[Support] binhex - Preclear

[hrv231]

31 minutes ago, wgstarks said:

Would be better to do both read and write options to stress test the drive. I usually do 3 complete cycles.

Thank you, will do that.

[hrv231]

32 minutes ago, Frank1940 said:

 

From the Tutorial Guide, page 12, you will find this:

 

In case, you missed it, you can find a link to the Tutorial Guide in this post:

 

      https://forums.unraid.net/topic/83465-support-binhex-preclear/?tab=comments#comment-773206

@Frank1940 Thank you for this

[rosydog]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding something but I ran the preclear docker script on my new 4 TB disk. Next day I added it to the array and now UNRAID is telling me it's clearing. Just wondering what the point of preclear is if UNRAID does it anyway?

 

 

[Squid]

If I had to guess, because you didn't have the flag set to clear it as GPT (probably some warning showed up in the script)

[rosydog]

15 minutes ago, Squid said:

If I had to guess, because you didn't have the flag set to clear it as GPT (probably some warning showed up in the script)

 

Does this look OK? I'm not a hard drive expert lol

 

 

 

 

[trurl]

1 hour ago, rosydog said:

Does this look OK?

yes

No SMART attributes are FAILING_NOW and all zeros under that is what you are looking for.

[binhex]

2 hours ago, rosydog said:

Just wondering what the point of preclear is if UNRAID does it anyway?

the point is not actually to prepare the disk for unraid, that is just a nicety that this utility can/should do, the MAIN purpose is to exercise your drive and ensure it doesn't suffer from infant mortality. 

[jj_uk]

I pulled drive from a brand-new desktop-backup USB HDD and added it to my server (cheap way of getting drives).

 

/usr/local/bin/preclear_binhex.sh -f -c 3 -M 3 /dev/sdh

 

After executing the command as per instructions, i see there's 2 partitions, and the boot sector is in 63, not 64.

I don't really know the significance of any of this, is it important? Is the disk OK to be precleared and used in unraid?

 

I assume it's like this because its probably factory-formatted to windows for use with windows?

 

 

 

Edited November 22, 2022 by jj_uk

[Frank1940]

See here for more discussion about using sector 63 vs 64:

 

    https://forums.unraid.net/topic/9333-clearing-confusion-on-af-drives/

 

In the second post of this thread is a link to a Tutorial which has the command line switch to force a start on sector 64.

 

     https://forums.unraid.net/topic/83465-support-binhex-preclear/?tab=comments#comment-773206

 

(I seem to recall that using sector 63 will cause Unraid to assume that the drive has not been precleared...)

[jj_uk]

Thanks for the reply. The doc states:

    "-C 64 = convert an existing pre-cleared disk to use sector 64 as a starting sector"

 

So do I run my pre-clear as normal, ignoring the warning (as per prev post's image), then run the -C 64 command when it's finished?

How can I know if the other drives in my system are 63 or 64? They were pre-cleared using the plugin back in 2018.

 

[Frank1940]

I believe you use a

-A 

 

as a switch  to 'force' the starting sector to be 64 when you do the preclear . The  -C 64 is an after-the-fact type of thing.   (One issue is that I thought this issue had aged out existence after about 2011.  People just can't recall what all the factors involved were and what they meant...)

 

[jj_uk]

4 minutes ago, Frank1940 said:

I believe you use a

-A 

 

as a switch  to 'force' the starting sector to be 64 when you do the preclear . The  -C 64 is an after-the-fact type of thing.   (One issue is that I thought this issue had aged out existence after about 2011.  People just can't recall what all the factors involved were and what they meant...)

 

Thanks for your help. I'll run the preclear with -A.

 

[wgstarks]

6 minutes ago, jj_uk said:

Thanks for your help. I'll run the preclear with -A.

 

IIRC -A is no longer required. It’s now the default.

[jj_uk]

Just coming to the end of my run. This error "post_read_err: command not found" is flashing up on the screen. It is something to be concerned about?  The process seems to be continuing as normal.

 

[landS]

binhex, thank you for this wonderful docker

[Marv]

Hi,

 

just tried using the script for the first time and  I get the message that partition will start on sector 63.

In the documentation it says that it will start on sector 64 for drives larger >2,2TB.

 

So shouldn't this be 64 here?

 

[jj_uk]

My understanding is the script will automatically fox this for you.

 

[Marv]

I was wondering, because it does not say it will start on sector 64.

When using the -A option it works of course, but shouldn't this be necessary anymore?

[jj_uk]

I think -A is the default, so not explicitly required.

[FreeMan]

Duuude... This disk is awesome!!!!

 

 

🤣

[FreeMan]

On a slightly more serious note...

 

I just noticed that the log for this disk (from Unassigned Devices) has a multitude of these entries:

 

Mar 3 10:51:16 NAS emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdn
Mar 3 11:21:17 NAS emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdn
Mar 3 11:51:18 NAS emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdn
Mar 3 12:21:19 NAS emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdn
Mar 3 12:51:20 NAS emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdn
Mar 3 13:21:21 NAS emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdn
Mar 3 13:51:22 NAS emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdn
Mar 3 14:21:23 NAS emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdn
Mar 3 14:51:24 NAS emhttpd: spinning down /dev/sdn

 

Why would the OS be trying to spin down a disk every 30 minutes during a preclear run? (Yes, sdn is the device that I'm preclearing.)

[ozma64]

On 12/25/2021 at 5:34 PM, jj_uk said:

Just coming to the end of my run. This error "post_read_err: command not found" is flashing up on the screen. It is something to be concerned about?  The process seems to be continuing as normal.

 

 

I am getting this same error with the same line number... I cant see that anyone had actually responded to this... could someone advise?

Edited July 27, 2022 by ozma64

[Greygoose]

Great docker and guide.

 

Well done

[winglam]

hey all,  this is my first run of Binhex-Preclear. Is someone able to tell me if this drive is good not? I am worries & confused the new/ old value and failure_threshold section, because I don't know how to read it. I have no clue how to setup the emailing a report; is there a guide somewhere ?

 

Thank you,

Wing

Edited December 27, 2022 by winglam

[binhex]

hey all,  this is my first run of Binhex-Preclear. Is someone able to tell me if this drive is good not? I am worries & confused the new/ old value and failure_threshold section, because I don't know how to read it. I have no clue how to setup the emailing a report; is there a guide somewhere ?
 
Thank you,
Wing

Nothing wrong with that drive, looks good to me

Sent from my 22021211RG using Tapatalk