HELLO EVERYONE!

I have been using the free version and liked it enough to buy my pro key and parts are on the way to the house over the next two days to start my first build. I have been using an old P4 with 2 - 1TB sata drives and an old 320 pata drive. 1 parity, 2 data.

Before i start my build over the weekend I want to swap in a new 2TB drive for parity in my current setup which will then be my parity drive for my new rig. I've read the wiki, and the forums and i want to know Is my thought process right?

My plan: unassign current parity disk and powerdown, install new 2TB drive and reboot, stop array if it has started, run preclear on new drive then assuming it passes, rebuild parity.

If all goes well and i am correct in my thinking this should all be finished by the time i start to put my new build together Saturday, i would then just install the drives in my new build and reassign the old parity as a data disk and add it to the array and away i go.

Tell me its that easy......

sry if this first post seems long, i'm just excited to get started! THANKS for any and all input.

Install new 2TB drive and reboot, stop array if it has started, run preclear on new drive then assuming it passes, Stop array, assign new parity drive, re-start array which will then rebuild parity.

yes, that easy.

THANK YOU Joe L.

 

When I start the new build for the first time it will be minus the pata drive replaced by the new [old parity] drive. I would follow similar process: stop array, assign disk, format??, start array to rebuild missing disk and expand. No need to preclear old parity disk first, since its already been done and has been in use?? or is it recommended i preclear it once again?

THANK YOU Joe L.

 

When I start the new build for the first time it will be minus the pata drive replaced by the new [old parity] drive. I would follow similar process: stop array, assign disk, format??, start array to rebuild missing disk and expand. No need to preclear old parity disk first, since its already been done and has been in use?? or is it recommended i preclear it once again?

basicallt, but you never "format" outside of the array.  Once assigned to the array, you'll see a"Format" button and it will show as un-formatted.  Click the I'm sure, and press "Format"

 

Joe L.

I would suggest preclearing the drive before unassigning the old parity. This way you still have parity protection while preclearing the new drive.

Thanks Again

Just needed to double check my understanding. pre clear started, should be complete when i get home from work today. Then on to the parity rebuild.

now I need to wrap my head around the split levels.....I'm sure I'm just over thinking it.

 

If you need help understanding split levels I'm sure we can help. It does seem odd to wrap around at first, then the AHA! moment happens,

Thank you. I think i get it.....

I created a top level as MEDIA with a split level of 5 with default setting of blank line to include all discs. So if i get it, the contents of five folders deep will spread across all drives in the server whereas the six folder and beyond in the tree will be locked to the disk it writes data to first.

 

Is this my AHA! moment or am i just confused and embarrassed?

You got it, 

 

Although I must say I'm interested, whats your folder structure to be that many levels, lol

Now that I am comprehending it, i probably don't need more than 3 levels.

exmpl: media/movies/dvd/iso Or movie name folder/xxx.flac

 

exmpl: music/cd's/artist forlder/album folder/xxx.flac

 

exmpl: music/ost/ost folder/xxx.flac

 

exmpl: pictures/camera/year/event/xxx.jpeg

 

as i also understand it ?? you can change the split level of any share anytime? or is it not quite that simple.........

Yes you can. you just go onto the webgui and go to shares, choose which share and change the split level.

 

Mine is setup like this:

Shares:

Media - Split Level 3

Personal Files Split level 0

Music Split Level 1

TV Split level 3

 

My folder structure is like this:

Media - Movies - HD Movies - Movie Folder - Movie.avi

          This way the folder HD Movies can span multiple drives, but each movie folder and anything beneath it must be on the same drive

Personal Files - Just pictures so no split level, some use split levels with pictures so in case of drive failure you don't lose all your pictures. I'm not too worried about that, my pictures backup offsite

 

Music - Genre - Artist - Album - Song.flac

        This way the genre's can span multiple drives but artist and down cannot, I suppose you could set the split level all the way to the album level and it'd work fine

 

TV - Series - Season - Episode.avi

        This way each series can span multiple disks but the individual seasons cannot

OK. I see.

Looks like I got a little more thinking to do.....

I want to migrate all my stuff onto the server then I will arrange accordingly.

So now its time to add my Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 8-Port SAS/SATA Add-on Card. No special set up requirements I hope.

 

Thank You! Influencer