Yesterday I added a Seagate 500 gig drive to my unRAID (It is "disk4").  No problems, drive is added to the array, all is well.

Today a Western Digital 500 gig drive in my unRAID (It is "disk1") threw errors, went red, and is now blinking red. 

I stopped the array, rebooted it, and this is the state my unRAID is left in.

 

Since the new drive is exactly the same size as the drive that failed, I would like to just move my data to the new drive.

"disk1" shows up on my network.  (Is it just being created from the Parity and other data disks?)

Can I just do a copy from the red blinking "disk1" to the new "disk4"?  I realize it could take a long time, but wouldn't I be facing the same thing if I had a replacement drive to swap in for the failed "disk1"?

 

Let me know if my plan should work.  Then I could just remove the "disk1" Western Digital from my unRAID.

Yesterday I added a Seagate 500 gig drive to my unRAID (It is "disk4").  No problems, drive is added to the array, all is well.

Today a Western Digital 500 gig drive in my unRAID (It is "disk1") threw errors, went red, and is now blinking red.  

I stopped the array, rebooted it, and this is the state my unRAID is left in.

Since you did not post a syslog, we can only give general advice.   The drive might be bad, or not, it could be a loose cable to the drive as easily as anything else.

Since the new drive is exactly the same size as the drive that failed, I would like to just move my data to the new drive.

"disk1" shows up on my network.  (Is it just being created from the Parity and other data disks?)

Yes, exactly.  It is being simulated by parity and the other data drives.

Can I just do a copy from the red blinking "disk1" to the new "disk4"?  I realize it could take a long time, but wouldn't I be facing the same thing if I had a replacement drive to swap in for the failed "disk1"?

Yes, you can copy the data to disk4.   Or, you can replace disk1 with a different disk and the array will re-construct the contents to it.  Both will take about the same time.

Let me know if my plan should work.  Then I could just remove the "disk1" Western Digital from my unRAID.

You could... but to remove a disk you must re-calculate parity on a new disk configuration.  Be aware you will be without parity protection until the new calculation is completed.

 

First, if you are using 4.5.3 or previous of unRAID... do NOT press the button labeled as "restore" as it has nothing to do with re-construction of data on a replacement disk.  It is grossly mis-labeled.  

It is really a "Delete Disk Configuration and Immediately Invalidate Parity" button and the last thing you want to press with a failed disk except in a very specific series of actions involving command line commands.  

 

Post a syslog.

Get a smartctl report on the failed drive.  It will let you know if the drive itself has a problem.

 

Joe L.

 

First, if you are using 4.5.3 or previous of unRAID... do NOT press the button labeled as "restore" as it has nothing to do with re-construction of data on a replacement disk. . .

Thanks for the reminder about this.  I am aware of it from reading it on other people's disk problem threads, but it doesn't hurt repeating it as it's pretty misleading.

 

Post a syslog.

Get a smartctl report on the failed drive.  It will let you know if the drive itself has a problem.

Thanks, I'll do that.  I was having a power cable problem to that drive, so maybe that's the problem, although unRAID reported that it could not find the drive when that was happening.

I copied all the drive data (using the parity-version of the drive) to the other disk, then I reseated the power cable to the drive, unassigned the disk, reassigned the disk, allowed it rebuild, and everything is fine.  I'm running a parity check right now, so far so good.  I'll run some S.M.A.R.T. tests on it when the parity check is done.  This is one of those WD "AAKS" drives that some people report problems with.  I wasn't having any trouble with it, but I was having a power cable problem before, so it might have just been that.  I'll keep a cautious eye on it for a while.  The problem started when I was moving a large directory of mp3 files on the drive to another directory (in preparation of setting up User Shares), and it reported 18 errors.  Not sure if it was a problem with the mp3 data to begin with or what, but unRAID took the drive offline, just like it's supposed to do.

 

On the upside, experiencing unRAID's ability to recover from a drive failure was pretty cool.  This gives me good confidence in unRAID's ability to protect my data from a drive failure.