New (used) drive shown as defective...now what?


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First, pwm, that was one of the more informative post I’ve read in a while. I see now just how tiny the margin of error is, and what all can go wrong while writing (including the rebuilding from parity process). If the time stamps you mentioned are correct, then those errors would fall within the time I inserted the drive into my server and the time I noticed the drive having been marked as faulty.

 

so if I assume that something went wrong during the rebuild process, and the drive being healthy, would this be something I could/should try?

 

> I think there is a healthy unassigned 3tb drive in my system, so I could add that drive back into the array and move all of the data from the marked-as-faulty drive to it.

 

> then I remove the faulty 6tb from the array and do a New Config, as trurl suggested

 

> then I pre-clear the 6tb drive and add it back to the array

 

> if all goes well, I move all of the data from two of my 3tb drives back onto that 6tb drive and remove those two 3tb drives from the array

 

> then do a New Config with the remaining drives

 

my original intent was to replace all my 3tb drives with 6tb drives in preparation to move up to a more modern hardware system with only five 6tb drive plus one 8tb parity drive.

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I assigned the unassigned 3tb drive to slot 9 and it is now clearing (about 4hrs to go)...if it clears without errors, I will then add it to the array and start moving the content of the marked-as-faulty 6tb drive to it, and try to proceed as I listed above, unless someone sees a fundamental issue with my plan.

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53 minutes ago, tillkrueger said:

I assigned the unassigned 3tb drive to slot 9 and it is now clearing (about 4hrs to go)...if it clears without errors, I will then add it to the array and start moving the content of the marked-as-faulty 6tb drive to it, and try to proceed as I listed above, unless someone sees a fundamental issue with my plan.

 

I am having a little trouble with your use of the word "assigned". That is more properly used to refer to a disk that is already in the array. And in my nitpicky way of using words, slot 9 is the position in the array of the 9th assigned disk. There are "bays" and there are "ports", and then there are "slots" which means something special to unRAID.

 

At what point in this plan will you rebuild parity? If at the end then you might consider doing the copy to the 3tb as an Unassigned Device. That way parity will not get written. Then New Config and rebuild parity.

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thanks for pointing that out, trurl...I am probably wrong with my terminology.

I simply stopped the array, then selected the unassigned drive in the drop-down for slot 9 in Dashboard/Main, and then started the array again, at which point the clear process started...did I again do the wrong thing? or can I, at the end of the clearing process, use that drive as an Unassigned Device, then copy/move the data to it from the "faulty" 6tb drive?

if I could wait to rebuild parity until the end, that would be great, if connected to a somewhat higher risk, I suppose.

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1 minute ago, tillkrueger said:

thanks for pointing that out, trurl...I am probably wrong with my terminology.

I simply stopped the array, then selected the unassigned drive in the drop-down for slot 9 in Dashboard/Main, and then started the array again, at which point the clear process started...did I again do the wrong thing? or can I, at the end of the clearing process, use that drive as an Unassigned Device, then copy/move the data to it from the "faulty" 6tb drive?

if I could wait to rebuild parity until the end, that would be great, if connected to a somewhat higher risk, I suppose.

 

My bad, I just assumed you were using the wrong terminology. And you didn't say "preclear", you said clear. Which all means exactly what you said. You have added the disk to the array and you are letting unRAID clear it as a new assigned disk. I would just proceed as you intended and copy to that disk in the array then. You will have to rebuild parity in order to remove the 6TB.

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just to think a couple of steps ahead, let me ask this, just to be sure:

once I move all of the data off the "faulty" 6tb drive (I keep putting this in quotes, as we have determined that the drive isn't actually faulty, but was marked as faulty) to the newly added 3tb drive and then un-assign the 6tb from the array and then do a new config and rebuild parity, will it then be cleared, just like the 3tb drive is now, once I assign it again to the slot it is in now?

with that asked, what would be the proper way to avoid re-calculating parity twice (after removing the 6tb from the array, and then after adding it to the array again)? or would that be a foolish thing to do?

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15 minutes ago, tillkrueger said:

just to think a couple of steps ahead, let me ask this, just to be sure:

once I move all of the data off the "faulty" 6tb drive (I keep putting this in quotes, as we have determined that the drive isn't actually faulty, but was marked as faulty) to the newly added 3tb drive and then un-assign the 6tb from the array and then do a new config and rebuild parity, will it then be cleared, just like the 3tb drive is now, once I assign it again to the slot it is in now?

with that asked, what would be the proper way to avoid re-calculating parity twice (after removing the 6tb from the array, and then after adding it to the array again)? or would that be a foolish thing to do?

 

After you rebuild parity without the 6tb in the array, it will no longer be part of the array. If you then add it as a new drive, unRAID will clear it just as it does when adding any drive to the array. The whole point of clearing a drive is so parity will be maintained. A clear drive (all zeros) has no effect on the parity calculation. So, the drive will be cleared and parity will remain valid.

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On 7/28/2018 at 2:36 AM, tillkrueger said:

the new (used) 6TB drive ...

 

Did you buy a used 6TB disk? I would not suggest buying a used drive unless it is from someone you trust very much and you really know what to look for in terms of signs of disk issues. If I did wind up with a used drive, I would test it hard before thinking about putting it in service. Even if under warranty, I'd pass. Often warranty returns result in getting reburbs which tend to fail early. Much better to get a new good drive out of the gate, which will live a long lifetime if treated well. If it fails in early testing, it can be returned to place I bought it and get a replacement new drive. Much better than a refurb. Note also that not all used drives are under warranty. If a disk has been shucked from an external, even if it is relatively new, it may not be under warranty.

 

I'm not against used. I would buy used CPUs, disk controllers, video cards, drive cages, and even motherboards from good sellers on eBay. But hard disks I want to be new.

 

 

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ok, so the 3tb drive cleared without errors...I formatted it and started moving the entire content (2.5tb) of the "faulty" 6tb drive to it, which is estimated to take between 16-24hrs.

I will then un-assign the "faulty" 6tb drive from the array and do a New Config, initiating a new Parity Sync, which is bound to take another 24hrs or so.

 

so I'll be looking at the feedback from the WebUI on and off and check back with you fine folks if anything goes wrong, or once everything finished successfully.

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moving all data off the "faulty" 6tb drive to the 3tb drive completed.

I did a "New Config" and re-assigned the drives to the same slots they were assigned to before, with one exception...since I want to reduce the amount of drives in my system, replacing all 3tb drives with 6tb drives, I assigned the 3tb drive that was in slot 3 to the slot that the "faulty" 6tb drive is in now (slot 6), leaving slot 3 unassigned for now...my plan is to assign the "faulty" 6tb to slot 3 (there are 6tb drives in slot 1 and slot 2 already) after the Parity Sync is complete, initiating a pre-clear which will *hopefully* leave the drive empty and without errors this time around, and add it to the array...maybe it's just wishful thinking, but since it was determined that the drive is indeed healthy, a man can hope, right?

I just started the array, initiating a Parity Sync...will check back in when the Parity Sync and pre-clear on the 6tb drive are done...wish me luck, please.

g'nite from Berlin, gents! 

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4 hours ago, tillkrueger said:

initialising a pre-clear of the 6tb drive...

 

Since I spoke up earlier about terminology.

 

You are letting unRAID clear the drive after adding it to the array. Preclear is when you use another utility to clear the drive before (pre) adding it to the array. ?

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thanks again for clarifying, trurl...yes, I *cleared* the disk, of course, and that process had finished when I got in front of my computer...formatting it as I type this, and hoping that things will work out smoothly now with that drive:
 

unRAID Disk clear: 03-08-2018 07:25
Notice [UNRAID] - Disk clear finished (0 errors)
Duration: 12 hours, 34 minutes, 17 seconds. Average speed: 176.8 MB/s
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