Does unraid support external hard drives?


Recommended Posts

58 minutes ago, spencer785 said:

If I bought a multi bay enclosure with only 1 usb 3 port would they all be detected.

What you are proposing, if it does work, would be extremely slow, and unsafe for your data.

Whether or not they would all be detected would be determined by the specific enclosure, but I don't know of any way to know beforehand, you will have to test.

 

It may work, but it's definitely NOT recommended.

  • Like 1
Link to comment

This is good try, rather low cost to add extra bay. USB storage could work stable but not recommended,  I use one multibay (market EOL) for longtime.

 

I notice you attach 2 enclosures, due to you use 2 different size/model disk, then identify haven't problem. But if use 2 same model and size disk, identify may got problem.

 

Recently I found those USB multibay enclosures price raise a lot. When price drop enough, I may buy one for expansion/spare/fun.

Link to comment
6 minutes ago, spencer785 said:

Alright they finished clearing and are now mounted in the array. Couple things I noticed the temp and smart info isn't passing through. That won't really affect anything will it?

 

On 4/14/2018 at 10:08 AM, jonathanm said:

unsafe for your data.

 

Since unraid requires flawless reads from ALL devices other than the failed drive to reconstruct said failed drive, you are putting your entire array at risk by not being able to monitor the condition of those drives.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
2 minutes ago, spencer785 said:

If the drives in the usb enclosures encounter a read or write error will unread still be able to red ball it. 

Sure. That's not an issue. However... many times when a USB interface errors, it will kill the data stream from all the devices on that interface when it issues a USB reset command. So it's fairly likely that if you do have a problem, it will red ball all the USB drives. Then, without SMART data, it will be difficult to figure out which drive(s) may or may not actually have an issue.

Link to comment
2 minutes ago, spencer785 said:

If the drives in the usb enclosures encounter a read or write error will unread still be able to red ball it. 

 

unRAID will disable any disk that has a write error. It doesn't disable a disk for read errors. Often if unRAID can't successfully read a disk after several attempts, it will attempt to write the data back to the disk from the parity calculation, and if that write fails it would be disabled. But otherwise read errors won't disable a disk.

 

But since you can't monitor the SMART of the disks, you can't get notifications of impending issues with those disks. You do have Notifications setup don't you?

 

And as mentioned, all drives must work well for parity to be able to reconstruct a disk. You can have a disk problem that doesn't cause it to be disabled, but could still be a problem when trying to reconstruct another disk.

Link to comment

For single drives, certainly. Also for up to four drives, in my experience. Parity check speeds are slightly compromised but still very acceptable IMO. I found a good quality case with a port multiplier that passes all the SMART information and a fast compatible eSATA card. The only thing I wouldn't recommend is using it for a parity disk.

 

 

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.