Well, I am a newbie and am finally getting ready to build my unraid server. I just ordered all the parts and they should be arriving shortly. My question is do I need two hard drives for the unraid to work? I currently have 2 750GB HD's in my PC. One HD is empty and the other had data on it. Is there any way I could use the empty HD has the data disk on the unraid server without a parity disk? Then copy the files from the HD on my PC to the unraid server. Then take that hard drive and make it the parity drive? I was just trying to avoid losing my data currently on the one HD and figured it would get formatted if I just added to the unraid system. Sorry if this has already been discussed before. I checked the FAQ's and searched the forum, but did not have any luck. Thanks in advance for any help on the matter.

Well, I am a newbie and am finally getting ready to build my unraid server.  I just ordered all the parts and they should be arriving shortly.  My question is do I need two hard drives for the unraid to work?  I currently have 2 750GB HD's in my PC.  One HD is empty and the other had data on it.  Is there any way I could use the empty HD has the data disk on the unraid server without a parity disk?  Then copy the files from the HD on my PC to the unraid server.  Then take that hard drive and make it the parity drive?  I was just trying to avoid losing my data currently on the one HD and figured it would get formatted if I just added to the unraid system.  Sorry if this has already been discussed before.  I checked the FAQ's and searched the formum, but did not have any luck.  Thanks in advance for any help on the matter.

You do not need to configure a parity drive at first. 

 

You can initially configure just the one data drive, copy the files to it from the PC once unRAID is up and running, then, shut down, power down, remove the drive from the PC, install it as parity in the unRAID server, press "Start" to calculate parity, and the array will then be protected.

 

Joe L.

 

 

Thanks so much for the response.  I was hoping that was possible.  At first, I just wanted to get the unraid server running since it is my first build.  Then I will add more HD's once it is working properly.  Both drives are 750 GB but are different brands (Seagate and Samsung).  I would imagine they are slightly different in size.  Do I need to make sure the data drive I install at first is the smaller drive?  I was not sure if that slight difference in size between brands would mess things up if the larger one was not the parity.  I have a feeling the answear is yes since the parity must be the largest drive.  Just wanted to double check since on HD is in my PC and the other HD is still in the box.  Thanks again.

Thanks so much for the response.  I was hoping that was possible.  At first, I just wanted to get the unraid server running since it is my first build.  Then I will add more HD's once it is working properly.  Both drives are 750 GB but are different brands (Seagate and Samsung).  I would imagine they are slightly different in size.  Do I need to make sure the data drive I install at first is the smaller drive?  I was not sure if that slight difference in size between brands would mess things up if the larger one was not the parity.  I have a feeling the answear is yes since the parity must be the largest drive.  Just wanted to double check since on HD is in my PC and the other HD is still in the box.  Thanks again.

Odds are high they will be the same size, but if they are not, use the larger for parity.

 

If by chance you choose the wrong one for your data (the larger), the unRAID server will let you know.    If that happens, we can advise on how to best proceed.  You will probably need to assign the second disk as a data disk, then copy the files from one to the other, then reassign the larger as parity. 

 

Joe L.