Hi all,

 

I'm on Unraid 7.0.1

 

I have 8 drives with btrfs enabled :

- Main array has 6 data and 1 parity

- Also one small cache drive

 

On the main array the data is spread across all the 6 drives but the total main array has more space left than the largest drive.
 

Is it technically possible to reduce the number of drives in an existing array and then repurpose that 'free' drive as an additional parity drive.

I have no more physical slots free so this isnt a scenario where i can add additional disks to help this process.

 

many thanks to anyone that can help even if the answer is its 'not possible' 

You can move the data off one of the data drives and shrink the array.  Once complete you reassign the empty data drive at parity 2.  On the bottom right corner of the GUI click on manual and look up "shrink array"

many thanks Gragorg I'll read through the guide and see if i can get it working

Hi 

Referencing the docs: https://docs.unraid.net/legacy/FAQ/shrink-array/

I'd like to use the "Clear Drive Then Remove Drive" method

Step 5 : "Make sure ALL data has been copied off the drive; drive MUST be completely empty for the clearing script to work."

How do i do this? I couldnt find a gui item to 'flush' the disk empty to the other drives in the array?

In each share do i untick the drive I want to shrink so its not allocated to anything and then run mover and it does this?

Edited April 14, 20251 yr by lankster2k

35 minutes ago, lankster2k said:

How do i do this? I couldnt find a gui item to 'flush' the disk empty to the other drives in the array?

Don't recommend using the script since it's been known to be very slow with current releases, but to empty a drive, see here (v7.0+):

https://docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/release-notes/7.0.0/#using-mover-to-empty-an-array-disk

Thanks JorgeB for the quick response will try that approach