Allright,

 

So now I've done something really stupid. I want to find out if its possible to fix my mistake:

I had a perfectly fine working array with 3TB parity and nine disks.

I replaced the paritydisk with a 4TB disk and let parity build.

When it was finished, I took disk 5 (2TB) out to replace it with the old 3TB paritydisk to get some extra space.

I didn't format the disk first (stupid). I expected the system to rebuild my old disk 5. After a while it was finished and I got a blue ball for disk 5.

It was finished in about 5 minutes so I guess it didn't build anything.

 

What is the best thing to do to save my data from my old disk 5? (/is there a way?)

When I put my old disk 5 back in and hook it up as disk 5 again, it says that the disk is too small..

 

Thanx!!

I don't completely understand how you got to where you are from your description. I don't think rebuilding requires the new disk to be formatted since the file system is part of the data that gets rebuilt. A rebuild will definitely take a lot longer than 5 minutes. Your old disk 5 may still have your data but you should proceed with caution and further advice. Maybe someone else will chime in.

with the exception of disk 5 and with array started is the content that was on the disk 5 still available?

 

If data is available I would recommend preclearing process for the old 3TB parity and if there are no sectors pending relocation, then stop array and assign it like you did before and let it rebuild.

 

If the data is not available and you need to recover from the original disk 5 - get the riserfs drivers for whatever platform machine you can attach it to and copy data back on to the array - another option would be to keep disk5 unassigned and array started and mount the old disk5 with snap or mount plugins and assuming you have enough space copy data back on to the array. Then after data is back on array fix your disk5 issue and let rebuild and parity check finish.

So, what is shown exactly on the main web page right now? Post a screen shot.

 

You can put the old disk back in but you have to do a newconfig and then re-assign all the disks, start the array and then start a parity build.

Thanx so far guys!

 

I'm at work now, but will try to answer to your posts tonight when I'm at home.

From what I'm reading now, the lionelhutz option seems the best one I think?

(put the old disk back in and re-assign all disks after a newconfig)

 

I have the 3.0TB disk with me to my work, but only have Windows PC's here. Is there anyway to preclear the disk with a Windows PC?

(after I'm done re-assigning all disks in a newconfig I still want to replace my old disk 5 for the newer bigger one..)

 

I'll get back to you guys tonight!

 

 

you could setup a free ver of unraid and boot the windows pc with that, but be careful not to wipe the windows drive!

...

I replaced the paritydisk with a 4TB disk and let parity build.

When it was finished, I took disk 5 (2TB) out to replace it with the old 3TB paritydisk to get some extra space.

...

 

Apart from the problems that you are now trying to unravel, whenever you rebuild a drive, whether a data or parity disk, the next step should be to run a complete non-correcting parity check to ensure that the rebuilt data on the disk was in fact written correctly and is readable without error.  Only then should you proceed to trust that data and then rely on it for any subsequent operations.  You may have done this, but since you didin't mention it I assume that you might not have.

you should search here for proper steps to upgrade the disk in array but as a quick ref.

after the new parity is up and running

the steps should be:

1. stop the array

2. remove the disk (in your case it will be disk 5(2T))

3.start the array (disk 5 will be redballed) step 2 and 3 simulate the disk failure and let unraid think that the disk needs to be replaced.

4. stop the array

5 put in new disk (in your case it will be the parity disk) BTW you should have run a single pre-clear on it to wipe it down and zero out

 

6. start the array.

 

if all is ok, the last step should start the array and trigger the disk rebuild properly.

 

 

 

 

Hi Guys,

 

I reinserted disk 5 (picture 1) which gave a blue ball.

Then I started the "New Config" utility, re-assigned all disks and started the array.

Parity started to build automatically (picture 2),  now I'm waiting for it to be finished.

All data on disk 5 is still there, in the right shares, so I guess I can mark this post solved!

 

I will later first start a non correcting parity check, and after that install my pre-cleared my 3TB disk.

I'm sure everything will work just fine.

 

Thank you for all the help and suggestions!