New disk showing incorrect size/used/free space then unmountable

[bleejean]

I am in the process of updating my array by replacing some WD Red 4TB drives with Seagate Exos X18 18TB drives. I precleared a new drive, replaced one of the old ones, and let the array start to rebuild the new drive. While this was happening the information listed about the size, used space, and free space was all incorrect for the new drive (size is 408GB, used is 18.4EB!, and Free is 14.1TB which is probably about right). See screenshot "Incorrect sizes."

 

 

After the drive was rebuilt the information was still wrong so I tried stopping and starting the array. Once I stopped the array it now says "Unmountable: not mounted." See screenshot "Unmountable." I tried restarting the system and rebooting into safe mode and the problem still persists.

 

 

There are a couple other weird things I noticed. Disk 3 still shows a green dot beside it despite the fact that it has not been mounted. The array itself has not given any errors and still shows a green dot in the tab as well. If I view my array from another computer on the network it shows a total capacity equal to all drives except drive 3. And when I view the drives individually only disk 3 does not show up. Also, disk 3 is still showing as reiserfs under FS when I expected it to be xfs.

 

Any ideas what is going on? Did I run into some major glitches in the software? Under "array operations" I have the ability to format unmountable disks. Should I try that? I would assume that I would then need to rebuild the disk all over again?

 

Thanks for your help. If anyone needs me to try anything/post anything please treat me like a complete beginner and give detailed step-by-step instructions!

Edited March 18, 2022 by bleejean

[itimpi]

Reiserfs cannot handle drives that are larger than 16TB.

[bleejean]

Ok, so did the new drive get formatted to reiserfs because the old one was and it is a copy of it? How can I fix the problem? Can I just reformat it to xfs too (and if so how do I do that)? And am I understanding correctly that I would then need to rebuild the array again? Thanks.

[itimpi]

You cannot reformat a drive without losing its contents    You need to copy its contents elsewhere before reformatting to preserve its contents.

You also cannot change the file system type during a rebuild operation.

 

Do you still have the original disk3 with its contents intact?   If so you could reformat disk3 to xfs (or btrfs) by stopping the array and clicking on the drive to change the file system type and then restarting the array to give you the option to format it to the new file system type.  Then mount the original disk3 using Unassigned Devices to copy its contents back onto the 18TB drive.   That will then give you some free space to get the data off the other reiserfs drives in preparation for reformatting them to xfs. 

 

 

[bleejean]

I don't know if I am following. Are you saying that the file system type is included as part of the "data" of the drive and thus, when you rebuild a disk it will also "rebuild" the same file system type? (Sorry for my lack of correct terms).

 

I do still have the original disk3 with its contents intact. However, I don't think I can add it to my server again since I am at my limit of 12 drives (and I don't really want to pay to upgrade to a pro license). Can I install it on a Windows PC on my network and copy the files over to the newly reformatted disk3 from there?

[itimpi]

5 minutes ago, bleejean said:

I don't know if I am following. Are you saying that the file system type is included as part of the "data" of the drive and thus, when you rebuild a disk it will also "rebuild" the same file system type? (Sorry for my lack of correct terms).

Yes - the rebuild process does not understand files or file systems - it just understands sectors.    It therefore puts sectors back to what it thinks they should be and thus recreates the original file system.

7 minutes ago, bleejean said:

I do still have the original disk3 with its contents intact. However, I don't think I can add it to my server again since I am at my limit of 12 drives (and I don't really want to pay to upgrade to a pro license). Can I install it on a Windows PC on my network and copy the files over to the newly reformatted disk3 from there?

If you happen to have a USB dock (or USB->SATA adapter) you can plug it in that way after starting the array as the check for the max number of drives is done at the point the array is started.

 

it can also be done over the network, but the problem will be getting a driver for Windows that recognises a disk in reiserfs format.    Maybe you could instead temporarily boot the PC off a ‘live’ Linux USB or DVD as a Linux system would have no trouble recognising reiserfs and use that to copy the content over the network.

[bleejean]

Thanks a lot for your help! Let’s say I plug the original drive in after the array is started. Can I view the contents of that drive over the network? I’d prefer to copy the files using windows copy and paste/file explorer if possible. If not, would you mind sharing how I would copy the files? I’m pretty sure it is some command line type stuff right? I’m really unfamiliar with doing things that way.

[trurl]

You can share Unassigned Devices over the network, but it would be more efficient to work with the disks directly on the server. I always use Midnight Commander for that. Google it and see if you can figure it out. It is builtin to Unraid and launched from the command line with

mc

 

[trurl]

Another reason to not do it over the network is so you don't have to share array disks on the network. I always recommend only sharing User Shares. You can get in trouble trying to work with User Shares and disks at the same time.

[itimpi]

Just now, bleejean said:

Thanks a lot for your help! Let’s say I plug the original drive in after the array is started. Can I view the contents of that drive over the network? I’d prefer to copy the files using windows copy and paste/file explorer if possible. If not, would you mind sharing how I would copy the files? I’m pretty sure it is some command line type stuff right? I’m really unfamiliar with doing things that way.

As long as you set the drive to be shared in Unassigned Devices then it’s contents will be visible over the network.   Sounds like this may be easiest for you?

 

The options for doing it locally on the server range from command line options like ‘cp’, ‘rsync’ or ‘mc’ (midnight commander) or using a docker container such as Krusader.   This is faster but for most people less user friendly.

[bleejean]

I will look into those options, thanks.

 

I want to upgrade disk1 as well. I have already precleared another 18TB drive. Can I attach it to the server (after the array is started), format it xfs, then copy over the files from disk1 to it, then remove the original disk1 and use the "new config" option under tools to reconfigure the array to make the new disk into disk1? Is that a reasonable way to do things? Thanks.

Edited March 18, 2022 by bleejean

[trurl]

1 hour ago, bleejean said:

Can I attach it to the server (after the array is started), format it xfs, then copy over the files from disk1 to it, then remove the original disk1 and use the "new config" option under tools to reconfigure the array to make the new disk into disk1?

You would have to let New Config rebuild parity.

[JonathanM]

1 hour ago, bleejean said:

 

I want to upgrade disk1 as well.

I would get sorted with the format of disk3 to XFS followed by copying the old disk3 content back to the new disk3, then with your newfound experience in manipulating data on the server I would copy the content of disk1 and disk2 to disk3 as well.

 

Then you would be in a better position to finish your ReiserFS transition, as you could format disk1 and disk2 to XFS since the content is now on disk3.

 

Only after that was done would I replace disk1, and as a freshly formatted blank XFS disk, ready to receive the content from disk4 and disk5, which would conclude your transition off of ReiserFS.

 

Note that I would NOT move any content in this entire operation, instead COPY. It's faster, especially when the source drive is ReiserFS, and you can compare the files on the source and destination before moving forward.

 

Also, for the purposes of this migration be sure to only work with /mnt/diskX paths, never stray into the /mnt/user tree.

 

If you really can't get a grip on doing this with mc at the console, then you can temporarily turn on disk shares and copy things over the network. If you do, be VERY careful never to interact with the regular shares while you are working with the diskX shares, and turn them off after you are done.

[bleejean]

Thanks everyone!