Parity Check Fails for unRAID 4.5.6 after messed up (failed) Parity Swap

 

 

What's happening:

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When I restart the server the status is blue for the parity drive.

I check the checkbox stating I am sure I want to start the array, then click 'Start'

After some time, the array starts but the parity status is red.

Errors are reported for that drive.

There is no "Check" button so another parity check is not possible without restarting the server

 

 

What I have done so far:

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I have made sure that the new 4TB drive I wanted to use as the parity drive is completely unplugged. And have only been tring to get the old parity drive to work again.

 

I have tried to unassign the parity drive.  Restart.  Reassign.  Start Parity-check.

No Luck.

 

I have unassigned the drive and tried to preclear it.

It failed to fully preclear it after 21 hours.

Preclear steps: (http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2817.msg23246#msg23246)

 

All signs seem to point to the drive being bad.  I find this odd as I only started having issues when I incorrectly tried to swap out the parity drive.

 

 

What I did leading up to the issue:

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I added a new 4 TB hard drive.

Started the server.

Stopped the array

Assigned the new 4 TB to the parity slot

Assigned the old parity drive to an empty device slot.

Restarted

Tried to start array.

I now realize I should have followed these steps for swapping parity drives: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2280.0

 

Now, I am at a lost.  I am unable to find any concrete documentation that states 4.5.6 does not support 4TB drives.  But figured I'd upgrade to 5.0.  Which requries that I first upgrade to 4.7, which I am unable to obtain a copy of (http://lime-technology.com/download/), email sent but no response as I know it is a busy time of year.  Not to mention I don't have a protected array so upgrading is not advised.

 

 

My End Goal:

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Use my new 4TB drive as the parity drive.  Use the old parity drive in a regular device slot.

 

 

What I want to avoid:

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Purchasing a new 2 TB harddrive just to restore parity before upgrading to 4.7 then to 5.0.

Then after upgrading to 5.0 properly replacing the parity with the 4 TB drive.

 

 

 

 

Any direction would be greatly appreciated.  I have been scanning docuentation, wiki, forum but have yet to find anything that gives me confidence. I'm not entirely sure what running the old "restore" command (initconfig) manually would do.

 

Forums that seems promising, but didn't quite get me there with confidence:

Unraid 4.5.6 Parity Check Error: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=6955.0

Remove Drive Without Losing Parity question: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=6728.0

 

 

 

Thanks and Kind Regards!

You need to be on unRAID 5.x series before you can use a drive larger than 2TB which explains why you get errors when you try.    Since you already have an unprotected array then you can probably follow the upgrade route ignoring the statements about checking parity before doing so.  Once on 5.0 then the 4TB drive can be used.  If you decide to go this route make sure you have backed up the current contents of the USB flash drive so you can easily revert if needed.

 

As to why the original parity drive will not work I have no idea.  Posting a syslog might allow for someone to provide a more informed view.