Cannot replace drive in array.

[neowalla]

I just built a NAS and have a 40GB drive that had Open Media Vault installed on it. Foolishly I left it in the chassis when I built the array. Now I want to remove and replace it with a 3TB drive but I cannot. Acording the manual, you do this:

"Unassign the disk you want to upgrade." Check.

"Start the array to commit this change and make Unraid 'forget' the current assignment" 

No can do. "Start" button is greyed out and displays the following error message: "Too many wrong and/or missing disks!"

I only unassigned the one disk, no others were unassigned and no drives have been physically removed from the chassis.

I'm currently running the trial license. 

[Zonediver]

11 minutes ago, neowalla said:

"Unassign the disk you want to upgrade." Check.

"Start the array to commit this change and make Unraid 'forget' the current assignment" 

No can do.

 

https://wiki.unraid.net/Replacing_a_Data_Drive

 

The procedure:

 

Stop the array

Unassign the old drive if still assigned (to unassign, set it to No Device)

Power down

[ Optional ] Pull the old drive (you may want to leave it installed for Preclearing or testing)

Install the new drive

Power on

Assign the new drive in the slot of the old drive

Go to the Main -> Array Operation section

Put a check in the Yes, I'm sure checkbox (next to the information indicating the drive will be rebuilt), and click the Start button

The rebuild will begin, with hefty disk activity on all drives, lots of writes on the new drive and lots of reads on all other drives

All of the contents of the old drive will be copied onto the new drive, making it an exact replacement, except possibly with more capacity than the old drive.

 

Hope this helps 😉

 

Edited July 27, 2022 by Zonediver

[neowalla]

14 minutes ago, Zonediver said:

 

https://wiki.unraid.net/Replacing_a_Data_Drive

 

The procedure:

 

Stop the array

Unassign the old drive if still assigned (to unassign, set it to No Device)

Power down

[ Optional ] Pull the old drive (you may want to leave it installed for Preclearing or testing)

Install the new drive

Power on

Assign the new drive in the slot of the old drive

Go to the Main -> Array Operation section

Put a check in the Yes, I'm sure checkbox (next to the information indicating the drive will be rebuilt), and click the Start button

The rebuild will begin, with hefty disk activity on all drives, lots of writes on the new drive and lots of reads on all other drives

All of the contents of the old drive will be copied onto the new drive, making it an exact replacement, except possibly with more capacity than the old drive.

 

Hope this helps 😉

 

There is no checkbox, and I do not see anywhere where the drive will be rebuilt. There was nothing on that drive to rebuild in any case.

[JonathanM]

22 minutes ago, neowalla said:

There was nothing on that drive to rebuild in any case.

Tools, New Config will allow you to assign the drives any way you want. Any disks you put in the parity slots will be completely overwritten.

[neowalla]

That sounds like the nuclear option. I have data on one of the drives in this array and do not want to wipe everything and start from scratch. I just want to get rid of that stupid 40gb drive which has nothing on it other than Open Media Vault which is what I was trying before Unraid. 

I THINK I like Unraid better, but not if I can't upgrade drives in an existing array. I cannot follow the procedure in the manual as the options I am supposed to be seeing are simply not there. I'm several days into my trial and need to get this resolved before I pull the trigger and start throwing money at something that doesn't work. 

[JonathanM]

40 minutes ago, neowalla said:

That sounds like the nuclear option.

It's not. It allows you to keep existing data on any assigned data drives while rebuilding parity based on those drives.

40 minutes ago, neowalla said:

I can't upgrade drives in an existing array.

When the array is started are there any drives without the green indicator? The error message you are getting is an indication that Unraid already had a drive emulated before you tried to replace the 40GB drive, and each parity drive can only emulate one failed or removed drive at a time. All remaining data drives must participate in the reconstruction of a single (or double with 2 parity) drive.

 

Post a screenshot of the main GUI with the array started, and attach the diagnostics zip file to your next post in this thread.

[neowalla]

marksnas-diagnostics-20220727-2042.zipmarksnas_Main.pdf

 

I had to save the Main page of the GUI as a PDF as I couldn't fit the whole thing in a screen grab.

I do not have any parity drives assigned yet. Maybe that is why I cannot remove disk 4, the 40gb drive? Without going into a long-winded diatribe, I bought 3 Seagate 8TB drives for this NAS and one ended up being DOA. I shipped it back for warranty and have the 2 working ones in the array and plan on using the third as the parity drive once I get the replacement. In the meantime I have been dumping data into the array though I have not yet filled one 8TB drive yet. As I free up the 3 and 4TB drives I have kicking around, I plan on adding them to the array as they become free. I have a Wasabi cloud account and plan on using it for off-site BU of the array. 

What initially attracted me to Unraid is the ability to add drives adhoc without the need for them all to be the same size, speed, etc since I have acquired a lot of drives over the years that I have used for off-line storage so they all mostly have low hours. 

[Vr2Io]

18 minutes ago, neowalla said:

I do not have any parity drives assigned yet. Maybe that is why I cannot remove disk 4, the 40gb drive?

You just need use new config tool and tick 'Preserve current assignments' then unassign the 40GB disk to remove it. If you want to add new disk, you can do it in same time.

After confirm all as expect, then you can start array, if any wrong, just re-do new config.

Edited July 28, 2022 by Vr2Io

[Faceman]

without a parity disk you cant do the standard disk swap procedure as there is no way to rebuild the data onto the new disk.

 

Definitely need to go the New Config route to get it to forget that 40gb disk ever existed and not have to replace it with a new disk.

 

Alternatively, add a parity disk now, let it rebuild, then you will be able to replace the 40gb with a proper disk after that.

[neowalla]

Thank you again for the prompt replies. Although nervous to throw that switch, a new configuration was indeed the fix. The array is running and accepting gigabytes of data as I write this. Once my replacement 8TB drive arrives I'll install it as parity.

The thing that drew me to Unraid in the first place is the ability to ad drives adhoc. Years ago my backup strategy was to buy the largest drive available/affordable, put it in a dock or enclosure, backup everything to it, then shut it off until the next backup. As the years went by larger drives kept coming out and I began to collect 1TB, then 2TB, 3TB, 4TB, etc all with low hours of spin. I've been searching for a JBOD type NAS solution to consolidate all these drives and data as well as make it accessible and I think I have now found it with Unraid.

 

marksnas-diagnostics-20220727-2042.zipmarksnas_Main.pdf

 

I had to save the Main page of the GUI as a PDF as I couldn't fit the whole thing in a screen grab.

I do not have any parity drives assigned yet. Maybe that is why I cannot remove disk 4, the 40gb drive? Without going into a long-winded diatribe, I bought 3 Seagate 8TB drives for this NAS and one ended up being DOA. I shipped it back for warranty and have the 2 working ones in the array and plan on using the third as the parity drive once I get the replacement. In the meantime I have been dumping data into the array though I have not yet filled one 8TB drive yet. As I free up the 3 and 4TB drives I have kicking around, I plan on adding them to the array as they become free. I have a Wasabi cloud account and plan on using it for off-site BU of the array. 

What initially attracted me to Unraid is the ability to add drives adhoc without the need for them all to be the same size, speed, etc since I have acquired a lot of drives over the years that I have used for off-line storage so they all mostly have low hours.