Hi everyone,

I have what I hope is a quick question.  I apologize for the lack of details in this post, right now I am at work and don't have access to my server.  Hopefully they won't be required, but if they are I can post them in a few hours.

 

Last night I added a new drive to my server, something I haven't had to do in a couple of years so I don't remember the exact process.  I stopped the server, did a clean powerdown, added my drive, then booted the server back up.  Went to the devices page and added my new drive at which time I was prompted to clear it.  I let it clear overnight last night because it was taking some time.  When I woke this morning I refreshed and it had completed clearing and showed me all of my drives with green orbs next to them except my new drive which had a blue orb and said it was "unformatted".  A format button was present, but I did not click it.

 

My question is simply do I need to click the format button to format the new drive?  I know that sounds ridiculous, but I am weary of the word format, I don't want to lose all the files on my server.  I just want to ensure this is all normal.  I was able to use explorer and navigate to my existing shares.  I searched my way around the forum and the wiki, but the information I found was a little confusing.  Sorry if I overlooked something.

 

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone,

I have what I hope is a quick question.  I apologize for the lack of details in this post, right now I am at work and don't have access to my server.  Hopefully they won't be required, but if they are I can post them in a few hours.

 

Last night I added a new drive to my server, something I haven't had to do in a couple of years so I don't remember the exact process.  I stopped the server, did a clean powerdown, added my drive, then booted the server back up.  Went to the devices page and added my new drive at which time I was prompted to clear it.  I let it clear overnight last night because it was taking some time.  When I woke this morning I refreshed and it had completed clearing and showed me all of my drives with green orbs next to them except my new drive which had a blue orb and said it was "unformatted".  A format button was present, but I did not click it.

 

My question is simply do I need to click the format button to format the new drive?  I know that sounds ridiculous, but I am weary of the word format, I don't want to lose all the files on my server.  I just want to ensure this is all normal.  I was able to use explorer and navigate to my existing shares.  I searched my way around the forum and the wiki, but the information I found was a little confusing.  Sorry if I overlooked something.

 

Thanks in advance!

As long as the "unformatted" description is only on the new disk, you are fine and everything is working as expected.  The next step is to click on the "Format" button to format it.  Depending on the size of the disk this could take up to a minute.

 

If you ever see the "unformatted" description when not expecting to see it, it indicates the drive is not mounted. (The description is in error)  DO NOT press the format button in that situation.

 

When stopping the  array it is possible on older versions of unRAID to see unformatted on disks that could be properly un-mounted when others were not able to be un-mounted because they were "busy"

Just log-off/terminate the process holding the disk busy if that occurs and press "Stop" once more.

 

On the 4.5.X versions, it is possible to see the un-formatted when starting the array if they are unable to be mounted initially because they are replaying transactions.  Just stop and re-start the array if that occurs.

 

Joe L.

Hi Joe,

Thanks for the response.  I came home and formatted and all is well.