The file system check went fine both ways, array stopped and started.  I don't know what this means, but if I set disk 4 to no device, and set disk 5 to the drive that was disk 4 it says invalid expansion, but does show the temperature of the drive, and it is blue balled, not red.

The file system check went fine both ways, array stopped and started.  I don't know what this means, but if I set disk 4 to no device, and set disk 5 to the drive that was disk 4 it says invalid expansion, but does show the temperature of the drive, and it is blue balled, not red.

Blue balled means it is going to be treated as a new disk when the array is bought online.  I suspect this is not what you want?

unRAID would not let you add a new disk like that.

 

in fact, if you added a non-precleared disk to an existing array - unRAID would CLEAR it (fill it with binary zeroes) - obviously not what you want. Be careful with your data!!!

 

Please go back to my prior post. It provides directions for the next step - to do a new config and let parity rebuild.

You are correct, I do not want that, remember though, the 5tb parity drive that is in there right now is incomplete only making it about 50% through a parity build than this happened.  The original 3tb parity drive is complete, but some data was written to the array after it was removed (in hind site bad yes I know this now).  So what are my options knowing this?

                                                                                    Thanks

You are correct, I do not want that, remember though, the 5tb parity drive that is in there right now is incomplete only making it about 50% through a parity build than this happened.  The original 3tb parity drive is complete, but some data was written to the array after it was removed (in hind site bad yes I know this now).  So what are my options knowing this?

                                                                                    Thanks

 

It is a common misconception that parity is some sort of magical disk. It is not. In fact parity ONLY comes into play when a disk fails. At that time, parity and EVERY OTHER DATA DISK IN THE ARRAY, work together to simulate the failed disk. If parity is screwed up, you might never know it until a disk fails. Only then would there be a symptom (that is, the simulated disk will be unmountable). Running a periodic parity check is your best (and only) means of ensuring that parity is being properly maintained. You can kind of think of parity as a life raft. If the boat is running fine, the life raft could have holes in it and be totally unseaworthy - but you'd never know it unless the boat failed and you needed to use the raft. Only then would the raft have to work!

 

In your current state - each of the physical disks 1-4 have been confirmed to be mountable and contain a complete set of data. Right??

 

With the data disks all good, it is absolutely unnecessary that parity be accurate to get the array up and running again. Now if one of the disks had failed, we'd be trying to leverage that old 3T parity disk to attempt recovery. It would be flawed, however.

 

From your current state, you should, using your licensed stick, do a "new config" from the utilities tab, and assign your disks to their appropriate slots, including 5T parity. You can assign your old parity to the next data slot if you intend to use it as a data disk. DO NOT trust parity. Upon starting the array, parity will build. Do not write to the array until parity is completely built.

 

As previously mentioned, if you have cabling problems you may continue to struggle with red balls. But if you have taken pains to make sure all of the cabling is solid, I am hopeful the parity will build successfully.

 

After the build, do a parity check.

 

After the parity check, if you added to the old parity as a 5th data disk, you should format the unmountable disk. (Note that if any of disks 1-4 appear unmountable, or any disk has red balled - DO NOT FORMAT and post back.

 

Good luck!

Just an update, parity is being rebuilt, 8 hours until it is finished, fingers crossed.  I have the array started in maintenance mode, I didn't normally do that but thought maybe a good idea from now on to avoid writing to the array during parity builds, drive upgrades?  Hopefully this works out ok, guess we'll know bright and early tomorrow morning.  Thanks to both of you I really appreciate the patience, help and advice on this.

                                                                                                                                                                            jeremey

It appears to be ok, data seems good, most recent files are there, etc.  Again, thanks alot to the both of you!

Make sure you do a parity check to confirm the parity build.

 

Glad you are up and running!