USB Disk testing

[sjones0812]

I tried searching and I couldn't find an answer.

 

What I am looking to do is the following....and if it cannot be done, thats fine.

 

Since UNRAID does an awesome job at testing and clearing drives I am looking for a way to test drives before adding it to my array or using them for something else.

 

I was using a USB adapter to connect the disk to my server.  I know this works and I can see the drive when my system reboots.

 

So my questions:

 

1.  Use there a way to have USB devices recognized without rebooting.  Also, a clean way to disconnect when done.

2.  Once I can see the drive, is there a way to test/clear the drive without adding it to the array.  I added a disk to the array only to find it was bad and then I had to remove it, commit the new config and then run a parity check on a 8 TB drive (20+ hours)

 

I am running 6.4.1

 

Thanks, any advice would be great.

 

 

[Frank1940]

Since no one else has jumped in, I will tell what I recall of using USB connected disks.  That is that you can not get a SMART report from a disk connected via USB.  (I may be wrong but everyone who has been discussing preclearing/testing disks for unRAID array usage has been using a SATA setup when it would be so much easier to use USB if it worked.) 

[sjones0812]

I am using a USB to SATA adapter and it does pass all data, including smart report. 

[Frank1940]

OK, in that case have a look at the "Unassigned" Devices  plugin. It should do what you want.  

[Grzywa]

Hi, so did you find the way to show USB drives automatically in Unraid ? 

When I plug new USB drive it does not show up. Is reboot only way to do this ? If yes it's like 1999 again. Or 988 should I say ?;]

 

ps. and I agree it owuld be nice to have some button to "release" the drive if it's a USB one. Or even HDD if you have hot plug capability....

[tjb_altf4]

 

7 minutes ago, Grzywa said:

Hi, so did you find the way to show USB drives automatically in Unraid ? 

When I plug new USB drive it does not show up. Is reboot only way to do this ? If yes it's like 1999 again. Or 988 should I say ?;]

 

ps. and I agree it owuld be nice to have some button to "release" the drive if it's a USB one. Or even HDD if you have hot plug capability....

 

On 2/10/2018 at 11:42 PM, Frank1940 said:

OK, in that case have a look at the "Unassigned" Devices  plugin. It should do what you want.  

 

As above, the Unassigned Devices plugin will do you what you want.

[Grzywa]

On 1/20/2021 at 1:19 AM, tjb_altf4 said:

As above, the Unassigned Devices plugin will do you what you want.

 

I was not yet on the level of using plugins. I did not make the connection. Now it works fine. It detects and shows USB dives dynamically and I can mount them + share them. 
Anyway I see on some older screenshots that there is share switch on main mage, that is not beeing moved inside advanced settings for the drive. It's shame, I think it's common use case and deserves to be directly in Main.

[itimpi]

2 hours ago, Grzywa said:

Anyway I see on some older screenshots that there is share switch on main mage, that is not beeing moved inside advanced settings for the drive. It's shame, I think it's common use case and deserves to be directly in Main.

In most cases one tends to set it and then not change this setting so putting this (and other switches that do not change often) under the Settings icon makes sense as it saves screen space.

[Grzywa]

2 hours ago, itimpi said:

In most cases one tends to set it and then not change this setting so putting this (and other switches that do not change often) under the Settings icon makes sense as it saves screen space.

I see it differently. If this is second most common option that people use after MOUNT. It should be there... well opinions. 

Also for USB drive for example it could be always on. But then if you do this for USB and not for other it means you already reserved the space that you don't use in some cases. 

 

Anyway would prefere to have it.