, rebuild the raid). However, recently my other hard drive (containing all the data) got disabled and I tried the same "trick", which resulted in all data being wiped from this drive. Since I had a backup there was no real data loss, but you see that I'm new to unraid and still need to learn a few things... 😉

 

After starting all over again, my unraid server kept working fine for couple of days until today, when my pairity drive got disabled again.

 

I've also run a MemTest on this machine, which was completed without any issues. In addition, I've also replaced the SATA cables, but the disabled drive never got available again in the raid array. However, the disabled drive is able to spins up and down when clicking on the red cross icon next to the drive name. So it seems to be present in unraid, but the drive is not able to start up in the array.

 

What could be the problem and how could I fix this issue? How can I re-enable a hard drive after being disabled? I would really appreciate your support in this regard.

 

I've also uploaded the diagnostic file for this server: LINK REMOVED

 

Looking forward to your replies!

Thanks,

Markus

Edited January 20, 2022 by Oesi369

[trurl]

17 minutes ago, Oesi369 said:

"pairity disk swap" trick (disable raid, unselect pairity disk, restart raid, stop raid, select hard drive as new pairity disk, rebuild the raid)

This is not the "parity swap" procedure, it is just the procedure for rebuilding a disk to itself.

 

17 minutes ago, Oesi369 said:

ecently my other hard drive (containing all the data) got disabled and I tried the same "trick", which resulted in all data being wiped from this drive.

Did you format? Format is NEVER part of rebuild.

 

17 minutes ago, Oesi369 said:

How can I re-enable a hard drive after being disabled?

Rebuild it as you have been doing, after taking care of whatever problems caused it to become disabled. DON'T FORMAT!

 

17 minutes ago, Oesi369 said:

uploaded the diagnostic file

We generally make it a rule not to click on external sites.

 

Attach diagnostics to your NEXT post in this thread.

[trurl]

Unraid disables a disk in the parity array whenever a write to it fails for any reason. The write failure makes the disk out of sync so it has to be "kicked out". The disk will remain disabled until rebuilt.

 

When a disk is disabled, any subsequent access of the disk does not access the physical disk, instead the "emulated" disk from the parity calculation is used. Any read of the disk instead reads parity PLUS all other disks and calculates the data for the emulated disk. The initial failed write, and any subsequent writes to the disk, emulate the write by updating parity. That initial failed write, and any subsequent writes, can be recovered by rebuilding the disk.

[Oesi369]

Appology for attaching the diagnostic file not directly to this thread. As suggested, I've attached it to this new thread.

 

The data loss was caused by myself, since I formatted the drive and ignored the warning that "Format is never part of a rebuild". However, I thought this is the only way to re-enable my hard drive and ignored the warning. But I've learned my lession and will never do this again.

 

I still don't understand what's the reason for one of my hard drives being disabled and hope that the attached diagnostics file might be able to narrow down the problem.

 

Looking forward to your reply and many thanks for your support!

unraid-diagnostics-20220120-1544.zip

[Oesi369]

Maybe a followup question: To rebuild the disk, I need to click "check Pairity" and enable "write correction to pairity". Once completed, both drives should be up and running again. Or did I misunderstand something? Is it common, that a write failure to the disk occurs and the disk gets being disabled?

 

Thanks for your reply!

[Oesi369]

One more thing, I've noticed, that the power cycle count for my now being rebuilt pairity hard drive increased from 634 to 684 over the last 3 hours. In addition, I hear the hard drive constantly spinning up again and my estimated speed for the pairity-sync/data-rebuild progress is only in the KB/sec range (not MB/sec).

 

Could it be a power supply issue? Or faulty hard drive(s)?

[Oesi369]

OMG! I've noticed that one Molex connector has exposed wires, which were touching the case. Once this issue was removed, the hard drive is now running normally and speed returned to the MB/sec range.

 

Maybe this was the issue all along!? I need to finish rebuilding my array and keep testing. But I keep my fingers crossed.

 

Would be great if someone could still have a look at my diagnostics file. In case there are any other issues.

 

Thanks in advance!

Edited January 20, 2022 by Oesi369

[trurl]

2 hours ago, Oesi369 said:

ignored the warning that "Format is never part of a rebuild"

That's what I suspected.

 

Format means "write an empty filesystem to this disk". That is what it has always meant in every operating system you have ever used. Unraid treats that write operation just as it does any other, by updating parity. So after formatting a disk in the parity array, a rebuild will rebuild an empty filesystem.

 

More answers coming

[trurl]

Those diagnostics you already posted were after reboot, so can't see exactly what happened, but seems like you may have discovered it.

 

Not clear whether you are rebuilding parity, or just doing a read check. Rebuilding a disk is not simply clicking the check parity button.

 

Post new diagnostics so I can see what is happening and if it is going well.