Here is what my server is, its an MD15 rack mount from Joe, with 2 gigs of ram. I have put twonky on it and its running the ls-R script. I'm not sure if it was an out of memory issue or what, but the system had error messages, so i try to login in to power it down but it wouldn't let me login, so i tried the CTRL-Alt-Del keys, to get the it to start the reboot function. that didn't work so i pushed the power button for only half a second and it started to shutdown, when i turned it back on it only recognized disk 1 and saw all the other drives as unformated and began to format. I paniced, i stoped the format, and then stoped the raid. After the raid stoped i clicked the reboot button and everything came up fine after the reboot.

 

I guess what i'm asking for is to disable the auto format function so that we can diagnose the problem and not automatically format.

 

Thanks for reading my issue.

 

PS: Other than that i love this system!!! Oh and i also have stoped using twonky cause i don't want this to happen agian.

This is not a complete answer, because it's late, and I'm tired, but wanted to reassure you that there is no automatic format.  Unless you specifically tell it to begin formatting, it won't.  When you unexpectedly see drives showing as 'Unformatted' - they aren't, the system is just confused for the moment.  Just shut down and reboot, and they should all be correct again.  See the FAQ entry, "Why is a disk showing as Unformatted?"

On the bottom of the page in the "Command Area" it said it was formating and showed me how much time and percentage it had left. Thats why i assumed it was formating.

What you have described, and the steps you took, and their result, do not seem consistent with my understanding of what you should have seen, but then it has been quite awhile since I saw screens like that.  If I could break it down, and clarify some of the steps:

 

I'm not sure if it was an out of memory issue or what, but the system had error messages

What were the error messages here?  And were there other symptoms of trouble?

 

i try to login in to power it down but it wouldn't let me login

This is a separate issue, but needs to be straightened out.

 

i pushed the power button for only half a second and it started to shutdown

Was the array stopped first?

Were you able to use the Web Management page?

What do you mean by "it started to shutdown"?  Do you mean it appeared to be having trouble shutting things down, and then the power suddenly went off?

 

when i turned it back on it only recognized disk 1 and saw all the other drives as unformated

Earlier, it did not sound to me as if you could see the Web Management page, but now you can?  (just trying to be sure what you saw)

And this was a complete boot up from power off?

Normally you would never see 'Unformatted' drives after a power off.  I'm a little confused here, not sure what could cause this.

The array would normally show as 'Stopped', and would require one or two clicks to Start the array.

 

it only recognized disk 1 and saw all the other drives as unformated and began to format. I paniced, i stoped the format, and then stoped the raid.

It never automatically starts to format disks.  I don't understand what could have happened that made it look as if it was already formatting drives.  The array should have come up 'Stopped', nothing at all happening, with the various warnings, red balls, and extra options to click, such as an "I'm sure I want to do this" box, and the Start and Restore buttons.  Perhaps someone else will have better ideas.

 

What exactly did you do to stop the format?

What exactly did you do to stop the 'raid' ?

 

On the bottom of the page in the "Command Area" it said it was formating and showed me how much time and percentage it had left. Thats why i assumed it was formating.

 

Normally, after a bad shutdown, and after you Start the array, in the 'Command Area' will be progress information for a parity check.  Could that possibly have been it?  A format only takes roughly one to 3 minutes, and if I recall correctly, only shows a message that it is 'Formatting', but does not show any progress info (unless I'm forgetting!).

 

Glad that everything looks fine now!  If you would prefer to move on, and forget about all of this - no problem, no need to respond.