[SOLVED] Format/alignment question

[Lantesh]

This is my first post here, and my unRAID knowledge is fairly basic, so I'm hoping you guys can help me out here.  I have 2 AF drives in my rig that I want to properly 4k-align.

 

I built my server in early 2010 with unRAID version 4.5.  My initial setup consisted of a 1TB parity drive (currently data disk 2), and 2 500 gig drives.  I have since made some changes, so here is a listing of my current drives.

 

parity device: pci-0000:00:11.0-scsi-0:0:0:0 host1 (sda) WDC_WD20EARS-00MVWB0_WD-WCAZA1249161

disk1 device: pci-0000:00:11.0-scsi-2:0:0:0 host3 (sdc) WDC_WD20EARX-00PASB0_WD-WMAZA5140105

disk2 device: pci-0000:00:11.0-scsi-1:0:0:0 host2 (sdb) WDC_WD10EADS-00M2B0_WD-WCAV54846805

disk3 device: pci-0000:00:11.0-scsi-3:0:0:0 host4 (sdd) WDC_WD5000AACS-00G8B1_WD-WCAUK0161630

 

I recently upgraded to version 4.7, and purchased a license, and after reading some threads here on the forums, and other info in the wiki I figured I'd better fix some of my previous formatting/alignment issues on my AF drives.  I didn't know anything about pre-clearing drives when I built the array, and even worse my current EARS parity drive was initially formatted with version 4.5 without the infamous jumper in place.  So I attempted to 4k-align my EARS parity drive, and my EARX drive in the disk 1 position.  Now I read that with version 4.7 the jumper for my EARS drive is no longer necessary, so I figured I just needed to reformat.  On my settings page I changed the default format setting to MBR: 4-k aligned.  Then one at a time for both my EARS and EARX drives I followed this procedure:

 

1. Ran a parity check. - No errors

2. Stopped the array.

3. On devices page unassigned the drive.

4. On the Main page started the array (missing disk now running in emulated mode)

5. Stop the array.

6. On devices page assigned drive to missing slot.

7. Started the array, and did a data rebuild.

8. Ran a parity check. - No errors

 

So why is it for both of these drives when I click on them when on the main page it still says MBR: unaligned?  I had assumed that with the default format type set to MBR: 4-k aligned that when I ran the above procedure to rebuild the drives that they would indeed be formatted this way.  What am I missing here?  Any help is appreciated.

[Lantesh]

Disregard.  I believe I found the correct answer in the EARS sticky post, which I somehow missed.  Thanks again.

[Rajahal]

Glad you found your answer.  Added [sOLVED] to the thread title.  Feel free to remove it if you have further questions.

[Lantesh]

Update:  I realized that what I did wrong was not clear the MBR before rebuilding, so basically they stayed unaligned.  I decided that since I had to do that I might as well go all out and run the preclear script as well.  So I did that for my parity drive, disk1, and disk3.  Everything went well, and my data rebuilt with no errors.  So these 3 disks are now 4k aligned.  Disk3 is obviously not an AF drive, but it is currently empty, so I figured why not run preclear on it just to see how it would hold up.  Disk2 is also not an AF drive, and since it is full I left well enough alone and did nothing with it.