I am wanting to setup an unraid server on my desktop which currently houses all of my data. My windows 7 PC currently has a raid 1 array that had a drive failure. The RMAed drive showed up and windows has had trouble syncing both drives. I'm thinking of turning this Windows 7 desktop computer into a unraid server to use as my network storage for my laptops, ipads, and andriod XBMC TV front-ends. My issue is, every walk-through that I've found is how to transfer this data through a network. I have 3 drives that I want to use:

Drive A : 1 x 1TB - current houses all my backed up DVDs (95% full)

Drive B : 1 x 2TB - my working RAID 1 device that houses photos, backups from laptops, music, and various other stuff (Most important drive)

Drive C : 1 x 2TB - My newest drive that is failing to sync up with my existing RAID.

 

My thinking is this:

1) setup unraid using a blank thumb-drive and Drive C.

2) Run some checks on Drive C to ensure it's viability.

3) Plug in Drive B and use MC to copy the data from B to C.

4) Delete enough data on B to copy A to B.

5) Reformat drive A and add it to unRaid

6) Copy backed up data on Drive B back to Drive A

7) Reformat Drive B and add to unRaid as parity drive

 

Is this a safe way to do this? If not, I'm unsure how I'm going to use unRaid without buying a 2nd system or more Hard Drives. All of which would exceed my budget at the moment.

Is any of this data backed up somewhere? If not you should be very careful because if you don't know exactly what you are doing you could very easily wipe it out by trying to put these drives into unRAID.

 

The way you talk about each of these steps makes me concerned that you may not fully understand how to do this safely.

The most important data has been backed up (and will be re-backed up before this process). But my 1TB of movies and my massive media library is not backed up. I would hate to rebuild this library, but it wouldn't be catastrophic. I'm trying to read as much as I can before I attempt this, but most of the documentation was written on previous versions, and assumes that you have multiple desktops.

FIRST -- BEFORE YOU BEGIN ==> Find $100 and buy a 3TB drive to backup ALL of your data !!    http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Expansion-Desktop-External-STBV3000100/dp/B00834SJU8/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1394435275&sr=1-1&keywords=external+3tb+hard+drive

 

NOW you can safely proceed as you've outlined.  You should always have a full backup anyway, so this will give you a good start [At least what you have now will be backed up].

 

What you've outlined will work, but you'll be "at risk" the entire time, so any failure will result in lost data.    If you back everything up to another drive first, then you'll have some protection against any failures that may happen during the process.  Personally, I'm a bit skeptical about your 2TB drives ... something is likely wrong with one of them ... otherwise Windows shouldn't have any problem restoring the RAID-1 array.  In any event, I certainly wouldn't want to depend on them for the process you've outlined without a full backup of all your data.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the suggestion Gary. I will back up my important media onto some smaller hard drives I have lying around before starting the procedure. I'm also planning on burning in the new drive before I continue as I think it may be having some issues off the bat (this is the 2nd RMA'ed drive so I'm very suspicious of the drives already).

After making sure you have backups of everything important:

1) setup unraid using a blank thumb-drive

2) Plug 2TB Drive C into unRAID but don't add it to the array. Instead, preclear Drive C to ensure its viability.

3) There are ways you could plug 2TB Drive B into unRAID and copy the data to Drive C, but if you don't do it right you will wipe out Drive B. It would probably be simpler and safer (if somewhat slower) to just leave it on your Windows box and copy over the network. So, what I would recommend is leaving Drive B on Windows and copy ALL data from Drive B on Windows to Drive C on unRAID.

4) Delete enough data on B to copy ALL data on 1TB Drive A to B. Do this on Windows. Might be simpler to just delete all data on B or reformat it before copying A to B, but you can keep some B data on B as an additional backup of the data you have already copied to C on unRAID if you want. Drive B will soon be wiped out to become parity so it may not matter much.

5) Leave 2TB Drive B on Windows, and plug 1TB Drive A into unRAID, but don't add it to the array. Instead, preclear it first then add it to the array. Preclearing will ensure its viability and unRAID will not have to clear it when you add it to the array.

6) Copy data from Drive B on Windows to Drive A on unRAID.

7) Plug 2TB Drive B into unRAID and preclear to ensure its viability. Then add it to the array as parity and let parity build. The parity drive does not have to be cleared, but preclear is a good test and recommended before any drive is added.

 

This will take several days. If you need clarification or have any additional questions, just ask.

After making sure you have backups of everything important:

1) setup unraid using a blank thumb-drive

2) Plug 2TB Drive C into unRAID but don't add it to the array. Instead, preclear Drive C to ensure its viability.

3) There are ways you could plug 2TB Drive B into unRAID and copy the data to Drive C, but if you don't do it right you will wipe out Drive B. It would probably be simpler and safer (if somewhat slower) to just leave it on your Windows box and copy over the network. So, what I would recommend is leaving Drive B on Windows and copy ALL data from Drive B on Windows to Drive C on unRAID.

4) Delete enough data on B to copy ALL data on 1TB Drive A to B. Do this on Windows. Might be simpler to just delete all data on B or reformat it before copying A to B, but you can keep some B data on B as an additional backup of the data you have already copied to C on unRAID if you want. Drive B will soon be wiped out to become parity so it may not matter much.

5) Leave 2TB Drive B on Windows, and plug 1TB Drive A into unRAID, but don't add it to the array. Instead, preclear it first then add it to the array. Preclearing will ensure its viability and unRAID will not have to clear it when you add it to the array.

6) Copy data from Drive B on Windows to Drive A on unRAID.

7) Plug 2TB Drive B into unRAID and preclear to ensure its viability. Then add it to the array as parity and let parity build. The parity drive does not have to be cleared, but preclear is a good test and recommended before any drive is added.

 

This will take several days. If you need clarification or have any additional questions, just ask.

 

I'm confused.

 

The OP only has 1 computer, yes?

 

So how (where) is unraid going to coexist at the same time to allow any transferring of files between Windows and Unraid?

 

I must be missing something ...

 

I'm confused.

 

The OP only has 1 computer, yes?

 

So how (where) is unraid going to coexist at the same time to allow any transferring of files between Windows and Unraid?

 

I must be missing something ...

Sorry, forgot about that part of his problem.

 

The steps remain basically the same, but instead of copying the data from Windows, mount the source drive outside the array to copy the data off. This part is the most important to avoid losing all of the data. If you add a drive with data on it and it is not already using unRAIDs filesystem, unRAID is going to want to wipe it out.

 

While this is not all that difficult, it is a little more advanced than just adding empty drives to the array. There are wiki articles about mounting NTFS drives, and the SNAP plugin can also make this easier.

 

Better take it slow and ask lots of questions.

While it's true the goal is to do this on the same computer, there's a FAR better (and safer) way.

 

Clearly you have a laptop (or laptops), based on your comment "... to use as my network storage for my laptops, ..."

 

So ... the safest way to do what you want is:

 

(1)  First, if you don't have a USB bridge device for hard drives, get one.  They're very inexpensive:  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002

 

(2)  Next, create your USB flash drive for UnRAID and confirm it boots okay on the PC you plan to use (but do NOT assign any drives).  Put the pre-clear utility on the drive as well.

 

(3)  Now take the two drives with important data OUT of your Windows 7 PC and store them in a safe place.

 

(4)  Boot UnRAID, and run a cycle or two of pre-clear on the remaining 2TB drive you want to use.    If you get 2 error-free cycles you can have high confident the drive's okay.

 

(5)  Now assign that 2TB drive to UnRAID and Start the array.

 

(6)  Now boot one of your laptops -- preferably plugged into your router via an Ethernet cable, which will be FAR faster than wireless -- and confirm you can "see" the Web GUI and the single data drive.    Then attach the 1TB drive with data (that you removed in step 3) to your laptop using the USB bridge device.    Copy all of the data from this drive to your new UnRAID server.

 

(7)  Put the 1TB drive in your UnRAID box; boot; and run a single pre-clear cycle on that drive.  Be CERTAIN you've picked the right drive !!    When that's done, add it to your array, and Start the array.  You'll need to format the new (1TB) drive (a quick process) ... then the array will be running with 2 drives and will have 2TB+ of free space.

 

(  Attach the 2TB drive with data (that you removed in step 3) to your laptop using the USB bridge (again, connect it via hard-wire); and copy all of the data from it to your UnRAID array.

 

(9)  Now put the 2TB drive in your UnRAID box;  boot and assign it as the parity drive; Start the array and let it do the initial parity sync.    When that completes, run a Parity Check to confirm all is well.

 

Done 

 

Note that you should still have backups of all your important data; as even this process will have periods where there is no fault tolerance for your data.    ANY important data should ALWAYS be stored on at least two separate devices.