Ok so im preclearing wd red 3tb im on my second run. I precleared with screen and I had a big problem trying to reconnect to screen so i thought maybe the preclear wasnt running anymore so i started it over again...same thing happened the next day when i went to check progress..wasnt there again so me being neive i tried to start it again...next day samething so started doing research after many trial and errors found how to reconnect to the progress of my preclear using "screen -x 27132.pts-0.Tower" that works for me...usually i can reconnect without any issues...

 

so that brings me to the length of time its taken this run im on post read 28% cycle 1 of 3 and its going on 91 hours...should i stop this and start it over again??

thanks

let it run.

let it run.

Whats the possibility that he could be running 3 pre-clears at the same time? would that even work?

 

Carlos, how well versed are you on screen? did you try flipping through to see what other iterations of screen was running?

im not that bright...hahaha so now when i type screen -r or list i come up with something like this...

 

 

        27132.pts-0.Server_Tower        (Detached)

        24346.pts-0.Server_Tower        (Detached)

        2220.pts-0.Server_Tower (Detached)

        6185.pts-2.Server_Tower (Detached)

        1950.pts-0.Server_Tower (Detached)

 

then I went through each of those numbers using this....

screen -x 27132.pts-0.Server_Tower

 

only 27132 came up with a percentage and progress screen...however i think the first time i tried it i was able to pull up 2 of those numbers with information...now its just the one....

 

 

i would get something like this...

 

root@Server_Tower:/boot# screen -x 24346.pts-0.Server_Tower

Attaching from inside of screen?

root@Server_Tower:/boot# screen -x 2220.pts-0.Server_Tower

Cannot find terminfo entry for 'vt100'.

root@Server_Tower:/boot# screen -x 6185.pts-2.Server_Tower

Cannot find terminfo entry for 'vt100'.

root@Server_Tower:/boot# screen -x 1950.pts-0.Server_Tower

Cannot find terminfo entry for 'vt100'.

root@Server_Tower:/boot#

let it run.

Whats the possibility that he could be running 3 pre-clears at the same time? would that even work?

 

 

I had the same thought.

 

Carlos -- while you're logged in with Screen, hit "Ctrl-A" "n" to toggle through the sessions and see if you get any additional status screens from pre-clear.

 

I would HOPE that it's not possible to start multiple pre-clears on the same drive -- I know it won't let you start a pre-Clear on a drive assigned to UnRAID;  but not sure if it checks for an existing pre-Clear session already active on the same drive.    But if that isn't checked, you could have 2 (or 3) sessions running, which would make ALL of them run VERY slow.    IF that's the case, you want to terminate the extra sessions.

 

Joe L can answer the "is iit possible" question 

let it run.

Whats the possibility that he could be running 3 pre-clears at the same time? would that even work?

 

 

I had the same thought.

 

Carlos -- while you're logged in with Screen, hit "Ctrl-A" "n" to toggle through the sessions and see if you get any additional status screens from pre-clear.

 

I would HOPE that it's not possible to start multiple pre-clears on the same drive -- I know it won't let you start a pre-Clear on a drive assigned to UnRAID;  but not sure if it checks for an existing pre-Clear session already active on the same drive.    But if that isn't checked, you could have 2 (or 3) sessions running, which would make ALL of them run VERY slow.    IF that's the case, you want to terminate the extra sessions.

 

Joe L can answer the "is iit possible" question 

yes, it is possible to run multiple concurrently on the same disk.  It will make them all run more slowly, but it will exercise the disk even more seeking between them all. 

 

It will not do any harm, as long as you let them all run to completion.

 

Joe L.

Joe ... Wouldn't concurrent runs on the same disk result in artificial errors?

 

i.e. Session 1 writes something to the disk;  then reads it to verify it was okay.  But in-between the read and write, session 2 writes something to the same set of sectors ... so the verify in Session 1 fails.    Obviously whether this could happen would depend on the relative timing of the sessions -- i.e. if they're all doing pre-reads, it should be fine => but it certainly seems like there would be a chance for an error-inducing interaction.

 

I'd also think the excessive thrashing this would cause could REALLY slow down the process -- far more than just 3 times the already-very-long timing.

 

OK i tried the ctl a im not sure what the n was for? i tried and cmd said wuff! lol

 

 

 

heres what i get...

You don't type CTRL ... you hold the control key, while pressing an A -- and then an N, which toggles to the next session.    This is how you switch between sessions in Screen.

 

You don't type CTRL ... you hold the control key, while pressing an A -- and then an N, which toggles to the next session.    This is how you switch between sessions in Screen.

 

 

haha no i didnt type it i held ctrl and a then i press n but ctrl and a by its self allowed me to cycle through it so i think thats fine?

 

correction i guess i did type it once but thats because it wasnt working properly for me lol i guess just ctrl a does the same thing with out the n for some reason?

If the screens you posted above are all you're seeing, I don't think there are any Pre-Clear sessions running.      You should see a screen something like the following.

 

I would confirm that you have no active Pre-Clear sessions (by toggling through all sessions in Screen) ... and, if not, shut down the server;  then re-boot; and start ONE Pre-Clear session -- being sure you see the correct status screen when you start it.

 

... Otherwise, you may be waiting a LONG time for Pre-Clear to finish 

 

.... of course, if you DO have a good Pre-Clear status screen showing, then just wait for it to complete [although I'd still cycle through the screens to see if you have more than one running at the same time].

 

Hey Gary ill check again when I get back at work tomorrow...now that i look through those screens it doesnt show the one i saw just moments before creating this thread...the one i saw initially was the one that indicated as i said in this first post it was on cycle 1 of 3 of post scanning and was at 28% with about 91 hours of time elapsed...would it hurt anything if i just restart the server and start the preclear again?...the reason i possibly have several scans going for the 1 drive is because I wasnt able to connect to the screen again on mulitple occasions...that never happened to me and of course i dont know a lot about anything! i figured the scan messed up so i started over but after the 2nd or 3rd time my smart brain of mine caught on to the situation and i googled it... bottom line is will there be any negative repercussions to me just preemptively restarting server and restarting scan even if there are scans currently going? thanks again

I'd be tempted to do just that.    Use the Web GUI to shut down the server (so it won't start a parity check when you restart it).    Then restart it, and start ONE Pre-Clear session.

 

You may want to see if there's a current status first -- but as I noted above, none of the screens you posted show any active pre-clear sessions.

 

Note that when you start the pre-clear, the screen should look just like the sample I posted above (I took this from Joe L's pre-clear thread that outlines the process) ... except it will initially be in the pre-read process.

 

Well I didnt see anything with any type of progress today so I rebooted server through the webgui and started it over...1 side note real quick if you dont mind...should I make the red hdd the parity or does that not matter? Thanks again

From the screen snapshots you posted earlier it looks like preclear was waiting for you to type "Yes" to confirm that you really did want to preclear the drive.

 

Perhaps that's all that's going wrong?

 

Regards,

 

Stephen

...should I make the red hdd the parity or does that not matter? Thanks again

 

Since you already have a 3TB parity, it doesn't matter.  I don't see any reason to switch parity drives.    If the parity drive ever fails, however, I'd replace it with a Red  [perhaps a 4TB by that time  ]

 

From the screen snapshots you posted earlier it looks like preclear was waiting for you to type "Yes" to confirm that you really did want to preclear the drive.

 

Perhaps that's all that's going wrong?

 

Regards,

 

Stephen

 

Yeah I saw that it looked like it wanted me to type yes...the weird thing is (image not available) was that one of my screen views i did see a scan actually going but was taking a lot longer than it should have. I think in the end it was best that i just reboot the server and start again...now what happens if i come in tomorrow and go through the process of connecting to the screen (cd /boot then screen -r) and nothing happens whats the best route to take to get that screen back up??

...should I make the red hdd the parity or does that not matter? Thanks again

 

Since you already have a 3TB parity, it doesn't matter.  I don't see any reason to switch parity drives.    If the parity drive ever fails, however, I'd replace it with a Red  [perhaps a 4TB by that time  ]

 

sounds good garycase thanks again!

Yeah I saw that it looked like it wanted me to type yes...

No, not "yes", but "Yes" (with a capital "Y" and lower case "es") exactly as it prompts you.   

It is that way so you'll feel doubly guilty if you answered "Yes" to ask it to clear the WRONG disk)

Haha yeah Joe I got that I know to type Yes. In my screen shot it promted twice it looks like im sure because i tried to do it several times. but there was at least one scan that was going and IMHO was going way too long (caused by my error im sure) but i restarted server and only going to type in the one preclear command and if i have trouble connecting to it I will post again before trying to type another command to clear disk..>Thanks all user error i admit 

I assume you've already got a good Pre-Clear underway now and saw the correct status screen 

 

If so, you shouldn't have any issue when you log in again tomorrow -- it should simply show the latest updated status.  Note that Pre-Clear doesn't update constantly ... but if you wait a minute or so after you log in you should see the current status.

 

I assume you've already got a good Pre-Clear underway now and saw the correct status screen 

 

If so, you shouldn't have any issue when you log in again tomorrow -- it should simply show the latest updated status.  Note that Pre-Clear doesn't update constantly ... but if you wait a minute or so after you log in you should see the current status.

 

Yes i have a good scan showing the correct screen...I am no expert by any means but i have done the pre clear several times (all without problems) however prior to this problem everything was good...progress was showing just fine like it normally would be in the past...so well see tomorrow how it goes...thanks!

...so well see tomorrow how it goes...thanks!

 

I presume this finished okay -- right?

If so, you should add "Solved" to the question title