Re: preclear_disk.sh - a new utility to burn-in and pre-clear disks for quick add


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This may have been answered but a search through the 83 odd pages here hasn't revealed anything...

 

Whenever I run precelar on my server, it invariably locks up the system requiring a hard-reset.

 

My most recent attempt was to preclear a 4TB drive. I opened a screen session and initiated the process. Step 1 completed and step 2 reached 50% when the entire system locked up - VMs froze, GUI was inaccessible, direct typing on the server command line was not accepted. Reset switch was the only way back.

 

This has happened me before on larger drives. I had problems with a previous 4TB drive but I thought it might be the drive itself. Since the, I've replaced the MB and PSU on the system and this is a brand new HD.

 

Normally I'd try this in another system but I don't have any other unraidable systems that support > 2Tb drives.

 

Pointers appreciated.

 

Peter

How much memory do you have?

 

FFS.

 

Got to 8% on the first stage and locked up the server. Can't ssh, access webGUI or type on the server console itself. VMs still running and shares accessible but that's it.

 

This is super frustrating.

 

P

 

Well, it turns out my problem was bad memory (not mine!)

 

I ran memtest and one or two of a particular pair generated errors.

 

I dropped down to 16GB and preclear ran OK.

 

It's just frustrating that seemingly at every turn, there's a need to troubleshoot something.

 

 

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Well, it turns out my problem was bad memory (not mine!)

 

I ran memtest and one or two of a particular pair generated errors.

 

I dropped down to 16GB and preclear ran OK.

 

It's just frustrating that seemingly at every turn, there's a need to troubleshoot something.

 

Really sorry!  I couldn't think of anything before, to help you (never thought of memory).  Bad memory can cause the weirdest problems.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just a simple (stupid?) question... is the latest version of preclear script able to works fine on disks bigger than 8TB?  :o

 

I'm asking this since I saw that on my just precleared 3TB disk it created a (MBR?) structure with first partition sized 2TB and the second of the remaining space...

 

So my doubt is: since with MBR we can have only four primary partitions, what will happen on a (e.g.) 10 TB disk?

 

2TB + 2TB + 2TB + 2TB... and then?  :o

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Just a simple (stupid?) question... is the latest version of preclear script able to works fine on disks bigger than 8TB?  :o

 

I'm asking this since I saw that on my just precleared 3TB disk it created a (MBR?) structure with first partition sized 2TB and the second of the remaining space...

 

So my doubt is: since with MBR we can have only four primary partitions, what will happen on a (e.g.) 10 TB disk?

 

2TB + 2TB + 2TB + 2TB... and then?  :o

I think it actually creates a GPT partition structure that has some ridiculously high limit on maximum size - there is just the protective 2TB MBR first partition to keep certain software happy.  This seems to be normal for disks larger than 2TB.
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Just a simple (stupid?) question... is the latest version of preclear script able to works fine on disks bigger than 8TB?  :o

 

I'm asking this since I saw that on my just precleared 3TB disk it created a (MBR?) structure with first partition sized 2TB and the second of the remaining space...

 

So my doubt is: since with MBR we can have only four primary partitions, what will happen on a (e.g.) 10 TB disk?

 

2TB + 2TB + 2TB + 2TB... and then?  :o

 

I am not sure anyone has tried a drive later than 8TB, but I would think it would work fine.

 

What you are seeing may be related to the preclear signature only. Once the drive is recognized as precleared, I believe the partition would be adjusted to encompass the entire drive once it is added to the array.

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I think it actually creates a GPT partition structure that has some ridiculously high limit on maximum size - there is just the protective 2TB MBR first partition to keep certain software happy.  This seems to be normal for disks larger than 2TB.

I wouldn't be so sure about it... I've looked at it in Windows 7 x64 environment that should have reported the GPT layout and not the MBR "protective" one...

 

Moreover, during the process, it speaks only in MBR terms if I well remember...

 

I am not sure anyone has tried a drive later than 8TB, but I would think it would work fine.

 

What you are seeing may be related to the preclear signature only. Once the drive is recognized as precleared, I believe the partition would be adjusted to encompass the entire drive once it is added to the array.

Yes, I'm sure about this. In my case it will be a parity disk, so, no partitions or issues at all...

 

BUT what I'm asking is if the "post preclear status" is only a sort of "preclear signature" (and so, no problem, I think... it should only have to be "compatible" with what unRAID is expecting...) or if it is due of how the process has been executed... (and it could be an issue in this case...  ???)

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  • 1 month later...

Hi, I have a ? regarding UnRaid v6 and Pre-Clearing Disks.  I have a "new" functioning UnRaid v6 (up from v4.7) using my 2nd Key.  Everything is working well, but in order to do more things, I need some larger drives (current largest is 2TB).  I have 2 "new" 5TB's that I would like to PreClear (or Fast PreClear) but no additional Sata ports on my current box. 

 

Can I boot my older UnRaid v4.7 w/o an Array (another machine) but with the new 5TB drives attached, then Console in and PreClear them?  If so, what would be the Console command?  Does it need to be the 32 bit Version of PreClear?  And if they are PreCleared with a 32 bit Version will that still be ok on the "new" v6 64 bit Version of UnRaid?

 

Thanks for any assistance, I'm a bit out of my league at this point.

 

Dave

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Hi, I have a ? regarding UnRaid v6 and Pre-Clearing Disks.  I have a "new" functioning UnRaid v6 (up from v4.7) using my 2nd Key.  Everything is working well, but in order to do more things, I need some larger drives (current largest is 2TB).  I have 2 "new" 5TB's that I would like to PreClear (or Fast PreClear) but no additional Sata ports on my current box. 

 

Can I boot my older UnRaid v4.7 w/o an Array (another machine) but with the new 5TB drives attached, then Console in and PreClear them?  If so, what would be the Console command?  Does it need to be the 32 bit Version of PreClear?  And if they are PreCleared with a 32 bit Version will that still be ok on the "new" v6 64 bit Version of UnRaid?

 

Thanks for any assistance, I'm a bit out of my league at this point.

 

Dave

Just use any old flash drive and boot up with 5.0 or 6.0 unRAID and preclear your disks on the other machine.  You don't need a key for that as far as I know but I will say I've only used unRAID 5.0 for this so cannot confirm about 6.0.  I do know 4.7 would be limited to 2.2TB disks in the array so likely it wouldn't preclear > 2.2TB correctly.
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Hi, I have a ? regarding UnRaid v6 and Pre-Clearing Disks.  I have a "new" functioning UnRaid v6 (up from v4.7) using my 2nd Key.  Everything is working well, but in order to do more things, I need some larger drives (current largest is 2TB).  I have 2 "new" 5TB's that I would like to PreClear (or Fast PreClear) but no additional Sata ports on my current box. 

 

Can I boot my older UnRaid v4.7 w/o an Array (another machine) but with the new 5TB drives attached, then Console in and PreClear them?  If so, what would be the Console command?  Does it need to be the 32 bit Version of PreClear?  And if they are PreCleared with a 32 bit Version will that still be ok on the "new" v6 64 bit Version of UnRaid?

 

Thanks for any assistance, I'm a bit out of my league at this point.

 

Dave

Just use any old flash drive and boot up with 5.0 or 6.0 unRAID and preclear your disks on the other machine.  You don't need a key for that as far as I know but I will say I've only used unRAID 5.0 for this so cannot confirm about 6.0.  I do know 4.7 would be limited to 2.2TB disks in the array so likely it wouldn't preclear > 2.2TB correctly.

You must use the latest preclear. It will work on unRAID 5 or 6.
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You must use the latest preclear. It will work on unRAID 5 or 6.

Just use any old flash drive and boot up with 5.0 or 6.0 unRAID and preclear your disks on the other machine.  You don't need a key for that as far as I know but I will say I've only used unRAID 5.0 for this so cannot confirm about 6.0.  I do know 4.7 would be limited to 2.2TB disks in the array so likely it wouldn't preclear > 2.2TB correctly.

 

Thanks Trurl & BobPhoenix - I was able to use my main key in another machine to start PreClear on one of my drives through Console, though not both simultaneously.  Now that it's going, it will be perhaps a bit more difficult to determine which drive was PreCleared since both are running.  Not sure how long this will take - probably several days and I will have to do it again for the other drive, although it will allow me to create a new Larger Parity Drive when the 1st one is complete.

 

Without an additional Sata Slot, is there a simple way to move data to a larger drive so that it can be removed/replaced or should I simply do a disk copy over the network and/or computer to computer.  My Tower does have another Network Card which might be possible to use between computers w/o going through a switch.  Not exactly sure how but..

 

Suggestions welcomed!

 

Dave

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You must use the latest preclear. It will work on unRAID 5 or 6.

Just use any old flash drive and boot up with 5.0 or 6.0 unRAID and preclear your disks on the other machine.  You don't need a key for that as far as I know but I will say I've only used unRAID 5.0 for this so cannot confirm about 6.0.  I do know 4.7 would be limited to 2.2TB disks in the array so likely it wouldn't preclear > 2.2TB correctly.

 

Thanks Trurl & BobPhoenix - I was able to use my main key in another machine to start PreClear on one of my drives through Console, though not both simultaneously.  Now that it's going, it will be perhaps a bit more difficult to determine which drive was PreCleared since both are running.  Not sure how long this will take - probably several days and I will have to do it again for the other drive, although it will allow me to create a new Larger Parity Drive when the 1st one is complete.

 

Without an additional Sata Slot, is there a simple way to move data to a larger drive so that it can be removed/replaced or should I simply do a disk copy over the network and/or computer to computer.  My Tower does have another Network Card which might be possible to use between computers w/o going through a switch.  Not exactly sure how but..

 

Suggestions welcomed!

 

Dave

The usual way would be to just rebuild a smaller disk onto a larger one. Were you wanting to use a different file system on the new drives?
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The usual way would be to just rebuild a smaller disk onto a larger one. Were you wanting to use a different file system on the new drives?[/Quote]

 

Hi Trurl, Yes eventually I would like to convert my 5TB to XFS or BTRFS then slowly convert the remaining drives that I retain.  My problem at the moment is having a place to put data from one of my smaller drives so that it can be removed and replaced by the 5TB Disk which could be formatted in the new System.  At that point I would start to copy all of the RFS Data (disks) over to the 5TB drive and when complete wipe the old drives & reformat them as well.

 

My first PreClear seemed to complete (can't find the log file) but it does state that /dev/sdc MBR could not be Precleared.  If I am correct (?) the MBR is irrelevant if I Format the Drive with another System - RFS/XFS/etc. 

 

Can you verify or does this indicate a problem with the disk itself since apparently nothing else was a problem (again no log file found even with Brians Fast PreClear)?

           

/boot/preclear_bjp.sh -f -A /dev/sdz

 

Thanks,

 

Dave

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The usual way would be to just rebuild a smaller disk onto a larger one. Were you wanting to use a different file system on the new drives?[/Quote]

 

Hi Trurl, Yes eventually I would like to convert my 5TB to XFS or BTRFS then slowly convert the remaining drives that I retain.  My problem at the moment is having a place to put data from one of my smaller drives so that it can be removed and replaced by the 5TB Disk which could be formatted in the new System.  At that point I would start to copy all of the RFS Data (disks) over to the 5TB drive and when complete wipe the old drives & reformat them as well.

 

My first PreClear seemed to complete (can't find the log file) but it does state that /dev/sdc MBR could not be Precleared.  If I am correct (?) the MBR is irrelevant if I Format the Drive with another System - RFS/XFS/etc. 

 

Can you verify or does this indicate a problem with the disk itself since apparently nothing else was a problem (again no log file found even with Brians Fast PreClear)?

           

/boot/preclear_bjp.sh -f -A /dev/sdz

 

Thanks,

 

Dave

I think ANY problem with the preclear is an issue. 

 

The results of the preclear run should be stored on the flash drive in the preclear_reports folder.

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Hello Guys,

I bought a new hard drive on friday and installed it on my NAS (unraid 6.0.1). it's a WD 3T (WDC_WD30EZRX-00D8PB0_WD-WMC4N0JAPE9L)

So I used preclear script in order to clear it using the web plugin (from  gfjardim). After a long pre read part (starting from 4.4Mb/s, ending à ~75MB/s), my disk went to preclear but a lot more faster (~220 MB/s).

At the end of the process, the system was weird (no possibility to see the exit of the command) so I decided to reboot and redo (withour pre / post read)

And I have this error:

================================================================== 1.15
=                unRAID server Pre-Clear disk /dev/sde
=               cycle 1 of 1, partition start on sector 1
=
= Step 1 of 10 - Copying zeros to first 2048k bytes             DONE
= Step 2 of 10 - Copying zeros to remainder of disk to clear it DONE
= Step 3 of 10 - Disk is now cleared from MBR onward.           DONE
= Step 4 of 10 - Clearing MBR bytes for partition 2,3 & 4       DONE
= Step 5 of 10 - Clearing MBR code area                         DONE
= Step 6 of 10 - Setting MBR signature bytes                    DONE
= Step 7 of 10 - Setting partition 1 to precleared state        DONE
= Step 8 of 10 - Notifying kernel we changed the partitioning   DONE
= Step 9 of 10 - Creating the /dev/disk/by* entries             DONE
= Step 10 of 10 - Verifying if the MBR is cleared.              DONE
=
Elapsed Time:  3:34:17
========================================================================1.15
==
== SORRY: Disk /dev/sde MBR could NOT be precleared
==
== out4= 00000
== out5= 00000
============================================================================
0+0 records in
0+0 records out
0 bytes (0 B) copied, 0.000240382 s, 0.0 kB/s
0000000

 

I took a look into /var/log/messages and there's huge amount of this comments:

Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sde] tag#0 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sde] tag#0 CDB: opcode=0x88 88 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 08 00 00
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: blk_update_request: 139 callbacks suppressed
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sde, sector 0
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sde] tag#0 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sde] tag#0 CDB: opcode=0x88 88 00 00 00 00 01 5d 50 a3 00 00 00 00 08 00 00
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sde, sector 5860532992
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sde] tag#0 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sde] tag#0 CDB: opcode=0x88 88 00 00 00 00 01 5d 50 a3 00 00 00 00 08 00 00
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sde, sector 5860532992
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: buffer_io_error: 134 callbacks suppressed
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sde, logical block 732566624, async page read
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sde] tag#0 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sde] tag#0 CDB: opcode=0x88 88 00 00 00 00 01 5d 50 a3 a0 00 00 00 08 00 00
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sde, sector 5860533152
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sde] tag#0 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sde] tag#0 CDB: opcode=0x88 88 00 00 00 00 01 5d 50 a3 a0 00 00 00 08 00 00
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sde, sector 5860533152
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sde, logical block 732566644, async page read
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sde] tag#0 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sde] tag#0 CDB: opcode=0x88 88 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 08 00 00
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sde, sector 0
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sde] tag#0 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sde] tag#0 CDB: opcode=0x88 88 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 08 00 00
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sde, sector 0
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sde, logical block 0, async page read
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sde] tag#0 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sde] tag#0 CDB: opcode=0x88 88 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 08 00 00
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sde, sector 8
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sde, logical block 1, async page read
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sde] tag#0 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sde] tag#0 CDB: opcode=0x88 88 00 00 00 00 01 5d 50 a3 a8 00 00 00 08 00 00
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sde, sector 5860533160
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sde, logical block 732566645, async page read
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sde] tag#0 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sde] tag#0 CDB: opcode=0x88 88 00 00 00 00 01 5d 50 a3 a8 00 00 00 08 00 00
Aug  1 13:54:19 nas kernel: blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sde, sector 5860533160

 

and also some of these errors:

Aug  1 10:21:14 nas kernel: ata2.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x1fffffff SErr 0x0 action 0x6 frozen
Aug  1 10:21:14 nas kernel: ata2.00: failed command: WRITE FPDMA QUEUED
Aug  1 10:21:14 nas kernel: ata2.00: cmd 61/e8:00:b8:b8:09/07:00:00:00:00/40 tag 0 ncq 1036288 out
Aug  1 10:21:14 nas kernel:         res 40/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
Aug  1 10:21:14 nas kernel: ata2.00: status: { DRDY }
...
Aug  1 10:21:14 nas kernel: ata2.00: status: { DRDY }
Aug  1 10:21:14 nas kernel: ata2: hard resetting link
Aug  1 10:21:24 nas kernel: ata2: softreset failed (timeout)
Aug  1 10:21:24 nas kernel: ata2: hard resetting link
Aug  1 10:21:34 nas kernel: ata2: softreset failed (timeout)
Aug  1 10:21:34 nas kernel: ata2: hard resetting link
Aug  1 10:22:09 nas kernel: ata2: softreset failed (timeout)
Aug  1 10:22:09 nas kernel: ata2: limiting SATA link speed to 1.5 Gbps
Aug  1 10:22:09 nas kernel: ata2: hard resetting link
Aug  1 10:22:14 nas kernel: ata2: softreset failed (timeout)
Aug  1 10:22:14 nas kernel: ata2: reset failed, giving up
Aug  1 10:22:14 nas kernel: ata2.00: disabled
Aug  1 10:22:14 nas kernel: ata2.00: device reported invalid CHS sector 0
...
Aug  1 10:22:14 nas kernel: ata2: EH complete
Aug  1 10:22:14 nas kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sde] tag#0 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=0x00
Aug  1 10:22:14 nas kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sde] tag#0 CDB: opcode=0x8a 8a 00 00 00 00 00 00 09 b0 d0 00 00 07 e8 00 00
Aug  1 10:22:14 nas kernel: blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sde, sector 635088
Aug  1 10:22:14 nas kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sde, logical block 79386, lost async page write
Aug  1 10:22:14 nas kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sde, logical block 79387, lost async page write
Aug  1 10:22:14 nas kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sde, logical block 79388, lost async page write
Aug  1 10:22:14 nas kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sde, logical block 79389, lost async page write
Aug  1 10:22:14 nas kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sde, logical block 79390, lost async page write
Aug  1 10:22:14 nas kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sde, logical block 79391, lost async page write
Aug  1 10:22:14 nas kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sde, logical block 79392, lost async page write
Aug  1 10:22:14 nas kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sde, logical block 79393, lost async page write
Aug  1 10:22:14 nas kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sde, logical block 79394, lost async page write
Aug  1 10:22:14 nas kernel: Buffer I/O error on dev sde, logical block 79395, lost async page write

 

 

 

Any clue of what happened? Do I have to RMA the disk?

 

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Too early to tell without the right info.  We need to see the full syslog and the SMART reports for the drive.  Please see Need help? Read me first!, and attach the diagnostics zip.  It includes the SMART reports and a complete syslog.  When there are disk errors, you always want to see the very first ones, the rest are usually just after effects of the initial failure.  From what I can see above, the drive lost contact with the system, and the kernel disabled it.  Typically, there's nothing wrong with the drive in that situation, but we cannot say for sure without seeing the earliest errors.

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Too early to tell without the right info.  We need to see the full syslog and the SMART reports for the drive.  Please see Need help? Read me first!, and attach the diagnostics zip.  It includes the SMART reports and a complete syslog.  When there are disk errors, you always want to see the very first ones, the rest are usually just after effects of the initial failure.  From what I can see above, the drive lost contact with the system, and the kernel disabled it.  Typically, there's nothing wrong with the drive in that situation, but we cannot say for sure without seeing the earliest errors.

 

Hello Robj.

First, Thank you for answering. Second, I didn't saw the "Read Me first" and I apologize for that.

In order to check if the issue was from the disk or for any other stuff, I've started a preclear on a spare drive (1Tb this one). So I had to reboot...

I'll wait for the preclear to be finished and I'll start back the preclear on the 3Tb (because it's so far so good on the 1Tb disk).

And I'll create a topic accordingly.

 

Thanks again,

Sylvain

 

 

 

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/boot/preclear_bjp.sh -f -A -D /dev/sdz

 

Thanks,

 

Dave

I think ANY problem with the preclear is an issue. 

 

The results of the preclear run should be stored on the flash drive in the preclear_reports folder.

 

Hi Guys,

 

From ~ 10 days ago, I wrote about my problem PreClearing a 5TB drive with a V6 key using a separate computer.  The first drive got all the way through 2x but indicated that it could not Preclear the MBR, hence itimpi's comment. 

 

I've checked, no log reports at all.  After rebooting and adding the PreClear Plugin & Script, I started over several times but at some point 20+ hours into Preclear the drive/system disconnect (lose communication with the drive) rendering Preclear useless. 

 

This has now happened to a new 2nd 5TB Drive (fresh out of the box).  Anyone have a thought?

 

Dave

 

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/boot/preclear_bjp.sh -f -A -D /dev/sdz

 

Thanks,

 

Dave

I think ANY problem with the preclear is an issue. 

 

The results of the preclear run should be stored on the flash drive in the preclear_reports folder.

 

Hi Guys,

 

From ~ 10 days ago, I wrote about my problem PreClearing a 5TB drive with a V6 key using a separate computer.  The first drive got all the way through 2x but indicated that it could not Preclear the MBR, hence itimpi's comment. 

 

I've checked, no log reports at all.  After rebooting and adding the PreClear Plugin & Script, I started over several times but at some point 20+ hours into Preclear the drive/system disconnect (lose communication with the drive) rendering Preclear useless. 

 

This has now happened to a new 2nd 5TB Drive (fresh out of the box).  Anyone have a thought?

 

Dave

Yes,

 

your drive is losing contact with the disk controller.

 

You are lucky you are discovering the issue before you start loading your data to the drive.

 

In many cases in the past, the issue was poor or intermittent SATA cabling to the drive, or an intermittent power splitter or power connection, or intermittent drive tray, or back-plane,  or a power supply inadequate for the number of drives connected.  Occasionally, it was traced to a flaky SATA controller port.

 

What exact power supply are you using?  How many disks are being powered from it?

 

Do not get confused by the preclear report stating it could not clear the MBR.  It must write a protective MBR to the drive, for older utilities that expect it to be there, even though the actual partition is located further up on the disk.  Apparently, at the point where the MBR is being written the drive is already not communicating with the disk controller. (So no writes to the drive would work, regardless of what they were for)

 

 

 

Joe L.

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Yes,

 

your drive is losing contact with the disk controller.

 

You are lucky you are discovering the issue before you start loading your data to the drive.

 

In many cases in the past, the issue was poor or intermittent SATA cabling to the drive, or an intermittent power splitter or power connection, or intermittent drive tray, or back-plane,  or a power supply inadequate for the number of drives connected.  Occasionally, it was traced to a flaky SATA controller port.

 

What exact power supply are you using?  How many disks are being powered from it?

 

Do not get confused by the preclear report stating it could not clear the MBR.  It must write a protective MBR to the drive, for older utilities that expect it to be there, even though the actual partition is located further up on the disk.  Apparently, at the point where the MBR is being written the drive is already not communicating with the disk controller. (So no writes to the drive would work, regardless of what they were for)

 

Joe L.

 

 

Thanks Joe :o, my Bad!

 

I was cobbling together a Power Supply from an old box then tried to link it to a newer system (64 Bit capable), so I'm guessing that you are correct.  I started it over this morning directly in the new box w/only the USB and the 5TB drive to be PreCleared (the 2nd one).  This time I invoked the command from Root so even though I can see it via the UnRaid App, it does not show me the details via a window.  Its at about 16+ Hours Zeroing & registering at 2% - 38 MB/s in the online window and same on the Console.  If its still up tomorrow, then the PS was exactly the problem and the other drive may in fact be ok.

 

Using the command line, it seems to only run 1 cycle in 10 steps after reading the drive.  Will that be enough to adequately PreClear the disk or assuming that this works, should I run it again through multiple cycles via the PlugIn?

 

Thanks for the response, will keep you in the loop!

 

Dave

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Yes,

 

your drive is losing contact with the disk controller.

 

You are lucky you are discovering the issue before you start loading your data to the drive.

 

In many cases in the past, the issue was poor or intermittent SATA cabling to the drive, or an intermittent power splitter or power connection, or intermittent drive tray, or back-plane,  or a power supply inadequate for the number of drives connected.  Occasionally, it was traced to a flaky SATA controller port.

 

What exact power supply are you using?  How many disks are being powered from it?

 

Do not get confused by the preclear report stating it could not clear the MBR.  It must write a protective MBR to the drive, for older utilities that expect it to be there, even though the actual partition is located further up on the disk.  Apparently, at the point where the MBR is being written the drive is already not communicating with the disk controller. (So no writes to the drive would work, regardless of what they were for)

 

Joe L.

 

 

Thanks Joe :o, my Bad!

 

I was cobbling together a Power Supply from an old box then tried to link it to a newer system (64 Bit capable), so I'm guessing that you are correct.  I started it over this morning directly in the new box w/only the USB and the 5TB drive to be PreCleared (the 2nd one).  This time I invoked the command from Root so even though I can see it via the UnRaid App, it does not show me the details via a window.  Its at about 16+ Hours Zeroing & registering at 2% - 38 MB/s in the online window and same on the Console.  If its still up tomorrow, then the PS was exactly the problem and the other drive may in fact be ok.

 

Using the command line, it seems to only run 1 cycle in 10 steps after reading the drive.  Will that be enough to adequately PreClear the disk or assuming that this works, should I run it again through multiple cycles via the PlugIn?

 

Thanks for the response, will keep you in the loop!

 

Dave

 

Hi Joe,

 

Well tried to post again this morning but ran out of time!  It quit again on the newer good Windows 7 box (no win7 drives attached but using its PS/Controller).  It seemed to fail somewhere around 20+ hours and lose contact with the Drive.  I "captured" the Syslog (zip) and a screen shot of the System, but when I tried to attach it to this post, it "blew-up".  Will try again now and hope that you or someone else can dissect the problem.  I find it hard to believe that 2 "new" drives would have the same issue/problem fresh out of the box.

 

Dave :o

 

OOPS - Both the Screen Shot 300KB & SysLog.zip 462KB are larger than allowed.  Happy to provide another way if available.

 

8/16 Update:

 

Hi Joe,

 

Per your analysis I found another PCIe SATA Controller and put it into the "Windows" Machine and was able to PreClear the 1st Drive with 3 full cycles & no problems.  In the meantime I tried to PreClear the 2nd inside of my UnRaid but it failed.  I'm guessing that it was too much for the Chip or Power Supply or simultaneous Parity Check (???:-\).  Now that the first drive has cleared Parity, I'm re-doing the 2nd in the Windows Machine and we'll see the results.  Parity Sync followed by Parity Check is currently being run on the 1st Drive in my UnRaid V6.

 

Thanks!  Dave

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  • 2 weeks later...

 

Hi Joe,

 

Well tried to post again this morning but ran out of time!  It quit again on the newer good Windows 7 box (no win7 drives attached but using its PS/Controller).  It seemed to fail somewhere around 20+ hours and lose contact with the Drive.  I "captured" the Syslog (zip) and a screen shot of the System, but when I tried to attach it to this post, it "blew-up".  Will try again now and hope that you or someone else can dissect the problem.  I find it hard to believe that 2 "new" drives would have the same issue/problem fresh out of the box.

 

Dave :o

 

OOPS - Both the Screen Shot 300KB & SysLog.zip 462KB are larger than allowed.  Happy to provide another way if available.

 

8/16 Update:

 

Hi Joe,

 

Per your analysis I found another PCIe SATA Controller and put it into the "Windows" Machine and was able to PreClear the 1st Drive with 3 full cycles & no problems.  In the meantime I tried to PreClear the 2nd inside of my UnRaid but it failed.  I'm guessing that it was too much for the Chip or Power Supply or simultaneous Parity Check (???:-\).  Now that the first drive has cleared Parity, I'm re-doing the 2nd in the Windows Machine and we'll see the results.  Parity Sync followed by Parity Check is currently being run on the 1st Drive in my UnRaid V6.

 

Thanks!  Dave

 

Update #2 - Weird Issue ::)

 

On Sunday the 2nd Disk completed the 1st Cycle PreClear, then failed before starting the 2nd/3rd.  No Report was written to the Flash PreClear Documents file (sorry) but I saw it say that everything Passed & was Done up to the last line saying PreClear Failed (happened to be watching!).

 

Now the strange problem: 

 

My initial or 1st Drive seemed to exhibit a similar problem so I was not particularly worried, albeit frustrated at the loss of time but...  So I decided I would just re-boot (when the drive fails preclear it ceases to be seen) and low and behold the Windows machine would not boot off any USB stick regardless of location and/or Boot Selection attempt???  Very strange behavior, I finally re-attached my Windows HD and booted successfully, then totally cleared the 2nd 5TB Drive thinking that something was amiss.  Still no change despite 3 different valid USB bootable sticks.

 

Finally this evening, I went into the Bios again and "Restored Default Settings" and low & behold UnRaid now Boots and I've re-started the PreClear Plug-In.

 

So the "burning" question is How Did PreClear Failure somehow write "code" to the BIOS!  Is there anything that this will do to a system in the future?

 

Joe, BJP999, have fun with this one! ???

 

Dave

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Now the strange problem: 

 

My initial or 1st Drive seemed to exhibit a similar problem so I was not particularly worried, albeit frustrated at the loss of time but...  So I decided I would just re-boot (when the drive fails preclear it ceases to be seen) and low and behold the Windows machine would not boot off any USB stick regardless of location and/or Boot Selection attempt???  Very strange behavior, I finally re-attached my Windows HD and booted successfully, then totally cleared the 2nd 5TB Drive thinking that something was amiss.  Still no change despite 3 different valid USB bootable sticks.

 

Finally this evening, I went into the Bios again and "Restored Default Settings" and low & behold UnRaid now Boots and I've re-started the PreClear Plug-In.

 

So the "burning" question is How Did PreClear Failure somehow write "code" to the BIOS!  Is there anything that this will do to a system in the future?

 

First, no software (including Preclear) writes to the BIOS.

 

This is actually a common problem with many motherboards.  Whenever you change the installed drives list for the system, the BIOS may decide to "help" you, and reorder the boot order so that the most likely hard drive will be booted, which is usually NOT the USB drive you had configured!  You did the right thing by going into the BIOS and correcting the boot order, making sure the right drive is booted, not what the BIOS *thinks* is the right drive.

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Now the strange problem: 

 

My initial or 1st Drive seemed to exhibit a similar problem so I was not particularly worried, albeit frustrated at the loss of time but...  So I decided I would just re-boot (when the drive fails preclear it ceases to be seen) and low and behold the Windows machine would not boot off any USB stick regardless of location and/or Boot Selection attempt???  Very strange behavior, I finally re-attached my Windows HD and booted successfully, then totally cleared the 2nd 5TB Drive thinking that something was amiss.  Still no change despite 3 different valid USB bootable sticks.

 

Finally this evening, I went into the Bios again and "Restored Default Settings" and low & behold UnRaid now Boots and I've re-started the PreClear Plug-In.

 

So the "burning" question is How Did PreClear Failure somehow write "code" to the BIOS!  Is there anything that this will do to a system in the future?

 

First, no software (including Preclear) writes to the BIOS.

 

This is actually a common problem with many motherboards.  Whenever you change the installed drives list for the system, the BIOS may decide to "help" you, and reorder the boot order so that the most likely hard drive will be booted, which is usually NOT the USB drive you had configured!  You did the right thing by going into the BIOS and correcting the boot order, making sure the right drive is booted, not what the BIOS *thinks* is the right drive.

 

Thanks Rob - I agree in a sense, but I actually selected a "seen" USB Bootable Hard Drive and it/they still failed.  Maybe the Bios still changed it to the Cleared (not PreCleared) hard drive as it showed "no Bootable disc found".

 

Still an interesting and "freaky" thing to witness.  It worked fine until the PreClear "failed" then would not boot until it was reset.

 

Dave

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