Hi - hope somebody can help! My Cache drive is overheating and making a nasty whine sound!

I have a spare 1TB (the Cache is 500gb) and so would like to use this BUT I use my cache drive for Sab/Sick/Couch etc etc etc and so it is not just a straightforward swap out.

Is there a way I can simply copy the contents of my 500gb Cache drive (before it fails completely) to my new 1TB cache drive and then redirect the Cache pointer in unRaid to the replacement drive? I am not a Linux geek and so will need some pretty comprehensive advice! Ideally I'd like to drag and drop!!!(I guess that I could use a hardware bit copier device that I have seen around the office but I think that needs to work on two drives of the exact same capacity).

As I say - hope somebody can help!!!

THere's a couple of ways to do this.

Before I start=>pointing out the obvious=> your cache drive is NOT protected by unRAID.

 

that said:

1. I'd run the MOVER and move anything that would normally get transferred over onto  the array.

2. You could then create a new 'user share', called "cache_backup" on your unRAID device...and using MC, copy your cache drive  contents to the cache_backup using Disk Shares (not user shares.) (disk shares bypasses cache and the mover.)

3. Swap your physical cache drive and set it up with the web gui.

4. Copy all your cache_backup to cache. Double check all the settings.

 

STraight forward.

There are other ways, too. Instead of using the array to maintain the backup, you could use your PC...it jsut adds some network traffic..

 

I suppose Its also possible to mount the old and new cache drives outside the array completely and rsync them.  You'd still have to 'setup' the new cache drive in unRAID. (remember, unRAID tracks devices by their individual serial numbers.)

Really appreciate this Dale - helps a lot

OK - so I guess you are saying that there are no hidden files on the Cache drive and so a simple copy to another drive/safe place should ensure that I have what I need.

Just one bit of clarification needed .. "MC"? - done some googling and I guess you mean "Midnight Commander"?... never used this but I guess its easier than the rsync that I have been trying to get to work (failing miserably!).

Will do some fiddling around and try this - but would appreciate a heads up if I have totally misunderstood MC!!!

Thanks again - think that this could be the best route!

Dave

Depending upon your age (/me looks around for a emoticon with white hair), MC looks like the old 'Norton Commander' of DOS days. 

Its a text based 'graphical interface'.  It's builtin to unRAID. From console, or telnet, you just type MC to start it up.

 

If you want to try it, here are some cheat sheets to get you started:

http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2008/10/midnight-commander-mc-guide-powerful-text-based-file-manager-for-unix/

http://linuxgazette.net/23/wkndmech_dec97/mc_article.html

http://www.trembath.co.za/mctutorial.html

Might also be a good idea to disable any plugins that were using the cache while you are making these changes.

Thanks for all of this info/feedback. Spend the last few days with my head inside my unRaid server and finally managed to back up and remake my Cache Drive. But errors (continuous beep from Server and red LED on server case glowing) continue - so remade cache drive and updated to latest non beta unRaid. Still got the same problem. Then realised this morning that (remember server is in a dark area!!) that the glowing red LED was not showing the drive as overheating .. it just happens to be next to the cache drive so I assumed.......

So - as I say - thanks for everyones input - but I have been barking up the wrong tree! Learnt a bit about MC though - so worthwhile.

Getting rising temps on a couple of my drives now after about two hours of running and once one of them goes over 40 degrees I start getting emails and the red LED/beep starts).

May be back soon for hardware advice!!!

Thanks again

 

 

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