I'm new to unRaid so bare with me if my questions don't make sense.

 

I had an old system with 2 3TB usb hard drive that I removed from their case.

 

I created an new unRaid system and, I have put one as disk1 with unRaid.

 

Copied all the data from the other one and started the array

 

Now I wanted to add the second one as parity but I have the error "Disk in parity slot is not biggest."

 

They are both 3TB

 

I've read that it could be an HPA issue but when I run the following command:

 

hdparm -N /dev/sdc  (which is the drive I want parity on)

 

I have the following error:

 

/dev/sdc:

READ_NATIVE_MAX_ADDRESS_EXT failed: Input/output error

 

Any help would be appreciated

 

My mother board is :

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Q1900DC-ITX/?cat=Specifications

 

My Drive one with the data on it is:

ata-TOSHIBA_DT01ABA300_8448RSTGS 3TB (Toshiba DT01ABA300)

 

My Drive 2 the one I want to set as parity is:

ata-WDC_WD30EZRX-00SPEB0_WD-WCC4E0512628 3TB (WD Green)

 

 

Is there any reason why the WD would be smaller and gives error to hdparm ?

Could this be because they come from usb enclosures ?

 

Is my only chance flipping the drives so the toshiba is the bigger one for parity ?

 

Thanks for your help

 

 

p.s. sorry for my bad english.

as a side note here is the last syslog

 

Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower emhttp: shcmd (3846): rmmod md-mod |& logger
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower kernel: md: unRAID driver removed
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower emhttp: Unregistered
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower emhttp: array slots: 24
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower emhttp: cache slots: 1
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower emhttp: Device inventory:
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower emhttp: shcmd (3847): udevadm settle
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower emhttp: TOSHIBA_DT01ABA300_8448RSTGS (sda) 2930266584
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower emhttp: WDC_WD5000BPKX-75HPJT0_WD-WX71AC381691 (sdb) 488386584
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower emhttp: WDC_WD30EZRX-00SPEB0_WD-WCC4E0512628 (sdc) 2930233816
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower emhttp: shcmd (3848): modprobe md-mod super=/boot/config/super.dat slots=24 |& logger
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower kernel: md: unRAID driver 2.5.0 installed
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower kernel: mdcmd (1): import 0 8,32 2930233768 WDC_WD30EZRX-00SPEB0_WD-WCC4E0512628
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower kernel: md: import disk0: [8,32] (sdc) WDC_WD30EZRX-00SPEB0_WD-WCC4E0512628 size: 2930233768
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower kernel: md: disk0 replaced
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower kernel: mdcmd (2): import 1 8,0 2930266532 TOSHIBA_DT01ABA300_8448RSTGS
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower kernel: md: import disk1: [8,0] (sda) TOSHIBA_DT01ABA300_8448RSTGS size: 2930266532
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower kernel: mdcmd (3): import 2 0,0
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower kernel: mdcmd (4): import 3 0,0
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower kernel: mdcmd (5): import 4 0,0
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower kernel: mdcmd (6): import 5 0,0
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower kernel: mdcmd (7): import 6 0,0
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower kernel: mdcmd (: import 7 0,0
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower kernel: mdcmd (9): import 8 0,0
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower kernel: mdcmd (10): import 9 0,0
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower kernel: mdcmd (11): import 10 0,0
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower kernel: mdcmd (12): import 11 0,0
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower kernel: mdcmd (13): import 12 0,0
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower kernel: mdcmd (14): import 13 0,0
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower kernel: mdcmd (15): import 14 0,0
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower kernel: mdcmd (16): import 15 0,0
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower kernel: mdcmd (17): import 16 0,0
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower kernel: mdcmd (18): import 17 0,0
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower kernel: mdcmd (19): import 18 0,0
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower kernel: mdcmd (20): import 19 0,0
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower kernel: mdcmd (21): import 20 0,0
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower kernel: mdcmd (22): import 21 0,0
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower kernel: mdcmd (23): import 22 0,0
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower kernel: mdcmd (24): import 23 0,0
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower emhttp: import 24 cache device: sdb
Apr 29 22:13:26 Tower emhttp: import flash device: sdd
Apr 29 22:13:29 Tower emhttp: /usr/bin/tail -n 42 -f /var/log/syslog 2>&1

 

I can see from the syslog that the drives are not the same size.

Actually neither of your drives shows the same # of KB that all of my 3TB units do ... mine all show 2,930,266,584, which is a bit higher than both of your drives.

 

I suspect there's some issue that was caused by the USB bridge controllers.  Not sure if it'll help, but I'd try booting to an HDAT2 CD and using SetMax to see if you can reset the drives to their native size.    If that doesn't work, your only option is likely to simply use the largest drive as parity => but note that since that is still a bit less than what it should be, you'll have the same problem if you later try to add another 3TB drive.

 

There IS a workaround you could use => you can use SetMax to set the WD Red to the same size as the Toshiba drive.  You'd have to do the same thing with any new 3TB drives you want to add later, but it will work fine; and the "lost" space is a very tiny amount relative to the drive size.

 

 

... FWIW, this is a good reason to buy internal drives instead of "shucking" them from external cases 

You'll never have this kind of issue.

 

Thanks I will try with HDAT2 CD.

 

Does SetMax on that CD will erease my Data ?

 

 

Looks like i'm out of luck, this HDAT2 is a CD which I don't have on my server.

 

I don't have a windows machine .

 

My main computer is an iMac i can't put the drive in it .

 

I will try it with ultimatebootcd which includes HDAT2 and there is some linux instruction on how to put it on a usb key

 

The error that hdparm is giving me inout/output, is it because my drive is "frozen". ?

 

The HDAT2 site has a download for a bootable USB flash drive

I booted HDAT2 but SET_MAX was not supported for this drive. I guess I will have to transfer all my data to this drive and use the other one for the parity. And do the same If I ever buy another one. I cleared the DCO but it did not help.

 

My best option would be to buy another drive, but I don't have the money yet to do so .

... My best option would be to buy another drive ...

 

Agree.  Next time you buy another 3TB (or larger) drive, I'd use it to replace your parity drive;  then add your old parity drive to the array as a data drive.    Then you won't have to worry about the size of the parity drive not being correct with any future drives you add.

 

Since you are already having some issues with these old drives, I wonder if they might have other issues. Did you preclear these drives using the preclear script? If not, maybe it would be a good idea to get a SMART report for them.

Thanks I did ran a Smart test and they are fine, but I was not aware of preclearing unfortunately now all my data is on the disk it's kind of to late to do it.

 

I decided to swap the drive and put the "biggest" one as parity.

 

Parity is building at the moment

 

My next drive will be an internal one, and if it reports bigger than the other I will swap the parity with it.

 

Thanks for your help.