Temporarily disable drive?


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I've got a drive that's failing (drive 1), and it's going to be a short while before I am able to replace it.  Fortunately, I have plenty of spare space on the rest of the array such that I can use Midnight Commander to move everything off it.  Is there something I can set that stops new files being written to drive 1?  I don't want to lose the "drive 1" slot if possible...?

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Once I'd cleared all the data off the drive, I ended up doing a new config and not assigning anything to disk 1.  I still have about 5TB of space, so I can live with 1 less drive for a while.

 

The drive is still in the box, just unassigned, and I'll order a replacement soon (well, an upsized parity).  Because my server is under the stairs and the case doesn't have any hot swap bays, it's a back-breaking hassle to get it out, so I'll do it all in one hit.  Thinking of moving up to the 8TB Archives - could seriously downsize over time then.

 

I hope it's OK to do a config that doesn't utilise all drive numbers sequentially.

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I hope it's OK to do a config that doesn't utilise all drive numbers sequentially.

It always was in the past for me.  I'm going to do that myself since I merged two HP servers (N40L and N54L) into one Norco 4224 case when I ran out of space on one of them even with drives external to the HPs.  As soon as I get my other servers configured I will anyway.
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It always was in the past for me.  I'm going to do that myself since I merged two HP servers (N40L and N54L) into one Norco 4224 case when I ran out of space on one of them even with drives external to the HPs.  As soon as I get my other servers configured I will anyway.

Great stuff.  How are you getting on with the Norco case?  Are you using a SAS Expander?  I was looking at switching over to one simply because of the drive access options (I have an old case with internal slots).

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It always was in the past for me.  I'm going to do that myself since I merged two HP servers (N40L and N54L) into one Norco 4224 case when I ran out of space on one of them even with drives external to the HPs.  As soon as I get my other servers configured I will anyway.

Great stuff.  How are you getting on with the Norco case?  Are you using a SAS Expander?  I was looking at switching over to one simply because of the drive access options (I have an old case with internal slots).

I currently have two Intel RES2SV240 expanders in two servers.  A third server doesn't need one.  The MB has 14 SATA ports and I have 2 M1015s installed - so I have 30 ports on that one.  Got one more server to setup in the newest norco I bought - hopefully this weekend.  I will probably just install 3 M1015s or a mix of M1015s and H310s whatever I have left.  Then I hope to be done re-configuring for a while.  Well other than replace some HGST drives that got up in the 50c through 60c temperature range anyway.  The three that got over 60c are my first priority and I have 4 replacement drives precleared and ready to go.  Just have to decide which of the high 50c drives to replace next after those three.  NOTE only a 62c drive is starting to look like it won't last much longer.  This all came about when I moved one of my existing cases (Lian Li V2000) and I must have accidentally unplugged the HDD cooling fan.  Once I get the 50c drives replaced (may not do it for low 50s drives if they continue to show no problems).  Oh well this gives me more offline backup drives.

 

 

Sorry for the ramble there :-[

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Cool - I was looking at replacing my case with a Norco, since unplugging everything and lifting out the box is getting a bit tiresome for a drive change.  Hard to find out info on SAS Expanders, since they're a bit niche.  I'd earmarked the Intel, since the two SAS ports on my mobo could utilise all drives in the case with it (I think).

 

EDIT: Thank you

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Cool - I was looking at replacing my case with a Norco, since unplugging everything and lifting out the box is getting a bit tiresome for a drive change.  Hard to find out info on SAS Expanders, since they're a bit niche.  I'd earmarked the Intel, since the two SAS ports on my mobo could utilise all drives in the case with it (I think).

 

EDIT: Thank you

One thing I will warn you about.  I was unable to boot any OS from my Kingston SD Reader if I had my RES2SV240 plugged into a slot on the MB.  It could be a bios setting, a firmware bug or even the universe getting even with me for something.  As long as I used the molex plug on the SAS expander it works.  I normally use it with the molex because then I'm not wasting a PCIe slot for the expander.  But on one of them I had slots to burn so I figured "why not?".  Naturally that one was the one that wouldn't boot.  Took me a long time to find out it was having the SAS Expander plugged into a slot.  So other then the wasted time I'm not out anything and the work around is more of the norm for me.  Plus it may not affect any one else or me on another MB but I wanted to let you know so if your server won't boot you can try removing a SAS Expander from a PCIe slot before trying new equipment.
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