[Solved]...sort of...Cache drive now shows as unformatted...


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I removed a drive today that was in the array that I needed elsewhere, but it didn't have anything written to it. I rebooted it a couple of times trying to figure out how to get it to forget the drive that I removed. I did some reading and determined that I needed to run the "initconfig" to get it to rebuild the drive configuration and start a new parity sync. Not sure if it happened before I ran that or after, but nonetheless, the cache drive now shows as being unformatted...it's an SSD. When looking at the details for the drive, the file system type shows "unknown". However, I can still access it and the apps on it continue to run without issue. The system is resyncing as a result of the initconfig, so that is going to take a while and I will wait until that is done before doing any more troubleshooting. I'm not sure what to do next. I'm thinking that I can just copy everything off of it, reformat like it wants and then replace all the files. I figured I would run by the community first though...BTW...running Unraid 5.0.6, Dynamix, unMenu. Syslog attached...thank you for any thoughts on the matter...

syslog.zip

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Do you mean you ran initconfig from the command line? I've never done it that way since unRAID v5 has New Config on the Tools page for this purpose.

 

unRAID will consider any drive that it was unable to mount the file system from as unformatted. You say you can still read the files on this unformatted drive? How did you determine that exactly? By looking at a user share or by looking at the actual disk?

 

Also, you aren't really doing your plugins right. There are some files in /boot/plugins that aren't working, possibly because they are not .plg files. The only thing you should have in /boot/plugins is the dynamix.webGUI .plg . All other plugins should be in /boot/config/plugins.

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Do you mean you ran initconfig from the command line?

I did...didn't realize there was a command for that on the Tools page.

 

You say you can still read the files on this unformatted drive? How did you determine that exactly?

I can get to all of the files from the command line in /mnt/cache (which means it has to be formatted...can't mount an unformatted file system), the apps still run such as Plex and CrashPlan which are installed on the cache drive.

 

Also, you aren't really doing your plugins right. There are some files in /boot/plugins that aren't working, possibly because they are not .plg files. The only thing you should have in /boot/plugins is the dynamix.webGUI .plg . All other plugins should be in /boot/config/plugins.

Hmmm...will have to do some cleanup...this installation has been around a long time through several upgrades, so not surprised. Just haven't gone back to do any house cleaning on it.

 

Any thoughts on correcting the issue of it showing the cache as unformatted when it apparently still is? Thanx...

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There is also a line in your syslog which might indicate flash drive corruption. This could prevent unRAID from writing configuration changes. This can usually be fixed by putting the flash in your PC and letting it do checkdisk. Having said that, the only other things I see are lines saying it can't read the superblock, which I think is normal for a new config. Nothing about trying to write the superblock.

 

Maybe someone else will have some opinion about your syslog. In the meantime, it shouldn't hurt anything to try to copy files off the cache drive if you can in case you need to restore them later.

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Thank you for your thoughts. Something else interesting... There definitely appears to be something going on in the logic of the system. The cache still shows a green ball, the file system shows as unknown and wants to be formatted and when you go to a share to try and indicate to use cache or not, the option isn't there. Maybe it's just the green ball that is confused...the rest seems right if the cache really wasn't available.

 

I'll check the file system on the USB drive and see how that is. I'll plan on copying everything off.

 

Thanx.

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Just figured I would follow up and let you know what I ran into. I copied off all the files from the cache drive...I also had some files that were pending a move. I then clicked on the format button as it was still stating that it needed to be formatted. All the buttons grayed out for a moment and then came back and it was still saying that it needed to be formatted. Have you ever had that moment that you start questioning whether you really clicked something or not...that's what happened to me. So, I clicked it again and it did the same thing again. I know it didn't format because all the data was still there. So, I rebooted. It came back up, the reformat message was gone, the cache drive was still showing a green ball, the two shares that had files pending to be moved now showed the yellow ball as they should. I double checked the cache drive and sure enough, the data was still there. I clicked the Move button and things worked just as they should. I don't have an explanation, but we are going to call this solved anyway. Things are working just as they should now and figured I would share.  :)

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