hi all, quick question-

 

i am in the process of building my first array.  once completed, i thought it would be prudent to have a spare drive around, so that i could swap it in quickly in the event of a drive failure.

 

having recently added about 15 drives to my first array (yes i haven't just dipped my toe in, i really dived in!!!) i am very familiar with how long the preclear process takes...

 

for this spare drive, should i insert into my server, and pre clear, then remove from server?  i have read about the 'warm spare' option but i don't really love the idea of it being on all the time when not used (although i realize it should be spun down if setup correctly)

 

i'm kind of thinking to buy a new drive (at least as big as my biggest ie the size of my parity), preclear through the unraid server, then take out and have it sit on the shelf.

 

think this makes sense?  or is there a better way to prepare for a failure?

The only better thing I can think of is having the drive as a warm spare, but as you don't want to do that, preclearing the disk and ensuring you never touch it is the way to go.  When a drive fails you want to replace it as soon as possible, and having a precleared disk goes a long way towards getting your system back up and running properly in a timely fashion.

I would advice the warm spare for convenience, but you could also go "luke-warm" and have it in the server, sata plugged in but the power plugged out... That is basically the same as having it lying ready in your cupboard only you don't use cupboard space... It saves you removing the drive after preclear and inserting when needed.. Also avoids accidents with drives falling of shelves and such..

thanks to you both... i see i'm on the right track

 

i will research the warm spare a bit more... it may still be an option

 

as for sata in but power out, this won't work with my config but might work for others... i have a 24 bay server with actual bays so as far as i can see they are either both connected, or not at all connected!