January 11, 200719 yr Currently I have a SATA 320GB drive as my parity. It's disk 1. I have a 500GB IDE drive which I'd like to use as parity instead. I'm not sure how to go about changing this. CAn I simply shut down the server, remove my current parity drive, install the new drive which will obviously be connected to a different slot (which I think will be a problem), reboot and tell UnRaid to use the new drive as parity?
January 11, 200719 yr I am approaching doing the same thing. I want to replace my current 300GB PATA parity drive with a 500GB SATA. Any tips?
January 11, 200719 yr Looks like I'm about to go through a variant of this: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=377.0 I still have one slot available, and the existing parity drive is coming out of the arrayaltogether, so it should be simpler.
January 11, 200719 yr I'm not sure how to go about changing this. Here's someone about to attempt the same procedure... http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=377.0 But I believe the answer to your query is "yes".
January 11, 200719 yr Yup. That was me. Worked like a champ. If you aren't using the max amount of drives in your array then I think it is a lot easier. I think you just have to add a larger drive and unraid will know it and rebuild parity on the new one. If not then it would be very easy to backup the files that Tom mentions, unplug the parity completely and add the new drive and boot. Then if a drive fails while you are building parity you can pop in the old parity drive, restore the old config, and be able to rebuild the bad drive.
January 12, 200719 yr Author Okay just to be clear. I have 5 drives in my array. I have room for one more. EAch of my drives are 320GB - SATA drives. I want to add one 500GB IDE drive. Can I simply leave everything as is, install the new drive, and UnRaid will recognize that it is larger than all the others and will make this the new parity drive? I could sure use some help as I'm really unsure how to proceed and don't want to lose any data.
January 12, 200719 yr I think it's pretty safe to say that adding a drive will not cause you to LOSE data. The ultimate answer will come from Tom. I would suggest mailing him. [email protected]
January 12, 200719 yr I sent a link to this thread to Tom via email and asked him to check in. I'm hoping this is the way to go: 1. Power down my array (currently has a mix of drives in slots 0-10) 2. Remove my current 300GB PATA drive in slot 0 3. Add new 500GB SATA drive in slot 11 4. Power up Unraid 5. Unraid recognizes the PATA parity drive has been replaced and there is a new, largest, 500GB drive, asks me if I want to use it for Parity and goes off rebuilding parity (no need to clear) 6. something like 6 hours later, my array is back up and protected and I can reuse the old parity elsewhere.
January 12, 200719 yr I suspect that once you add the new (& largest) drive to your array, unRAID will not assume you want to use it as your parity drive (that's a guess on my part, as I've never tried it personally). You should, however, be able to assign the new drive that duty on the devices tab. After it builds the parity information on the new 500GB drive, you should be able to go back and assign your old drive to duty as a data drive and clear/format it.
January 12, 200719 yr Don't forget the back up of the unraid config files. They will save you if something goes wrong.
January 17, 200719 yr Well, I swapped out my existing 300GB PATA parity drive for a new 500GB SATA last night. 1. Backed up my existing configuration (config directory on USB key) 2. Backed it up again 3. Powered down thge Unraid, removed the PATA drive, put SATA in the same slot 4. Powered back up, Unraid recognized the new drive and that the old was missing 5. For Some reason the devices page wanted to make my old slot 1 (data drive) the new parity by default. I corrected this (setting it back to slot 1 and selected the new SATA for parity) 6. Started Unraid and it proceeded to rebuild parity on the new drive, 6 hours later, all was set So, everything worked perfectly for me. Today, I'm removing one of the 250 drives (slot 4) and letting unraid rebuild that on my old parity (300GB) so I can remove that data drive and use it for Recorded TV in my MCE. In summary, go for it, just very carefully review the changes on the device tab and backup your config before major changes.
January 17, 200719 yr Swapped out the 250 for my old parity as well, let that rebuild. No problems at all, unRAID detected it perfectly and rebuit on the larger disk beautifully. All in all, a very good unRAID week for me. Now to find more deals of 500 Giggers
January 19, 200719 yr Author Well, I swapped out my existing 300GB PATA parity drive for a new 500GB SATA last night. 1. Backed up my existing configuration (config directory on USB key) 2. Backed it up again 3. Powered down thge Unraid, removed the PATA drive, put SATA in the same slot 4. Powered back up, Unraid recognized the new drive and that the old was missing 5. For Some reason the devices page wanted to make my old slot 1 (data drive) the new parity by default. I corrected this (setting it back to slot 1 and selected the new SATA for parity) 6. Started Unraid and it proceeded to rebuild parity on the new drive, 6 hours later, all was set So, everything worked perfectly for me. Today, I'm removing one of the 250 drives (slot 4) and letting unraid rebuild that on my old parity (300GB) so I can remove that data drive and use it for Recorded TV in my MCE. In summary, go for it, just very carefully review the changes on the device tab and backup your config before major changes. Just to be clear. You swapped out your IDE 300GB parity drive with a new 500GB SATA drive. When you popped out your IDE drive did you connect another IDE drive to be used as a data drive? If I have the following Slot 1 - 300GB SATA Parity Drive Slot 2 - 320GB SATA Data Drive Slot 3 - 320GB SATA Data Drive Slot 4 - 160GB SATA Data Drive Slot 5 - 160GB IDE Data Drive I remove the parity drive in slot 1 and install a new 500GB IDE drive when the sytem starts up, will it tell me that the parity drive is missing and a new drive was found and ask me if I want to use the new drive as parity? Do I first go into the Device tab and select the new IDE drive in the same slot where my previous parity drive was? Then go to the main page and tell it to do a parity check? I'm like totally nervous about losing data on my drives.
January 19, 200719 yr To be totally safe, how about this approach... Save your config files to a safe place, in a pinch you could put things back and be up running. Stop your array using the control panel. Go into the drive assignment page and un-assign the parity drive. Re-start your array. (At this point, you will be un-protected, and have NO parity drive enabled at all but could be protected if a data drive were to fail by restoring your saved config file and putting the parity drive back where it was) Stop your array from the control panel, then use the power-down button on it to shut down. Plug in your new parity drive (old was 300G SATA, new is 500G PATA), Unplug your old parity drive, put it in a safe place, or just leave it in the cabinet unconnected. Then power up. Go to the management control panel and stop the array (if it is running) Go to the drive assignment page and assign the new IDE parity drive to the parity function. Go to the control panel and start the array, it should re-calculate parity on the new IDE parity drive When it is finished (5 or 6 hours later) you are protected and up and running . (At this point you are protected from a drive failure with the NEW parity drive and the new config files, or, the old parity drive and the old config files if you were to revert to them.) Personally, I would run this way for a few days to be sure the new IDE parity drive does not suffer a failure in its first few hours of use. Then... stop the array once more and then power down Plug the old parity drive back in and power up once more Use the drive assignment page to assign the old parity drive as the next (NEW) data drive. Start the array. It will see the unformatted drive (the old parity drive) and offer to clear and format it. Again, several hours later (probably take that long to clear it and format it) you will see the new data drive on-line.
January 20, 200719 yr Well, I swapped out my existing 300GB PATA parity drive for a new 500GB SATA last night. 1. Backed up my existing configuration (config directory on USB key) 2. Backed it up again 3. Powered down thge Unraid, removed the PATA drive, put SATA in the same slot 4. Powered back up, Unraid recognized the new drive and that the old was missing 5. For Some reason the devices page wanted to make my old slot 1 (data drive) the new parity by default. I corrected this (setting it back to slot 1 and selected the new SATA for parity) 6. Started Unraid and it proceeded to rebuild parity on the new drive, 6 hours later, all was set So, everything worked perfectly for me. Today, I'm removing one of the 250 drives (slot 4) and letting unraid rebuild that on my old parity (300GB) so I can remove that data drive and use it for Recorded TV in my MCE. In summary, go for it, just very carefully review the changes on the device tab and backup your config before major changes. Just to be clear. You swapped out your IDE 300GB parity drive with a new 500GB SATA drive. When you popped out your IDE drive did you connect another IDE drive to be used as a data drive? Nope, I did id one step at a time: 1. replace parity 2. rebuild parity 3. replace data drive 4. rebuild data drive I can't stress this enough, ONLY REPLACE 1 DRIVE AT A TIME. Unraid can walk (rebuild a data drive), or chewgum (upgrade a parity drive), but not both at the same time If I have the following Slot 1 - 300GB SATA Parity Drive Slot 2 - 320GB SATA Data Drive Slot 3 - 320GB SATA Data Drive Slot 4 - 160GB SATA Data Drive Slot 5 - 160GB IDE Data Drive I remove the parity drive in slot 1 and install a new 500GB IDE drive when the sytem starts up, will it tell me that the parity drive is missing and a new drive was found and ask me if I want to use the new drive as parity? Yes, but in a sort of roundabout way. It won't start, the light's will be "red", and you'll need to go into the devices tab and review/select the new parity drive (in my case it was a little off and wanted to use the old slot 1 data drive as parity by default (yikes! a good thing I didn't let it start building parity). If you want to be super sure, print and keep the devices view before you upgrade. Do I first go into the Device tab and select the new IDE drive in the same slot where my previous parity drive was? Then go to the main page and tell it to do a parity check? Yes, exactly. I may have only had to go into devices bacause I was goint from PATA->SATA on the parity and it got thrown. I'm like totally nervous about losing data on my drives. Take it easy, be deliberate, think about what you're doing and you'll be fine. Most importantly, save the celebratory beer until AFTER the parity rebuild starts
January 20, 200719 yr To be totally safe, how about this approach... Save your config files to a safe place, in a pinch you could put things back and be up running. Stop your array using the control panel. Go into the drive assignment page and un-assign the parity drive. Re-start your array. (At this point, you will be un-protected, and have NO parity drive enabled at all but could be protected if a data drive were to fail by restoring your saved config file and putting the parity drive back where it was) Stop your array from the control panel, then use the power-down button on it to shut down. Plug in your new parity drive (old was 300G SATA, new is 500G PATA), Unplug your old parity drive, put it in a safe place, or just leave it in the cabinet unconnected. Then power up. Go to the management control panel and stop the array (if it is running) Go to the drive assignment page and assign the new IDE parity drive to the parity function. Go to the control panel and start the array, it should re-calculate parity on the new IDE parity drive When it is finished (5 or 6 hours later) you are protected and up and running . (At this point you are protected from a drive failure with the NEW parity drive and the new config files, or, the old parity drive and the old config files if you were to revert to them.) Personally, I would run this way for a few days to be sure the new IDE parity drive does not suffer a failure in its first few hours of use. Then... stop the array once more and then power down Plug the old parity drive back in and power up once more Use the drive assignment page to assign the old parity drive as the next (NEW) data drive. Start the array. It will see the unformatted drive (the old parity drive) and offer to clear and format it. Again, several hours later (probably take that long to clear it and format it) you will see the new data drive on-line. Joe L, too much mucking around in the beginning, IMO, I would swap out the parity right away, not try to start without it. But other than that it sound spot on!
January 20, 200719 yr Author Is it just me that's a little disappointd that there's really no support from Tom here? It would be nice to hear from him don't you think? I've been going on a month with my parity error problem in another thread with no real support. A little frustrating to say the least. It's a great product and I'm sure he's busy but still...
January 20, 200719 yr I was a little dissapointed that after waiting almost a week and emailing Tom I had to take a leap of faith with no reassurance, yes. But, to tell the truth it ain't the first time.
January 21, 200719 yr Is it just me that's a little disappointd that there's really no support from Tom here? It would be nice to hear from him don't you think? I've been going on a month with my parity error problem in another thread with no real support. A little frustrating to say the least. It's a great product and I'm sure he's busy but still... If you're talking about this thread, I thought I answered it sufficiently, though I just posted another reply.
January 21, 200719 yr I was a little dissapointed that after waiting almost a week and emailing Tom I had to take a leap of faith with no reassurance, yes. But, to tell the truth it ain't the first time. Sorry to disappoint. Usually when someone posts a question, and another user posts an appropriate answer, I don't always take the time to post "Exactly right."
January 27, 200719 yr Author Okay will I finally swapped out my 320GB SATA parity drive for a larger 500GB ide drive...~gulp~.. I assigned my new drive as parity, all the other drives where exactly still assigned as they already were and just clicked Start. I wasn't sure if I had to click the Restore box. But I didn't. I clicked Start and now the drives just said mounted for quite some time until I realized maybe I should refresh the page. Once I did it came back as rebuilding parity. WOHOOOOO...gee I feel all giddy knowing it's working. So I'll leave that for a day or two to make sure everything is okay with the drive. Then add the new drive. Thanks for all the help everyone!
January 28, 200719 yr Author Well it's been 24hrs and parity is still rebuilding. It's only 25% done. I have two 320GB drives, and one 160GB drive, none of them full. I'm suprised it's taking this long. The parity drive is the master drive and I have another IDE drive as slave - secondary. I only have the one IDE controller on the MB.
January 28, 200719 yr What is the rate of the rebuild? If it is substantially less than 13,000 DMA may be disabled on a drive. Either that or you added a much slower drive to the array. I tried popping in an old 200 gig I had and parity check went down to 7000 or so.
January 29, 200719 yr Author The rate of rebuild is about 2,000. I had checked the BIOS before starting the rebuild. Everything was set to Auto.
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