Hey all

Been using Unraid for 8 years or so, and in that time my server has just been playing with my feelings
The latest trick, is that it keeps killing my disks, and telling me that SMART has failed, and/or just completly removing the disk, telleing me that I need to format it. It keeps on makeing READ errors, that lead to that it wont load the disk into the array.

 

I have pull the disks from the server, cleared them in my main windowsrig, where I hav 0 errors and then putting them back into the server, made a format, and we are good agian, for a period of time. But sooner or later, it will die agian.

I have sold some of my disks to others to use in their unraid builds, and they have 0 errors with them, even after years  of use.

 

I have swapped all my cabels, and bout a new raidcontroller, new rams, but nothing helps. They just keep on dieing.

 

Any ideads?  

 

I have add'ed the logs of the disks here, two on them with S.M.A.R.T errors, and one without. Two are disabled now efter som reading errors, and im just so close to beeing done with this adventure

ST8000VN0022-2EL112_ZA1E1BTC-20250505-2120.txt ST8000AS0002-1NA17Z_Z8404CV7-20250505-2126.txt ST8000AS0002-1NA17Z_Z8406C2M-20250505-2119.txt

When you say disks are ‘dieing’ what exactly do you mean?    Of the 3 SMART reports posted the first looks like a drive that has cabling issues rather than dtive issues, the second looks fine, and the third look like it might have genuine issues as it has lots of pending sectors, although can sometimes get cleared on rewriting them.

Why is this your first post? We could have helped you with all of those things. 

 

And we can help now.

 

Start the array in normal not maintenance mode, then 

 

Attach Diagnostics to your NEXT post in this thread. 

Thanks for the feedback

I have just had other things on my mind, and this server had just been a project where the easy solution was just to put other disks in.
But, they all just make errors, and then they become emulated disks, and I just cant figure out why - so now its to to learn abit more about this setup

I have swapped cables, on all discs, multiple times. It works for a period of time, but then we are back at it with the errors leading to emulated disks.

 

The newest thing I did was to swap the Raid card, as the old one was like 9 years old, and I thought that it might be the problem, but no, I am still getting the same errors.

 

I hope this is all you need, otherwise, let me know. I really appreciate all the help I can get at this point, as I am about to lose my mind over this server, and all the data lost.

tdk-diagnostics-20250506-1012.zip

 

Go to Settings - Docker and disable. Go to Settings - VM Manager and disable. Leave them disabled until everything is working well.

 

Looks like you have let disk1 deteriorate to the point that it maybe can't be trusted to rebuild disk6.

 

Do you have Notifications setup to alert you by email or other agent as soon as a problem is detected? You should have been getting notifications about disk1.

 

Disk3 has had a lot of connection problems, but is probably OK otherwise.

 

Disabled disk6 is also probably OK. Most likely a connection problem disabled it, but that was before reboot so can't see anything about that in current syslog.

 

All plugs must sit squarely and firmly on all connectors, with plenty of slack in the cables. Don't bundle data cables.

 

 

 

 

2 minutes ago, trurl said:

Looks like you have let disk1 deteriorate to the point that it maybe can't be trusted to rebuild disk6.

Run an extended self-test on disk1

3 hours ago, trurl said:

Run an extended self-test on disk1

So, I have disabled the docker and vm. The self test fails pretty fast at READ. (attached)

 

I will try and have a look at all of the cables agian, and get back to you, if anything has helped on that end

Thanks for all the help so far, really appreciated!

tdk-smart-20250506-1959.zip

Yes, disk1 must be replaced immediately.

 

Unraid wants to rebuild disk6 and it won't simply let you rebuild disk1 instead.

 

But, there is a way if nothing was written to emulated disk6 after it became disabled.

 

Probably the only way forward now.

 

Do you have a disk you can use to replace disk1?

1 minute ago, trurl said:

Yes, disk1 must be replaced immediately.

 

Unraid wants to rebuild disk6 and it won't simply let you rebuild disk1 instead.

 

But, there is a way if nothing was written to emulated disk6 after it became disabled.

 

Probably the only way forward now.

 

Do you have a disk you can use to replace disk1?

I have a spare disk - one that I pulled out of the setup, as it also made some errors  But, in windows, its all good. I could try and swap disk1 out with that.
There is not written to disk6 efter, but I have tried to pull data from it, and it work in the begining, but after lige 2 hours, disk 1 startet to act up.

 

Is this the way to go, or what do you think?

Can you plug that spare in and post a SMART report for it?

7 minutes ago, trurl said:

Can you plug that spare in and post a SMART report for it?

Sure thing - this is from my Windows pc, CD: 

 

Hope thats good enough, or else just guide me in the right direction

Not entirely clear since that isn't my language. But from the model I assume it is 8TB just like disk1?

 

SMART looks OK.

1 minute ago, trurl said:

Not entirely clear since that isn't my language. But from the model I assume it is 8TB just like disk1?

 

SMART looks OK.

Yea, sorry about that

Yup, thats an 8 TB disk aswell. I will swap them tomorrow (getting late here), and once it is in, I will see what the server wants to do with it

Just now, Cololate said:

I will swap them tomorrow (getting late here), and once it is in, I will see what the server wants to do with it

Not that simple.

41 minutes ago, trurl said:

Unraid wants to rebuild disk6 and it won't simply let you rebuild disk1 instead.

 

When you are ready, we can give you detailed instructions, which must be followed exactly, to make it rebuild disk1 instead of disk6.

 

Let us know when you are ready to proceed.

10 hours ago, trurl said:

Not that simple.

 

When you are ready, we can give you detailed instructions, which must be followed exactly, to make it rebuild disk1 instead of disk6.

 

Let us know when you are ready to proceed.

Alright - didnt think it would be that easy anyways so really appreciate the offer of helping

 

I can be online in 10 hours roughly, but when ever it suits you after that, im ready - also on discord if thats faster

Let's stick to the forum.

 

18 hours ago, trurl said:

Let us know when you are ready to proceed.

 

1 hour ago, trurl said:

Let's stick to the forum.

 

 

Fine by me

So, I am ready from now on, and a little bonus info:
I have a spare cable I can plug the 'new' disk to, so that all disks can be in the server at all times, if needed. 

Install the new disk that will replace disk1.

 

Go to Tools - New Config, Retain All. Apply

 

Assign new disk1. Make sure all other assignments are correct. Reassign disk6 if necessary.

 

Very Important. Check BOTH Parity Valid checkbox AND Maintenance Mode checkbox, then Start the array. This will accept all disk assignments without doing anything else.

 

Stop the array. Unassign disk1. Start the array in Normal (not Maintenance) mode without disk1 assigned. This will disable and emulate disk1.

 

Then post new diagnostics.

26 minutes ago, trurl said:

Install the new disk that will replace disk1.

 

Go to Tools - New Config, Retain All. Apply

 

Assign new disk1. Make sure all other assignments are correct. Reassign disk6 if necessary.

 

Very Important. Check BOTH Parity Valid checkbox AND Maintenance Mode checkbox, then Start the array. This will accept all disk assignments without doing anything else.

 

Stop the array. Unassign disk1. Start the array in Normal (not Maintenance) mode without disk1 assigned. This will disable and emulate disk1.

 

Then post new diagnostics.

Alright

 

Just to make sure I have done it all correctly, ill just need a final confirm, so I dont screw this up

 

No that's totally wrong.

 

Looks like you have assigned a new disk2. Parity isn't in sync with anything in the disk2 slot. You should have only disk1, disk3, and disk6 as before, except with a new disk assigned as disk1.

Just now, trurl said:

No that's totally wrong.

 

Looks like you have assigned a new disk2. Parity isn't in sync with anything in the disk2 slot. You should have only disk1, disk3, and disk6 as before, except with a new disk assigned as disk1.

Gotcha! on it

Here we go:

 

Disk 9 have always been there aswell, just to make sure we are on the same page on that

2 minutes ago, Cololate said:

Disk 9 have always been there aswell, just to make sure we are on the same page on that

Yes, that's right. Then start from here:

1 hour ago, trurl said:

Very Important. Check BOTH Parity Valid checkbox AND Maintenance Mode checkbox, then Start the array. This will accept all disk assignments without doing anything else.

 

Stop the array. Unassign disk1. Start the array in Normal (not Maintenance) mode without disk1 assigned. This will disable and emulate disk1.

 

Then post new diagnostics.

 

4 minutes ago, trurl said:

Yes, that's right. Then start from here:

 

Alright - just making sure this is correct.

I have started the array with both box checked, stopped the Array and now I am here:

 

Im guessing I wanna check that, as thats what it needed to be able to pres 'start' - just want to make sure

Agian, so glad you have the time to help me with this, as I would otherwise be soooo lost

3 minutes ago, Cololate said:

I wanna check that, as thats what it needed to be able to pres 'start'

Yes, that's right.

 

1 hour ago, trurl said:

Then post new diagnostics.