I've been using UnRaid for about 3 years now, and I finally got my first disk failure.  Disk4 of a 6 disk system is listed as not installed.  I guess I have to blame the power failure earlier today, even though the tower is behind a Brick Wall surge filter and on a UPS.  So, it shouldn't have even noticed the power failure.  The tower is headless, so I can't see what's happening at boot, but it's taking quite a bit longer and I can hear a disk whizzing like a sick cat.  I'm trying not to panic.  I believe in the power of the UnRaid to safely hold on to my data.  Should I shut down the system until the new disk arrives or go for it and just keep using it?

 

I'll post my syslog, if anyone wants to take a look.  But, I think a new drive is the only option now.

 

Wish me luck!

syslog-2010-04-01.txt

It is up to you to leave the system up and running or not.  You are running in a "degraded" mode.  Right now, you have not lost any data.

If you lose any other disk (other than parity) you will have lost both drives data.  There is probably as much likelihood of a disk failing on a power cycle as it is to keep spinning until you can get the replacement disk.  Either way you'll need to power down to install the new disk, so I'd vote for one power cycle regardless of when you do it.

 

The goal of RAID array administration is to run in the degraded mode for as short a time as possible. 

(In other words, now is probably NOT the time to wait for a sale price on a disk)

 

It might not have been the power failure, it might have just been its time to go.

 

Unless it is a loose connector to the drive, it has died. 

 

Remember when you install the new drive to start the array by pressing the "Start" button.  unRAID will recognize you replaced the drive and will assign it for you on the devices page.  When you "Start" the array it will begin the process of re-constructing the old contents onto the new drive.

 

Whatever you do, DO NOT press the button labeled as "restore" as it has nothing to do with restoring data. It is actually a "Set Initial Disk Configuration" button.  Pressing it with a failed drive will immediately invalidate parity and prevent you from re-constructing the failed data disk's contents onto its replacement.

 

Remember... Press "Start" to begin the re-construction process of the replacement disk.

 

Joe L.

I'm actually kind of excited to see my first drive failure, but I'm not sure I ever will since I keep replacing drives preemptively to increase capacity...

I'm actually kind of excited to see my first drive failure

Careful what you wish for!   

 

Well, it was just as easy as advertised!  Installed the replacement, pre-cleared it, started the array and it rebuilt to contents of the lost disk.  Everything is up and running again.  Know I need to figure out what nifty additions people have come up with since the last time I looked.  Any suggestions?  I guess I need to upgrade to the latest version first.  Currently running 4.4.2.

 

 

Glad to hear you had no problems.

 

You may want to upgrade to 4.5.1 instead of 4.5.3.  I personally am having no trouble with 4.5.3, but a lot of users are reporting bugs and odd behavior.