USB Died and Unable to Read It


Crewe

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After trying to upgrade some plugins I encountered an error and the Web UI crashed. So I initiated a reboot from SSH, after several failed attempts to boot I connected the USB to my computer and it couldn't read it. Not sure what my next steps are to get my system up and running again.

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Do you have a backup of the flash drive's contents that is not stored on the server?

 

Is the USB drive recognized by your computer?  If it is, then try to run  chkdsk  on it.  Your recovery process would be greatly simplified if you can get back the contents of the   config   folder/directory on that flash drive. 

 

 

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The most important thing is to have the key file.   If you do not know your disk assignments there are ways to work around that (but ask here for more details).  Your shares will still be there but will have all reset to default settings.

 

The one thing we do need to know at this stage is what information you have about how your system was set up.   If you are not sure then please say exactly what you know and ask here for the best way forward.   As long as you are methodical then you should be able to get everything running without data loss, but do not rush into doing anything you are not sure off.

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There were many Bad links, which I corrected, but I still see no files on the USB Disk

H:\>chkdsk /F
The type of the file system is FAT32.
Cannot lock current drive.

Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another
process.  Chkdsk may run if this volume is dismounted first.
ALL OPENED HANDLES TO THIS VOLUME WOULD THEN BE INVALID.
Would you like to force a dismount on this volume? (Y/N) y
Volume dismounted.  All opened handles to this volume are now invalid.
Volume Serial Number is 34EE-C82C
Windows is verifying files and folders...
Removing trailing folder entries from \
File and folder verification is complete.
Bad links in lost chain at cluster 218882 corrected.
Bad links in lost chain at cluster 221056 corrected.
Bad links in lost chain at cluster 221057 corrected.
Bad links in lost chain at cluster 221058 corrected.
Bad links in lost chain at cluster 221059 corrected.
... [~2800 Lines] ...
Bad links in lost chain at cluster 242684 corrected.
Bad links in lost chain at cluster 242685 corrected.
Bad links in lost chain at cluster 242686 corrected.
Bad links in lost chain at cluster 242687 corrected.
Convert lost chains to files (Y/N)? y
536240128 bytes in 3416 recovered files.

Windows has made corrections to the file system.
No further action is required.

1,000,407,040 bytes total disk space.
        4,096 bytes in 1 hidden files.
      110,592 bytes in 1 folders.
  536,248,320 bytes in 3,418 files.
  464,039,936 bytes available on disk.

        4,096 bytes in each allocation unit.
      244,240 total allocation units on disk.
      113,291 allocation units available on disk.

H:\>

However, after opening it on my Linux box there's a `FOUND.000` folder with ~3400 `FILE####.CHK` files... I highly doubt I'll be able to boot with it. Are there any keywords that I would find in the `config` file that I could potentially search on?

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It would appear that that drive is total toast.  Do you have the key file?  If you don't I would start by reading this webpage:

 

    https://lime-technology.com/replace-key/

 

You will probably have to contact LimeTech using the e-mail address at the bottom of the page to get a new copy of your original key file.

 

The purchase a quality brand name flash drive (preferably USB2) of less than 32GB.  Download the version of Unraid that you want to use.  Install it on that flash drive.

 

Now tell us what you remember about your server.  How many parity drives did you have assigned?  How many data drives?  How many cache drives.  You might also mention the size of the various drives.  Did you do a screen capture (or webpage printout) of the drive assignments?  

 

 

Edited by Frank1940
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  • 2 months later...

So I'm finally able to come back to this, had to get through some renos/work/life, but I have carved out some time to hopefully complete this within the week

 

I was unable to find a screen cap of my most recent setup, but I did find one of just before I added my new parity drive. Based on that, and the drive assignments to my SATA ports I was able to determine the following.

 SATA | DISK | SDX  | SIZE | SERIAL
----------------------------------
  0   |  ?   | sdb  | 2TB  |  GPL
  1   |  1   | sdc  | 2TB  |  BQD
  2   |  2   | sdd  | 1TB  |  3M5
  3   |  P   | sde  | 4TB  |  H0Z
  4   |  ?   | sdf* | 4TB  |  E5C
----------------------------------  
  P - Parity
  ? - Unkown Disk Number
  * - Presumed drive assignment

I'm currently in the process of creating a new USB and then to go through with the key change as I still have the email with my license. The couple things I need to know are which what disk number is which.

I know I wouldn't have done anything crazy when adding the new drives, but I feel it would be safe to assume that SATA0 is now disk 3 and SATA4 is disk 4, with respect to unRAID.

 

Prior to the above, the last configuration I had was this:

 SATA | DISK | SDX  | SIZE | SERIAL
----------------------------------
  0   |  P   | sdb  | 2TB  |  GPL
  1   |  1   | sdc  | 2TB  |  BQD
  2   |  2   | sdd  | 1TB  |  3M5
  3   |  -   | sde  | 4TB  |  H0Z
----------------------------------  
  SATA3 Was precleared for use as the new parity but was not assigned yet.

 

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Here are a series of questions for you.

 

1-- How many parity disks did you have?

 

2-- How many data disks did you have in your parity protected array?

 

3-- How many cache drives did you have?

 

4-- Did you have any disks mounted with Unassigned Devices plugin? 

 

5-- Did you have any other drives in the server that were simply not being used?  IF you did, can you figure out which disk that may have been?  (You said you had a precleared disk.  Do you have a preclear report from that disk that you could get the serial number from?) 

 

Now, let me state something you may not know.  Unraid uses the serial number of the drive to keep track of where is is assigned.  Thus, for example, you assign a hd with the last three numbers of serial number of 'BQD' as Disk 3, when Unraid boots up, it looks for a HD with that serial number and assigns it as Disk 3!  If it does not find a HD with that serial number, the Disk 3 'slot' will not have a drive assigned to it.  Parity and Cache disks are also tracked using their serial numbers.  

 

Even if you don't have answers to all of these questions, we can get you back to a working array without data loss.  It just may take a bit longer. 

Edited by Frank1940
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Assign all five disk as data disks.  Start the array.  One (and ONLY one disk) should show up as unformatted.  The disk that shows up as unformatted will be your parity disk.  (If you have more than one disk showing up as unformatted, STOP and ask for help!)  Stop the array again.  Reassign the unformatted disk to the Parity Disk slot.  You may want to reassign one of the other data disks to fill the slot that the parity disk was in.  Now, start the array and rebuilt parity

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As suspected the drive I presumed to be parity was. Neat little workaround. The thing I was concerned about, as it was mentioned in posts/articles I had read was to ensure the order of disks and whatnot when adding a disk as I could lose data. Is the order of my disks still an issue at this point? Or because I have no config and I'm rebuilding the parity my data will remain intact? Also, why would I want to reassign one of the data disks to the slot where the parity used to be?

 

Edit:

Ideally, I'd like to have my SATA and Disk numbers match up (although one's zero index :P) Would it be safe to switch up the order now?

Edited by Crewe
Additional question added
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43 minutes ago, Crewe said:

Is the order of my disks still an issue at this point?

The Parity disk contains only the result of a parity calculation which can be used to reconstruct the contents of a single data disk should that disk fail. The order of assigning data disks makes no difference in single parity systems.   

43 minutes ago, Crewe said:

Or because I have no config and I'm rebuilding the parity my data will remain intact

No.  In Unraid, each data disk is formatted with a standard Linux formatting system.  Each data file is stored on a single disk and that disk can be read in a Linux computer.  So once we know exactly which disks are the data disks, your data should now be readable.  In fact, you can actually run Unraid without assigning a PArity disk. 

43 minutes ago, Crewe said:

Also, why would I want to reassign one of the data disks to the slot where the parity used to be?

Just for appearance and often a COD condition that many people want to have things neat and orderly.  Having an empty hole in the middle can induce a moment of panic to many of us...

 

43 minutes ago, Crewe said:

Ideally, I'd like to have my SATA and Disk numbers match up (although one's zero index :P) Would it be safe to switch up the order now?

If you are talking about the MB SATA port numbers, you could do that.  I personally put a little  'Disk X' sticker on the outside of each drive housing so I can quickly locate them.  By the way, once you assign them, you could move the SATA cables to do the same thing.  Remember Unraid tracks disks by serial numbers and you assign each disk to a particular Disk slot by those serial numbers.

Edited by Frank1940
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14 minutes ago, Crewe said:

One last issue. It won't let me start up the server because it says there are too many wrong and/or missing disks. How do I reset that?

I do not think it was made clear that after assigning all drives as data drives to identify the parity drive another New Config needed to be done before assigning the drives to their final position.

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I am in a very similar situation.  My USB-HDD somehow got corrupted and would no longer boot the system. I have made a new USB-HDD with a temporary 30-day registration and it successfully boots the system. I will discuss how to get my permanent registration back, later when all is working, with Tom of Lime-Technology.

I have attached an excel spreadsheet that states all I know about my unRaid system.  Disk Shares.xlsx

 

The system has been running since it was built in 2009. I have never lost any data and do not wish to do so now. I was a computer expert, but now am approaching 80 and have a hard time remembering things. The system failed because of a power failure AND the fact that my backup generator for the house also failed. I am addressing that issue separately.

 

I have many questions and would really appreciate any and all help to get myself back into operation.  This thread has been very informative and my appreciation to members crewe, Frank1940, and itimpi.  

 

1- Is there any way to "read" a drive to find out the names of the files that are on it?  Is there a plugin that will assist with that? I don't want to pull a drive and try and read it on another system.  I would love a little USB with a Linux system on it that would allow me to look at the drives.

2- When I boot the system all drives are unassigned and it states that the array is stopped with a stale configuration.  How do I generate a "new configuration" once I figure out which drive is the parity drive?

3- Compounding things a recently got out of the hospital (4/22) and my mind is a little foggier than usual but getting better each day.

 

I think what I need to do is assign all 11 of my drives a data drives and see which drive can't be mounted.  That should be the parity drive. I will worry about the shares later or should I worry about them now?

 

All help and advice greatly appreciated.

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Answer to No. 1---  If you can mount the drives, there is a file browser built into the the GUI on the Main page.  (It is the 'file folder' icon at the right of each of disk# line.

 

As I recall (I am also 79) , you can assign a  'New Configuration'  via the Tools  >>>   New Config   utility.  That spreadsheet of yours has all of the Information that you need in the  'Label' and 'Serial #' columns. You will be assigning hard drives by their serial numbers to a Disk slot on the Main page.   I personally would only assign that drives that seem to have data on them.  i.e., Parity and Disk 1 through 8. (see note below)   I seem to recall that you can 'Trust parity' when you start it up.  This is the only point at which you have a choice to make.  Personally, I would trust parity at this point.  This will allow you to check each disk to see that it is readable before you commit to a parity rebuild.  

 

Then you start it up.  And let's see where we are at that point.  

 

NOTE:  You have a Disk 9 and a Disk 10 in the table.  I see that both of those disks are 3TB and your parity drive is a 2TB drive.  So neither of them could have been part of the array.  Disk 9 is listed as cleared and seems to have no files on it.   I am assuming that you had not added it to the array prior to this time.  Disk 10 is apparently new.  One reason for my questions is that both of these drives appear to be seven to eight years old.  The reason for this question is that you don't want to assign the HD with serial number YAHLP75W as parity if you previous replaced this parity disk with one of the 3TB drives and converted this 2TB drive to a data disk! 

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Thanks for the reply, We are the same age, I will be 80 on 10/1.  I figured you were 79 from your member name.

 

The label column shows the text of a label that I pasted on a hard drive when I first put it into the case.  I am very sure that the disk labeled "Parity" is not the parity drive since a couple of years ago I needed more space and decided to go with 3TB drives. I added two 3TB drives to the case and had to have made one of them the true parity drive. 

 

I should have upgraded the "labels" to show this when I expanded the array.  I suspect that the drive that is in slot 1/1 and labeled as "parity" with s/n ending in 75w is the original parity drive but is now a data drive, I think it would be drive "9" or drive "10".  I further suspect that the drive with s/n ending in SLA is a data drive as the label indicates I cleared it and why would I preclear the drive that was to be the new parity drive?  I suspect this drive, s/n ending in SLA  is now data drive "9" or "10".  That seems to leave the drive with s/n ending in M3D as the current parity drive.

 

(Slightly OT) My interests lie in  Home Theater and Home Automation. The unRaid system holds all my ripped BR disks and older DVD's. In addition I backup my other systems to the unraid in a share whose name escapes me, but I think it was "Backups".

 

I plan to assign the disks as follows using the last 3 characters of the s/n for reference:

 94W  as Data disk 1

 9LT   as Data disk 2

 9XW  as Data disk 3

 DYV   as Data disk 4

 T6P   as Data disk 5

 03D  as Data disk 6

 A3D  as Data disk 7

 28P  as Data disk 8

 SLA  as Data disk 9

 75W  as Data disk 10

 M3D  as Data disk 11    I believe this is the Parity drive

 

If I can then browse the drives that get mounted I should be able to verify what their numbers used to be based on content as I know what files, for the most part, were on which drives.  There will be no parity Drive and I assume that will be okay.  Hopefully, only one drive will fail to mount!

 

Thoughts, Comments, Alternatives, Warnings?

Thanks in Advance,  Barry

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The one thing you must NOT do is accidentally assign a disk with data on it as the parity drive as that will lose its contents!   Also do NOT check the box that offer to format any unmountable disks during the procedure below.

 

The procedure to follow if you are not certain which is your parity disk is:

  • Assign ALL drives as data drives
  • Start the array.   One drive should show as unmountable.   That will be your parity drive as the parity drive has no file system, so make a note of its serial number    If more than one drive shows as unmountable stop and ask for advice.
  • stop the array
  • Use Tools->New Config to reset the array
  • Assign your data drives and now since you know the parity drive serial you can assign that as well.    The data drives can be in any order as with a single parity system the order does not affect parity
  • Check the box to say parity is valid and start the array
  • Check the contents of some of the drives to make sure they are what you expect.

All your user Shares will also be present but with default settings (assuming you have User Shares enabled in your settings).

It would be a good idea to do a correcting parity check at this point as you ticked the box to say parity was valid so it is time to ensure that is true.

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First do as @itimpi suggested to get your system up and running again.  

 

Are you using Disk Shares rather than User Shares?   The Default is now User SharesDisk Shares are now not exported by default since you will lose data if you copy files between Disk Shares and User Shares.  

 

User Shares are so much easier to manage than Disk Shares.  If you use User Shares, the order of the data disks is a non-issue unless you have forced a Share to use only certain disks by using a Disk Share.  But even with User Shares, you can still specify which Disk(s) a User Share will use.   

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One last question.

 

Since I have a spare unused slot with no HDD in it, I am thinking about finishing off the system with another drive.  The new drive would be the Parity drive when I am all done.  

 

1- I plan first to get the Array up and running with the existing drive configuration.  Agreed?

2- What size drive should I get 4 TB, 6 TB, 8 TB.  I am favoring a new Hitachi 4 TB drive as I have had very good performance and reliability with the Hitachi family of drives (2 TB and 3 TB).  This will allow me to "expand the array" To 11*4 TB of total storage.  However,  I suspect my mortality will hit before that is required.

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28 minutes ago, barrygordon said:

This will allow me to "expand the array" To 11*4 TB of total storage. 

I always recommend increasing drive size instead of increasing drive count. Fewer disks means fewer opportunities for problems.

 

In any case, I don't recommend adding a disk just because you have a spare slot. Wait until you need the capacity. Because, as I just said, fewer disks...

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Success!!!! (I think) .  Many thanks.

 

I assigned all the disks as data and one of them (S/N ....M3D) could not be mounted. It is a 3TB drive. I believe that is the correct Parity Drive.

I was able to access the Tower from my win 10 development system as before. The difference is that before, in addition to all the shares showing up, The data disks also showed up (Disk1, Disk2, ...). Samba (SMB) is obviously active.  The disk drives do not show up.

Before when I was ripping movies and storing the result on the Tower I used "\\Tower\Disk#\ShareName\Title". That forced a given title to where I wanted it.  When the Theater Librarian access a movie (or concert or TV show) it never uses the Disk#, just the share name. For example to play the movie "Green Book" I send the Dune Player the Path "\\Tower\Movies\Green Book\Green Book.mkv" (Each movie is stored in its own folder with the folder name being the movie name).

 

I did like the ability to put stuff exactly where I wanted it (by disk). Is that still possible? If so How?  On second thought maybe I should forget about Disk shares and just use User shares.  I will need to research that more. 

 

Is there some way to directly access a specific disk to see what is stored on It.  The theater librarian kept track of what movies were on which disk by disk number.

 

I stopped the Array and powered down the system.

 

I will reboot and assign the M3D drive as the parity disk in a little while so anyone who wants to stop me or help me or encourage me can reply.

 

 

 

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