ok getting pretty fed up with the place I ordered (Azerty). They might (appear to) have a large selection and good prices, but otherwise they're pretty useless. Mistake upon mistake in getting my order ready and delivered....

 

Next time I pay the 3% extra or so and go to the place I have bought regularly before (Informatique).

 

ohno.. i just ordered there too..

whats wrong?

1) Place order 09/12, with knowledge that some items would come from suppliers taking up tp three working days

2) looking at my order status the next two day, I could see that all items were added to the order (green checkboxes).

3) The CPU remained 'awaiting product from supplier'.

4) 15/12 (almost a week later) I phoned (at 35 ct/minute!) to enquire for the holdup. Was reported that their primary supplier had no stock, and were getting it from a second supplier. Not good supply chain managment, but ok, can happen. I was told CPU would arrive 17/12 and that my order would ship the same day, so that I could receive it on saturday.

5) 17/12 in course of the day, I could see the CPU added to the order. Was then at a Christmas Party so no internet access that afternoon/evening.

6) Upon getting home from the party, I checked the order status before going to bed. It was not shipped yet...

7) Waking up 18/12 I saw that suddenly the Sharkoon hotswap cage was changed from 'added to order' to 'awaiting product from supplier'.

8 ) Today 20/12 called Azerty as soon as they were open at about 14.00 in the afternoon (long wait at 35 ct/min) and expressed my displeasure at the way thing were going. Was answered that there was a 'warehouse stock mismatch' on the Sharkoon cage. Asked the items ready to be shipped immediately, as the cage is not essential for the build. Was assured this would happen.

9) 5 min later, saw that my order was split into one for the Sharkoon hotswap cage and another one for the other components. The Sharkoon cage was 'awaiting product from supplier', the other order was suddenly 'awaiting payment'. Of course I have already paid evertything, and upon closer inspection it was an outstanding amount for an additional 1 EUR...  

10) After waiting about an hour (might have been some kind of process glitch and hoped it would sort itself) it was still 'awaiting payment'. As I'm working from home tomorrow, I wanted the order to ship today (monday) so can accept it tomorrow. So called again at about 15.30 to set it straight and hope that it would be in time for postage, and not hanging on a silly 1 EUR payment. After a short wait (at 35 ct/min....) the lady from Azerty said that the open payment was not correct, that she would sort it out straight away and the package would probably make postage today.

11) A good 2 hours later the order status finally changed to 'awaiting collection', at which it still is. So probably no shipment today...  

mm

well im waiting today

they received my payment today , and everything was checked green, only the mobo is not

so waiting for that...

i'm curious

My order shipped today, apart from the Sharkoon cage.

just got an email everything is on stock

they are awaiting my second payment (which i did yesterday) cause i ordered another hdd

so i think they will ship tomorrow 

Ok, build is finished, unRAID is up and running. Now starting preclearing...

 

Thanks for all the help of all. Pictures will follow!

Mine is being collected... everything paid.

Is preclearing really necessary?

Not Required. But it is a good idea because it may identify a bad drive. It will be faster as well because UNraid will only clear one drive at a time. You can preclear up to 6 at a time.

well i got 3 new wd20ears drives, should i do it?

Yes.

 

The configuration tutorial will lead you along the way (once everything is built)

 

http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Configuration_Tutorial#Introduction

After getting the 'load cycle' warning on my WD disks, increased the head park time from 8 sec to 300 sec as advised somewhere. While I was fiddling around, also updated my Seagate drive from CC34 to CC35.

Both could unfortunately not be done with a single eSATA bay coupled to a laptop, so had to do it with them in the server. Kind of defeats the purpose of hotswap bays if you have to attach a CD drive, monitor and keyboard to the server every time you  add a disk to do these types of 'disk maintenance' as well...  

 

I'll see if I can run the Seagate and WD utilities from an external optical drive or USB stick, at least I don't have to open the case to attach a CD drive to the IDE port....