hello

 

I will like to add a second parity drive to my array.

All drives are Seagate archive 8TB.

 

1) i have preclear the new seagate 8tb

2) stoped the array

3) assigned to 2nd slot 

but i can't start the array. the START button is greyed

 

i get the message "disk in parity slot in not biggest"

 

i also have one more new seagate 8tb that i start preclear and haven't finished yet.

 

any thoughts?

 

Edited September 15, 20178 yr by volume

The new parity disk is smaller, maybe HPA, diagnostics would help.

2 hours ago, johnnie.black said:

The new parity disk is smaller, maybe HPA, diagnostics would help.

 

 

 

 

although i see that the disk 1, that has the HPA partition, seems that its a data drive (first screenshot)

how can i remove the HPA from the disk 1? where can i see the diagnostics for the parity disc?

 

thanks in advance!

Edited September 15, 20178 yr by volume

Tools -> Diagnostics

 

Attach zip.

i will post the diagnostics in 5 hours because i don't have access right now.

thanks

6 hours ago, johnnie.black said:

Tools -> Diagnostics

 

Attach zip.

 

 

which folder/section will you need?

 

Edited September 15, 20178 yr by volume

6 hours ago, johnnie.black said:

Attach zip.

 

 

thanks for your time and effort !

 

here the zip, i have only delete the serials from the discs 

volume-diagnostics-20170915-2214.zip

 

Edited September 15, 20178 yr by volume

Parity2 disk andi disk1 have HPA enable, for disk1 it's not a big deal, but it can't be enable for any disk used as parity:

 

Sep 12 00:44:37 Criterion kernel: ata11.00: HPA detected: current 15628044911, native 15628053168

In your case it was most likely done by your gigabyte board and a bios backup feature, you may want to disable that to avoid doing it to any more disks, see here for how to remove HPA:

 

https://forums.lime-technology.com/topic/10229-hpa-aka-why-are-two-identical-drives-different-sizes/

 

28 minutes ago, volume said:

i have only delete the serials from the discs

 

I don't understand why people do that but if you really don't want to show them you'll need to delete them from many more places in the diagnostics besides the SMART reports, note however that it will be much harder for other users trying to help to correctly identify the disks, so you may not get as many responses.

38 minutes ago, johnnie.black said:

Parity2 disk andi disk1 have HPA enable, for disk1 it's not a big deal, but it can't be enable for any disk used as parity:

 

Sep 12 00:44:37 Criterion kernel: ata11.00: HPA detected: current 15628044911, native 15628053168

In your case it was most likely done by your gigabyte board and a bios backup feature, you may want to disable that to avoid doing it to any more disks, see here for how to remove HPA:

 

https://forums.lime-technology.com/topic/10229-hpa-aka-why-are-two-identical-drives-different-sizes/

 

 

I don't understand why people do that but if you really don't want to show them you'll need to delete them from many more places in the diagnostics besides the SMART reports, note however that it will be much harder for other users trying to help to correctly identify the disks, so you may not get as many responses.

 

Here the full zip with all the info

volume-diagnostics-20170915-2214.zip

7 minutes ago, volume said:

Here the full zip with all the info

 

It's not needed now, like I said the serial numbers are in other places, and I used those.

The hard drive with the HPA is new, and i preclear the disc once... 

 

I have disconnect the HPA drive from unRAID and connect it to my synology nas with a docking station.

Then, format the whole drive with ext4 and connect it back to unRAID.

 

The Drive is listed in unassigned drives... I run fix common problem and didn't find any HPA

 

Can i put it to the array?

Also do i need to preclear the disc once more?

 

When we preclear a new disc and then format it outside of unRAID, e.x. in another pc, do we need to preclear the disc again?

35 minutes ago, volume said:

I run fix common problem and didn't find any HPA

 

Not sure if it scans unassigned drives, it also didn't warn about it earlier.

 

36 minutes ago, volume said:

Also do i need to preclear the disc once more?

 

Not for adding it as 2nd parity.

 

37 minutes ago, volume said:

When we preclear a new disc and then format it outside of unRAID, e.x. in another pc, do we need to preclear the disc again?

 

A disk only needs to be cleared (or precleared) if it's going to be added to the array as new data disk, it's not needed for parity or to replace an existing disk.

I would be surprised if Synology is going to remove the HPA. If you search the forums you will find instructions for Linux. Some controllers have issues removing HPA's - motherboard ports are therefore recommended.

thanks! 

 

one last question

 

in a new drive that just finished 1 cycle of preclear... and then the disk is formatted outside of unRAID (in a different pc)

do we need to pre clear the drive again, to use it as a pool data drive in unRAID?

 

does the preclear signature deletes when we format the drive?

 

 

Edited September 20, 20178 yr by volume

30 minutes ago, volume said:

does the preclear signature deletes when we format the drive?

 

Yes

31 minutes ago, volume said:

does the preclear signature deletes when we format the drive?

Yes

 

1 hour ago, johnnie.black said:

A disk only needs to be cleared (or precleared) if it's going to be added to the array as new data disk, it's not needed for parity or to replace an existing disk.

 

if I remove the HPA (with hdparm) from a (data) drive, will that remove the data or are my data safe?

Will I need to rebuild afterwards?

 

Why did the drive get an HPA? You say it was new and recently precleared.

 

Older motherboards, particularly Gigabyte, liked to add HPAs to a single disk and used it to backup BIOS or something.

 

If you are successful in removing the HPA, I would be concerned that it could be re-created on that or another disk.

 

Before removing the HPA, I'd be sure to understand why it was there in the first place.

44 minutes ago, SSD said:

Why did the drive get an HPA? You say it was new and recently precleared.

 

Older motherboards, particularly Gigabyte, liked to add HPAs to a single disk and used it to backup BIOS or something.

 

If you are successful in removing the HPA, I would be concerned that it could be re-created on that or another disk.

 

Before removing the HPA, I'd be sure to understand why it was there in the first place.

 

i turned off the back up setting from bios, and i removed the HPA from the empty disk.

But i also have another disk with HPA which is not empty.

 

Is it safe to remove the HPA without emptying the disk?

 

Anecdotal evidence shows that gigabyte boards if it finds an HPA on a drive connected to the motherboard ports it will not create another one on a different disk. Leave the HPA on disks except for the parity drives You'll never miss the storage space lost



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No - it is not safe to remove an HPA from a non-empty disk. Having an HPA does absolutely no harm on a data disk. Just leave it.