I have a tower with 6 drives in it.

I have emptied one of the 2 TB drives and I would like to remove it from the unraid system and use it on my Windows 7 machine.

The drive is a WD20EARS drive. I do not think I have a jumper on it.

 

What are the correct steps to remove it from unraid system and use it for Windows 7?

 

Thx

Remove a drive without losing parity protection

Thanks... wow that is a lot more work that I had hoped. Scares me a little.

Thanks... wow that is a lot more work that I had hoped. Scares me a little.

Easier, (but loses parity protection until re-calc is complete)

 

1.Copy or move all the files off of the drive you will be removing from the array.

2.Stop the unRAID array

3.Un-assign the disk being removed

4.Set a new disk configuration by either:

  Logging in on either the system console or via telnet and typing

initconfig

and responding to its prompt with

Yes

(Capital "Y", lower case "es")

or, if on the new 5.0beta series, on the Utilities tab there is a button to set a new disk configuration.  Click on it while the array is stopped.

 

Both methods of setting a new disk configuration do exactly the same thing.  They immediately invalidate parity, and set a new disk configuration based on the currently assigned and working drives.

 

then,

6. Start the array.  It will begin a new "initial" parity calculation on the new disk configuration.

You will not be protected by parity from a disk failure until the initial calculation is complete. 

 

Joe L.

 

Thanks Joe.

 

I decided to run the lengthy procedure in the posted thread. It is running the following command right now

 

dd if=/dev/zero bs=2048k of=/dev/md5

 

Seem to be taking a while. The drive being removed is a WD20EARS drive.

 

Quick question (that I think the OP might also be interested in) on the "long" procedure that doesn't invalidate parity.  I successfully removed a drive using this method but would like to reassign a device since the drive was disk 6 and I have 7 total.  I'd like to make the 7th drive my new disk 6 but every attempt to do so has failed.  Any suggestions?

Quick question (that I think the OP might also be interested in) on the "long" procedure that doesn't invalidate parity.  I successfully removed a drive using this method but would like to reassign a device since the drive was disk 6 and I have 7 total.  I'd like to make the 7th drive my new disk 6 but every attempt to do so has failed.  Any suggestions?

 

Right before the initconfig when you unassigned the cleared drive you should have also moved disk7 to the disk6 slot. Then, the initconfig command will reset the array to use your new disk config and the set invalidslot command re-validated parity.

 

Now, you would just stop the array, move the drive, initconfig, and set invalidslot to keep parity.

 

Peter

 

Peter, thanks for the response.  Could you be a little more specific on the exact syntax of the commands required in UnRAID 4.7?  Thanks.

Thanks Joe.

 

I decided to run the lengthy procedure in the posted thread. It is running the following command right now

 

dd if=/dev/zero bs=2048k of=/dev/md5

 

Seem to be taking a while. The drive being removed is a WD20EARS drive.

It will take a bit longer than the initial parity calc.    Do not be impatient.

 

Figure 8 to 12 hours, perhaps more.

Peter, thanks for the response.  Will the initconfig invalidate parity?  Could you be a little more specific on the exact syntax of the commands required?  Thanks.

just be aware, the initconfig on the latter 5.0beta series DOES NOT WORK THE SAME as in the 4.X series.

 

You may end up re-calculating parity regardless of setting the invalid slot if you refresh the web-management screen at the wrong time.

 

Be super careful when zeroing drives.  There is no "oops... undo" command.  Make absolutely certain you have the correct drive.

 

Joe L.

Peter, thanks for the response.  Could you be a little more specific on the exact syntax of the commands required?  Thanks.

 

You use the exact same commands. Look up the trust my parity procedure as well for another example.

 

Peter

I thought that "trust my parity" did not work under version 5. Specifically the set invalid command.

just be aware, the initconfig on the latter 5.0beta series DOES NOT WORK THE SAME as in the 4.X series.

 

You may end up re-calculating parity regardless of setting the invalid slot if you refresh the web-management screen at the wrong time.

 

Be super careful when zeroing drives.  There is no "oops... undo" command.  Make absolutely certain you have the correct drive.

 

Joe L.

 

I'm running 4.7 Final.  The disk has already been zeroed and removed from the array but UnRAID reports the disk assignment as "Not Installed".  I'm trying to reassign disk 7 as disk 6 but I keep getting an "invalid expansion" error and then disk 7 reports as a missing disk even though I've tried to assign it as disk 6 which is then blue balled.

 

You use the exact same commands. Look up the trust my parity procedure as well for another example.

 

Peter

 

I found the procedure here:

 

http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Make_unRAID_Trust_the_Parity_Drive,_Avoid_Rebuilding_Parity_Unnecessarily

 

The only thing that I'm not sure about is that in the procedure that Tom wrote it says I shouldn't have any invalid or missing disks.  Disk 6 shows as "not installed" in a stable configuration (which is correct as that's the disk I removed previously) but when I try to unassign disk 7 and reassign it as disk 6 I get an invalid expansion error.  Is this when I should execute the "initconfig" and "mdmcd set invalid slot 99" commands or should I not make any disk changes and execute the commands first?

Thanks Joe.

 

I decided to run the lengthy procedure in the posted thread. It is running the following command right now

 

dd if=/dev/zero bs=2048k of=/dev/md5

 

Seem to be taking a while. The drive being removed is a WD20EARS drive.

It will take a bit longer than the initial parity calc.    Do not be impatient.

 

Figure 8 to 12 hours, perhaps more.

 

I've just finished filling three 1TB drives with zero (with bs=2048k).

It was long, tooks 37 hours.

So normally for one 2TB drives, it should be around 24 hours, but 30 hours should be possible. 

 

After entering initconfig refresh the browser window. All of the drives should be blue and you can move them as desired. Then complete the procedure.

Just so no one misses this...

 

Under 5.0beta8, and beta10, and through the latest beta available at this time (beta14), the "mdcmd set invalidslot 99" command does not work.

The only thing that I'm not sure about is that in the procedure that Tom wrote it says I shouldn't have any invalid or missing disks.  Disk 6 shows as "not installed" in a stable configuration (which is correct as that's the disk I removed previously) but when I try to unassign disk 7 and reassign it as disk 6 I get an invalid expansion error.  Is this when I should execute the "initconfig" and "mdmcd set invalid slot 99" commands or should I not make any disk changes and execute the commands first?

 

You don't have any invalid or missing disks. Disk6 = not installed is not an invalid or missing disk. An invalid or missing disk would appear on the main page with a red dot beside it.

 

Set the array disks how you want them (move disk7 to disk6).

Run initconfig command.

Run mdcmd set invalidslot 99 command.

Press start.

 

These are exactly the same steps as used by the remove procedure starting at the point where you stop the array after clearing the disk you want to remove.

 

And no, the mdcmd set invalidslot 99 command does not work on beta14. IF the OP is running beta14 then he's clearing the drives for no reason. Betaman did clearly list 4.7 in his sig.

 

Peter

 

You don't have any invalid or missing disks. Disk6 = not installed is not an invalid or missing disk. An invalid or missing disk would appear on the main page with a red dot beside it.

 

Set the array disks how you want them (move disk7 to disk6).

Run initconfig command.

Run mdcmd set invalidslot 99 command.

Press start.

 

These are exactly the same steps as used by the remove procedure starting at the point where you stop the array after clearing the disk you want to remove.

 

And no, the mdcmd set invalidslot 99 command does not work on beta14. IF the OP is running beta14 then he's clearing the drives for no reason. Betaman did clearly list 4.7 in his sig.

 

Peter

 

Thanks for the response.  When I move disk 7 to disk 6 (prior to initconfig) then I have a red ball on disk 7 and a blue ball on disk 6.  The message next to the red ball on disk 7 is "invalid expansion error".  I just want to confirm that I can ignore this red ball?  Thanks.

Thanks for the response.  When I move disk 7 to disk 6 (prior to initconfig) then I have a red ball on disk 7 and a blue ball on disk 6.  The message next to the red ball on disk 7 is "invalid expansion error".  I just want to confirm that I can ignore this red ball?  Thanks.

 

Yes, it will go away with the initconfig command.

Ok, everything seems to have worked as you describe.  Just in case anyone else is following this thread, once you start the array it will immediately go into a parity "check".