Hi Folks,

 

Wanting to create a new build with 3 storage drives and a SSD. The files are not critical, but I like to perhaps add a parity drive in the future. Is adding a parity drive in the future a hard task?

 

Regards,

Razz

Hi Folks,

 

Wanting to create a new build with 3 storage drives and a SSD. The files are not critical, but I like to perhaps add a parity drive in the future. Is adding a parity drive in the future a hard task?

• Stop the array
  
• Assign the parity drive
  
• Start the array.
  

The system will now start the initial build of the parity drive contents.  The system is usable while this is going on, but your data is not protected until it completes. 

That does not sound hard at all, thanks. Also curious does unRAID spread the same file across multiple disks, or simply store one file on a single disk? Does it work the same way with or without a parity drive?

unRAID stores full files on a disk (does not break them up and spread them around). This has the benefit of allowing any drive to be plugged into another computer and (with the correct file system mount) be read back.

 

It works the same with or without a parity disk installed.

 

See here for more details: http://lime-technology.com/what-is-unraid/ and here http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/UnRAID_Manual_6#Parity-Protected_Array

or simply store one file on a single disk?

As was mentioned files are never split across disks.

 

Another consequence of this is that only a single data drive needs to be spun up to read a file, and when writing a file only that data drive plus the parity drive (assuming you have one assigned) needs to be spun up.    This can mean that on a typical unRAID system most drives are spun down a lot of the time leading to significant reduction in power usage and heat generation.