June 29, 200818 yr Sorry for the newbie question, but what's the best way for me to move data onto my drives? Right now I have unRAID setup with 1TB parity and 1TB blank in the next slot. Can I move another external 1TB hard drive that's full of data in or do I have to transfer all that data onto my blank hard drive? If I have to transfer it, what's the best way? (do I hook it up directly to the unRAID box or do I hook it up to a computer on the network?) Thanks for any help!
June 29, 200818 yr Sorry for the newbie question, but what's the best way for me to move data onto my drives? Right now I have unRAID setup with 1TB parity and 1TB blank in the next slot. That is a major first step. Can I move another external 1TB hard drive that's full of data in or do I have to transfer all that data onto my blank hard drive? That depends... if the external drive has an NTFS file system, it will need to be transferred to the empty one in the unRAID server. Only if the external drive has a "reiserFS" file-system can it be added directly to the array. If you were to attempt to assign it as a data drive, the unRAID server would attempt to mount it as a "reiserFS" When that fails, it would then consider it to be "unformatted" (unformatted to unRAID = anything not holding a valid reiserFS file-system) If I have to transfer it, what's the best way? (do I hook it up directly to the unRAID box or do I hook it up to a computer on the network?) You probably do have to transfer it. You can hook it up to another PC on your LAN and do the copy using file-explorer. For a 1TB drive, this will take a while, but set it up, go to sleep, and wake up in the morning hoping it is completed. Or You can connect the drive to the unRAID server and follow the instructions in the wiki http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Copy_files_from_a_NTFS_drive and do the actual copy using "mc" (midnight commander) This is a much more advanced technique, but faster since the LAN is not involved. It will still take many hours to transfer 1TB of data from one drive to another. Thanks for any help! If I were you, unless you have some unix/linux experience, I'd plug the external drive into a PC on your LAN and use windows file-explorer to do the copy. Joe L.
June 29, 200818 yr Sorry for the newbie question, but what's the best way for me to move data onto my drives? Right now I have unRAID setup with 1TB parity and 1TB blank in the next slot. Can I move another external 1TB hard drive that's full of data in or do I have to transfer all that data onto my blank hard drive? If I have to transfer it, what's the best way? (do I hook it up directly to the unRAID box or do I hook it up to a computer on the network?) Thanks for any help! First I wanted to say Welcome Aboard! I'd recommend that you take a look at the FAQ and the Best of the Forums to learn more before going too far. To give a quick answer to your questions ... Unless you are using a special file system called "reiserfs" on your external drive (highly unlikely), you cannot just take a drive and add it to your array and have your data stay intact. The first thing unRAID will want to do is reformat your drive - and bye bye data. You CAN (if you know what your're doing) mount an external drive on your unRAID server and copy data from that drive onto a drive that is in your unRAID array. I just added some links to the Best of section dealing with attaching an external drive directly to your unRAID server. Thiis is a bit advanced, so proceed with caution. Copying the data accross the network is the easiest way. A tip that many users (including me) used when doing the initial data load - is to NOT assign the parity drive at the beginning. Instead, just install your empty data drives (1 or more) into the array. You will then be able to write to them at ~45 MB/sec across the network. (If the parity drive is in place, the write speed is about 15 MB/sec.) After your data is copied, you can do an overnight parity build and you'll be up and protected. If you do this DO NOT delete your original copy of the data, at least not until your parity is complete. Unitl you build your parity, there is no array protection! Good luck! (Ha Ha! Joe and I replied at the same time. I think we say alot of the same things.)
June 29, 200818 yr (Ha Ha! Joe and I replied at the same time. I think we say alot of the same things.) I think you are right... I also noticed that the wiki gives the incomplete mount command, and then goes onward showing the better command to preserve the correct status bits. No need for the less correct versions in the wiki. They were out there when I originally write the tip and was not aware how samba would react if the simpler mount options were given.. Anybody following the instructions needs all the help they can get. Also noticed there is no wiki section on "mc" (or at least none I saw browsing around) Mounting an external drive is only half the process. If the "cp" or "mc" command description is not also in the wiki, it will only lead to frustration. Joe L.
June 29, 200818 yr I think you are right... I also noticed that the wiki gives the incomplete mount command, and then goes onward showing the better command to preserve the correct status bits. No need for the less correct versions in the wiki. They were out there when I originally write the tip and was not aware how samba would react if the simpler mount options were given.. Anybody following the instructions needs all the help they can get. Joe L., can you fix in the wiki? I am not sure what section you are saying is incomplete. Also noticed there is no wiki section on "mc" (or at least none I saw browsing around) Mounting an external drive is only half the process. If the "cp" or "mc" command description is not also in the wiki, it will only lead to frustration. Here is the wiki article that I think you were looking for. It may not be in the best place. I will add a link to the FAQ and to the Best of Forums sections.
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