What if USB Drive fails

[masteroc]

Looking into buying a copy of the Plus version of Unraid for my new NAS and I was wondering what would happen if/when the usb flash drive that the server is registered with fails and I have to re-install onto another drive. First of all, im assuming all my data will just be there when I boot up with the next flash drive. But also, what will happen to my license? Do I have to buy another license or can I email Lime and have them reissue a new key for the next flash drive?

 

Also, if I wanted to try out unraid 6 beta, is there a drive limit on that as well or only on the finalized version?

 

Thanks

[sureguy]

If your drive dies Tom has been good about emailing replacement keys.

 

Sent from a mobile device, sorry for any typos.

 

 

[SSD]

Looking into buying a copy of the Plus version of Unraid for my new NAS and I was wondering what would happen if/when the usb flash drive that the server is registered with fails and I have to re-install onto another drive. First of all, im assuming all my data will just be there when I boot up with the next flash drive. But also, what will happen to my license? Do I have to buy another license or can I email Lime and have them reissue a new key for the next flash drive?

 

Also, if I wanted to try out unraid 6 beta, is there a drive limit on that as well or only on the finalized version?

 

Thanks

 

The flash drive stores you disk configuration, the unRAID OS, and some other configurations (network, shares, etc.). It is also a place that packages and addons are stored.

 

If your flash dies it is not terribly hard to rebuild it. You could keep a backup but you need to be careful, because some of the backup files are dangerous and booting with them can cause data loss. So if you keep a backup and want to restore it, make sure you get advice from the forum first.

 

As was said, Tom has been good about replacing them. But I would recommend buying a high quality one and not a piece of junk. You can buy a second key at a deep discount and save it for a rainy day. Many users do.

 

unRAID 6 beta works like any other version. You can use with 3 disks (1 parity and 2 data).

[masteroc]

Thanks for the great info! So if I am understanding you correctly, if my usb drive goes, then my disk config goes as well. You mentioned that you can possibly rebuild the drive config....what kind of steps are we talking about here? You don't have to go into detail, just a brief overview of how likely I am get my data back.

 

Thanks

[JonathanM]

You don't have to go into detail, just a brief overview of how likely I am get my data back.

If you don't have any failed array drives, then you will get 100% of your array data back every time. The configuration that you would lose if you don't back the usb up would be things like users, passwords, and share allocations, none of which is needed to read your array disks. Some people spend lots of time setting up extra programs to manage their media, and if those programs and settings are stored on your USB drive, you should back them up elsewhere.

 

Final point. Unraid is NOT a backup, unless it holds the second copy of data stored elsewhere. It provides a way to recover from 1 failed physical disk. If your data is important, it needs to be in 2 different locations. Unraid cannot protect against user error or other data corruption.