Help! says "Unraid parity disk error" (Solved)

[skyking376]

6 total disks (1 parity, 5 data). Parity is 4TB and others are mix of 2TB or 4TB. I was planning to update old 2TB to new drive I bought, 4TB.

Unraid 6.12.4 and I added diagnostic info like forums say.

 

Followed these steps:

1) Stop array/clean unraid shutdown.

2) Take out old 2TB drive (not precleared since it will be overwritten), put in new 4TB drive in same spot using same cables, etc

3) Power up unraid and it will detect that "wrong" drive in array (meaning I can pick new serial number of 4TB drive).

4) Using unraid webGUI assign new 4TB drive to old 2TB slot

5) Then "Start array" (with side message that says "Parity sync or data rebuild"). I clicked "Start"

 

Then I got message on Unraid GUI saying "Unraid parity disk error". The web interface showed the animated "wave" logo when a background process is running. It ran for about 30 seconds when I opened a new window to GUI to see red "X" for parity drive and (Parity is disabled). I scrolled down to bottom and immediate hit PAUSE on parity check/rebuild cause I freaked out! 

 

At the top of webGUI the new 4TB drive says "Unmountable: Unsupported or no file system". At the bottom of webGUI where you can watch status of my monthly parity checks it says "Unmountable disk present".

 

I think it ran for less than 1 min...how bad did I mess up? I am not clicking ANYTHING till I hear from you experts.

 

Thank you

deathstar-diagnostics-20230924-1345.zip

Edited October 28, 2023 by skyking376

[skyking376]

Was there a step I missed? I am not sure if I am/was supposed to "format unmountable disk" first? I am WAY too afraid to do anything further until someone lets me know how to proceed. 

 

Please help.

 

Thank you.

[dboonthego]

Is this the *new* 4TB disk you were trying to rebuild as disk2?

WDC_WD40EFRX-68N32N0_WD-WCC7K5HTV05L

 

Parity is disabled due to error and disk2 is invalid because it hasn't rebuilt yet.  I would try re-seating your drive connections.  Since you were just replacing a drive, there's a good chance it has a bad connection.  Post back if that doesn't work.  Worst case, you always have your original disk2 and a new 4TB you can use to rebuild parity. 

[skyking376]

yes the V05L is the "new" 4TB disk 2 to replace an old 2TB disk 2 position. 

 

I did NOT do any "format" on the new disk. So it says "unmountable: unsupported or no file system" for the new 4TB disk (V05L) on top right side of webGUI on "main" page where you can see "size", "used", "free". I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do related to "format"?

 

So is the "error" ON the parity? Or is the "error" because I was supposed to do a format on disk 2? or...what? I will do clean shutdown, check all drive connections/cables/etc and then boot up to see what happens.

 

Will report back if I get same thing.

[skyking376]

So I did clean shutdown, checked all cables, powered back on and screen where you can select which drives are "assigned" to which slots (meaning before you start array). All looked ok (and new 4TB disk 2 had the "V05L" drive correctly selected in correct replacement slot). So parity drive still has red "X" (and says "parity device disabled, click to spin down device"). At bottom it looks like it was doing a rebuild (where earlier today I freaked and paused it and wrote here first) but then at very bottom left of page it said "Array started" in green and "rebuilding" in yellow (it took about 5 min instead of the normal ~11 hours). 

 

After those 5 minutes disc 2 shows green circle instead of orange triangle, but still on far right at top of webGUI it says "Unmountable: unsupported or no file system". Parity still shows red x. I added brand new diagnostics attached. Having NO CLUE what is going on and only looking at green circles and red x colors is my parity drive failed? Or did I do something out of order and it is "disabled" (but still fine) because I am a noob? Still too afraid to click around like a rookie without further guidance.

 

As a rookie I will need very specific instructions please. I try reading a lot on forums but some of this is over my head as I only replace a drive every 5 years or so (when needed). Thank you for your time.

 

 

deathstar-diagnostics-20230924-2349.zip

Edited September 25, 2023 by skyking376
typos

[dboonthego]

First, do you have backups?  Second, do not format anything.  Third, get a second opinion before you act. 

 

The parity disk itself is likely fine, but parity may not be valid at this point and you are reauired to rebuild. Disk2 does not have a valid file system because the re-build encountered parity errors and never completed. 

 

I would put the original disk2 back in service and rebuild parity.  This should get you back to where you were before attempting the disk2 rebuild. 

 

1. Take a screen shot of your disk assignments.

2. Power down  

3. lnstall original disk2

4. Power up

5. Go to Tools->New configuration.

6. On main tab, assign your disks exactly how they were before, except substituting your original disk2.  MAKE CERTAIN YOU ASSIGN PARITY CORRECTLY.  DO NOT ASSIGN A DATA DISK TO PARITY SLOT.

7. Start array.

8. Wait for parity to sync to complete.

 

 

Edited September 25, 2023 by dboonthego

[JorgeB]

You cannot rebuild a disk with single parity and two invalid disks, in the first diags posted parity was already disabled, did you save the ones from when it got disabled?

[skyking376]

So bit of Schrodinger's cat (If I don't look its still fine) and I was out of town for weeks. Following "dboonthego" 8 steps above. Now I have Disc 2 showing as "wrong" (since I put back original 2TB drive in. And this is to be expected). But also Disc 5 shows as "missing". Parity disc still shows red "X" as before. I am thinking it is bad/loose cable on disc 5 so will try to check all connections again.

deathstar-diagnostics-20231015-1642.zip

[skyking376]

Ok...I have changed power and data cables to Disc 5 twice. It is still showing up as "missing" where last time (before I was out of town for weeks) disc 5 showed up just fine. The rest same as above (parity is "disabled" with red "x" and disc 2 says "wrong", which is expected). 

 

So.....if we think parity might be dead, and now possibly disc 5 might be dead? I have no clue. How screwed am I?

 

I'll attach another diagnostics but I think it is 99% of the same as about 2 hours ago?

 

Please advise what's going on and what my options are. Thank you everyone for assistance!

deathstar-diagnostics-20231015-1843.zip

[JorgeB]

Try swapping disk5 cables with a known good disk, if it still doesn't show up it's likely a disk problem, in that case since there's no way to recover disk5 you can do a new config to recover the data from the remaining disks.

[skyking376]

So I tried a "known good disk" from another computer and plugged it in even if it were to say "wrong disk" but it still shows "missing" in Disk 5 slot. So I also tried with different power AND SATA data cables in the Disk 5 position. Is it the SATA connector to the motherboard that is dead?

 

Not sure if this is related issue but when I have been troubleshooting this issue It takes ~2 min for Unraid server to boot up where on second PC I can "192.168.x.x" into the Unraid GUI. Sounds weird but I can only access GUI when Unraid PC is "cold" (meaning first 2 reboots or so...~10 min) before it appears to warm up and then no GUI access at all and no command prompt ping (pinged google then my 192.168.x.x Unraid server).

 

I keep peeling back this onion which is why it is days between my responses because I am extremely frustrated and life happens in middle where I have consecutive hours to troubleshoot.

[skyking376]

I am open to more suggestions but from all that is being said it looks like disc 5 is dead/unresponsive or possibly on my motherboard that SATA slot to disk 5 is also dead? So in order to recover data on 4 out of 5 disks above it said "you can do a new config to recover dat from remaining disks". 

 

How the heck do I do that? Again I really appreciate all the help for a noob.

 

[JorgeB]

12 hours ago, skyking376 said:

How the heck do I do that?

Tools -> New config

 

Note that any data on the missing disks 2 and 5 will be lost.

[skyking376]

Ok, I did "new config" and it is rebuilding parity. I "think" this means that data from drives 1-4 (poor disk 5 is lost) are being checked and building parity for future protection (during parity process nothing is safeguarded until parity is complete).

 

So then it is an Easter egg hunt when I try to watch a movie/TV and Kodi says "This file is missing, would you like to delete from Kodi" is when I realize that movie/TV was on failed Disk 5.

 

So then looking ahead to prevent for next time:

1) have backups (in addition to parity drive safety) Yes/No?

2) 2nd parity drive? Yes/No?

3) Since I saw something about updated file system ( REISERFS file system is going away 2025) Can I add new drive and have it with XFS file system with others having older reiserfs system? Meaning a mix of file systems? Yes/No?

 

I really appreciate all the help from a non-tech noob. I try to read a lot but lots of this is over my head, but I try.

[dboonthego]

9 hours ago, skyking376 said:

So then looking ahead to prevent for next time:

1) have backups (in addition to parity drive safety) Yes/No?

2) 2nd parity drive? Yes/No?

3) Since I saw something about updated file system ( REISERFS file system is going away 2025) Can I add new drive and have it with XFS file system with others having older reiserfs system? Meaning a mix of file systems? Yes/No?

#1. Absolutely if your data is important to you.  Parity will protect you from disk failure, but it won't help with filesystem corruption, theft, accidental deletes, etc.

#2. Dual parity certainly provides more fault tolerance and in your case would probably have saved you, but may not be the most economical for smaller systems.  If you have budget and capacity, go for it, but I would put priority to backups before dual parity.

#3. Yes you can have a mix, but if you have REISERFS in your system, you should think about converting to XFS soon.  It's obsolete and likely not to be supported soon.

 

You may still be able to recover data on disk5.  Try mounting with Unassigned Devices.  You may get lucky and can copy contents to disks 1-4.