Hi,

I was wondering if there is a way to access files from unraid shares if my usb flash drive fails and i dont have a config backup. I currently backup my unraid config to a share within unraid.  If there a way to access shares without a config backup I can then recover my config from within unraid and restore to new usb flash drive.  I did read that it may be possible to install clean version of unraid than mount drives to access data to recover my unraid config backup. can someone confirm this and also what would be the best approach in case of a usb failure.

 

Thanks.

You can access unRAID drives from any Linux system (note I said drives - not shares).  That means you need to know what drive has the share (or part of the share) that you are interested in.

 

The Linux system can be UnRAID (and does not need a license for this) or any other Linux variant you prefer.   I suspect many people would boot a ‘live’ CD or USB of one of the major distributions to give themselves a graphical environment.   If you are happy with the command line then booting UnRAID is enough.

In an emergency, you can also simply use a trial key, and assign all drives as data drives and start the array.  The ones that come up as unmountable will be your parity drive(s).  You will have access to your data.

thanks for the quick replies, when assigning as data drives do i use the Unassigned Devices plugin ?

Nope. Array Drives.  No way though to distinguish between what is Parity and Parity 2.

 

Its the assignments that are the biggie if your flash drops dead.  Everything else can be re-created easily.  Make a note of them, or if you're using the CA Backup plugin, then a file called DISK_ASSIGNMENTS is updated on the flash drive every time a backup runs.  Print it out.

ok that all makes sense. but, if i assign parity drive while using fresh install with trial key will that screw up parity data ? would i need to rebuild once my config is restored ?

1 minute ago, Brownboy said:

ok that all makes sense. but, if i assign parity drive while using fresh install with trial key will that screw up parity data ? would i need to rebuild once my config is restored ?

Unless you are ABSOLUTELY certain what drive assignments you had previously then you should assume that you are going to have to rebuild parity.

i am certain i know the drive assignments. So its possible to mix up drive assignments and not loose any data ? worse case would be a rebuild ? I always thought that if you mounted the array with the wrong drive assignments your data would be lost?

4 minutes ago, Brownboy said:

So its possible to mix up drive assignments and not loose any data

You will not lose data so long as you don't format anything when starting the array.  Worst case is that you lose Parity.

 

If you have 2 parity drives and you mix up the order of data drives, then you will have to rebuild parity

 

If you have only 1 parity drive and you mix up the order of data drives, then everything is still good to go.

 

If you you have more unmountable drives than the number of parity drives that you are supposed to have, then stop everything and ask for help 

 

But, as itimpi stated, its best to assume that parity is shot.  No matter what, highly recommended to run a parity check (non-correcting if you messed up) to confirm.

Edited November 17, 20187 yr by Squid

Perfect. Great Info. You both have been a huge help . Thanks.