I had only one data disk in my array to start with. filled it up to 94% until i could get another which is now being filled. can i move files from one disk to another (just copy and paste?) without screwing things up. Everything that accesses the data in the array does so through the user share so i cant see there being any problems. I  just want the full disk to have a bit more free space on it just in case.

Do it through the console (e.g. launch Midnight Commander aka "mc") or Dockers (e.g. Krusaders / Dolphins).

 

You MUST remember to only move files from DISK to DISK.

Moving files between share and disk is an easy way to lose it.

 

If you are not sure of what you are doing then I recommend to just leave it.

What is the file system on that data disk?  If it is xfs then don't bother!  (A nyophtye can easily get into trouble moving files).  However, if the file system is reiserfs, there can be write performance issues but these usually occur when a file is written or modified.  If the files on this disk fall into that category, they can be moved but as testdasi said, you must understand exactly how to do it and the difference between a disk-to-disk copy and disk-to-share copy.  (A disk-to-share copy usually ends up in a disaster...)

 

Setting the 'Minimum Free Space' for a share to a value larger than the current free space on that drive will prevent a new file from being written to any disk without that free space in that share. This is done by clicking on "Share' tab, then on the "User Share" tab.  Now click on the Share name to get to the page where you make the change.  Instructions are found here:

 

      http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/Un-Official_UnRAID_Manual#Min._Free_Space

 

Scrolling up and down around this section of that manual will provide you with more information on some of the other settings on that page.

What is the file system on that data disk?  If it is xfs then don't bother!  (A nyophtye can easily get into trouble moving files).  However, if the file system is reiserfs, there can be write performance issues but these usually occur when a file is written or modified.  If the files on this disk fall into that category, they can be moved but as testdasi said, you must understand exactly how to do it and the difference between a disk-to-disk copy and disk-to-share copy.  (A disk-to-share copy usually ends up in a disaster...)

 

Setting the 'Minimum Free Space' for a share to a value larger than the current free space on that drive will prevent a new file from being written to any disk without that free space in that share. This is done by clicking on "Share' tab, then on the "User Share" tab.  Now click on the Share name to get to the page where you make the change.  Instructions are found here:

 

      http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/Un-Official_UnRAID_Manual#Min._Free_Space

 

Scrolling up and down around this section of that manual will provide you with more information on some of the other settings on that page.

You can even set the user share to exclude the mostly full disk and it won't write any more data to it, but reads of the user share will still include the disk because the share still has a folder on the disk. As long as you don't exclude a disk from all user shares in the Global Share Settings it will be included in reads. The share settings just tell unRAID how to write to the share and whether or not to move its files from cache.

What if I want to move a whole share from Disk1 to Disk2 (because 95% of my shares are on one disk), can I just move them from unraid/disk1/share -> unraid/disk2/ ?

12 minutes ago, tll002 said:

What if I want to move a whole share from Disk1 to Disk2 (because 95% of my shares are on one disk), can I just move them from unraid/disk1/share -> unraid/disk2/ ?

How do you plan to do the move? Command line or some other method?

14 minutes ago, tll002 said:

What if I want to move a whole share from Disk1 to Disk2 (because 95% of my shares are on one disk), can I just move them from unraid/disk1/share -> unraid/disk2/ ?

Well of course those paths don't work from the Unraid command line. I guess you must be thinking of making a round trip to another computer on your network using disk shares. And I don't recommend sharing disks anyway.

 

Do you have Krusader installed?

 

I would just use Midnight Commander (mc from the command line) since it is builtin. I never work with disk shares over the network, and only work with the disks from mc or Krusader.

3 hours ago, trurl said:

Well of course those paths don't work from the Unraid command line. I guess you must be thinking of making a round trip to another computer on your network using disk shares. And I don't recommend sharing disks anyway.

 

Do you have Krusader installed?

 

I would just use Midnight Commander (mc from the command line) since it is builtin. I never work with disk shares over the network, and only work with the disks from mc or Krusader.

Ya I’m using Krusader, I just didn’t write the full path, but I’m presuming from your response that it is ok to just drag shares from disk1/ to disk2/ (within Krusader)?

6 minutes ago, tll002 said:

that it is ok to just drag shares from disk1/ to disk2/ (within Krusader)?

Make sure Krusader is doing a 'Move' and not a 'Copy'!!!!!!! 

I was curious could I also move files within a share between disks? 

 

For example within Krusader can I MOVE /disk1/shareName/folderName/txtName.txt, to /disk2/shareName/folderName/. Im assuming that as long as I move the txt file to the same share and folder the file should be fine, can any verify this?

-thanks

7 minutes ago, tll002 said:

I was curious could I also move files within a share between disks? 

Yes, but always from disk to disk, never disk to share or share to disk.

Hi,

I've pre-cleared a new disk, which is a higher capacity than the one I want to remove. I want to remove a 6tb and replace with a 16tb.

Currently, the 6tb only has 2tb of data on it, but I want to use it for a different project.

 

I've replaced a parity drive before, however with this disk containing info, I want to ensure this is done correctly.

What's important, is that I don't have a space issue to move the 2tb of data to the other drives.

 

I know the process is to stop the array, remove the drive from the array. Add the new drive and then rebuild.

Would it be wise to checksum the existing files on the 6tb to the files on the newly built disk afterwards? I would have thought it wouldn't be, as the rebuild would be doing this as part of the rebuild?

 

As long as parity is valid and the server has no know issues, like bad RAM or frequent sync errors after a parity check, no reason to expect any issues with the rebuilt disk.