I wanted to replace a 1 TB disk with a 3 TB one, so I shutdown the server, took the 1 TB out and placed a precleared 3 TB disk. When I booted the server I saw the parity disk red-balled. What should I do now? Put the 1 TB disk back and place a new parity disk and let it build parity? Is this save?

Before panicking double check all your cabling... Since you have been working in the inside of the case it is more then likely that you knocked a sata or power cable loose causing the red ball..

Checked and double checked but parity is still red-balled. I guess parity must be rebuild and checked before a disk can be replaced by a larger one.

did you stop the array, unassign the parity, then power down?

 

if not, its expecting to see a 1TB parity drive and you installed a 3TB.

 

if the other data drives are fine, just do an initconfig and recalc parity.

Checked and double checked but parity is still red-balled. I guess parity must be rebuild and checked before a disk can be replaced by a larger one.

OR, you can install the new parity disk, set a new  Initial Configuration  (Utils->New Config) and then start the array which will completely calculate parity on the new disk configuration.

 

Note:  This "New Config" immediately and completely invalidates any old parity, so do NOT do this if other disks have errors, as you may lose the data on those disks and will eliminate any chance of reconstruction from parity in combination with the other data disks.

The 1 TB drive I wanted to replace was NOT the parity, that already is a 3 TB disk. The disk I wanted to replace was a data-disk.

OEff... if you are sure cabling is not the issue (switch around cables for your drives), then you MIGHT, just MIGHT be the victim of the very rare circumstance where double disk failure leads to loss of data... You would have lost all data on the drive you wanted to replace... Can you reattach the old drive and see if you can get it to work ?

OEff... if you are sure cabling is not the issue (switch around cables for your drives), then you MIGHT, just MIGHT be the victim of the very rare circumstance where double disk failure leads to loss of data... You would have lost all data on the drive you wanted to replace... Can you reattach the old drive and see if you can get it to work ?

 

The moment I saw the red-balled parity I powered down. Haven't touched it since. I try to reasign the disk and possibly set a new config without parity. I don't want the disk get cleared or formatted. After that I reassign the parity disk and rebuild parity. BUT first I do a long smart test on the disks.