HDDs not mounting or formatting

[codemasterb]

Please Please Help! i setup unraid recently and its been running fine, i added 3 more drives to the array and one extra to an existing pool.

 

the array has cleared both drives and currently doing the 3rd (i added this in after) 

for some reason none of the drives will mount? not even the separate drive i added to an existing pool

 

i have also clicked the format option several times (with the check box) and it just re appears (going round in circles!) 

 

any ideas? these are all brand new hard drives, i have tested them in my computer before hand and all work fine.

[JorgeB]

Please post the diagnostics.

[codemasterb]

There you go 👍

mediaserver-diagnostics-20240410-1917.zip

[itimpi]

I notice that there to be I/O errors on disk5 do you might need to check the SATA and power cabling to that drive.

 

The diagnostics do not show any attempt to format the drives so it might be a good idea to try again and post new diagnostics so we can see what happens when you try.

[codemasterb]

Ok i will check this ago and report back with new diagnostics 

[codemasterb]

So i checked the SATA cables both power and data and all seated fine. i did notice that i had these 3 new drives connected to a PCI SATA extension card (my motherboard only has 6 ports) so i swapped out the cache drive SATA data cable with the one from the new 6TB (embymedia2) drive which previously had a red X and would not format or mount.

 

so this drive was now connected to the motherboard as apposed to the PC extension card.

 

rebooted and this drive is now working currently a BTRSF operation is running (im assuming its sorting out the drive to work with the existing?) 

 

the other drives disk 3 and 4 which still display unmountable are connected to the PCI extension card so i guess this is my problem? the card could be faulty on certain ports possibly?

 

if the case i will get a replacement, are there any you guys recommend, i would literately need it for these 2 extra drives as i do not plan to add any more.

 

thanks in advance

[JorgeB]

11 hours ago, codemasterb said:

the other drives disk 3 and 4 which still display unmountable are connected to the PCI extension card so i guess this is my problem? the card could be faulty on certain ports possibly?

It could be, strange that there aren't any errors, disks are apparently formatted but no filesystem is found after.

[codemasterb]

Currently still going with the BTRFS operation! unable to do anything atm. how long does this actually take? one disk is 8TB and the new one 6TB been all night and all day! 

[JorgeB]

Post new diags.

[codemasterb]

I have noticed that the first 2 digits currently 39 down from over 40 is moving down slowly, says relocating block group..

 

could take a wile!

mediaserver-diagnostics-20240411-1821.zip

[codemasterb]

Ive also noticed that this figure has dropped from 5.6Tb and continues to go down? i can still access all the files on the share and none are missing.

[JorgeB]

Balancing 5TB+ will take a long time, especially with SMR disks, it's about a third done, you can ignore the stats until it's done, they will keep changing during the balance.

 

You do want to create a raid1 mirror for that pool, right?

[codemasterb]

Ok makes sense, as far as Raid1 goes no i didn't, all i did was add the drive to the pool for extra storage assuming it would just increase the existing pool size.

[JorgeB]

By default, adding a device to a single btrfs pool creates a mirror, you can cancel the current balance and then balance it to single, if you want to use the full capacity for both disks in that pool.

[codemasterb]

Thanks for the info, i have now canceled it and clicked the option convert to single and click balance again. 

[codemasterb]

Just a quick update, the BTRFS has finished and now both drives working fine. i have had a look about what sata cards work with unraid and found one others have had success with so will be ordering that and then connecting these 2 drives in my array to see if that solves the issue

[codemasterb]

Update: New SATA card arrived and installed all drives now formatted and working! thanks for all your help guys. This is the card i bought if it helps anyone else out with similar problems!

 

10Gtek PCIe SATA Card 6 Port with 6 SATA Cables and Low Profile Bracket, 6Gbps SATA3.0 Controller PCI Express Expansion Card, X4, Support 6 SATA 3.0