July 30, 201114 yr Just building my first unraid server and I got a simple question. I want to go with the newest 3TB drives but the non-beta version of Unraid doesn't support them. What happens if I use these drives? Will I just get 2TB out of them or won't they work at all? Can I later upgrade to a newer version of Unraid that has 3TB support and fully use my drives? Cheers & Thanks.
July 31, 201114 yr Just building my first unraid server and I got a simple question. I want to go with the newest 3TB drives but the non-beta version of Unraid doesn't support them. What happens if I use these drives? Will I just get 2TB out of them or won't they work at all? Can I later upgrade to a newer version of Unraid that has 3TB support and fully use my drives? Cheers & Thanks. We really need the 3TB support now. 3TB drives have been out for a while and a lot of people don't want to spend money on 2TB drives. Stuck in a hard place. If we go with BETA and something goes wrong it would be our fault. I'm due for a couple extra drives but I've been waiting since I don't want to buy 2TB anymore.
August 1, 201114 yr If we go with BETA and something goes wrong it would be our fault. To rephrase that... If we go with BETA and something goes wrong without a backup it would be our fault. If you don't have a back up, then in any case you are potentially only a single point of failure away from losing your data whatever software you are using. If you do have a backup, then if you want to go to 3TB drives the risk of using the current betas would probably be acceptable to most users.
August 1, 201114 yr I want to go with the newest 3TB drives but the non-beta version of Unraid doesn't support them. What happens if I use these drives? Will I just get 2TB out of them or won't they work at all? You can safely and temporarily set a 3TB drive to 2.2TB using the hdparm command, outlined in this thread and quoted by dgaschk in the second reply. Can I later upgrade to a newer version of Unraid that has 3TB support and fully use my drives? The next full version will include 3TB support, since it is currently working in the beta releases. If you used the hdparm trick above, you can follow the process BJP outlined in how to reset the drives without losing data.
August 1, 201114 yr We really need the 3TB support now. The fact that is has been in the last 2 betas is indication enough that it is coming soon. I prefer a beta process that has been properly vetted before releasing it as full production release. Beta 5.6 is a painful example of what happens during development. I'm due for a couple extra drives but I've been waiting since I don't want to buy 2TB anymore. If you need new drives, creating a 2.2TB logical drive space on a 3TB drive is completely doable and proven, and reversible.
August 1, 201114 yr To rephrase that... If we go with BETA and something goes wrong without a backup it would be our fault. If you don't have a back up, then in any case you are potentially only a single point of failure away from losing your data whatever software you are using. If you do have a backup, then if you want to go to 3TB drives the risk of using the current betas would probably be acceptable to most users. It is smart to perform your own tests of a new version, to make sure unRAID is protecting your data. Pulling a disk and rebuillding it onto a fresh disk is the minimum I do. This appliles to betas and release versions - both have been known to have their share of bugs. A "release version" is not a guarantee of recoverability. You are depending on Tom's testing (which is quite good but limited to his hardware and server configurations) and other community members. If community members all wait for the release versions, then new versions would not get tested until they became release versions. Bugs in betas have normally been around new features and occasionally around migrating. Core unRAID bugs have been exceedingly rare (although one was recently isolated and fixed, and that fix is in the 5.0 betas but not in 4.7). So, IMO, once you are have successfully migrated, run a parity check, and rebuilt a failed disk, you can rest pretty easily that your data is being protected. Don't get me wrong, it is not smart to jump on a new beta days after release. But after a beta is out for a month or more whenout an update, and bugs reported in the announcement thread by those with test arrays die down to trivial issues or isolated to specific hardware related issues, community members need to start updating, and running their own private tests to ensure the beta is sound and working well on their arrays. Only with this type of testing does an unRAID beta get the kind of testing necesary for it to become truly stable and worthy of being promoted to a release version. And only with this measured risk are you able to take advantage of the new features in unRAID.
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