I have 1 data disk and 1 parity drive that are getting old and I have already ordered replacement. I know to replace them I can simply stop the array and pull one and plug a new one in (one at a time) and restart.

 

But supposedly, say, I want to safely erase the drive while they are still in the unraid box before pulling it out so I can safely recycle it without worrying about data security, what should I do?

 

Thanks!

Run preclear on it after it's replaced.

Thanks for the advice! Sorry for a dumb follow-up. Assuming that I have all the slots already occupied on my machine so "after" replace I have no hardware slot to insert the old hard drive back, do you have a recommendation on what to do in this case (so the disk clearing has to be done before taking the drive out of unraid physically)

 

Thanks!

There are 3 options

1. This requires the preclear plugin and not the docker container. Do the drive replacement taking out the old drive. Rebulid onto the new drive. Stop the array, disable array autostart, power down,take out one of your drives doesnt't matter which one. Put in the old drive which you want to preclear, power up and do not start the array. Now run preclar. Array must be down until it's finished. When done, power down, take out the preclared drive and put in the drive you took out. Then you can start the array.

 

2. Buy a HDD USB docking station or HDD to USB adapter. Do the drive replacement and start rebuilding. When finished attahced the old drive using USB, then make sure you have the unassagined devices plugin installed. Preclear drive. The advantage here is that the array can be up and running in normal operation while you preclar.

 

3. This is the last resort as you will have no way to recover the data on the old drive should the rebuild fail. This also requires the preclear plugin and not the docker container. Stop the array, run preclear on the drive, when finished power down and replace with new drive,  start the array then rebuild from parity.