August 30, 201411 yr I am planning to set up a new Unraid system with 5 HDDs already filled with movies and a brand new blank HDD for parity. All my data disks were previously formatted with ReiserFs before filled up with data. Can this be done?
August 30, 201411 yr Yes. If a disk is previously used by unRAID then when setting up a new configuration they fact they already have data is recognised and they are added 'as is'. To avoid any accidents I would suggest that you initially start without parity assigned. Start the array and check that no disk shows as 'unformatted'. If it all looks good you can stop the array; assign parity; and the start the array to build parity.
August 30, 201411 yr Author The data disks were previously formatted using GPARTED with ReiserFS and filled with movies using XBMC file manager in Openelec. Never been used before with Unraid.
August 30, 201411 yr The data disks were previously formatted using GPARTED with ReiserFS and filled with movies using XBMC file manager in Openelec. Never been used before with Unraid. Not sure what happens in that case as the disks will not have an unRAID signature on them. You could always do a test by setting up another disk like that and just put a few files on it, and then try it out and see what happens.
August 30, 201411 yr Since the drives are already Reiser I'd expect them to work fine, but it depends on just how the partitions are structured. If your test indicates UnRAID "sees" them okay; then just build your server and ONLY assign the 5 data drives. When you Start the array, if it shows ANYTHING as "Unformatted", just stop and take another approach. If it shows all of your data okay, THEN you can Stop the array and add the parity drive to provide fault-tolerance. If anything doesn't look right, the SAFEST approach is as follows ... (a) Build your UnRAID server with your new drive for parity and ONE more new drive. So you'll have a 2-drive fault-tolerant server with no data. (b) Copy the data from one of your current drives to the server. Use a validating copy utility like TeraCopy, or do a comparison after the copy; or (best) compute checksums on all your files before the copy, and validate them from the copies on the array. © Now add the drive you just copied the data from to your server (this will take several hours, as UnRAID will clear the drive before it adds it). (d) Repeat Steps (b) and © for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th drives. This entire process will take you ~ a week, but very little of "your" time -- just a lot of the computer's time
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