July 11, 20169 yr OK, my current config is a bit all over the place after a power cut last week. At the time I was just setting up unRAID so didn't have a parity. The power cut made one drive disappear and another showed errors. I did try and add and build the parity but that didn't work. So it's easiest if I just start again with a new config. The drive that showed some errors I managed to copy the data off using MC. So essentially drives 1, 3 and 5 are good with data. 4 needs to be formatted and will be used as a spare. 2 is an RMA case. Can I simply do a New Config and use disks 1, 3 and 5 (in the old config) as disks 1, 2 and 3 (in the new config) and retain the data? Then add the parity drive (which I'll format to make sure it's clean) and let it build again? Essentially I want to start from scratch but save the data on disks 1, 3 and 5. I have a APC new cable in the post to make sure my UPS works as expected.
July 11, 20169 yr Community Expert Yes, doing a new config keeps all data intact, unless a data disk is assigned to a parity slot by mistake.
July 11, 20169 yr Then add the parity drive (which I'll format to make sure it's clean) ... Just one quibble, the parity drive does not have a format, so don't bother trying. It's going to be *completely* overwritten.
July 12, 20169 yr Community Expert Then add the parity drive (which I'll format to make sure it's clean) ... Just one quibble, the parity drive does not have a format, so don't bother trying. It's going to be *completely* overwritten. essjay, format does not mean "delete" or "wipe" or anything else you seem to be thinking. Format means "write an empty filesystem to this disk". That is what it has always meant on every operating system you have ever used. Writing an empty filesystem (formatting) typically changes very few of the bits on the disk. I point this out because some users have somehow made the mistake of formatting a disk when they attempt to rebuild a failed disk. The result of formatting writes an empty filesystem to the disk, and like all writes in unRAID, parity is also written so it agrees the disk has an empty filesystem. And as RobJ noted, the parity drive doesn't have a filesystem so formatting it is completely pointless.
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