Hi,

I'm running unRaid 6.6.6.

I may have foolishly run 'new config' under 'tools' a bit too haphazardly.

My goal was to free up one drive entirely so I could remove it from the array (not necessarily in that order).

There's enough space on the remaining drives to cover the data that is on the drive I want to remove.

All I have done at this point is run 'new config', and I get this error when I select the previous drive assignments (without applying anything or trying to start/rebuild the array):

• "All existing data on this device will be OVERWRITTEN when array is Started"
• The parity and data drives are listed as "new devices" 

Have I cooked the array? The data, drives, and parity should all be correct and intact, I haven't done anything since except reboot once.

I would like to first know if the raid structure is recoverable, if not, can I set up a new raid using the data on the drives without losing anything?

And then, if I can fix the array, what's the best way to migrate data from one disk to two other disks? (The data I want to move is too big to fit on either disk entirely without being split.) After moving the data I want to shrink the array to be one drive fewer.

 

Can anyone offer some advice?

Thanks

 

 

So if I understand correctly, you have not actually removed any disks, and perhaps the disk you intend to remove still has data on it.

 

You would only go to New Config after you had already copied the data from the disk you want to remove to other disks in the array. The Unbalance plugin can help with this.

 

I think you can probably just leave that New Config page since there isn't really a new config until the array is started.

 

Or, there should be a check box saying parity is already valid, and that should make that message go away if you check it.

 

Maybe you should give us a screenshot just to make sure we understand what you have.

 

Wait and see if there is another opinion, since I haven't done New Config in a very long time. But I think you can probably you can just quit that page and nothing will change.

I have already confirmed a new config, initially I had selected "preserve parity drive" thinking I could have the array rebuilt and shrunk from parity with a drive missing. I think this is grossly incorrect now.

See the attached pics, 'nas drives' is a screenshot of the valid raid array right before applying the 'new config'. The next pic is what I'm seeing when I try to re assign the drives.

22 minutes ago, trurl said:

Or, there should be a check box saying parity is already valid, and that should make that message go away if you check it.

The message won't go way, but parity disk won't be touched, array will remain as it was.

You were both right, I had previously not seen that check box. After checking it and starting the array it picked up everything immediately.

Thanks for the tip on the unbalance plugin, I'll use that.

Now once the data has been 'unbalanced' off the drive I want to remove, what's the easiest way to remove the drive from the array, effectively shrinking the available space on the array?

There are two ways of shrinking an array, both are described here:

https://wiki.unraid.net/Shrink_array

 

Sorry, I should have just googled that. Thanks for the link.