Parity Disk Disabled - How to proceed

[walterg74]

Hello all,

 

I have been away for a while travelling and come back to see one the parity disks is in disabled state.

 

Can anyone help me out to see if this may be due to normal glitches (power cuts out a lot here...) or if the disk does indeed look like it is or will be a goner soon and I should replace it asap?

 

 

 

 

Appreciate any help.

 

Edited March 1 by walterg74

[JorgeB]

Based on the SMART report the disk needs to be replaced.

[itimpi]

With that many reallocated sectors I am surprised the disk is still functioning 😇

[walterg74]

Thanks folks, to be honest, this is a server in my home country I kind of have neglected but want to get it back in line now.

 

I don't know much on how to read S.M.A.R.T. fields and their values and what they mean, something I need to read on for sure.

 

Would any of the other disks need replacing as per stats?:

 

Disk 1:

 

Disk 2:

 

Disk 3:

 

Disk 4:

 

Disk 5:

 

I built this many years ago now, as you can also see from what I guess is not too good a choice for disk size now?

 

Any other recommendations besides current health?

 

Thanks for all your help!

 

 

Edited March 2 by walterg74

[itimpi]

No obvious problems in those SMART reports.   The only one highlighted (CRC errors) indicates a connection issue and normally related to the cabling to the drive, and it never resets to 0, so as long as it is stable or very occasionally increments nothing to worry about it. 

[walterg74]

7 hours ago, itimpi said:

No obvious problems in those SMART reports.   The only one highlighted (CRC errors) indicates a connection issue and normally related to the cabling to the drive, and it never resets to 0, so as long as it is stable or very occasionally increments nothing to worry about it. 

 

Thanks, so is there a way to test the parity disk to make sure what I see is accurate and I should just replace it, or what is shown tjere is conclusive and I shouldn't waste time on that and just replace it?

 

I have 2 other 3TB disks I could use, but would want to check them to sre they're good. 

 

What's the best way to do this? I have another PC I can easily hook them up to for the testing. 

Edited March 3 by walterg74

[itimpi]

57 minutes ago, walterg74 said:

Thanks, so is tjere a way to test the parity disk to make sure what I see is accurate and I should just replace it, or what is shown tjere is conclusive and I shouldn't waste time on that and just replace it?

It definitely needs replacing.   As well as the large number of reallocated sectors Bering worrying you also want the pending sectors to be 0 on a healthy disk.

 

Probably  the easiest way is to run an Extended SMART test on the drive to see if that can be passed.  This can be done via a disk manufacturers tools or one of many 3rd party utilities.   If connected to the Unraid server you could also use the Preclear facility to test it.

[walterg74]

6 hours ago, itimpi said:

It definitely needs replacing.   As well as the large number of reallocated sectors Bering worrying you also want the pending sectors to be 0 on a healthy disk.

 

Probably  the easiest way is to run an Extended SMART test on the drive to see if that can be passed.  This can be done via a disk manufacturers tools or one of many 3rd party utilities.   If connected to the Unraid server you could also use the Preclear facility to test it.

 

Thanks, I'll get right on testing the 2 drives I have to see if one could replace it.

 

On the PC I could use, I have crystal info installed. Would that one be good for the test, or do you recommend something else? As per what I read, one just triggers the extended smart test which is done on/by the drive itself, but you see it through an app.  Trying to find the easiest way to run and view this.

 

Edited March 3 by walterg74

[itimpi]

6 hours ago, walterg74 said:

one just triggers the extended smart test which is done on/by the drive itself, but you see it through an app. 

Correct.   Any app that can start the test and view the results will be fine.   Note that the test can take a long time (~2 hours per TB) and that the progress is only reported in 10% increments so with a very large disk can seem stuck on the same progress point for hours.

[walterg74]

2 hours ago, itimpi said:

Correct.   Any app that can start the test and view the results will be fine.   Note that the test can take a long time (~2 hours per TB) and that the progress is only reported in 10% increments so with a very large disk can seem stuck on the same progress point for hours.

 

Thanks, all useful to know, and will keep all of this in mind! 

However, though you confirm that "any app that can start the test and view the results will be fine", last main issue is I don't know any app 🤣.  

 

Care to recomend a couple or, at least one? (Windows)

 

Thanks.  

[itimpi]

You can always get the disk manufacturers tools for the drive.

 

However one I like to have on my system is DiskCheckup which is much lighter weight.

 

You mentioned already having Crystal Info - I do not have experience of it myself but would have thought that had such an option.

[walterg74]

On 3/3/2024 at 8:18 AM, itimpi said:

You can always get the disk manufacturers tools for the drive.

 

However one I like to have on my system is DiskCheckup which is much lighter weight.

 

You mentioned already having Crystal Info - I do not have experience of it myself but would have thought that had such an option.

 

Ok, so I used DiskCheckup,

 

Did a short test, then extended test.  In theory these are the results:

 

After Short Test:

 

Extended Test Completed:

 

After Extended test:

 

Would you say it's reasonably safe to use this one to replace the parity disk?

 

Thanks.

 

[itimpi]

That looks fine.   Building parity onto it will provide a good additional test.

 

[walterg74]

2 minutes ago, itimpi said:

That looks fine.   Building parity onto it will provide a good additional test.

 

 

Thanks, will get it installed ASAP. 

 

Will also have to remember the correct procedure, not just for replacing the disk per-se but also running pre-clear?

 

[itimpi]

2 minutes ago, walterg74 said:

 

Thanks, will get it installed ASAP. 

 

Will also have to remember the correct procedure, not just for replacing the disk per-se but also running pre-clear?

 

No need to run pre-clear as the parity rebuild will overwrite every sector anyway.  
 

Replacing disks is covered here in the online documentation.