Run it with the -n parameter and it will only zero the drive and write the signature.  I do that all the time when I transfer drives from one unRAID server to the other.

 

Thank you!

Run it with the -n parameter and it will only zero the drive and write the signature.  I do that all the time when I transfer drives from one unRAID server to the other.

 

Thank you!

It will NOT find the un-readable sectors when using that option, so just be aware of the risks. 

(Far more likely to suffer read errors (un-correctable-media-errors) once put online)

]It will NOT find the un-readable sectors when using that option, so just be aware of the risks. 

(Far more likely to suffer read errors (un-correctable-media-errors) once put online)

 

True -- however, if it's a "known working drive" that's been in use and is known to be in good shape, it's MUCH faster to (a) do a preclear with the -n parameter;  ((b) add it to the array; and then © run a parity check => something you should do anyway when adding a new drive, and that WILL find any unreadable sectors 

I'm splitting up my raid 0 parity. I'm pretty sure those drives are good. thanks for the warning.

]It will NOT find the un-readable sectors when using that option, so just be aware of the risks. 

(Far more likely to suffer read errors (un-correctable-media-errors) once put online)

 

True -- however, if it's a "known working drive" that's been in use and is known to be in good shape, it's MUCH faster to (a) do a preclear with the -n parameter;  ((b) add it to the array; and then © run a parity check => something you should do anyway when adding a new drive, and that WILL find any unreadable sectors 

good point.

Is there anything like preclear or another burn-in utility for HDDs that runs under Windows?

 

Trying to help out my brother who has a new Netgear ReadyNAS. He doesn't have unRAID and no spare PC that he could even temporarily run it on. Besides, any sort of linux command line stuff would scare him away.

Is there anything like preclear or another burn-in utility for HDDs that runs under Windows?

Traditionally, the `badblocks` command from the e2fsprogs package is used to torture-test new disks. (google linux man badblocks).

badblocks  -vsw  /dev/sdX

With the default settings, the final pass will leave the disk cleared to all zeros.

 

On Windows, you could run that command in Cygwin.

Still too scary for him I think. I may as well just have him boot unRAID off a flash drive and use preclear.

 

Maybe I should have specified something with a GUI.

Maybe I should have specified something with a GUI.

Something with a GUI... You can make a bootable USB disk with PMagic, that's the swiss army knife for everything disk related.

Great idea! Does Parted Magic have something in particular that can be used as a "burn-in" or stress test?

 

Thinking of pmagic made me think about ultimate bootcd as another possibility. Although most of those utilities don't have a GUI, they are usually sufficiently automated that he'd be ok. Maybe.

So whilst preclearing a 4TB the other day, I ran into a kernel panic - I'd never had one before or since, so I'm going to imagine it was related to the preclear...

 

Kicking myself for not saving the log/other information, but was trying to get the unraid back up in time to watch the Newsroom finale with my wife while our baby was asleep

 

Is there a flag I should be using to limit memory use? More concerned with stability than speed of the preclear...

 

Is there a flag I should be using to limit memory use?

yes.

 

There are -b -r and -w options.

I got some new 3tb WD Reds in today. I was planning on pre-clearing them one at a time. The caveat is I have only 6 SATA ports on my Unraid system and all are occupied by drives in the array. I do have an external usb dual bay SATA drive caddy. Is it possible to plug that in to my Unraid system and use that to pre-clear the drives? Or is there any tool like pre-clear I can use in Windows?

 

EDIT:

I was able to mount the drive in the caddy using the SNAP plugin. This allowed my to run preclear on the new drive.

What would cause the preclear speed to be reported incorrectly on the WebGUI?

What would cause the preclear speed to be reported incorrectly on the WebGUI?

  The preclear script HAS NO WEB GUI.  It is correctly reporting the read-speed of the disk.  That figure does not include the time needed to verify the read results, that may be the difference.

 

  The WebGui has absolutely nothing to do with the preclear script.  You'll have to talk to its author.  It is incorrectly reporting the read speed of the disk.

I know the script has nothing to do with the WebGUI, it's just a script   I was hoping you'd have seen this before and had an idea of what might be causing the speed to be reported incorrectly. In any case, it's just as easy to log into the server and stare at the CLI.

 

But, it's on its second cycle and the speed is looking correct for step 2.

ETA: Just saw there's a dedicated results thread.

Joe L.

 

Will this script run properly on the new 64 bit version of unRAID?  (I know that none  of the current plugins  will work but I thought that it might be possible that a script might work.)

Joe L.

 

Will this script run properly on the new 64 bit version of unRAID?  (I know that none  of the current plugins  will work but I thought that it might be possible that a script might work.)

Yes, it should work.  It simply uses utilities that should be supplied with the stock unRAID.

Joe L.

 

Will this script run properly on the new 64 bit version of unRAID?  (I know that none  of the current plugins  will work but I thought that it might be possible that a script might work.)

Yes, it should work.  It simply uses utilities that should be supplied with the stock unRAID.

 

Good news.  I will test as soon as someone gets the apcupsd package recompiled for use with ver 6.  (This is January in Ohio with current temperatures in the single digits.  Too risky  a time to run without a ups monitoring software to shut  things down ...)  I have a spare 1GB drive I can use for the trial. 

Joe L.

 

Will this script run properly on the new 64 bit version of unRAID?  (I know that none  of the current plugins  will work but I thought that it might be possible that a script might work.)

Yes, it should work.  It simply uses utilities that should be supplied with the stock unRAID.

 

Good news.  I will test as soon as someone gets the apcupsd package recompiled for use with ver 6.  (This is January in Ohio with current temperatures in the single digits.  Too risky  a time to run without a ups monitoring software to shut  things down ...)  I have a spare 1GB drive I can use for the trial.

 

I got APCUPSD for ver 6.X installed and found that it works.  With that working, I decide to try to preclear a 1 GB Hitachi SATA drive.  I can report that it worked perfectly.  I ran one preclear cycle on it.  Time to complete was a few minutes over 10 hours which is about normal for this drive.  I do have the preclear report if you would like to se it.

 

Any way to check if a disk has been successfully precleared?

 

I've been running pre clear on a new 4TB drive in a backup server (free licence). The pre clear script was instantiated from another machine on the network.

 

When I check this morning at 6.30 AM, it was 8% through the final step.

 

Power failed sometime in the afternoon to the machine running the script but the server was unaffected.

 

I therefore can't see if the pre clear process completed. Is there a way to check if the drive has been successfully pre-cleared?

 

Thanks

 

Peter

 

^ Did you use Screen when you initiated the preclear script?

I believe there is a "-t" or something like that will test for the preclear signature.

It won't check for all zero's...  it should check for the signature..

 

Jim

Unless you were running in a "screen" terminal, the script probably stopped when it's telnet session stopped...

 

Any way to check if a disk has been successfully precleared?

 

I've been running pre clear on a new 4TB drive in a backup server (free licence). The pre clear script was instantiated from another machine on the network.

 

When I check this morning at 6.30 AM, it was 8% through the final step.

 

Power failed sometime in the afternoon to the machine running the script but the server was unaffected.

 

I therefore can't see if the pre clear process completed. Is there a way to check if the drive has been successfully pre-cleared?

 

Thanks

 

Peter

If you had unMenu installed on the free version you can monitor progress of the preclear from myMain.  That's how I do it all the time and how the 3 drives I just started are being monitored.

Unless you were running in a "screen" terminal, the script probably stopped when it's telnet session stopped...

 

Indeed.

 

However, I suspect the script may have completed before the telnet session stopped.

 

I'm trying to confirm that is the case.

 

I guess I can just do the whole pre-clear again, I guess...

 

Peter