Hello.

 

I was using my UnRAID today and after folders not responding in my finder discovered that disk2 had a red ball next to it in the main Web interface. The steps I followed after this discovery were:

 

1. Stopped the Array using Web GUI

2. Powerdown the Array using Web GUI

3. Ejected and re-seated the Disk caddies / opened case and verified cabling.

4. Powered UnRAID server back on.

 

After this I notice that there was now two drives (disk2 and disk 3) showing red ball faults. See attached Screen Shot. I continued powering down the array and re-seating drives, moved the drives to other spare slots to eliminate the cabling (sata + power) as the source of the issue.

 

I am able to see disk2 and run a SMART test on it. I ran the short SMART test and it came up with no errors.

 

I have a feeling disk3 is dead. I am hoping some kind person could guide me through the process of getting at least disk2 working enough so I can replace and rebuild disk3. I am hoping I have not lost 4TB of data .

 

Any help would be well received.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Tim,

Sydney, Australia.

syslog-2013-06-16.txt

I am able to see disk2 and run a SMART test on it. I ran the short SMART test and it came up with no errors.

 

I have a feeling disk3 is dead. I am hoping some kind person could guide me through the process of getting at least disk2 working enough so I can replace and rebuild disk3. I am hoping I have not lost 4TB of data .

 

Your system has removed Disk #2 from the array due to errors; and does not SEE Disk #2 (the disk is "Not Present").    Be sure both the data cable and power cable is securely seated on Disk #3 (do this with power off).  Then reboot the array and see if #3 comes back online.  If so, you'll be able to replaced Disk #2 with a spare and it will rebuild it.  Since the drives are in a caddy, you can first try just removing and re-inserting Disk #3;  but if that doesn't work, I'd mount it internally with direct cables just to be sure the connections on the caddy aren't bad.

 

 

I am hoping I have not lost 4TB of data .

 

<Sigh>  Please tell me you have backups !!    UnRAID (or any other RAID system) is NOT a backup !!

Consider it ONE place you have your data stored.  ANY data that's important to you should always be stored in at least TWO places  [that's what BACKUPS are  ].    I know a lot of folks don't bother ... but it only takes ONE loss of any significant amount of data to realize that the cost of maintaining a 2nd copy is small compared to the cost of recovering your data.

 

 

Hi Garycase,

 

I do have backups of the most valuable data, but not everything. I wasn't expecting two drive to go at once.

 

I have tried bypassing the caddy for dsk3 to no avail. The dsk3 is not spinning up at all. Its not being seen in the BIOS. I have six onboard SATA and 2x Adaptec Cards with 4 more SATA each. I have tried the drive on both the motherboard SATA connections and the Adaptec cards.

 

I feel there is more chance of getting dsk2 working than dsk3. I am going to run a long SMART test on dsk2 to see what errors I get. Do you think this is wise? I will post the results of this test.

 

On the screen shot do you know what drive is saying that it is vfat? dsk2 still says it is RieserFS in the Web GUI.

 

Thanks, for the advice.

 

Tim,

Sydney, Australia

If Disk3 has failed to the point where it's not even spinning, then you're pretty much "hosed."

 

Unless Disk2 magically comes back on line ... which I suppose COULD happen -- but I don't believe UnRAID will restore a disk after it's removed it from the array.

 

Are you SURE Disk3 isn't spinning?    If you hook up the power connection (no data connector), can you feel any vibration if you hold it in your hand?    You should (if it's spinning) also feel a bit of gyroscopic resistance if you "rotate" it a bit.

 

But if it's dead, and #2 has also failed, there's really nothing you can do -- the contents of both drives are simply gone.  You CAN connect them to another system (perhaps a PC) and see if you can read the data independently (using the free Linux Reader so the Windows system can "see" the file system).

 

Hi Garycase,

 

This does seem to be a freak occurrence where two drives have died at the same time. What is my next step? Do I just buy two more 2TB drives and install / initialize them at the same time and let UnRAID pick up the pieces? Will the remaining data on the other drives be safe if this happens?

 

Tim.

Set a New Config using the remaining drives. Parity will rebuild. The data on the remaining drives should be fine. There are Windows utilities that may recover the data on the failing disks.

Hi dgaschk,

 

Do you have a step by step of this process or a link that I can reference. I don't want to loose anymore data than I am going to, and don't want to mess this up.

 

Thanks,

Tim.

All he's saying is to recognize that you have two disks that are bad, so re-initialize the array with all of the other disks.    You simply press the New Config button on the Utils tab.

 

Be sure you KNOW which disk are your good disks with data, and which disk was the parity disk [jot that down from the Main screen before you do the new config].

 

The new array will then be fine, except of course you won't have parity on it until the system runs the initial parity sync.    After it finishes generating parity (several hours), you should run a parity check to confirm all went well.

 

Then you're done -- except for possibly recovering some of the data from the two defective drives by attaching them to another system (as I noted earlier) and copying any data you can read back to the UnRAID server.

 

Thanks.

 

I will try this now.

 

Tim.

I don't have a utils tab as I am running version 4.7 of UnRAID.

 

What is the alternative method to access this?

 

Tim.

It's been a while, but I believe there's a "Restore" button on the main page when the array is stopped.    You simply go to the devices page;  unassign the two bad drives (so those slots are empty);  and then go to the main page and click on Restore.

 

IMPORTANT:  Be SURE you know the serial # of your parity drive, so if anything goes awry and you have to reassign all the drives, you'll assign the correct one as parity.

 

One other thing:  When you unassign the two bad drives, you MAY want to also unassign the last two drives and then assign them to the "empty" slots => not necessary, but it will keep your slots "in order".

 

4.7 does not have a restore button. Enter initconfig on the command line. Make sure you note the serial number of the parity drive. The data drives can be assigned in any order.

Ahh yes, I do seem to recall a lot of "too easy to screw up" discussions about the Restore button;  but I'd forgotten where along the way it was removed.

 

Forcing an "initconfig" from the command line is a LOT safer => not something you could accidentally "click" on 

Hi,

 

My UnRAID is rebuilding parity (minus the two dead drives). Thank you both for your time and help.

 

Tim.