So the non pairity drive has a HPA from the gigabyte.

Jul 28 18:24:12 MikeTower kernel: ata1.00: HPA detected: current 5860531055, native 5860533168

 

 

 

I think i can fix it with:

hdparm -N p5860533168 /dev/sde

 

 

However i also want to add another drive to the array.  What is the order of operations?  Can i just hdparm and add the drive, or do i have to hdparm, parity check, then add the new drive to the array?

So the non pairity drive has a HPA from the gigabyte.

Jul 28 18:24:12 MikeTower kernel: ata1.00: HPA detected: current 5860531055, native 5860533168

 

 

 

I think i can fix it with:

hdparm -N p5860533168 /dev/sde

 

 

However i also want to add another drive to the array.  What is the order of operations?  Can i just hdparm and add the drive, or do i have to hdparm, parity check, then add the new drive to the array?

 

The drive with the HPA already has data on it?  If so there is no need to fix it. The infinitesimal space you would recover is totally irrelevant.If the HPA is detected before adding it to the array, it can be easily removed. But only if the disk is intended to be the parity disk would it make a difference.

 

If you remove the HPA it will leave the disk contents trashed. So you would have to rebuild the contents if you chose to rebuild it.

 

Adding a precleared disk takes 30 seconds. You could do it before our after fixing an.HPA but not during.

Absolutely agree ==> there is NO reason to "fix" a drive with an HPA that's simply a data drive.  The ONLY time an HPA is an issue is if it's on a drive you want to use for parity, and there are other drives of the same size without HPA's (in which case they're larger -- thus the HPA drive can't be used for parity).    And even in that case, I'd just use one of the non-HPA drives for parity and not bother to alter the drive with the HPA.

 

 

OK ill leave it there.  Its been on it since preclear started, and the array was made with the one without the HPA section ( i was wondering why i had 2 identical disks and 1 was bigger than the other and unraid wouldnt let me use a "smaller" one for parity).  Ill turn it off in bios and not lose sleep over it.