Preclear to clear "current pending sectors"

[SSD]

Aren't you selling your unRAID server?

 

What are you really trying to do?

 

A good drive will not have bad or pending sectors. It is possible that one or two can develop and get reallocated without causing more damage, but more typically when you start messing with it the number increases and the problem gets worse. Looks like  you have a drive with 1, a drive with 3, and a drive with 54. And the array has been sitting idle. My experience is that drives that sit around after being used pretty heavily don't come back to life very well.

 

I'd sell as is and let next person deal with them. I think for backup drives (which will be written to once and never written again) people might be happy to use them. The effort you are trying to make may not result in much benefit to you as far as sale price.

 

Just seeing your last post about running out and buying a new drive (HGST has replace Hitachi BTW). Maybe you are not getting out of the unRAID business. 

[trurl]

and here's the syslog...large red sections in this one...Heading out now to buy a 4TB Hitachi...

It would save us all a lot of time if you had posted complete diagnostics zip instead of syslog.

[DigitalDivide]

I did.  It's in the post above the one with the syslog...

 

No, not selling it off. I'm moving to a smaller 5 bay system.  Once I move over I'll sell the case and Icy Docks and junk the bad drives.  Out of my 10 drives I suspect I can keep 4.  Some are going bad and some while still good are over 5yrs old, these are 1TB drives.

 

My question right now is should I try to restart the array with the disk 3 in it or should I just replace it with the new 4TB drive I bought?  I would really like to be able to start the array and copy the files off of it to another drive so I can add a new drive which I would like to format as XFS.  My current drive 3 is Reiserfs.  I already have a 4TB parity drive btw. 

[trurl]

I did.  It's in the post above the one with the syslog...

Sorry. The syslog is already part of the diagnostics zip so I assumed you wouldn't have posted the syslog if you had posted the diagnostics.

[trurl]

How did you happen to decide to work on disk10 anyway? Disk4 is in much worse shape. In fact I think I would have just replaced that one due to the large number of pending before doing anything else.

 

And SMART for disk7 isn't really any better than disk10. In fact, it is throwing a large number of read errors in your syslog.

 

SMART for disk3 actually looks OK though. Unfortunately, it will need to be rebuilt in order to reenable it, but you have so many problems with other disks that rebuilding may not succeed.

 

Do you have backups?

[SSD]

If you don't have a backup, while array is up, I would recommend copying any priceless files from your array onto your Windows/Mac workstation, focusing on the disks trurl indicated (4, 7, and 10). You can also copy files off of disk3, which is being simulated with the magic of unRAID.

 

If things go south in a hurry, this will give you a chance to save those pictures and home movies that you would never be able to reproduce.

 

Chances are good you will never need this backup, but I would take it anyway. You could add that 4T drive to your workstation and use that so you have more space for the backup.

[DigitalDivide]

nope, no backups.  If I lose some stuff I'm not too concerned. 

 

So I powered down and reseated everything and swapped some cables.  Power back up but disk 3 comes back up with a red x.  What exactly should I do?  I do have a new drive that I need to preclear.  Should I unassign disk 3 then assign..?

 

At this point I'm not sure what's the best way to proceed...

[trurl]

If you're not concerned with losing anything the simplest thing might be to just set a new configuration without 3,4,7,10, build parity, then try to copy what you can from the those disks using Unassigned Devices, possibly adding new disks as needed.

[DigitalDivide]

All the movies I was copying to disk 3 from disk 10 are still sitting on disk 10.  I haven't deleted anything yet.  THere were some movies already on disk 3 but I suspect if I rebuild, they will probably still be good.

 

What would happen if I just replaced the disk 3 with a new one and try to rebuild it? 

 

Also if I preclear a disk do I have to make sure I set it to ReiserFS as that's what drive 3 is? 

[trurl]

All the movies I was copying to disk 3 from disk 10 are still sitting on disk 10.  I haven't deleted anything yet.  THere were some movies already on disk 3 but I suspect if I rebuild, they will probably still be good.

 

What would happen if I just replaced the disk 3 with a new one and try to rebuild it? 

As I already said

SMART for disk3 actually looks OK though. Unfortunately, it will need to be rebuilt in order to reenable it, but you have so many problems with other disks that rebuilding may not succeed.

Also if I preclear a disk do I have to make sure I set it to ReiserFS as that's what drive 3 is?

That does not compute. A clear disk has no filesystem, and there is no place to set one when preclearing.

 

You absolutely must not change the filesytem during a rebuild or you will format the disk. But I wouldn't be surprised if a rebuild is unsuccessful or possibly corrupt due to your other disk problems.

[DigitalDivide]

Sorry, I guess I'm getting a little confused.  You said the SMART for disk 3 looks good.  When you say it needs to be rebuilt to reenable it, I'm assuming you mean rebuilt by popping in a new disk or do you mean preclear disk 3, then add it back and see if I can rebuild the missing data? 

[trurl]

Sorry, I guess I'm getting a little confused.  You said the SMART for disk 3 looks good.  When you say it needs to be rebuilt to reenable it, I'm assuming you mean rebuilt by popping in a new disk or do you mean preclear disk 3, then add it back and see if I can rebuild the missing data?

Disk3 would need to be rebuilt to reenable it. But, since rebuilding requires successfully and correctly reading all of your other disks in order to calculate the data for the rebuild, I think it is likely the rebuild would fail or would be corrupt. Because you have several other disks with problems that might make it unable to successfully and correctly read them. In fact, as already seen, disk7 is not being successfully read. Could just be a bad connection to disk7, but the disk itself does have issues. And disk4 looks really bad.

[SSD]

Once a disk is kicked from the array, even if you fix the underlying problem (like loose connection), it will not be put back in the array. There are two ways to get it back into the array, and the best way is to rebuild it.

 

I like this suggestion, except I might consider including disk3 if you think you found a loose cable.

 

If you're not concerned with losing anything the simplest thing might be to just set a new configuration without 3,4,7,10, build parity, then try to copy what you can from the those disks using Unassigned Devices, possibly adding new disks as needed.

 

You could also include the new disk. If it is an HGST, I'd be pretty confident that it will be good. Although preclearing is a good idea, I might forgo it this time. If it is a Seagate or WD I'd feel differently, but that's based on my personal experiences.  YMMV

 

[DigitalDivide]

LOL still not quite clear on rebuilding disk 3.  I understand disk 4 is bad and I might not get a good read from disk 7.  Let me put it this way.  If I preclear my new drive and then replace disk 3 with it, and let a rebuild happen.  The worst that will happen is some movies may not get properly rebuilt rather than all right?  Once it's rebuilt I can go through the movies on it and see which ones work and which ones don't and delete the ones that don't....?? 

 

Or, should I leave disk 3 in for right now and see if I can copy the stuff from disk 4 and 7 to other drives, then replace disk 3? 

[trurl]

Once a disk is kicked from the array, even if you fix the underlying problem (like loose connection), it will not be put back in the array. There are two ways to get it back into the array, and the best way is to rebuild it.

 

I like this suggestion, except I might consider including disk3 if you think you found a loose cable.

 

If you're not concerned with losing anything the simplest thing might be to just set a new configuration without 3,4,7,10, build parity, then try to copy what you can from the those disks using Unassigned Devices, possibly adding new disks as needed.

 

You could also include the new disk. If it is an HGST, I'd be pretty confident that it will be good. Although preclearing is a good idea, I might forgo it this time. If it is a Seagate or WD I'd feel differently, but that's based on my personal experiences.  YMMV

Yes, this makes sense because SMART for disk3 looks OK. And since he has likely been neglecting multiple disk problems current parity might not be trustworthy anyway.

 

Since he doesn't care about losing anything if he does wind up with a new disk that's bad, we can deal with it at that time.

[DigitalDivide]

It's not that I don't care about losing stuff.  I mean if worst case scenario is I do lose something that's fine but that's a worst case scenario.  Right now I'm trying to copy a movie from disk 4 to disk 5. 

 

What would happen if I leave disk 3 in for right now and see if I can copy the stuff from disk 4 and 7 to other drives (other than the bad ones), then replace disk 3?

[DigitalDivide]

Just want to add one more item to the above.  I have two drives in my windows HTPC. Could I not just try to copy the contents from disk 3 and 4 to them?  Then copy the contents of disk 7 to another drive in the array, say disk 5 (which is good).  Then do a new config with disks 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10. 

 

Would that work?

[trurl]

Just want to add one more item to the above.  I have two drives in my windows HTPC. Could I not just try to copy the contents from disk 3 and 4 to them?  Then copy the contents of disk 7 to another drive in the array, say disk 5 (which is good).  Then do a new config with disks 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10. 

 

Would that work?

My suggestion was to get you back to a parity-protected state first then copy files. You are suggesting copying files then getting parity-protected again.

[DigitalDivide]

So, let me see if I understand you.  If I do it your way with a new config with disks 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9. That would then create a new parity using the data on the drives.  Do I then lose all the data on the other 4 drives or can I somehow add say disk 7 into the array so it sees it as a data drive, then copy the contents from it to one of the other drives?  Then once the data is copied off, remove it from the array and I guess it would be creating a new config, rebuilding the parity?  Yes..no?

[SSD]

Your disk3 just recently got kicked from the array. Chances are extremely good that the disk is fine and all of its content intact. Unless you were in the middle of copying something to it, in which case whatever was in progress will be incomplete. To test this theory, you could download a trial license, build a new flash, and install disk3 as disk1 with no parity. It will immediately start and show you if disk3 is good.

 

I think trurl and I are concerned that a rebuild operation with some of your other drives will make bad into worse. We'd rather see you use the life they have left to copy their contents onto something we know is a good disk in a parity protected array of good disks.

[SSD]

So, let me see if I understand you.  If I do it your way with a new config with disks 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9. That would then create a new parity using the data on the drives.  Do I then lose all the data on the other 4 drives or can I somehow add say disk 7 into the array so it sees it as a data drive, then copy the contents from it to one of the other drives?  Then once the data is copied off, remove it from the array and I guess it would be creating a new config, rebuilding the parity?  Yes..no?

 

Better than that - you can mount these disks outside the array, and just copy the data into the array.

[SSD]

Have to catch a plane. Good luck!

[DigitalDivide]

How do I mount them outside the array?

[SSD]

If you're not concerned with losing anything the simplest thing might be to just set a new configuration without 3,4,7,10, build parity, then try to copy what you can from the those disks using Unassigned Devices, possibly adding new disks as needed.

[trurl]

And until you do get back to parity-protected, you can't reliably use disk3 in the array to copy files from or copy files to since it is currently being emulated, which means it actually isn't being used at all but instead its data is being calculated by reading all the other drives, some of which aren't reliable.