Hi,

During a renovation of my home, now that I've moved back in, it seems I misplaced my Unraid USB. I looked everywhere but I suspect it must have gotten accidentaly dumped with some garbage which is now gone. I looked high and low for it but at this point I don't think luck is on my side.

Just wondering what the overal steps of getting my existing array back? Obvisouly I need to buy a new USB and hopefully get the Unraid Pro license. I have my license key saved in my gmail. It's about 10 years old. Can I still use that and copy it to my usb?

Next question is once I boot up, what are the next steps to not lose my data and get my array back?

Then the long process of reinstalling all my apps and configuring them begins.

Any assistance would greatly be appreciated!

If you have the .key file for your licence then putting it into the ‘config’ folder on the flash drive should mean you get taken through the licence transfer process on booting Unraid. If any issues encountered at this stage you would need to contact support.

You should then proceed with this section of the online documentation to get your drive assignments done.

I think I was backing up my config to the unraid server. Is there a way to use that? If I do have a backup, after my initial boot do I assign the drives as best as possible, start the array so I have access to my drive where I backed up the config, then somehow import my config file?

You can use the link above to recover the assignments; after that, you should be able to access the backup.

Alternatively, you can mount each disk with UD in read-only mode to look for it, the advantage of that is that parity would remain valid.

I have a back up of my flash drive. Is there something I can do with it? Is there a file that provides the disk assignments? Can I just copy it over to my new flash drive or somewhere from within Unraid restore the flash?

12 minutes ago, DigitalDivide said:

I have a back up of my flash drive.

If it is a current backup, just copy the config folder from it to your new flash drive, then you will have all of your configuration including your disk assignments and the license (which will need to be transferred to the new flash as mentioned).

Hmm I guess the license key is attached to the usb. I am getting an error "The license key file does not correspond to the boot device. Please copy the correct key file to the /config directory on your boot device.

You may also attempt to Purchase or Replace your key." Does that mean I need to contact support for a new key?

Wow. Actually I'm back up and running...sort of. I copied the config folder from the one on my pc drive and booted up. I got an onscreen message to update my key. It took me to unraid connect and updated my key. Problem is the config I restored seems to have two old disks and not the new 12tb ones and I'm not sure where to assign them to. When I select a slot and replace the old drive with the newer 12tb drive, it says "All existing data on this device will be OVERWRITTEN when array is Started"

I have 5 data disks. I"m assuming unraid recognized the right drive as parity and put in as parity. The problem is I'm not sure which of the 3 x 4tb drives and the 1 x 6TB drive I replaced with the two 12TB drives. How do I start up the array with them in a slot without erasing the drives or running a parity check?

Since you didn't have a current backup with your current disk assignments, you will have to New Config and assign your disks. Then it will rebuild parity instead of clearing any data disks. You must be very certain of your parity assignments. If you accidentally assign any data disk to any parity slot, it will be overwritten with parity.

If you aren't absolutely certain of your parity disks

On 6/15/2026 at 3:52 AM, itimpi said:

proceed with this section of the online documentation to get your drive assignments

16 minutes ago, DigitalDivide said:

I"m assuming unraid recognized the right drive as parity and put in as parity.

Don't assume. Unraid only knows what your old backup said. It hasn't recognized anything. It won't even try to recognize anything until you start the array.

If your old backup had a drive assigned as parity, and you later assigned a different disk as parity then reused that (former parity) disk as a data drive, then Unraid will have assigned that data disk as parity if that is what your old backup had.

9 minutes ago, trurl said:

you will have to New Config and assign your disks.

https://docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/using-unraid-to/manage-storage/array/array-health-and-maintenance/#reset-the-array-configuration

This is a little confusing to me. I do appreciate your assistance. So I did New Config and now see this. The way I had it was 5 data disks, 1 cache, and 2 unassigned drives.

I'm a little unsure where to start now. Is the greyed out drive the parity drive?

2 minutes ago, DigitalDivide said:

Is the greyed out drive the parity drive?

Can you mount the other drives (read-only)?

On 6/15/2026 at 9:45 AM, JorgeB said:

Alternatively, you can mount each disk with UD in read-only mode to look for it, the advantage of that is that parity would remain valid.

how do I mount the drives as read only. I don't see an option anywhere

Click on the gears icon under Settings for each drive. You really only need to check if the 12TB are mountable since the smaller drives cannot have been parity.

Actually, UD seems to be saying it has recognized the filesystem on all disks except the one that has the greyed out MOUNT button.

yup, found it. Mounting them now as read only

ok I was able to mount all the drives. I didn't try to mount the greyed out one but since I can mount all the other drives, the greyed out one must be the parity drive

57 minutes ago, DigitalDivide said:

not sure which of the 3 x 4tb drives and the 1 x 6TB drive I replaced with the two 12TB drives

We still don't know that. Why are those replaced drives attached?

This is what I now see, which would be correct. A total of 9 drives

1 x Parity

1 x cache - The T Force drive. This I know for sure

5 x data drives

2 x unassigned drives - I know which ones this are as well

Edited June 17Jun 17 by DigitalDivide

Diagnostics you posted in January had these drive assignments (disk0 is parity):

Jan 11 16:12:21 TerraFirma kernel: md: import disk0: (sdi) WDC_WD120EFBX-68B0EN0_D7HEJ0JN size: 11718885324 
Jan 11 16:12:21 TerraFirma kernel: md: import disk1: (sdh) ST12000NT001-3MD101_ZZ007GMK size: 11718885324 
Jan 11 16:12:21 TerraFirma kernel: md: import disk2: (sdg) WDC_WD60EFAX-68SHWN0_WD-WX62D30RDFXX size: 5860522532 
Jan 11 16:12:21 TerraFirma kernel: md: import disk3: (sdf) ST12000NT001-3MD101_ZZ3079WK size: 11718885324 
Jan 11 16:12:21 TerraFirma kernel: md: import disk4: (sdc) WDC_WD120EFBX-68B0EN0_D7HEVYVN size: 11718885324 
Jan 11 16:12:21 TerraFirma kernel: md: import disk5: (sde) WDC_WD40EFZX-68AWUN0_WD-WX72D221Y1N9 size: 3907018532 
Jan 11 16:12:21 TerraFirma emhttpd: import 30 pool device: (nvme0n1) T-FORCE_TM8FP7001T_TPBF2308150010101219

Good find! I looked at my posts but didn't even see that. So I could just use that and assign my drives right

I guess I have to unmount my drives, remove the read only and then assign them to the slots

1 minute ago, DigitalDivide said:

So I could just use that and assign my drives right

Assuming you haven't made any changes to disk assignments since those diagnostics.

1 minute ago, DigitalDivide said:

unmount my drives, ... then assign them to the slots

Unmount them in UD or you won't be able to assign them. Parity should be valid after you assign the disks, you can check the Parity Valid box before starting the array and it won't rebuild parity. Probably a good idea to do a correcting parity check anyway.