I have been using unRAID free for a few months now, I'm concerned that my rather cheap flash drive is causing me some problems so I have just bought a SanDisk Cruiser Fit to replace it.

 

Can I setup the new SanDisk with a fresh download and put that into my server without any problems, or do I need to copy any files from the old drive?

 

 

Prepare the new flash drive the way you did the old one.  Shut down the server and then copy the contents of the old flash to the new flash.  Insert the new flash drive and start up the server.

 

Thanks eroz.

 

My 1 concern is that I've had some trouble with the Plex plugin (the only plugin I use) and it has resulted in some odd corrupt files/filenames on the flash drive, this is the main reason for replacing the drive.  I would like to avoid having to copy anything from the old one if possible, if not I guess I'll have to and see what happens.

You don't have to copy all/any of the files.  But then you would need to re-configure your shares and other additional settings.

I think your choices are:

[*]Copy everything from the old USB stick to the new one

[*]Start with a new unRAID install on the USB stick and copy selected contents of the config directory from the old one to the new one, preserving identity, disk assignments and shares etc but not plugins.

[*]Start with a new unRAID install on the USB stick and a list of which drive is which from your current server.  Assign the disks into the same slots and start the array.  A Parity Sync will run, so this is more risky.

If a fresh install is performed, will Unraid erase all the data from the exisiting drives or will it just rebuild the parity disk?

Neither. Everything should still be there. Your shares will need to configured again as will other configurations you changed

If a fresh install is performed, will Unraid erase all the data from the exisiting drives or will it just rebuild the parity disk?

If you have just done a new install then when you assign the drives unRAID will recognise they are already in the correct format and add them keeping data intact.  Data drives can be assigned in any order//position.

 

If you subsequently enable User Shares then every top level folder on the data disks will automatically be made into a share with default settings for a User share.

If a fresh install is performed, will Unraid erase all the data from the exisiting drives or will it just rebuild the parity disk?

The data on the data disks will not be erased. (unless you accidentally assign it to the parity slot).

 

If you start from NEW, i,e. no configured disks, parity will be recreated.

 

If you copy the /boot/config/super.dat file from the old drive to the new one in the same location, the disk assignments should be memorized.

 

root@unRAIDb:~# ls -l /boot/config/super.dat

-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4096 2014-11-19 06:35 /boot/config/super.dat

 

You will also need to install your .key file into /boot/config

 

Keep in mind, if you start with a brand NEW configuration.

Do not assign parity until you've started the array with all the data disks.

Then start the array.

Validate all your data exists and is where you expect it.

Stop the array.

Assign the parity disk.

start the array.

Parity will be recreated.

An update on my experiences.

 

I setup the new flash drive with a fresh unRAID download, I did not copy anything at all from the old drive due to fears of corruption. I am using the free version so no key file to copy either.

 

On booting for the first time I assigned the drives into the right slots (took screenshots of previous setup) and the system started a full parity check which took x hrs.

 

After (and during) the parity check the system was fully up an running, interestingly all the previous shares were already listed as soon as I enabled User Shares.  The only things missing when looking at the properties of each share were the included drives and min size, so I put these back in and everything appears to be as it was.

 

My only 1 concern is that when I browse the disk1 share to view the whole drive nothing is listed  but browsing the individual shared all the data is visible.