Ok

 

So I was planning to use a disk as a parity, and for technical reasons, I can't (don't worry about the details of this..)

 

I already precleared this disk that took about 2 days (it's a 6 TB).  When I first tried to use it as parity, it was too slow because I think I reached the max # of drives my system can handle.

 

Now, I want to use it as a data disk.  my question is:

 

- If i set it as a data disk, will it preclear again, or it won't?

 

Thanks

 

If you plan to add it as a new disk then it needs to be clear so parity remains valid. A clear disk, which is all zeroes, has no effect on parity. If you don't preclear it then unRAID will clear it, taking the array offline while it does.

 

If you plan to use it as a replacement disk, such as rebuilding a smaller disk, then it doesn't need to be clear.

 

Maintaining parity is the whole point of having a clear disk.

If you plan to add it as a new disk then it needs to be clear so parity remains valid. A clear disk, which is all zeroes, has no effect on parity. If you don't preclear it then unRAID will clear it, taking the array offline while it does.

 

If you plan to use it as a replacement disk, such as rebuilding a smaller disk, then it doesn't need to be clear.

 

Maintaining parity is the whole point of having a clear disk.

 

Maybe i didn't explain it, this drive that i tried to use as parity, only remaining building parity for 10 minutes maybe and then i stopped it because it was too slow.

 

So with that case, do I still need to preclear it before using this same disk as a data disk?

 

I will not have any parity for now, I don't care for now.

Maintaining parity is the whole point of having a clear disk, so if you don't have a parity disk, then it doesn't matter if a drive is clear.

 

If you started a parity build on the disk; and then stopped it; it's no longer cleared => so Yes, if you don't want the array to be unavailable while the drive clears, you'll need to pre-clear it again before adding it as a data drive.

 

If you started a parity build on the disk; and then stopped it; it's no longer cleared => so Yes, if you don't want the array to be unavailable while the drive clears, you'll need to pre-clear it again before adding it as a data drive.

Its obviously true that the drive is no longer clear, but he said he intends to run without parity.

Ah yes ... I missed the "... I will not have any parity for now, I don't care for now."

 

With no parity drive assigned, there's no reason to clear a drive ... it will only require formatting (which is very quick) -- not clearing.