Here is the situation I am in…

 

I had a single parity drive 8Tb and a. Mix of data drives.

 

A data drive that was 4tb failed, but. I only had a 12Tb drive to replace it.

As a precaution, and as I had some space on the array, I move all data off the emulated failed data drive, and removed the drive so the slot shows as unassigned.

 

I decided the way forward was to add the 12Tb as a second Parity, let it build, remove the original 8Tb Parity Drive, and use it to replace the failed data drive.

Then I was either going to do a new config to remove the now empty parity 1 slot, or to put another drive into Parity 1 Slot. I hadn’t decided yet.

 

During building the parity 2 drive, the parity 1 drive failed and Unraid has disabled it (Red Cross next to the drive.)

I think the failures of the data drive and the parity drive were related to a PSU Issue that has now been resolved.

 

So, how do I move forward?

I can start the array and everything is working with the parity drive there as an emulated drive, and with drive 13 the empty failed data drive.

 

I cannot assign a new parity drive as the start button becomes disabled.

 

Do I do a new config to get rid of the parity, and then add the new parity drive in?

 

I’m really very cautious at this point and do not know the way forward.

 

Please post the diagnostics.

Thank you for your reply, Diagnostics attached.

 

I have 2 x 12Tb drives available and want to proceed with caution, so any advice is appreciated.

 

I realise that Drive 2 is also needs replacement, and probably drive 11 as well..... So I was going to move the data off drive 2 once the parity is up and sorted.

 

 

tower-diagnostics-20241207-1438.zip

Currently there are 3 invalid disks, so Unraid cannot emulate any disabled, I assume the disk that failed first was disk13? And you managed to copy all the data from that disk before this, right?

Yes that is correct.

And i only had a 12tb drive to replace it with.

If there's no data on disk13, I would recommend doing a new config without it, or using a new spare disk, and then re-sync parity.

Thanks again for your answer.

 

Ok just to get this clear before I proceed, Luckily I did move all the data off drive 13.

 

So do a new config and exclude drive 13 from the array, and put the new 12TB drive as parity, and let it build. And then add the second 12 Tb drive after as a new drive no, or to replace one of the smaller drives, probably drive 2 as that may fail too.

 

Or, you say use a new spare disc…

Does that mean to do a new config and place a new parity drive and a new drive 13 both as 12TB drives? - Can I do this in 1 step or would I have to do 2 steps?

Also, I have never done a new config before so what would I loose out of the configuration that I currently have? Would it just accept the change in drives, rebuild parity and everything else would be the same?

 

Sorry to ask questions, I just want to get out of this mess as quickly as possible.

You could rebuild with a disk13 and add it later, or add a new disk now, and it will be included in the parity.

 

I do see some questionable SMART reports for some of your drives, so, there can be some read errors during the parity sync.

Thank you again.

 

I did a new config without drive 13 and server is building the parity onto one of the 12TB drives.

 

Next step is to replace drive 2 with a 12TB drive as it's having some read errors.

 

Then I'll reassess what other drives may need replacement.