Hi all, hoping for some guidance before I proceed with a parity drive swap. (Two parity drives, wanting to proceed with replacement one at a time)

I have had the same 5 sector errors weeks apart, The first time I noticed these errors I started a correcting parity check, Then I rechecked with corrections and all errors returned to zero.

Now, I am wanting to replace my parity drives, before doing this, I ran a non-correcting parity check and noticed the same errors on the same sectors. How should I proceed?  Is it safe to proceed with my parity drive swap with these 5 errors present?

(Probably unrelated)

All drives but one are 4TB - one drive is 2TB, This drive spins down after a while during parity check.

The Issue:

I have 5 persistent parity errors appearing on the exact same sectors across two parity checks, two weeks apart.

Feb 13 parity check errors: - Then I corrected parity errors, reran parity check, parity returned no errors.

Feb 13 23:56:39 LF1 kernel: md: recovery thread: PQ incorrect, sector=3519069768

Feb 13 23:56:39 LF1 kernel: md: recovery thread: PQ incorrect, sector=3519069776

Feb 13 23:56:39 LF1 kernel: md: recovery thread: PQ incorrect, sector=3519069784

Feb 13 23:56:39 LF1 kernel: md: recovery thread: PQ incorrect, sector=3519069792

Feb 13 23:56:39 LF1 kernel: md: recovery thread: PQ incorrect, sector=3519069800

Feb 28 parity check errors (Same errors as before) -

Feb 28 18:53:44 LF1 kernel: md: recovery thread: PQ incorrect, sector=3519069768

Feb 28 18:53:44 LF1 kernel: md: recovery thread: P incorrect, sector=3519069776

Feb 28 18:53:44 LF1 kernel: md: recovery thread: P incorrect, sector=3519069784

Feb 28 18:53:44 LF1 kernel: md: recovery thread: P incorrect, sector=3519069792

Feb 28 18:53:44 LF1 kernel: md: recovery thread: PQ incorrect, sector=3519069800

Edited March 1Mar 1 by Jake Lowe

I would start by posting your Diagnostics in your next post.

You should then run extended SMART. The problem being, the issue could be any of the drives in your array. Hopefully there is something in the logs that helps narrow down which drive is the problem.

I have seen this error (5 parity errors reuccuring constantly in the same sectors) before.

If I remember correctly, it came from a certain chipset of the SATA controller.

If UNRAID is shutdown, it flushes all caches, including parity to the drive but this controller did not write the data out before power was turned off.

The effected sectors were harmless (no data or directory info missing), but still very annoying.

I thought, the no flush bug was corrected long ago already, but reading this makes me think it is either back or still there.

Try:

• do correcting parity check

• repeat until no error shows up anymore

• shutdown and reboot unraid

• do correcting parity check again

if the last one shows the errors again, you may should look for a replacement controller or rearrange drives to other controllers that might be already in the box and not used yet.

10 hours ago, ConnerVT said:

I would start by posting your Diagnostics in your next post.

You should then run extended SMART. The problem being, the issue could be any of the drives in your array. Hopefully there is something in the logs that helps narrow down which drive is the problem.

lf1-diagnostics-20260301-0804.zip

Thanks for your response, Hopefully this helps. I will also run an extended smart test on all drives in the array. Is it ok to replace a single parity drive with these 5 errors present? (This should rebuild any issues?)

Edited March 1Mar 1 by Jake Lowe

7 hours ago, MAM59 said:

I have seen this error (5 parity errors reuccuring constantly in the same sectors) before.

If I remember correctly, it came from a certain chipset of the SATA controller.

If UNRAID is shutdown, it flushes all caches, including parity to the drive but this controller did not write the data out before power was turned off.

The effected sectors were harmless (no data or directory info missing), but still very annoying.

I thought, the no flush bug was corrected long ago already, but reading this makes me think it is either back or still there.

Try:

• do correcting parity check

• repeat until no error shows up anymore

• shutdown and reboot unraid

• do correcting parity check again

if the last one shows the errors again, you may should look for a replacement controller or rearrange drives to other controllers that might be already in the box and not used yet.

These errors did occur after a restart each time, It never happened before with the server running for 6 months straight. Unfortunately, I don't have any room to add a new sata card, (Old motherboard)

19 hours ago, Jake Lowe said:

Is it ok to replace a single parity drive with these 5 errors present?

Difficult to say for sure if those sectors coincide with data, if you can do the replacement after a correcting check and before rebooting, it should be OK.