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


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Joe, how much memory intensive is one running preclear process?

It depends on what you mean....  It will use ALL of your memory, since most likely any of your hard disks have more capacity than your RAM.  Since it is reading/writing through the entire disk it is the worst case scenario for the disk buffer cache... hardly any buffer memory gets re-used so it will fill to capacity before any gets re-allocated because it has been idle the longest.

 

By default, it uses a fairly large block size when writing to the disk, but you can use options to make that smaller if you are running many concurrently, at the cost of running longer.

 

Those options are:

      -w size  = write block size in bytes

 

      -r size  = read block size in bytes

 

      -b count = number of blocks to read at a time

 

The write block size is 2048k, the read block size is one cylinder of your disk at a time, as reported by fdisk -l and it reads 200 blocks at a time (200 cylinders)

 

Joe L.

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I was asking, because I get this problem

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=6557.msg63956#msg63956

 

on a system that only has 1GB RAM *and* is preclearing a disk at the same time. The setup is the same as on another system with 4GB RAM and there I don't get the Java error. And Java is pretty memory intensive too...

 

The ldd command on that page shows a lof of the libraries needed by the Java RTE are not present

 

{main} java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: /usr/lib/java/lib/i386/xawt/libmawt.so: libXext.so.6: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

 

I have the jre-6u11-i586-1.tgz installed. Package URL is

http://slackware.cs.utah.edu/pub/slackware/slackware-12.2/slackware/l/jre-6u11-i586-1.tgz

 

$ ls -l /usr/lib/java/lib/i386/xawt/libmawt.so

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 348588 2008-11-10 11:57 /usr/lib/java/lib/i386/xawt/libmawt.so*

 

$ ldd /usr/lib/java/lib/i386/xawt/libmawt.so

        linux-gate.so.1 =>  (0xb7771000)

        libpthread.so.0 => /lib/libpthread.so.0 (0xb770f000)

        libm.so.6 => /lib/libm.so.6 (0xb76e9000)

        libawt.so => /usr/lib/java/lib/i386/xawt/../libawt.so (0xb7643000)

        libXext.so.6 => not found

        libX11.so.6 => not found

        libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0xb763e000)

        libXtst.so.6 => not found

        libXi.so.6 => not found

        libjava.so => /usr/lib/java/lib/i386/xawt/../libjava.so (0xb7619000)

      libjvm.so => not found

        libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0xb74cc000)

        /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0xb7772000)

        libjvm.so => not found

        libjvm.so => not found

        libverify.so => /usr/lib/java/lib/i386/xawt/../libverify.so (0xb74c0000)

        libnsl.so.1 => /lib/libnsl.so.1 (0xb74a7000)

      libjvm.so => not found

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I have noticed that but I have the same situation on the second unRAID system that Java runs fine and doesn't throw that error! This is a standard Java/JRE install, same as if installed from unMenu's Package Manager, it is the same install and ldd would show the same...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Can I preclear 2 drives simultaneously?

 

Is the most up-to-date preclear in the 1st post?

 

All parts arrived... stating to build my first unRAID...

 

 

Yes, use two telnet sessions, or two virtual consoles. (Alt-F1 through Alt-F6 lets you switch between 6 of them on the system console)

 

And yes.  Most current is attached to the first post.

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Joe,

 

I'm currently pre-clearing a new 2T disk.  The post read is going way slower than the pre-read or

zeroing phase.  I averaged about 70MB/s for the first 2 and now I'm getting about 30MB/s (the display still say 85-95MB/s which is also weird)

 

Is this normal with the new zero checking?

 

Thanks,

 

Jim

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Joe,

 

I'm currently pre-clearing a new 2T disk.  The post read is going way slower than the pre-read or

zeroing phase.  I averaged about 70MB/s for the first 2 and now I'm getting about 30MB/s (the display still say 85-95MB/s which is also weird)

 

Is this normal with the new zero checking?

 

Thanks,

 

Jim

Yes, quite normal. It is because it is now  verifying the contents of what it has written to be all zeros.  That is only possible in the post-read phase.  In the pre-read phase, it was not looking at the contents returned.  It therefore could go faster.
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Yes, quite normal. It is because it is now  verifying the contents of what it has written to be all zeros.  That is only possible in the post-read phase.  In the pre-read phase, it was not looking at the contents returned.  It therefore could go faster.

That's what I thought and was hoping for...  Now I'm going to have to wait ~6 extra hours for the test to finish!

 

Jim

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Wow it took ~52 hours for the 2T to finish.  I added a second disk (also 2T) to the mix so that probably added some time!

Results posted in the pre-clear results.  No questions..  just FYI...

 

Now on to replacing my parity and removing two 500GB drives (One is PATA)  And since when did 500GB drive become small to me! :D

 

Thanks again for the great script!

 

Jim

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So, I'm not having much luck with Samsung drives. I sent onde for RMA some months ago and now that I bought four more, one of them gave me this report with preclear script

 

Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: smartctl version 5.38 [i486-slackware-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: === START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: Device Model: SAMSUNG HD203WI
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: Serial Number: S1UYJ1KZ303392
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: Firmware Version: 1AN10002
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: User Capacity: 2,000,398,934,016 bytes
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: ATA Version is: 8
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: ATA Standard is: Not recognized. Minor revision code: 0x28
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: Local Time is: Tue Jun 15 17:10:49 2010 GMT
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: ==> WARNING: May need -F samsung or -F samsung2 enabled; see manual for details.
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: SMART support is: Enabled
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: === START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: General SMART Values:
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: Offline data collection status: (0x00)^IOffline data collection activity
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: ^I^I^I^I^Iwas never started.
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: ^I^I^I^I^IAuto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: Self-test execution status: ( 0)^IThe previous self-test routine completed
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: ^I^I^I^I^Iwithout error or no self-test has ever 
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: ^I^I^I^I^Ibeen run.
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: Total time to complete Offline 
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: data collection: ^I^I (25740) seconds.
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: Offline data collection
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: capabilities: ^I^I^I (0x5b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: ^I^I^I^I^IAuto Offline data collection on/off support.
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: ^I^I^I^I^ISuspend Offline collection upon new
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: ^I^I^I^I^Icommand.
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: ^I^I^I^I^IOffline surface scan supported.
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: ^I^I^I^I^ISelf-test supported.
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: ^I^I^I^I^INo Conveyance Self-test supported.
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: ^I^I^I^I^ISelective Self-test supported.
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: SMART capabilities: (0x0003)^ISaves SMART data before entering
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: ^I^I^I^I^Ipower-saving mode.
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: ^I^I^I^I^ISupports SMART auto save timer.
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: Error logging capability: (0x01)^IError logging supported.
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: ^I^I^I^I^IGeneral Purpose Logging supported.
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: Short self-test routine 
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: recommended polling time: ^I ( 2) minutes.
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: Extended self-test routine
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: recommended polling time: ^I ( 255) minutes.
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: SCT capabilities: ^I (0x003f)^ISCT Status supported.
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: ^I^I^I^I^ISCT Feature Control supported.
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: ^I^I^I^I^ISCT Data Table supported.
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x002f 100 100 051 Pre-fail Always - 390
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 2 Throughput_Performance 0x0026 252 252 000 Old_age Always - 0
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0023 062 062 025 Pre-fail Always - 11768
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 3
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 010 Pre-fail Always - 61
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x002e 252 252 051 Old_age Always - 0
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 8 Seek_Time_Performance 0x0024 252 252 015 Old_age Offline - 0
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 40
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0032 252 252 051 Old_age Always - 0
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032 252 252 000 Old_age Always - 0
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 3
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 191 G-Sense_Error_Rate 0x0022 252 252 000 Old_age Always - 0
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0022 252 252 000 Old_age Always - 0
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered 0x003a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 61
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0032 252 252 000 Old_age Always - 0
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0030 252 252 000 Old_age Offline - 0
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x0036 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x002a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 174
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 223 Load_Retry_Count 0x0032 252 252 000 Old_age Always - 0
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 225 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 5
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: SMART Error Log Version: 1
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: No Errors Logged
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: No self-tests have been logged. [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: SMART Selective Self-Test Log Data Structure Revision Number (0) should be 1
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 0
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: Warning: ATA Specification requires selective self-test log data structure revision number = 1
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 1 0 0 Completed [00% left] (0-65535)
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 2 0 0 Not_testing
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 3 0 0 Not_testing
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 4 0 0 Not_testing
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 5 0 0 Not_testing
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: Selective self-test flags (0x0):
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-finish[29189]: 
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: ============================================================================
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: ==
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: == Disk /dev/sdl has been successfully precleared
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: ==
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: == Ran 1 preclear-disk cycle
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: ==
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: == Using :Read block size = 8225280 Bytes
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: == Last Cycle's Pre Read Time : 7:34:47 (73 MB/s)
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: == Last Cycle's Zeroing time : 7:18:11 (76 MB/s)
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: == Last Cycle's Post Read Time : 15:17:32 (36 MB/s)
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: == Last Cycle's Total Time : 30:11:58
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: ==
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: == Total Elapsed Time 30:11:58
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: ==
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: ==
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: ============================================================================
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: S.M.A.R.T. error count differences detected after pre-clear 
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: note, some 'raw' values may change, but not be an indication of a problem
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: 55c55
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: < 1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x002f 252 252 051 Pre-fail Always - 0
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: ---
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: > 1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x002f 100 100 051 Pre-fail Always - 390
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: 59c59
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: < 5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 252 252 010 Pre-fail Always - 0
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: ---
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: > 5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 010 Pre-fail Always - 61
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: 67,68c67,68
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: < 195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered 0x003a 252 252 000 Old_age Always 
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: < 196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 252 252 000 Old_age Always - 0
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: ---
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: > 195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered 0x003a 100 100 000 Old_age Always 
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: > 196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 61
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: 72c72
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: < 200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x002a 252 252 000 Old_age Always - 0
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: ---
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: > 200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x002a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 174 
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: ============================================================================
Jun 15 17:10:50 Tower preclear_disk-diff[29202]: 

 

If I understand correctly, 61 Reallocated Sectors by the end of preclear... Should I sent this drive back or is "61 ok"?

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You can't read anything into the RAW values at the end of the lines.  What you want to see is any changes in the initial 2 values versus the final two values for a given parameter.  In this case, it looks like your drive is fine.  252 basically means "virgin" drive, 100 usually means initialized.  Btw, this really should be posted in the results thread.

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You can't read anything into the RAW values at the end of the lines.  What you want to see is any changes in the initial 2 values versus the final two values for a given parameter.  In this case, it looks like your drive is fine.  252 basically means "virgin" drive, 100 usually means initialized.  Btw, this really should be posted in the results thread.

There are a handful of lines where the raw number is significant or can be interpreted by someone other than the mnufacturer.  Re-allocated sectors is one of them, as are sectors pending re-allocation, and temperature, and a few others.

 

I'd run another pre-clear on the drive, if the value continues to increase, and you are not in a rush to use the drive, RMA it.  Otherwise, keep an eye on it if you put it in the array.  History has shown that a drive is more likely to fail once re-allocations begin, but if these are the re-allocations initially discovered, and they do not change over time, you'll probably be fine.  Modern drive typically have several thousand spare sectors.    I have one drive that has had the same 100 sectors re-allocated since I did my initial pre-clear on it.  They might have been there from before even, since the drive saw service in an external USB case previously.  All I know is that the number is not increasing over time.

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Ok, I ran this on an IDE drive at the same time a Sata drive was running. I noticed the heat spiked on the Sata Drive so I grabbed 80MM fan and placed it right in front of the SATA drive. Shortly afterwords I could of sworn the IDE drive was making a clicking sound, but I wasn't sure if the drive decided to die of it was my stupidity of messing with things while it was running. I stopped the pre-clear on the IDE and then decided to give it another run. This is what I see when I try it.

===========================================================================
=                unRAID server Pre-Clear disk /dev/hda
=                       cycle 1 of 1
= Disk Pre-Read in progress: % complete
= (   bytes of    read )
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
Elapsed Time:  0:00:00
./preclear_disk.sh: line 550: 1+(  580059647)%() : syntax error: operand expected (error token is ") ")
============================================================================
==
== Disk /dev/hda has been successfully precleared
==
============================================================================
root@Tower:/boot#

 

I know that isn't right since it really hadn't had much time to run. It is only a 12gig disk, but I was using it as a test gineau pig just so I can do some parity stuff and see what damage I could do to the array. I figured I'd beat up a 120 Sata, 12gig IDE and a 40gig IDE. Well that was the plan at least.

 

My 120gig disk seems to be still going strong.

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Of course I just tried to run fdisk and well it says it can't read the disk. OH boy......

 

root@Tower:/boot# fdisk /dev/hda

Unable to read /dev/hda
root@Tower:/boot#

 

Sorry for clogging up what seems like a great thread and I know this is trival since its a tiny drive and all and maybe its just a bad drive, but I could of sworn this ran fine the last time I pulled it out. As soon as my preclear of the other drive I have running finishes I'll give the machine a reboot and take another look.

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Of course I just tried to run fdisk and well it says it can't read the disk. OH boy......

 

root@Tower:/boot# fdisk /dev/hda

Unable to read /dev/hda
root@Tower:/boot#

 

Sorry for clogging up what seems like a great thread and I know this is trival since its a tiny drive and all and maybe its just a bad drive, but I could of sworn this ran fine the last time I pulled it out. As soon as my preclear of the other drive I have running finishes I'll give the machine a reboot and take another look.

It could be that one of the cables to the drive is loose, or you have a bad splitter.

Or... it could be that you saved yourself from the pain of having to deal with a disk that was going to die soon after you installed it in the array. 

 

To see if it is alive you can try

hdparm /dev/hda

or

smartctl -d ata -a /dev/hda

or

fdisk -l /dev/hda

 

 

Joe L.

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Sorry guys. Looks like I'm an idiot. It was plugged in and it looks like I had a bad splitter. I was snug enough to read at first and then started giving me errors. Ran through fine after a reboot.

 

Looks like these two IDE's I'm messing with our Dinosaurs anyways I'm guessing one might even be a 5400RPM LOL. Sata ripped through the preclear around 40-49MB, but these things are taking forever around 19MB. Like you said Joe L these drives are probably not even worth the effort, but at least I get to tinker with your script some which works pretty well and get lost in the settings for a bit until my other hardware arrives.

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Sorry to bother but what does this mean?

Is the disk BaD

 

===========================================================================

=                unRAID server Pre-Clear disk /dev/hdb

=                      cycle 1 of 1

= Disk Pre-Clear-Read completed                                DONE

= 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 - Testing if the clear has been successful.    DONE

= Disk Post-Clear-Read completed                                DONE

Disk Temperature: 25C, Elapsed Time:  8:42:10

===========================================================================          =

==

== Disk /dev/hdb has been successfully precleared

==

===========================================================================          =

S.M.A.R.T. error count differences detected after pre-clear

note, some 'raw' values may change, but not be an indication of a problem

54c54

<  8 Seek_Time_Performance  0x0027  250  240  187    Pre-fail  Always                -      56724

---

>  8 Seek_Time_Performance  0x0027  252  240  187    Pre-fail  Always                -      35789

64c64

< 199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0008  174  023  000    Old_age  Offline                -      173

---

> 199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0008  175  023  000    Old_age  Offline                -      173

===========================================================================         

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Sorry to bother but what does this mean?

Is the disk BaD

 

===========================================================================

=                unRAID server Pre-Clear disk /dev/hdb

=                       cycle 1 of 1

= Disk Pre-Clear-Read completed                                 DONE

= 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 - Testing if the clear has been successful.     DONE

= Disk Post-Clear-Read completed                                DONE

Disk Temperature: 25C, Elapsed Time:  8:42:10

===========================================================================          =

==

== Disk /dev/hdb has been successfully precleared

==

===========================================================================          =

S.M.A.R.T. error count differences detected after pre-clear

note, some 'raw' values may change, but not be an indication of a problem

54c54

<   8 Seek_Time_Performance   0x0027   250   240   187    Pre-fail  Always                 -       56724

---

>   8 Seek_Time_Performance   0x0027   252   240   187    Pre-fail  Always                 -       35789

64c64

< 199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0008   174   023   000    Old_age   Offline                -       173

---

> 199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0008   175   023   000    Old_age   Offline                -       173

===========================================================================         

It indicates you did not bother to read any of the posts where it has been described how to interpret the results.  There is an entire thread for pre-clear results... you probably did not yet investigate it.

 

You cannot tell if the disk is good or bad from the output you posted.  It is a "diff" of the smart report before pre-clearing and after.

 

If the disk was bad to begin with, and is still bad, you would have no indication, because it was not different.

 

It does indicate the pre-clear was successful.  Other than that, you need to read the full smart reports and learn how to interpret the normalized value against the "threshold" value for the various parameters. Odds are your disk is perfectly healthy.

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When doing a multi pass preclear I am wondering if there is any benifit to doing a preread for passes 2-n? Considering that a post read/verify just finished does doing another read pass before the write pass contribute to the processes? Running multi pass preclears on 2TB drives takes a long time.

 

Regardless, thanks Joe for a great utility. I added six precleared drives (2x1.5TB & 4x1TB) to my array with only a few minutes of down time. I also ran all six preclears at the same time. Worked perfectly.

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When doing a multi pass preclear I am wondering if there is any benifit to doing a preread for passes 2-n? Considering that a post read/verify just finished does doing another read pass before the write pass contribute to the processes? Running multi pass preclears on 2TB drives takes a long time.

[/qiote]Agreed, I just have not had the opportunity to modify the script to skip that pre-read portion of the process on subsequent passes.

Regardless, thanks Joe for a great utility. I added six precleared drives (2x1.5TB & 4x1TB) to my array with only a few minutes of down time. I also ran all six preclears at the same time. Worked perfectly.

That is the whole idea.  I know it takes a long time with the larger 2TB drives.  I doubt it will get better when we get 3 and 4TB drives available in the next year or so.  At least your array down-time was minimized.

 

Joe L.

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Sorry I am new at this and some results seem confusing this is the only drive that has any bad indication but it seems to work. I tryed to use it as a Cashe drive but I saw no preformance increse so I am considering to remove it or to use it as a data drive.

I will try to read more into the past posts nextime.

 

Thank you.

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Sorry I am new at this and some results seem confusing this is the only drive that has any bad indication but it seems to work. I tryed to use it as a Cashe drive but I saw no performance increase so I am considering to remove it or to use it as a data drive.

I will try to read more into the past posts nextime.

 

Thank you.

A cache drive will ONLY improve speeds in writing to the array and ONLY if you assign a cache drive AND also enable it on each of the user-shares you wish to use it.  It will have no effect on performance when reading from the array.

 

The most recent versions of unRAID can reach write speeds of 40MB/s when writing to the disk shares. When the cache drive concept was added to unRAID it was much lower, closer to 8 to 12 MB/s, and barely able to keep up with live recording of a transport stream from a broadcast tuner.  The cache drive was a band-aid to allow those who needed the bit of extra speed when writing to the array.  It has never been mandatory to have one and many, like myself, do not.

 

Joe L.

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