safest route to expand drives


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i currently have 2 data drives, 1 parity in my system. i'd like to expand it to 7 drives(already bought, with the sata controller etc).

 

what would be the safest thing to do to make sure that i didn't lose any data. i don't mind rebuilding the parity if i have to.

 

the previous setup was only connected through sata cables and no sata controller.

 

i heard that for best performance, i should leave port 1 and 2 for the new sata controller. then the rest of the sata port will be used for the drives. is there a safe route i can follow to make sure that when i expand the data isn't lost(literally no replacement). and also, what about the drive assignments? is there any particular information or order i need to make sure so that the data isn't corrupt?

 

thanks!

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i currently have 2 data drives, 1 parity in my system. i'd like to expand it to 7 drives(already bought, with the sata controller etc).

 

what would be the safest thing to do to make sure that i didn't lose any data. i don't mind rebuilding the parity if i have to.

 

the previous setup was only connected through sata cables and no sata controller.

 

i heard that for best performance, i should leave port 1 and 2 for the new sata controller. then the rest of the sata port will be used for the drives. is there a safe route i can follow to make sure that when i expand the data isn't lost(literally no replacement). and also, what about the drive assignments? is there any particular information or order i need to make sure so that the data isn't corrupt?

 

thanks!

We cannot give specific advice, since you did not give us the version of unRAID you are using or the hardware you are using.

 

Joe L.

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is there a safe route i can follow to make sure that when i expand the data isn't lost(literally no replacement)
Unraid is NOT a backup by itself. The safe route is to back up your data before you do anything else. If the data is valuable, it must be backed up somehow. Unraid only marginally protects against drive failure, it is not a backup if you don't have your data elsewhere.
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Personally insure your Parity and the most used drives are the fastest. Other than that.......... Enjoy...

 

All my Drives are WD Greens so you can tell I'm not worried about speed. ;)

 

Expanding insure all your drives are precleared using Joel L's preclear script. Other than that is a simple matter of turning off your system and inserting a drive and upon starting assign it in the GUI interface. Just make sure you double check your drive assignments.

 

I've started with 2 drives and slowly added a new drive as needed and now I'm up to 6.

 

1. Preclearing very important

2. Label each drive with its serial number so you can swap it out later if there is a failure and general sanity check.

3. Insure each drive power and Sata cable is tight and will not fail upon boot

4. Double Check to make sure your drive assignments are correct before you restart the array.

 

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i currently have 2 data drives, 1 parity in my system. i'd like to expand it to 7 drives(already bought, with the sata controller etc).

 

what would be the safest thing to do to make sure that i didn't lose any data. i don't mind rebuilding the parity if i have to.

 

the previous setup was only connected through sata cables and no sata controller.

 

i heard that for best performance, i should leave port 1 and 2 for the new sata controller. then the rest of the sata port will be used for the drives. is there a safe route i can follow to make sure that when i expand the data isn't lost(literally no replacement). and also, what about the drive assignments? is there any particular information or order i need to make sure so that the data isn't corrupt?

 

thanks!

We cannot give specific advice, since you did not give us the version of unRAID you are using or the hardware you are using.

 

Joe L.

 

i'm using the unraid v5rc6 i think. definitely not the latest rc. and all my drives are 3TB WD green.

 

i ran preclear before assigning the drives, making sure that it's good to go. took me like 20+ hours to preclear if i remember that right.

 

Personally insure your Parity and the most used drives are the fastest. Other than that.......... Enjoy...

 

All my Drives are WD Greens so you can tell I'm not worried about speed. ;)

 

Expanding insure all your drives are precleared using Joel L's preclear script. Other than that is a simple matter of turning off your system and inserting a drive and upon starting assign it in the GUI interface. Just make sure you double check your drive assignments.

 

I've started with 2 drives and slowly added a new drive as needed and now I'm up to 6.

 

1. Preclearing very important

2. Label each drive with its serial number so you can swap it out later if there is a failure and general sanity check.

3. Insure each drive power and Sata cable is tight and will not fail upon boot

4. Double Check to make sure your drive assignments are correct before you restart the array.

 

 

thanks for advice #2. i think it's a good thing to do to make sure it's the right drive. i'll try to expand it one by one. and first by just adding the SATA controller without messing with any of the drives assignment stuff. see if that looks good.

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Funny thing is just this weekend I swapped out my Disk2 drive and I nearly botched things up because I noticed the serial number in the Web GUI and pulled out Disk3 failing to heed my own advice of looking at the sticker on my drives. LOL

 

width=250http://i.imgur.com/kwgcf.jpg[/img]

 

Worst case I would of cleared all my data on Disk3 with a new drive and then ended up swaping them back again. Talk about taking forever on a swap. ;)

 

The above photo is a bit older, but wanted to show off the labeling. The drive up top was something I was preclearing for another machine. I guess I could of labeled it just the same. LOL

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