Thanks trurl and jonathanm. I have a handful of the most important items backed up and am ordering an 8tb external drive to backup the rest of the media. This will give me some time to work out next steps and should have been done long ago.

 

Ideally I would replace the flash drive and upgrade to 5 or 6, install some useful tools, and replace/upgrade one or more problem hd's to create a whole new array with existing hw. This assumes that the drive cage, mobo, processor, psu, connectors, etc. are okay and can be recycled.

 

If not, I might look into a whole new system, but with several major simultaneous appliance outages in the house this month, I really need to contain costs. And I have no plans to virtualize or run HTPC apps/PMS on this box so really don't need an upgrade to the guts. Presuming that I can run 4TB+ drives on this system which I understand is OK since it already supports 2TB.

. Presuming that I can run 4TB+ drives on this system which I understand is OK since it already supports 2TB.

Your signature says you are still on 4.7?  If so you need to upgrade to v5 (or v6) before you can run drives larger than 2TB.

. Presuming that I can run 4TB+ drives on this system which I understand is OK since it already supports 2TB.

Your signature says you are still on 4.7?  If so you need to upgrade to v5 (or v6) before you can run drives larger than 2TB.

 

Thanks for pointing that out, another reason to upgrade. I'll start a new thread with the "2.0" build of my tower after back-ups are done.

I have backed up the files I need and am ready to progress.

 

So what I would like to do is this. But, need some help with order of operations and how to for some...

 

1. Replace the PSU. It's a potential source of issues since recent calculations indicate that it doesn't have the amps @ +12v to meet hard drive demands at peak. This is the easy part and may or may not affect the system but a good upgrade for future expansion. It also eliminates the component as a source of the problems noted above.

 

2. Replace the flash drive, simultaneously updating to v5 and upgrading from plus to pro.

How do I do this and in what sequence? I'm running 4.7 plus currently and not sure how to start from the free version of v5 while maintaining my array.

 

3. Replace the parity drive. Should be easy, once the array is back up, remove the existing parity, pop the new one in, and let it rebuild.

 

4. Replace Drive 2. Also a plug and play operation once the array is up and running? This drives continues to show errors on the Smart report, all other drives come back clean

 

 

A few comments r.e. your last post after reviewing this thread ...

 

1. Replace the PSU. It's a potential source of issues since recent calculations indicate that it doesn't have the amps @ +12v to meet hard drive demands at peak.

 

Certainly doesn't hurt to this, but with no more drives than you have, 380w should easily be enough.

 

 

2. Replace the flash drive, simultaneously updating to v5 and upgrading from plus to pro.

How do I do this and in what sequence? I'm running 4.7 plus currently and not sure how to start from the free version of v5 while maintaining my array.

 

Since you flash drive has shown some signs of failure, I'd get a new flash drive and send an e-mail to Tom at LimeTech asking to move your key to the new flash unit.    You'll need to install v5 on the new flash drive; boot to it; and note the GUID of the new unit so you can provide this info to Tom (he needs it to generate your new key).    When you boot to it, you can't assign all your drives without a new key -- just wait until you get the key from LimeTech; then add it to the flash drive and you can then boot and assign your drives.    As for upgrading from Plus to Pro => only necessary if you're going to increase your drive count beyond what Plus supports.

 

 

3. Replace the parity drive. Should be easy, once the array is back up, remove the existing parity, pop the new one in, and let it rebuild.

 

Actually there's no need to "replace" the parity drive -- just never use it in your new v5 config.  Simply use your new parity drive when you assign the drives for v5 (using your new flash drive) ... and let the system do the initial parity sync to that drive.

 

 

4. Replace Drive 2. Also a plug and play operation once the array is up and running? This drive continues to show errors on the Smart report, all other drives come back clean

 

What specific "errors" are you concerned with?  If you're referring to the 62 reallocated sectors, that's not really an issue.    That simply means there have been 62 sectors reallocated during the life of the drive -- there are no additional "pending" reallocations ... and as long as the number doesn't change, it's really okay.

 

Wouldn't hurt to replace the drive, but I wouldn't do it strictly because of that.

 

 

I have backed up the files I need and am ready to progress.

 

Good -- sounds like you're resolved the issue you noted earlier:

... I know that I should have backups of this stuff, but I do not.

 

 

Bottom line:  I'd do the following in the order listed:

 

(1)  Get a new USB flash drive; load v5 on it; boot and get the GUID; then ask LimeTech to transfer your key to that new unit.  [if you want to upgrade your power supply; do that here as well]

(2)  Buy a new parity disk (at least 4TB, or perhaps 6TB) and install it in your system.

(3)  With the new key on the new flash drive, boot to UnRAID and assign your data drives and the new parity drive;  let it do the initial parity sync; then do a parity check to confirm all is well.

 

At that point, you've got a good array running v5

 

(4)  Optional:  If you want to replace your drive #2, do that now with larger drive, which will also provide you with additional storage capacity in your array.