Question about disk format

[bigbuffs]

So I was running a previous version of unRAID (I think in the 4's) and I had the power go out and my system would no longer boot. I eventually figured out that the USB drive had been damaged in some way and would no longer work. I decided that would be a good time to get a new USB drive and upgrade to the newest version of unRAID (im giving 6.3.3 a try now). I had 3 disks in my previous setup but decided to add a fourth to the array. When I got everything up and running one of the previous 3 disks is showing up as unmountable. Since I added a new disk Parity is valid and all of the previous data seems to still be there. I am just wondering if formatting the Unmountable disk will cause me to lose any data. 

[Frank1940]

Stop at this point, and don't do anything but upload a diagnostics file.  In all probability, that disk is not defective and you have not lost any data on that drive.  What probably happen is that you loosen a SATA connector when you installed the new drive.  Wait before you do ANYTHING as any formatting will destroy the data on that drive!  Since you already have a replacement drive and (probably) a drive has all of its data intact, the potential loss of any data is zero if you don't panic...

[Frank1940]

OK, now a couple of comments.  It is a good practice to only do one upgrade at a time.  Apparently, you did three:

     1-- New USB stick

     2-- A software upgrade

     3-- Add a new drive

Is this correct? 

 

Did you verify at any step along the way that things were working? 

 

Did you made a backup of your 4.X Flash or could you get one?  (It would also be helpful, if you could figure out exactly what version, you started with.)

 

Can you identify exactly which disk is your parity disk?  (It would be reassuring to you if you knew the serial numbers of the data and parity disks.  That way you would be sure that you have them assigned correctly when you setup version 6.

 

Here is a link to the upgrade WIKI as it will provide you with some guidance:

http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/Upgrading_to_UnRAID_v6

 

 

 

 

[bigbuffs]

Yes I basically did 3 at once. I couldn't find a backup of my flash drive so I just decided that I would start with a new install. And yes I know which disk is my parity disk and I could get the others fairly easily. I will check the SATA cables on the disk that is showing Unmountable. The new drive I added I made the Parity disk as I knew it would get formatted. But like I said all the data seems to be there right now. I have a lot of media and pictures and they all seem to be there.

[bigbuffs]

OK, something fishy is going on here. I shut down the computer and took it apart to check the disks and make sure the SATA cables were ok. When I turned it back on it would not boot. Basically it's doing the same thing as it did when the power outage happened. It will turn on but it will not POST or anything. I'm gonna tear it apart some more and do some trouble shooting.

[JorgeB]

You now have another problem but regarding the unmountable disk, and if I understood correctly, you assigned your previous 3 disks (1 parity plus 2 data) as data disks along a new parity disk, if so it's normal to get one unmountable disk, your old parity, you'll need to format it.

[Frank1940]

Personally, I would disconnect all of the old disks and leave only the new disk connected to the MB until I figured out this hardware issue. 

 

I am assuming that this is old hardware.  One thing to check is that you don't have any capacitors on the MB with bulging tops rather than flat tops. (This was an issue several years ago with caps from a couple of component manufacturers.)  If those are OK, I would first suspect a bad PS.  Plus, that is quick (and cheap) to replace.

[kizer]

What I used to do back in the day when things went sideways was unplug all drives and attempt to boot off anything that is bootable to rule out the motherboard or bootable device. 

[trurl]

14 hours ago, bigbuffs said:

The new drive I added I made the Parity disk as I knew it would get formatted.

You apparently "knew" something that was incorrect. Parity has no filesystem, and "format" literally means "write an empty filesystem" to the disk.

 

Parity would get overwritten with parity though, which is probably what you thought but didn't actually say.

 

The only reason I mention it is because a lot of people have gotten in trouble with their vague understanding of formatting.