I'm in the process of rebuilding my 15 year old UnRAID server. I replaced the UnRAID version 4.7 boot USB with an UnRAID version 7.1.2 boot USB. I'm extracting all the data from the data drives that are formatted with the defunct Reiserfs format, one by one, with DiskInternals Linux Reader, and transferring the data to the new rebuild, using XFS formatted drives. My motherboard is a Supermicro MBD-X8SIL-F-0 https://www.supermicro.com/products/archive/motherboard/x8sil?IPMI=Y

The CPU is an Intel i3 CPU540 dual core @ 3.07 GHz with 4 gigs of DDR3 single-bit ECC memory. All drives are 2 TB SATA.

The "Fix Common Problems" plug-in reports that I am using a Marvel drive controller, which could be problematic for UnRAID.

I think the motherboard, CPU, and memory will need to be replaced, since they were purchased in 2010.

I am getting a SMART error on each of the two parity drives. I'm not sure how I determine the cause of the SMART errors and how to fix them. I believe that the motherboard only supports up to 2 TB drive sizes and would like to upgrade the drives to larger drives, starting with the parity drives.

My questions are how do I fix the SMART errors on the two parity drives? Can a SATA 16 drive controller that would allow my old motherboard to accept much larger SATA hard drives, while still using the old Supermicro motherboard? Which 16 SATA drive controller is recommended?

Many years ago, I saw hardware recommendations for building UnRAID servers. In the near future, I would also like to have a general hardware recommendation which motherboard, CPU, and memory that I should buy to replace my 15 year old hardware. I built 3 computers 15 years ago using Intel processors. I wonder if today, AMD processors might be a better choice for the CPU than using Intel processors.

Hi,

8 hours ago, davephan said:

I am getting a SMART error on each of the two parity drives. I'm not sure how I determine the cause of the SMART errors and how to fix them.

SMART errors are not "fixable". Some are not important and can just be acknowledged, other are serious and denote of a serious disk problem.

If you provide your diagnostics, we can help you decide what to do.

8 hours ago, davephan said:

Can a SATA 16 drive controller that would allow my old motherboard to accept much larger SATA hard drives, while still using the old Supermicro motherboard?

It should unless I am missing something. However there might be speed limitations (TBC).

8 hours ago, davephan said:

Which 16 SATA drive controller is recommended?

You should find that here :

I attached the diagnostic files. The two 2TB SATA parity drive both have a SMART error displayed on the Dashboard web page.

unraid-diagnostics-20250919-0907.zip

Parity 1 looks pretty bad. IDs 1;198;200 would be big no-nos for me.

ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAGS    VALUE WORST THRESH FAIL RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     POSR-K   200   200   051    -    36
  3 Spin_Up_Time            POS--K   173   167   021    -    6308
  4 Start_Stop_Count        -O--CK   100   100   000    -    99
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   PO--CK   200   200   140    -    0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         -OSR-K   100   253   000    -    0
  9 Power_On_Hours          -O--CK   009   009   000    -    66543
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        -O--CK   100   253   000    -    0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count -O--CK   100   253   000    -    0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       -O--CK   100   100   000    -    98
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count -O--CK   200   200   000    -    48
193 Load_Cycle_Count        -O--CK   176   176   000    -    74667
194 Temperature_Celsius     -O---K   121   100   000    -    29
196 Reallocated_Event_Count -O--CK   200   200   000    -    0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  -O--CK   200   200   000    -    0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   ----CK   200   200   000    -    2
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    -O--CK   200   200   000    -    0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   ---R--   200   200   000    -    9

Parity 2 is not great either. Less bad, but still bad. ID 1 is lower and 198+200 are at 0, but 92 realallocated sectors feels like a lot.

ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAGS    VALUE WORST THRESH FAIL RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     POSR-K   200   200   051    -    6
  3 Spin_Up_Time            POS--K   161   143   021    -    8941
  4 Start_Stop_Count        -O--CK   100   100   000    -    313
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   PO--CK   188   188   140    -    92
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         -OSR-K   100   253   000    -    0
  9 Power_On_Hours          -O--CK   001   001   000    -    91204
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        -O--CK   100   100   000    -    0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count -O--CK   100   100   000    -    0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       -O--CK   100   100   000    -    276
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count -O--CK   200   200   000    -    143
193 Load_Cycle_Count        -O--CK   134   134   000    -    200636
194 Temperature_Celsius     -O---K   119   093   000    -    33
196 Reallocated_Event_Count -O--CK   178   178   000    -    22
197 Current_Pending_Sector  -O--CK   200   199   000    -    0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   ----CK   200   200   000    -    0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    -O--CK   200   200   000    -    0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   ---R--   200   194   000    -    0

WD-WCAVY1555288 also has some Raw_Read_Errors. I would keep an eye on it.

The other drives seem OK.

Run an extended SMART test on those disks, but like mentioned, it's not a good sign, especially if the test passes and they keep going up, but if the test passes, the disk is OK for now.

How do I run an extended SMART test? What are acceptable and unacceptable parameters? I'm not sure what disks in good condition should look like.

I swapped out the parity 1 drive that ends with "3443" with another 2TB SATA drive that I already precleared. The parity-sync in in progress, almost 8 hours with about 6 hours to go. I can take another "diagnostics" after the parity-sync completes. I have another 2TB SATA drive to replace the parity 2 drive that ends with "1711", but I need to run the preclear process on that drive. Usually, it takes about one day to run the pre-clear, Pre Read / Erasing / Zeroing / Post Read process. Then I could try replacing the parity 2 drive that ends with "1711", and take another "diagnostics" after that.

Here's the updated diagnostics file after replacing the Parity 1 drive. I'm now pre-clearning another drive to replace the Parity 2 drive.

unraid-diagnostics-20250919-2331.zip

11 hours ago, davephan said:

How do I run an extended SMART test?

On the Main page, click the disk name, change the spindown delay to 'Never', Apply, the go to the 'Self-Test' tab and 'Start' the 'SMART extended self-test'

11 hours ago, davephan said:

What are acceptable and unacceptable parameters?

There is no hard rule. But for me :

• any drive with more than a single digit of errors total on important attributes is a disk at risk and that I would keep a close eye on.

• any important attribute with more than a single digit, I would keep a replacement disk ready.

• Some attribute might make me replace ASAP.

On WD drives, I would keep an eye on :

• Raw_Read_Error_Rate

• Reallocated_Sector_Ct

• Reallocated_Event_Count

• Current_Pending_Sector

• Offline_Uncorrectable

• Multi_Zone_Error_Rate

Other brand do things differently (especially Seagate with Raw Errors).

Here is another diagnostics scan after replacing and syncing the second parity drive. Now, the two parity drives have been replaced. I've learned that SAS drives are a better choice than SATA drives for a NAS server after watching several YouTube videos about SAS and SATA hard drives. I'm considering replacing the SATA parity drives with larger SAS drives, then eventually replacing the data drives with larger SAS drives. I don't believe that my system board supports greater than 2TB SATA drives natively. Before replacing the 15 year old Supermicro MBD-X8SIL-F-0 system board, CPU, memory, and power supply, I'm considering adding a 12 or 16 HBA drive controller card to the computer. Can both SAS and SATA drives be used on the same HBA drive controller? Or, do all the drives have to be all SATA or all SAS?

Thanks for your opinions on how to treat SMART errors!

unraid-diagnostics-20250921-1927.zip

7 hours ago, davephan said:

Can both SAS and SATA drives be used on the same HBA drive controller?

Yes.