I'm looking to move a couple of 4tb drives from a OLD server to add to my NEW servers existing array.

Don't need to preserve the data (nor bothered about the old server array afterwards), looking for advice on the best way of achieving this. From my limited understanding I'm thinking these are a couple of my options.....

(As the Old server drives are a few years old, might it be best practice to take Method 1, and preclear before moving ? As this will ensure the Old server drives are integrity checked before I move them?)

I've looked here before posting, but would still appreciate advice before I take the plunge.... Clear vs. Pre-Clear

Method 1

Old server data drives, delete the partitions & pre-clear the disks before physically moving to the New server & adding into the array, then format. Will this mean as I've precleared the will be quicker to add to the new array once moved & less downtime on the array?

Method 2

Old server data drives, delete the partitions (for drives excluding parity). Then physically move to New server & format. Can these drives then be added to the array or would they still need to be precleared first? Because if its the later this would mean more array downtime.

Not sure if the Old server parity drive could be moved over in this way (as wouldn't want unraid getting confused if New server recognised the drive as a parity drive and messed things up?)

New server

Existing array (1 x 12tb parity drive, 2 x 12tb data drives - xfs)

Old server

Existing array (1 x 4tb parity drive, 3 x 4tb data drives, 1 x 3tb data drive - xfs)

Edited February 24Feb 24 by johnyb

Which ever method you go for, no need to delete anything from old drives as both methods overwrite existing data.

Option 1) means the drives are available immediately after the array is started, but you had to take the time to preclear the drives before doing the add.

Option 2) means that when you add the drives then Unraid needs to clear the added drive(s) before they can be used. While the 'Clear' is running the rest of the drives are available so the array downtime is the same as 1) as long as you do not need to immediately use one of the new drives for data.

Clear is faster than pre-clear so total elapsed time is shortest with option 2), but option 1 checks out the drives before trying to add them which you might want to do.

2 hours ago, itimpi said:

Which ever method you go for, no need to delete anything from old drives as both methods overwrite existing data.

Option 1) means the drives are available immediately after the array is started, but you had to take the time to preclear the drives before doing the add.

Option 2) means that when you add the drives then Unraid needs to clear the added drive(s) before they can be used. While the 'Clear' is running the rest of the drives are available so the array downtime is the same as 1) as long as you do not need to immediately use one of the new drives for data.

Clear is faster than pre-clear so total elapsed time is shortest with option 2), but option 1 checks out the drives before trying to add them which you might want to do.

Thanks for confirming. For piece of mind I'll take Option1

The best option: Method 2 (move then clear in the new server) You do not need to pre-clear in the old server if you do not want to keep the data.

_Tutuapp

Edited March 2Mar 2 by avensis

28 minutes ago, avensis said:

The best option: Method 2 (move then clear in the new server) You do not need to pre-clear in the old server if you do not want to keep the data.

Only if you do not want to run a confidence check on the old drives before using them in the new server.