Hi,

 

I am new at this and I need help urgently! I was trying to upgrade my parity drive from 1.5TB Seagate to 2.0TB Hitachi but lost everything. I still have the old parity drive if it will help recover anything at all.

 

Here is my configuration:

-Unraid Server Plus Ver. 4.5.3 (I didn't upgrade the until I started looking at the forum for help I noticed there is a new version)

-3x 1.5 Data HDD Seagate

-1x 1.5 Parity HDD Seagate (old setting)

 

syslog.txt attached

 

Sequence of event starting from yesterday (9/4/10 around 3pm):

-Shut down server

-Remove and swap old 1.5TB Seagate to 2.0TB Hitachi

-Reboot

-Web Mgmt screen showed the following (really weird)

  -red dot for new parity HDD

  -All 3 other drives Unformatted

-Formatted parity HDD

-All HDD showed ~1.5TB free space (I thought this was a bug because I have seen this before)

-No other option but to do parity-sync

-Waited for about 10 hours to complete action, meanwhile all HDD still showed 100% free space

-This morning I checked and parity-sync completed but no access to my Tower share drive from File Explorer

-Login to Web Mgmt and "Share" setting is GONE! Everything is like brand new. Except static IP address remainded.

-Reboot Server around 7:30am 09/05/10 but still nothing

-Used Windows "Run" ip address of Server, I only see 3 drives + flash. All drives are empty

-Read franticly on the forum and found no help.

-Created syslog.txt (maybe too late due to reboot. Just read about not doing reboot)

 

I have some jpg screen shots of before and after but not sure how to attach here due to size.

 

I thought this should be pretty straight forward. Please help ASAP!

Thomas

syslog.txt

Here is the screen shot during the parity-sync. Hope this helps.

Sequence of event starting from yesterday (9/4/10 around 3pm):

-Shut down server

-Remove and swap old 1.5TB Seagate to 2.0TB Hitachi

-Reboot

-Web Mgmt screen showed the following (really weird)

   -red dot for new parity HDD

   -All 3 other drives Unformatted

-Formatted parity HDD

-All HDD showed ~1.5TB free space (I thought this was a bug because I have seen this before)

 

Would need more knowledgable folks than I, especially since I haven't looked at 4.5.3

 

But I think when you Format, it will Format (and therefore data lost) any drives that unRAID thinks is UnFormatted.

Since you stated that it appeared to unRAID that the 3 data drives were UnFormatted, when you choose to Format, it did all of them.

At least in 4.5.6 you don't have an option to specify what will/won't be formated that are marked unformatted

.

You've been bitten by the bug in 4.5.3.    When you pressed the "format" button with all those drives showing as unformatted you asked that they all be re-formatted.   (and they were)   Parity drives are NEVER formatted as they have no file system.  

 

Fortunately, you can get back most, if not all of your data by running reiserfsck with the correct options to scan the entire disk and rebuild the file tree.  The instructions are in the following thread:

 

Here is a thread detailing what to do next: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=6199.msg60080;topicseen#msg60080

 

Also, please upgrade to 4.5.6 when you get a chance.

 

Until you do, if you see all the drives as "unformatted" just press "Stop" and then "Start" and they should all then show properly.

 

Joe L.

Thanks Joe. That gives me a bit of hope! I will read it first carefully and try to attempt recovery. Will do this in about 2hours since I have to go out now.

 

Also, why is it that if I go straight to the ip address I only see 3 HDD? I have 4 HDD in the server. JPG attached. Thanks again!

 

Thomas

The parity drive is not technically counted as a disk, as it does not store data..

 

From the image you posted above, you have:

• 1 parity drive
  
• 3 data drives
  

 

Hence why you would only see the flash share and disk1,disk2,disk3...

 

Hi Joe,

 

I am in the process of "reiserfsck -–scan-whole-partition -–rebuild-tree /dev/md1" for Disk1. Looking at the speed, it will take a few hours and I have 2 more disks to go. At least I have hope to recover my data from this bug.

 

Just to look forward to the next step, do I need to do the following?

-Add back all the "shares" setting? Or this will be auto re-configure based on the data recovered from the HDD.

-Parity sync again with the new Parity HDD?

-Anything else to set, to get back to my normal unraid server?

-Should I upgrade from 4.5.3 to 4.5.6 before parity-sync or after?

 

Thanks so much for the help. My wife was so upset when I told her all the data was gone! I am hoping to get everything back.

I am also hoping this unraid GUI is more user friendly.

 

Thomas

Upgrade to 4.5.6 before you do anything else.

 

Hi Joe,

 

I am in the process of "reiserfsck -–scan-whole-partition -–rebuild-tree /dev/md1" for Disk1. Looking at the speed, it will take a few hours and I have 2 more disks to go. At least I have hope to recover my data from this bug.

Good.

Just to look forward to the next step, do I need to do the following?

-Add back all the "shares" setting? Or this will be auto re-configure based on the data recovered from the HDD.

The user-share folders will probably need to be re-created on each of the disks, but the configuration was not lost, it should still be there.

-Parity sync again with the new Parity HDD?

You can but the rebuild-tree is already fixing parity as it restores the file-tree since it is being done on the /dev/md devices.    I would not worry about it, since it should be fine.

-Anything else to set, to get back to my normal unraid server?

You'll have your hands full getting all the folders renamed.  From what I've heard, the sub-folders should have their names OK.

-Should I upgrade from 4.5.3 to 4.5.6 before parity-sync or after?

Either... Just do NOT press the "Format" button if you see unformatted disks that should have files on them on 4.5.3.  Instead just "Stop" the array and then "Start" it again.  The disks should then show as they should.    Once you upgrade to 4.5.6 this issue should not catch you again.    Apparently, it only happens when you first boot the server, so it is something to watch for when you install a new disk until you upgrade.

Thanks so much for the help. My wife was so upset when I told her all the data was gone! I am hoping to get everything back.

I am also hoping this unraid GUI is more user friendly.

 

Thomas

My wife would be equally upset.  So you have my sympathy.  Hopefully you'll not lose anything.

 

Joe L.

Almost 11 hours later, I am only 50% done with Disk2. Disk 1 was about 6 hours and the 1.5TB drive was only 800GB full. Still have Disk 3 to perform

 

Disk1 reiserfsck process was pretty smooth.

Disk2 had a lot of errors while in reiserfsck process: Free space incorrect, unknown item type found, The item with wrong offset or lenght found.... Anything to worry about?

 

What do you mean having to rename all the folders again? Will the recovered data not be in their original folders? I guess I will know when I get there.

 

I will report more when I get to the next stage. What a pain with this bug.

 

Thanks Joe!!!

Thomas

Update...

 

The reiserfsck finally completed for all 3 disks and mounted. Share setting on the Web mgmt is completely gone and only way to browse the files is through "Run" IP address of my server.

 

OMG! All the files are all over the place and many are renamed to unknown names and formats. This is not fun, I think I lost many of my important files! They might be there, but the file names are gone, so I have no way to know what is what. I am dreading the extra work I have to go clean up my files one by one.

 

Can anyone with experience in recovering after reiserfsck procedure offer some tips to do the clean up? I need this before I attempt. Thanks!!!

Meanwhile I will update my nightmare OS from 4.5.3 to 4.5.6...

 

Thomas

Maybe you can hunt down the most important files by approximate ranges of file size? Sorry I'm no savior, and I hope the files you lost were not crucial. I know the feeling -- several times have I lost precious files. I have yet to see a totally reliable server. Practically any trivial thing we do can in fact result in total loss. Now, I no longer trust any server, and I feel much safer.

Maybe you can hunt down the most important files by approximate ranges of file size? Sorry I'm no savior, and I hope the files you lost were not crucial. I know the feeling -- several times have I lost precious files. I have yet to see a totally reliable server. Practically any trivial thing we do can in fact result in total loss. Now, I no longer trust any server, and I feel much safer.

 

Thanks Shawn. I got back all my important files. There are still thousand of files without proper name and extension which I will forget about. I am also using this opportunity to re-organize all my files so they are not spammed over a few disks.

 

To get another layer of backup, I am planning to build another unRaid server as backup.

I got back all my important files. ...

To get another layer of backup, I am planning to build another unRaid server as backup.

 

The important files are all that matters so it's great that you got back. Everything else is just a nuisance or a luxury.

 

I'm running UnRAID, WHS with duplication, plus redundant copies in single drives. Backup drives should be disconnected to prevent electrical issues like a lightning storm wiping out connected devices. Consider periodically putting a drive or blu-ray disks in a safety deposit box. Paranoia 101, we need it for the data to survive!