I had one of my drives (2TB) fail yesterday and I have sent in an RMA with WD (I know I should have had a preclear ready to go). I received notification today that the replacement drive is a 3TB.

 

My array is set up like this:

 

Parity  - 2TB

Drive 1 - 2TB

Drive 2 - 2TB

Drive 3 - 2TB (failed)

Drive 4 - 2TB

 

I am running unRaid 5.0-RC11 so I do have support for 3TB drives. According to the guide it looks like I can do a swap-disable as follows

 

You must replace a failed disk with a disk which is as big or bigger than the original and not bigger than the parity disk. If the replacement disk is larger than your parity disk, then the system permits a special configuration change called swap-disable.

For swap-disable, you use your existing parity disk to replace the failed disk, and you install your new big disk as the parity disk:

Stop the array.

Power down the unit.

Replace the parity hard disk with a new bigger one.

Replace the failed hard disk with you old parity disk.

Power up the unit.

Start the array.

When you start the array, the system will first copy the parity information to the new parity disk, and then reconstruct the contents of the failed disk.

 

Are these instructions still valid? Is there any selection I have to make for the swap-disable or just plug the drives in correctly and start it up?

 

Thanks in advance for the help!

This will work as long as the failed disk is marked with a red ball.

You will have to do some extra steps because your parity drive is smaller then your replacement.

 

Take a look at this http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/Un-Official_UnRAID_Manual

 

more specifically:

 

"You must replace a failed disk with a disk which is as big or bigger than the original and not bigger than the parity disk. If the replacement disk is larger than your parity disk, then the system permits a special configuration change called swap-disable.

For swap-disable, you use your existing parity disk to replace the failed disk, and you install your new big disk as the parity disk:

Stop the array.

Power down the unit.

Replace the parity hard disk with a new bigger one.

Replace the failed hard disk with you old parity disk.

Power up the unit.

Start the array.

When you start the array, the system will first copy the parity information to the new parity disk, and then reconstruct the contents of the failed disk."

Sorry to bring up this old thread, just want to make absolutely sure what i want to do is right.

 

I have one 3TB disk red-balling on me. It is definitely bad because i hear clicking sounds. So no faulty or loose cable or something.

What i want to do is replace that one drive with a 4TB. My current Parity disk is also 3TB so I need to change that aswell.

 

What status posted above me is the correct procedure, am i right?

And by following the steps and powering up my server and starting the array, unRAID knows what to do, right?

 

 

 

Would you recommend this procedure or is there a better way to upgrade a faulty disk and the parity disk at the same time?

I am a little bit afraid that during the whole parity copy and rebuild process another disk will fail on me. Murphy´s law and such....

Bad cabling can cause drive pinging. Did you run a smart report and look at your syslog for hints?

 

Failed drives happen but are pretty rare. Your ears are not a reliable way of knowing for sure!

Not yet. But I will do that. Just thought that the clicking sound is definitely a mechanical issue, so the drive must be dead.....

 

Edit: I attached a syslog, maybe anybody can be so kind as to look over it : )

unraid_log.txt

Not yet. But I will do that. Just thought that the clicking sound is definitely a mechanical issue, so the drive must be dead.....

Clicking (mechanical) can be caused by a bad power connection. Bad power can also kill a drive that was otherwise healthy. Power comes to the drive via cables, so a cabling issue is a valid troubleshooting branch for a clicking drive.

Not yet. But I will do that. Just thought that the clicking sound is definitely a mechanical issue, so the drive must be dead.....

 

Edit: I attached a syslog, maybe anybody can be so kind as to look over it : )

 

This does not appear to be the syslog covering the time the disk was kicked from the array. And it seems abruptly cut off anyway. No hints here.

 

The smart report would be more helpful.

 

I had a drive making all sorts of noise and it turned out the sata cable was loose. The commands from OS to controller were getting garbled and causing the disk to try to do random things. In the smart report were log entries of invalid commands being issued. Replacing the cable with a locking one quieted it down and no further errors were logged (once an error is logged in the smart report, it is there for life).

 

I agree with janathanm that it is not a healthy condition for the drive to run with a power or any type of cabling problem.

 

Cabling problems outpace real disk failures by at least 10 to 1. The first thought of a red ball or anything that appears to be a failing drive should be to check the smart reports and verify / replace the cabling.

Thanks guys, I will definitely check and change the cables once I am back home. Don't know though when that will be...

 

Already made sure that the sata cable is plugged in. I am using locking cables, but I didn't change it. Didn't change the power connection neither...

 

Going to post the smart report aswell.

 

And thanks for a little bit of hope. I always thought once a drive makes weird noices it's gone for good.

 

The syslog was after a reboot, I just thought that maybe there is some interesting information in their for you.

 

And thanks for a little bit of hope. I always thought once a drive makes weird noices it's gone for good.

Many times, that is the case. But, it's worth the effort to check the drive before giving up on it. The best check would be in an entirely different PC.