Apologies in advance if this has been answered but i cannot find it anywhere on wiki or google.

 

I have just setup my unraid and currently have 2tb and two 1tb drives inside setup

I am running free version just try before i commit.

Both 1tbs have data on them (movies, tv, etc.) 2TB was brand new i precleared it after 24hrs its fine and now formatted and added it to array.

My problem is i want to transfer all data from 1tbs before preclearing and formatting them to then add to setup plus ordered another 2tb for parity as seen advice to transfer without parity then add it.

Problem is i can't figure out how to do this so can anyone help or am i better off pulling them out and plugging them into windows pc then transferring?

Apologies in advance if this has been answered but i cannot find it anywhere on wiki or google.

 

I have just setup my unraid and currently have 2tb and two 1tb drives inside setup

I am running free version just try before i commit.

Both 1tbs have data on them (movies, tv, etc.) 2TB was brand new i precleared it after 24hrs its fine and now formatted and added it to array.

My problem is i want to transfer all data from 1tbs before preclearing and formatting them to then add to setup plus ordered another 2tb for parity as seen advice to transfer without parity then add it.

Problem is i can't figure out how to do this so can anyone help or am i better off pulling them out and plugging them into windows pc then transferring?

You've told us none of the information needed to give you an answer.

 

We have no idea what file-systems are on the 1TB drives. 

 

Your best bet is to do it from windows.  DO NOT assign the drives in unRAID until all the data you wish to keep is off of them. unRAID will zero/reformat them.

 

For the little amount of data you have (2TB), at worst, it will take overnight unless you have a really slow LAN.

 

Joe L.

doh!

I did assign it when i was trying transfer movies but i didn't format it.

Well plugged it back into windows and it's not picking it up so i guess unraid wiped it.

Guess back to drawing board.

For future reference what information would you need if i did want do transfer internally?

doh!

I did assign it when i was trying transfer movies but i didn't format it.

Well plugged it back into windows and it's not picking it up so i guess unraid wiped it.

Guess back to drawing board.

For future reference what information would you need if i did want do transfer internally?

No, when you assigned them, unRAID just overwrote the MBR describing its partitioning.  You can recover the files with a windows recovery tool.  It can restore a lost MBR.

 

Joe L.

It wasn't a windows drive just back up of movies and music

dunno if has MBR as windows is on ssd.

It wasn't a windows drive just back up of movies and music

dunno if has MBR as windows is on ssd.

right, but the drive was in a windows machine previously.  Using a recovery tool will/might bring back most/all  of the data.

So I have the exact same question as deviousx, but I'm a little earlier in asking.  I have around 8TB of stuff on external drives that I will need to transfer to my newly built server. The drives are all formatted in Mac journaled except for one that's NTFS. I have two brand new Seagate 3TB drives and thought I could put those into the server, format them, and empty a couple of the Mac drives onto them, then format the newly emptied Mac drives and add them to the array and so on. I thought I would do this by hooking the external drives up to my Mac and transfer over the LAN to the server, but I see some people running SNAP on unRaid to add all their drives into the server at once and transferring internally, then reformatting and adding drives to array as they empty. Is SNAP the way to go for me?  I will say that I'm not very experienced with command line stuff and would feel a little uneasy with 8TB on the line without someone kind of walking me through the commands.

So I have the exact same question as deviousx, but I'm a little earlier in asking.  I have around 8TB of stuff on external drives that I will need to transfer to my newly built server. The drives are all formatted in Mac journaled except for one that's NTFS. I have two brand new Seagate 3TB drives and thought I could put those into the server, format them, and empty a couple of the Mac drives onto them, then format the newly emptied Mac drives and add them to the array and so on. I thought I would do this by hooking the external drives up to my Mac and transfer over the LAN to the server, but I see some people running SNAP on unRaid to add all their drives into the server at once and transferring internally, then reformatting and adding drives to array as they empty. Is SNAP the way to go for me?  I will say that I'm not very experienced with command line stuff and would feel a little uneasy with 8TB on the line without someone kind of walking me through the commands.

If your uncomfortable with command line stuff then I stay stick with transferring over the network.

 

Assign one of the 3TB drives as a data drive and transfer files from one of the externals.  Assign the other 3TB drive as parity, let parity build after having assigned it.  Take the external you transferred from and put the drive in the unRAID machine.  You will need to pre-clear it, or let unRAID do it.  If you let unRAID do it the array will be offline the entire time it takes for the drive to clear.  Rinse and repeat.

 

This is the slower method but ultimately the safer one.

Safer because I'm not good with command line or safer in general?  From what I've read it doesn't look to be too complicated to use SNAP, but I'd certainly need help. It would save time and the hassle of opening my server everytime I had an empty drive to add in. 

 

Also, build a parity before all data is transferred, ie: after 3TB and not waiting until all 8TB have been moved?  I have only a slight idea of how parity works and know it slows down transfers, so in the plan you've proposed, is parity going to slow me down?  I'm not completely opposed to spending the next week transferring data, but it's not ideal either.

Safer because I'm not good with command line or safer in general?

Both...  If you use something that verifies data after the transfer is complete then you know what you have on the server is the same as what you just transfers.

 

From what I've read it doesn't look to be too complicated to use SNAP, but I'd certainly need help. It would save time and the hassle of opening my server everytime I had an empty drive to add in. 

It is not overly complicated. Just ask in that thread if you need help.

 

 

Also, build a parity before all data is transferred, ie: after 3TB and not waiting until all 8TB have been moved?

Correct, the data is safer that way.  If you transfer all 8TB (or part of it) and a drive fails during that transfer and you do not have parity protection you are SOL.

 

I have only a slight idea of how parity works and know it slows down transfers, so in the plan you've proposed, is parity going to slow me down?  I'm not completely opposed to spending the next week transferring data, but it's not ideal either.

Having parity enabled while transferring will slow the process down as mentioned above.  But you gain the added protection I mentioned earlier.

Thanks for the info. I'll probably take your advice and go slow but safe.