Running v. 7.1.4, I'm in the middle of carrying out the 'remove disk' procedure, using the 'parity-preserve method'; I've removed the files from one drive (disk 10) and I'm currently zeroing the disk using dd before removing it from the array. I'd turned on 'reconstruct write' to speed the process. I've attached the syslong and diagnostics.

After about an hour (although I didn't see this until some hours later), one of the other disks (disk 11) becamed disabled and is now being emulated; looking in the syslog there are some SAS errors at around 17:11; followed by a load of read and write errors (possiblu caused by the disk being disabled). I've turned off reconstruct write, and so now the zeroing is continuing just with the disk for removal (and parity) being accessed.

So my first question is; can I complete the removal process? Let the zeroing finish; stop array; reset configuration (keeping assignments); unassign the drive to be removed; and restart the array with parity valid. Or, will this cause problems with one of the other drives being emulated?

Then, what steps should I take in terms of investigating the failed drive? It might be as simple as a cable connection (as I have been replacing some drive cages, although not the one with this drive); or a problem with the drive. I do have drives of an appropiate size that I could easily enough use as a replacement (with the normal rebuild procedure) if that would be the most sensible thing to do before anything else.

Thanks for any advice,

Edited to add - the disabled disk is showing in unassigned devices; can be spun up and SMART report seems fine, so I guess a cable problem or temporary glitch?

tower-syslog-20251011-2251.zip tower-diagnostics-20251011-2356.zip

Edited October 16, 2025Oct 16 by Shamutanti
Updating information

Looks more like a power/conection problem, disk dropped offline and then reconnected with a different identifier.

I would recommend finishing the disk clearing, then replacing the cables for the disk that dropped, and assuming the emulated disk mounts and contents look correct, rebuild that first, then do the new config to remove the empty disk.

Thanks Jorge, I will give that a try and report back if any problems.