added old parity drive to array mistakenly thinking it was the same process as adding any new disk

[meatball]

So I definitely screwed up on quite a few levels. I upgraded my parity drive from 8TB to 16TB which was fine. So I thought I could add the old parity to the array like you would for any other disk. I've since learned obviously it has no data system so it's not going to work and building into the array now means unraid expects the drive to nee there. My next mistaken was buying a new drive to replace the bay where I stupidly added the old parity drive. Obviously a mistake, unraid is looking for the old parity that was built without a data system.

 

To make matters worse, I added another virtual bay (there are 12 total in the machine, I added a 13th) and added the new 16TB drive there. It rebuilt the drive fine but it's clearly not being added to the array volume.

 

Here's a screenshot of the array in macitence mode ( I can't get into maintenance mode with the old parity drive in bay 11). I'm trying to figure out how to clear bay 11 from the parity disk it's expecting and adding the 16tb drive currently in bay 12 to bay 11 (again bay 11 is the last bay in the machine as there's 12 total bays). 

I've researched "Unmountable drives" quite a bit but it always seems to be about replacing a dying disk that's unmountable. 

 

I've attached the logs in case it gives any insight (unfortunately I've rebooted several times). 

 

Any guidance or suggestions would be very appreciated. I'm at a total loss as to where to go from here. Thanks a lot. 

 

 

tower-diagnostics-20230420-0937.zip

Edited April 20, 2023 by meatball

[JorgeB]

If you want to remove disk12 you need to do a new config and re-sync parity without it.

[itimpi]

When you add a new drive to an existing Unraid array it is expected for it to show as unmountable with no file system.   At that point Unraid will be offering to format unmountable drives to create an empty file system on it.   Sounds like all you did wrong the first time was omit the format step?

[meatball]

8 hours ago, JorgeB said:

If you want to remove disk12 you need to do a new config and re-sync parity without it.

thanks a lot for jumping in. I'll do this and report back. I looked at this option previously but was nervous about doing more damage. I'll get it done and report back, thanks a lot. 

[meatball]

9 hours ago, itimpi said:

When you add a new drive to an existing Unraid array it is expected for it to show as unmountable with no file system.   At that point Unraid will be offering to format unmountable drives to create an empty file system on it.   Sounds like all you did wrong the first time was omit the format step?

I basically did several things that were precisely what I shouldn't of done . What was weird is I read is that I shouldn't first format a drive that was previously used for parity. I probably misunderstood. 

Edited April 21, 2023 by meatball

[meatball]

8 hours ago, JorgeB said:

If you want to remove disk12 you need to do a new config and re-sync parity without it.

this is the part that didn't understand, is the idea to remove disk 12, and then run the new config on the array without a disk in 12? Basically dont preserve any of the array or the pool?  Thanks a lot

 

 

Edited April 20, 2023 by meatball

[JorgeB]

Preserve all, the emulated disk will disappear, you can then reassign disk12 as disk11 if you want.

[itimpi]

13 hours ago, meatball said:

What was weird is I read is that I shouldn't first format a drive that was previously used for parity. I probably misunderstood. 

There is no point in this since adding the old parity drive to the array will cause it to be 'Cleared' which wipes out any format you have just done.

[meatball]

6 hours ago, JorgeB said:

Preserve all, the emulated disk will disappear, you can then reassign disk12 as disk11 if you want.

thanks a lot. it's re-synching the parity (without disk 12). I'll add the 16TB to disk 11 once it's finished. Appreciate your help very much. 

[meatball]

2 hours ago, itimpi said:

There is no point in this since adding the old parity drive to the array will cause it to be 'Cleared' which wipes out any format you have just done.

agreed, it makes no sense as I understood it. Lesson learned. Ultimately it's not going back in the array anyway but you'e right, formatting it first would've saved me a lot of headaches. 

[meatball]

On 4/21/2023 at 8:23 AM, itimpi said:

There is no point in this since adding the old parity drive to the array will cause it to be 'Cleared' which wipes out any format you have just done.

Update- you were right of course. It would've been hard for me to screw that up any more than I did. Unbelievable. Anyway after 4 days, new config rebuilt the parity (without the the unmountable disk/extra drive slot) and then formatted the old parity and added plus the new disk it to the array as intended. Thanks for jumping into help. 

 

Edited April 28, 2023 by meatball
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