Hey folks.

 

I'm new inhere, and I want to try to figure out what to do and what has happened.

I rebooted my server and the USB-drive became unbootable. I opened a Linux-live machine and saw, that the USB-drive has been overwritten with what seems to be the filesystem of the array and not the flash-drive.

 

Picture is attached to this post.

 

I have NO idea what has happened, and it is obvious that the USB-drive has been overwritten.

How the hell can this happen, and how can I trust UnRAID, if it does this kind of thing?

 

Kind Regards,

Peter

 

Are you sure that is the folders on your Unraid flash and not the folders on your linux-live? Some of that doesn't even exist anywhere in Unraid so it's hard to imagine a way it could have been copied to the Unraid flash from within Unraid.

It might be, but I've make a Linux-live drive from a 32GB USB drive, and it shows up as a 16GB volume in the Live-OS, which matches the USB-drive where I have UnRaid.

The same thing happened to my mate just 2 days ago. After updated to 6.6.7 he rebooted, and the drive became unbootable.

Exact same thing just happened to me, which is a shame, because I was in the middle of copying his data from his drives to a NAS of mine.

Now I have 2 systems to recover.

 

I'm using a SanDisk Ultra Fit, which seems to be a bad choice of USB-drive, so I'm buying a new one which is recommended by LimeTech.

 

But when the drive does not show up in a Linux-OS, what can I do to recover files from the drive to restore it to a new USB-drive?

I agree with @trurl - this does not look like the normal Unraid folders - On my 6.6.7 machine (set up as a basic NAS device) I do not have folders "media" "opt" and "svr" so it looks to us as though you are looking at something else.  What to you see in those folders?  What do you see in the "boot" folder.  It may give a clue as to what happened. 

Yeah, it seems like I've been mistaken due to the fact, that the size of the volume was misrepresented in my Live OS.

The UnRAID drive is now unreadable, so it seems to be a malfunctioning USB drive.

 

So the situation is now, that I need to recover what I can. I've copied the files from my cache-drive, so I have my docker.img and appdata folders.

Are they even useable, when I don't have the config-files from the USB-drive?

Quick question about your Flash drive .... is it USB 2 or USB 3 and/or is it plugged into a USB 2 or USB 3 socket?

 

In theory both should work, but more people seem to have problems with Unraid when using USB 3 drives or sockets, so the advice is if possible to use USB 2 if you can.

Edited March 3, 20197 yr by remotevisitor

It was a USB3 drive in a USB2 slot, which I've read is not the best way to go about this, so I've ordered some USB2 drives which should arrive shortly, and that will be my future flash drive. With a spare on a shelf, ready to go if the main drive goes to flash-heaven.

 

I will  try to put the drive into a USB2 slot directly into the motherboard, it was in a front-chassis connector, so that will be my final attempt of redemption. Otherwise I've pretty much come to terms with the fact, that I need to reconstuct my server.

I was, however, smart enough to label all of my drives, so I know which ones are parity 1 and 2, and disk 1-10 with 2 cache-drives.

 

It would be freaking awesome, if I could get the config-folder off the faulty flash-drive though.

Put it in your PC and see if you can copy the config folder. If so you can just make a new install and copy that config folder back to it and you will be good to go.

 

For future reference, you can download a zipped copy of the Unraid flash at any time at Main - Boot Device - Flash - Flash Backup

The drive is unreadable. Assume I have nothing left, the flash drive is gone.

It's unreadable in Windows and it's unreadable in Linux.

Do you have a copy of your license .key file? Was it a trial key?

 

Since you say you know what your drive assignments are, then you haven't lost any data, only the configuration. 

Yea, I have the licenskey, which is a Pro version.

I still have the e-mail,  it's a fairly new installment of the server.

 

So - I create a new USB drive, create a configuration with the correctly assigned disks and it should all be fine and dandy?

Any need to create all the shares again?

 

Please bear with me, I would just love to do it right the first time and not screw things up even more

I really appreciate the help.

Your shares will be there because your data will be there. User shares are simply the aggregate of all top level folders on array and cache. But since you have lost your configuration, all those shares will have default settings.

 

When you assign your disks and get ready to start the array, if it offers to format anything DON'T.

Cool.

 

I will try that. Is it possible, to start it up with a new USB-drive, use a trial-version for a couple of days and copy the configuration over to the new meant-to-be-UnRAID-flash-boot-drive when that arrives, and then contact LimeWire about getting the license transferred to the new flash-drive?

 

I REALLY miss my Plex-server, haha.

If you haven't done a replacement during the last year, you can get it automatically.

 

Just put your license .key file in the config folder on the new install, boot, and go to Tools - Registration. It will get a new license for the new flash.

Thanks for spending your time answering my Qs. You're a champ @trurl.

👍 Don't forget to backup your new flash