May 6, 201115 yr Author Upgrade to 4.7. Make sure you follow the instructions only replacing the 2 files on the flash drive and rename the old ones just in case. Install the replacement disk. Boot-up and change the setting to 4k-aligned. Click OK and rebuild the disk. So do this for the new disk? Then, just stop the array. Unassign the disk. Start the array. Stop the array. Clear the MBR of the unassigned disk. Assign the disk. Start the array and rebuild. And do this for each of the 2 disks I have now that are not formatted correctly? I was thinking I shouldn't upgrade before replacing my dead disk, but if that works ok, then great.
May 6, 201115 yr The bzimage and bzroot files don't store any of the array config info. So, you can boot a different version and it will still come-up knowing you need a new disk. If you are not comfortable with upgrading before rebuilding, that then jumper the new drive but upgrade to 4.7 and just re-align the existing disks instead of jumpering them. You'd run into problem upgrading to 4.7 if you had a HPA on one of the disks. But, you'd only have that if you've run the disks on a somewhat newer Gigabyte motherboard. Peter
May 7, 201115 yr Author Sounds like a plan. This is much simpler than what I was thinking. Thanks for the input, I really appreciate it. Doug
May 9, 201115 yr Author Upgrade to 4.7. Make sure you follow the instructions only replacing the 2 files on the flash drive and rename the old ones just in case. Install the replacement disk. Boot-up and change the setting to 4k-aligned. Click OK and rebuild the disk. Okay I got my parts today and this part is in progress, the drive is being rebuilt as I write this. I did the upgrade to 4.7 and changed the setting to 4k-aligned before I started. So my new drive should be correctly aligned. Then, just stop the array. Unassign the disk. Start the array. Stop the array. Clear the MBR of the unassigned disk. Assign the disk. Start the array and rebuild. The question I have about this part is how do I clear the MBR of the disk after I unassign it? All the other steps make sense to me. Thanks again for the help. Doug
May 9, 201115 yr dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX count = 64 Make very certain you have the correct device - sdX or hdX. Confirm on the devices page before you unassign the drive. You can also download the preclear script and it has the option to zero the MBR only. I believe it will only zero a drive that is not assigned to the array, meaning it's much harder to do it wrong with that script. Peter
May 11, 201115 yr Author I can't thank you guys enough for the help. So far I have: upgraded my array to 4.7 replaced my dead drive with a new 2TB EARS drive using the SATA --> IDE adapter suggested by Joe L. currently rebuilding my parity drive after clearing the MBR with the preclear_disk.sh script (awesome script!) I have 1 more EARS drive to clear and rebuild after this and then my array should be in excellent shape. Now I can upgrade the rest of my components at my leisure. You guys are all awesome and I couldn't have done it without you. Thanks! Doug
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