Upgrade but need disk replacements, which order of operations? [SOLVED]

[Johnny]

I am currently on version 4.7 and need to upgrade. But I also appear to need 1 or 2 disk replacements (see attached pic). Should I replace the parity drive with a precleared one and get it up and running on ver4.7 and THEN upgrade to V6?

 

Also I have never replaced a drive on this system, it's ran for approximately 5 years flawlessly, so I am nervous as hell. Are there instructions to replace the parity drive for version 4.7 or are all the parity replacement instructions good for all versions.

[trurl]

... Should I replace the parity drive with a precleared one and get it up and running on ver4.7 and THEN upgrade to V6?

yes

.. are all the parity replacement instructions good for all versions.

all is a pretty big word so not sure what "all the instructions" would include. Basically just replace the drive and assign the new drive to the parity slot then starting the array will rebuild parity. Been several years since I have seen your version so not completely sure of the specific details. As long as you don't assign one of your data drives to the parity slot you should be good.

[Johnny]

Sorry just meant if you search the forums there are quite a few instruction posts on replacing parity, they don't all follow the same exact step by step procedure, although ultimately they may all mean the same thing.

 

I was just wary of following a parity replacement instruction set only to find out that that was for a different version.

[JonathanM]

If you are ok sticking with 2TB drives, then I wouldn't upgrade until you have your current array healthy. Thing is, the price per TB is better with larger drives, and if you need more room, it doesn't make fiscal sense to buy a 2TB just for the sake of sticking with 4.7

 

Do you have a backup of your data? If not, I wouldn't mess with the array at all until you at least have a backup of drive 1, preferably a full backup of the entire array.

[Squid]

The only real caveat here is if your upgrade intentions included going beyond 2.2TB on your hard drives.  That throws a big curve into the mix as you really should replace the parity drive first, but 4.7 doesn't support >2.2TB

[Johnny]

If you are ok sticking with 2TB drives, then I wouldn't upgrade until you have your current array healthy. Thing is, the price per TB is better with larger drives, and if you need more room, it doesn't make fiscal sense to buy a 2TB just for the sake of sticking with 4.7

 

Do you have a backup of your data? If not, I wouldn't mess with the array at all until you at least have a backup of drive 1, preferably a full backup of the entire array.

 

Thanks all of you, I did purchase a 2TB drive just to make the array healthy, then will do the upgrade in unraid version to 6 i believe it's at now, and replace the parity drive I just installed with a 4TB drive, then start replacing future unhealthy data drives with 4TB versions.