DEVICE IS DISABLED, CONTENTS EMULATED - What is my next move?

[TheUnraider]

Some background..  I've had Unraid for years and loved it.  During that time, I've never had a disk issue.  So I tried to read up on this issue bit, but my smart data looks a bit off.  I am guessing the drive is a goner, can someone confirm?  I think this issue was caused by a large backup being saved to my Unraid NAS from my Windows 10 machine.  It was 7TB and typically takes all day to write to NAS. 

 

So far, all I've done is download the SMART report from the failing disk and the Unraid diagnostics.  Please see attached. 

Hoping someone can tell me the best next steps to take?  Do I need to replace this disk with a new disk?  

Thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide.  

nas-smart-20230314-1013.zip nas-diagnostics-20230314-1026.zip

[JorgeB]

SMART looks OK and it's not logged as a disk problem, check/replace cables, since the emulated disk is mounting and assuming contents look correct you can then rebuild on top.

[TheUnraider]

Thank you for the guidance. I followed your directions and checked cables.  All seems well.  I rebuilt the data on top of that drive following these directions:  https://wiki.unraid.net/Manual/Storage_Management#Rebuilding_a_drive_onto_itself

I received a notification that the read check finished with 0 errors.  The disk 2 still states it "Device is disabled, contents emulated".  What would you recommend I try next?

Do I need to replace this drive? 

nas-smart-20230316-0755.zip

[JorgeB]

44 minutes ago, TheUnraider said:

read check

A read check doesn't rebuild a disk, repeat the procedure again and make you follow the instructions correctly, also check that the emulated disk is mounting and contents look correct before rebuilding on top, in doubt post the diags.

[TheUnraider]

I followed the steps in the Rebuilding_a_drive_onto_itself instructions exactly the first time. It's possible my parity check tuning plugin was causing problems. 

 

After stopping the array, to try the procedure again, I unassigned the disk, now I can't even see disk 2, can't re-assign it.  Just states "not installed" / "device is missing".  

As far as I can tell, my data seems to all be there.  

[JorgeB]

That suggests the disk dropped or is not available, post new diags.

[TheUnraider]

nas-diagnostics-20230316-0906.zip

[JorgeB]

OK, so the first rebuild attempt was done correctly but the disk dropped offline during the rebuild, hence why you were then seeing "read check", if you only checked and not replaced the cables initially recommend replacing them now and then try again.

[TheUnraider]

Ok, that makes sense.  I will replace the cables tonight and try again.  thank you!

[TheUnraider]

I replaced the SAS cables, added disk 2 back to the array and started the array.  Unraid is now reporting Disk 2 as "Unmountable disk present" and is still marked as "disabled".  Any thoughts on what I can try next?

nas-diagnostics-20230319-1500.zipnas-smart-20230319-1501.zip

[TheUnraider]

Reading through the forum, it looks like next step is to check Disk 2 using the "Check File System Status".  I stopped the array, put it in maintenance mode and started it again.  I used the GUI and ran a check with option "-n".  It reported back:

Phase 1 - find and verify superblock...
superblock read failed, offset 2199023247360, size 131072, ag 2, rval -1

fatal error -- Input/output error

I was hoping it would give me more info than that.  Don't know what to do from here.

NOTE:  I also noticed disk 3 which wasn't having problems before, is now reporting "unmountable disk".  Only happens randomly as a I start and stop the array.  Sometimes it mounts, sometimes it doesn't.  Odd.

nas-diagnostics-20230319-1549.zip

[JorgeB]

There are know read errors from disk3, also look like a power/connection problem, check/replace cables and post new diags after array start.

[TheUnraider]

Ok, I swapped out the old Thermaltake TR2 600W ATX 12 V2.3 PSU for a EVGA 850W PSU.  The Array started up.  Disk 3 seemed to mount without issue.  Disk 2 is still disabled and contents emulated.  Diagnostics attached. 

nas-diagnostics-20230320-2121.zip

[JorgeB]

Emulated disk2 is mounting, assuming contents look correct you can rebuild on top.

[TheUnraider]

JorgeB - Thank you for all of your help!  I was able to rebuild on top and it seems I have all my data.  All is well.  

Seriously appreciate you taking the time to look over my issue.  Thank you!

[sfaruque]

Hello - I received a 'Device is Disabled, Content Emulated' error with a red cross in one of my data disk (disk2). I've followed some of the threads here and replaced my sata cable with a new one and also changed my sata port to a different one in the motherboard. Despite that change I'm still getting the same error. I'm attaching the latest diagnostics.

 

Please help. Thank you.

dhaka-diagnostics-20230722-1845.zip

Edited July 22, 2023 by sfaruque

[itimpi]

The SMART information for that drive looks OK so the drive is probably OK.   The diagnostics are after a reboot so we can not see what lead up to disk2 being disabled. If it happens again for any reason it is a good idea to take diagnostics before taking any further action.

 

The 'disabled' state will not be cleared until the drive is rebuilt as described in this section of the online documentation.   The emulated disk2 seems to be mounting properly so as long as its contents look correct you can rebuild the disk onto itself, although if you have a spare drive that is always safer in case the rebuild goes wrong for any reason.

[sfaruque]

Thanks for your reply @itimpi. Sounds promising. I'll try to get a drive soon. Luckly I did have a diagnostics before I did a reboot. Attached.

 

Please can you see any issues before I rebooted from the logs?

 

Appreciate it. Thank you.

dhaka-diagnostics-20230722-1643.zip

[itimpi]

Unfortunately it looks like disk2 was already disabled before you booted even for those diagnostics so still no information about the reason.   If you want to get logs that can survive a reboot then you should enable the syslog server.

[sfaruque]

No worries. Thanks @itimpi. I've enabled the syslog server and mirrored the logs into the flash drive too. Just a question - is it possible to replace the drive which is 10TB with a 6TB drive (as the drive was only about 45% filled) or rebuild the failed 10TB drive with a couple or more drives that'll total to 10TB?

 

Thanks.

[itimpi]

1 minute ago, sfaruque said:

Just a question - is it possible to replace the drive which is 10TB with a 6TB drive (as the drive was only about 45% filled) or rebuild the failed 10TB drive with a couple or more drives that'll total to 10TB?

Unfortunately not.   The rebuild process requires the replacement drive to be at least as large as the drive it replaces.   The rebuild process has no concept of file systems as it works at the raw sector level so it has no idea of how much data was on the drive.

[braydination]

I've encountered this same issue and been really reluctant to even take it offline as everything has been working fine, I can even access the data on my disk4 using MC.

Based on the previous reports I have also uploaded my diagnostics and can see no 'disk4' under the SMART logs.

I'm afraid this means a new HDD will be required, but am really hoping not.

citadeltower-diagnostics-20231229-1405.zip

[JorgeB]

Disk was already disabled at boot, so we can't see what happened, and since it's not being detected cannot also see SMART, try replacing/swapping cables, if the disk does not comeback online it's likely a disk problem.