I've just added another drive to my tower, however I had to unplug 2 drives ( to slide the drive cage out ).

 

Lesson learned... don't do this in the dark with a flashlight.

 

I've lost track of which cable connected to which drive.

 

I've got 50/50 chance of getting it right, however I suspect if I get it wrong, I would have to re-build the parity.

 

I haven't turned the server on yet.

 

Where should I look to see if I hooked it up right?

 

If I did guess wrong, can I shutdown and swap them?

 

EDIT:  I guess this more a hardware question, but I also need to know about the software.  Mods can move if they think the other queue is more appropriate..thanks

 

Thanks guys!

>> I've got 50/50 chance of getting it right, however I suspect if I get it wrong, I would have to re-build the parity.

 

I do not believe the array will start if it finds disks in the wrong slot. So you will not have to rebuild parity if you put them back in the same slots.

 

>> Where should I look to see if I hooked it up right?

Right in the main screen They will show up as blue and may say missing or show the current and priior serial numbers.

Look in the devices tab if you want to re-assign.

if the drives are put in the same slots logically, it should be ok.

 

>> If I did guess wrong, can I shutdown and swap them?

Yes,

 

If you added a new drive, you can also recalculate parity with the new drive installed.

I've just added another drive to my tower, however I had to unplug 2 drives ( to slide the drive cage out ).

 

Lesson learned... don't do this in the dark with a flashlight.

 

I've lost track of which cable connected to which drive.

 

I've got 50/50 chance of getting it right, however I suspect if I get it wrong, I would have to re-build the parity.

 

I haven't turned the server on yet.

 

Where should I look to see if I hooked it up right?

 

If I did guess wrong, can I shutdown and swap them?

 

EDIT:  I guess this more a hardware question, but I also need to know about the software.   Mods can move if they think the other queue is more appropriate..thanks

 

Thanks guys!

Fortunately, the unRAID software is pretty smart.  It will figure things out if it can and will not start if it cannot.  Just power up and see what the main unRAID management screen shows.

 

If two data drives have switched between two ports, it will say it has detected their movement and ask you confirm their new positions in the array.

If one of the drives was the parity drive the array will not start.

 

If you do elect to start the array with the drives switched the files on them will be swapped too, what was on the share for the disks will switch too.

 

as long as you do not use new ports (and new hardware controllers) you should not have to re-calculate parity.  (Just don't press the button labeled "restore")

 

Joe L.

I like "smart" software , makes up for not so smart users

 

I've fired it back up and I have green lights across my 4 drives and green on the parity ( looks like I guessed right )

 

Now I must refer to my earlier notes as I need to preclear the new drive (well, not new, but moved from my main system to server ).

 

I'm amazing how fast things fill up.  I've just fill my last SATA port on my motherboard, so unless I upgrade my smallest drive (750GB), my next move is going to be adding a multiplier/sata controller.  Fortunately I took everyone's advice and planned for this, to some extent, as I have case that can hold 12 drives and a decent power supply, so they won't need to be replaced/added to for a long time.

 

Thanks guys!

I'm amazing how fast things fill up.

 

newegg has had some fantastic deals on drives.

The 1.5tb drives have been under $100 and the 2Tb drives were in the $139 range for a while.

NewEgg, in Canada, isn't typically our best option.

 

We have ncix.com who almost always has better sale prices ( regular prices can be similar to newegg ).

 

They just had a batch of 1.5TB WD Green's on sale for $88 CDN ( a little bit less in US with current exchange ).

 

2TB have been falling under $150 CDN periodically and I suspect that will become the normal price in the new year.

 

Any word on the next size of HDD?  Are their 3TB or 4TB in the works, or are we just getting too many platters to cram into a 3.5" enclosure?

Any word on the next size of HDD?  Are their 3TB or 4TB in the works, or are we just getting too many platters to cram into a 3.5" enclosure?

No idea...  probably not more platters as they only have so much physical space in the drive enclosure, but a new way of recording on the platters... 

 

You ALSO need a market for the new drives...  (In the past I would have said the market for drives larger than 2TB drives was small, but when most cameras take 8-10 Meg photos these days, and HD movie files reaching 30+Gig, I'd say the market is growing) 

 

Since the manufacturing costs might be minimal when inventing new recording heads that can cram more bits onto the same number of platters, I'd say the manufacturers will keep stuffing in bits until the read-error rates climb to where their recovery routines on the disks can't keep up. 

If a 4TB drive is only minimally more expensive to manufacture than a 2TB drive, but can command nearly twice the wholesale price, they have an incentive to make larger drives.