This is a usage question.  Say I have 3 disks each with some files from a share on that disk.  For whatever reason, i want to remove one of the disks from the share (but leave it in the array).  Is there an easy utility within unraid to automatically move the files from the disk being removed from the share to one of the other two disks still in the share?

 

Share: Archive

 

Disks on Share

Disk 1

- File 1

- File 2

- File 3

Disk 2

- File 4

- File 5

- File 6

Disk 3 (to be removed)

- File 7

- File 8

 

File 7 & 8 Should be moved to the share Archive and land on Disk 1 or 2 as appropriate.

 

I'd like to do this from within unRaid so I'm not moving files twice.  Could I do the following (is there a better way?)

 

1. Remove Disk 3 from the Archive Share (files are still on Disk 3).

2. Goto Midnight Commander

3. Copy the files from Disk 3 to the Archive Share

4. Allow unRaid to do its work.

 

Thanks in advance!

Your method is exactly that described in the User Share Copy Bug. I would move from disk to disk and avoid user shares in this case.

Thanks for this reference.  I had searched on the concept, but had not found any articles which related.  So the short answer is there are 2 options...

 

1. Move files manually from disk to disk (using the mount points).

2. Move files to a temp directory, THEN move them to the share for distribution across the disks according to the share config.

 

#1 is probably easiest...

Yes, either of those will work ... and I agree #1 seems the best way.

 

You absolutely do NOT want to copy from a user share to the same user share -- this will, as noted in the link trurl provided, result in a loss of all of your data !!

 

Great thanks. 

 

But just to be clear, I WOULD want to copy (as an example), files from Disk1 to Disk3, but NEVER Disk1 to Backups (a share with Disk2,3).

 

Is the problem copying from ANY share to a Disk mount (Disk1, etc), or from a Disk mount (Disk1, etc) to a Share that holds that same disk mount as a member disk mount?

 

 

You can safely copy from one share to another share ... just not to the SAME share.

 

The "share copy bug" happens because you're effectively copying/moving a file onto itself.  It's like copying a file in Windows from D:\Myfile to D:\Myfile => except that in that case it's obvious what's happening and the OS copy utility won't allow it.

 

If, however, you're copying from \\tower\disk2\MyShare\Myfile  to \\tower\MyShare\Myfile the file REFERENCES are different ... but they represent the same location [the share "MyShare"].

 

If you're copying to a different share, this isn't an issue.

 

Note that Tom also noted a way to avoid the problem in the thread discussing it ... but be VERY CERTAIN you do exactly as he noted if you decide to use this technique.    You can change the GLOBAL share excludes/includes to exclude the disk you want to move data off of [Disk 3 in your example].  You can now safely move files from disk 3 to your share, which now only includes disks 1 and 2, and it will work without causing the "user copy bug."  This is outlined in Reply #51 in the thread referenced earlier.

 

Just to be VERY clear r.e. the user share copy bug:  The issue is trivial to avoid -- if you want to move a file that's in a user share from one disk to another just do it using the disk share references.    The "User Share Copy Bug" only happens when you're copying from a component folder of a share to the share, so as long as you avoid doing that, you're fine.

 

i.e. in your case just move the files you want from \\tower\disk3\YourShare  to  tower\disk1\YourShare  or  \\tower\disk2\YourShare

 

 

Perfect, thanks!