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Question on EARS Drive and rebuilding of data drive

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I have a WD 1TB EARS drive in my array with data on it which did not have a jumper on it and has never had the preclear run on it.  I finally received my jumpers that I ordered on eBay and have done the following.  Ran a parity check overnight which completed without errors.  I powered down my array and popped on the jumper.  Unassigned the disk, started the arrary, then stopped the array, then assigned it and the data is now rebuilding.  For whatever reason, I decided not to run the preclear on the disk before rebuilding the data on it.

 

My question is, by not running the preclear on it, have I made a mistake?  Is this going to cause a problem?  If so should I stop the rebuild and preclear the drive?

I have a WD 1TB EARS drive in my array with data on it which did not have a jumper on it and has never had the preclear run on it.  I finally received my jumpers that I ordered on eBay and have done the following.  Ran a parity check overnight which completed without errors.  I powered down my array and popped on the jumper.  Unassigned the disk, started the arrary, then stopped the array, then assigned it and the data is now rebuilding.  For whatever reason, I decided not to run the preclear on the disk before rebuilding the data on it.

 

My question is, by not running the preclear on it, have I made a mistake?  Is this going to cause a problem?  If so should I stop the rebuild and preclear the drive?

You'll probably be fine.

 

If you've run a parity calculation in the past you will have read all the sectors on the disk.  The re-construction will write them all.  You should THEN do another parity check once the disk is re-constructed to ensure the written disk sectors can all be read.  The only difference is the random reads of sectors, the physical exercise of the disk to try to "shake out" a physical problem, and the verification of the data read before trusting the drive for actual data.  (The final parity check does verify the disk was written properly but only after you have your data on it)

 

Joe L.

  • Author

As usual, thanks Joe!

If an EARS hd has been in Windows use before, is the normal automatic preclear enough? Basically, can I take the drive out of a Windows PC and add the jumper and then connect to my unraid box and boot, then just assign the drive?

 

What drive do you suggest is the best drive at the time in temp and endurance?

 

 

If an EARS hd has been in Windows use before, is the normal automatic preclear enough? Basically, can I take the drive out of a Windows PC and add the jumper and then connect to my unraid box and boot, then just assign the drive?

 

What drive do you suggest is the best drive at the time in temp and endurance?

 

 

Short answer - probably it will work.  It will cause your server to be off-line while it clears the disk.  For a 2TB drive expect the server to be unavailable for 9 to 12 hours.

 

Longer answer - It might not.    You'll know if you see lots of errors in the system log.   

As far as best drive... probably the best answer is the least expensive...  Hitachi and Seagate 7200 RPM drives are not green but seem to be more consistent at least to me.  Newest Samsung F4 have a firmware issue where you can lose data.  For now avoid them. 

Ok. Thanks Joe L.!

 

I've liked Samsung F3's but the latest has some clitching sound. But not bad, just couple of times in the beginning of a file transfer.

 

I connected a 2Tb EARS (jumper installed) drive to my unraid, booted and it showed the new drive with a blue dot.

 

I ticked the "I'm sure I want to do this" and started the preclear, but it stopped instantly?

 

Should I use the preclear.sh for these kinds of situations?

 

I had other EARD hd a while ago that did the same thing with jumper installed, but without it there was no problem clearing.

I connected a 2Tb EARS (jumper installed) drive to my unraid, booted and it showed the new drive with a blue dot.

 

I ticked the "I'm sure I want to do this" and started the preclear, but it stopped instantly?

 

Should I use the preclear.sh for these kinds of situations?

 

I had other EARD hd a while ago that did the same thing with jumper installed, but without it there was no problem clearing.

You should not have seen a blue indicator (or the drive) on the unRAID management screen unless the drive was assigned to your array.  If you intended to pre-clear a drive you should not assign it to the array until after ti has been cleared.

 

You did not start a pre-clear, you started a "clearing" of the drive.

You say it stopped immediately.  Describe in more detail.  What stopped?  (the clearing process? or the server?)

What did you type? or click on?

If your server is off-line right now while the clearing is occurring that is normal.  See you in about 9 or 10 hours.

 

For anything else attach a copy of your syslog to your next post.  Capture it before you reboot as otherwise it will not have the history of the actions you just described.

 

Joe L.

Here's the syslog.

 

The script (dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdo count=8) didn't seem to change anything?

 

syslog.zip

Here's the syslog.

 

The script (dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdo count=8) didn't seem to change anything?

 

 

Did you power cycle like I said.    Those drives lock up apparently when accessed after their jumper settings are changed.  Only a power of/power on gets them responding once more. Right now the disk does not seem to be responding to commands.

Did you power cycle like I said.    Those drives lock up apparently when accessed after their jumper settings are changed.  Only a power of/power on gets them responding once more. Right now the disk does not seem to be responding to commands.

 

Sorry, i did not really get what you mean by power cycle? I'm not native english speaker.  :-\

Did you power cycle like I said.    Those drives lock up apparently when accessed after their jumper settings are changed.  Only a power of/power on gets them responding once more. Right now the disk does not seem to be responding to commands.

 

Sorry, i did not really get what you mean by power cycle? I'm not native english speaker.  :-\

Sorry.  Your English skills are very good.  I would not have known.

 

Remove power from the server.  Stop it.  Switch it off.  Unplug it from the wall.

 

Then re-apply power.

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

Yes. Did not change anything.  :-[

Yes. Did not change anything.  :-[

Then you either

 

A. Put the jumper on the wrong pins.

B. Zapped the drive with ESD and damaged it

C. Damaged the SATA cable

D. Damaged the port on the disk controller.

E. Did not make a good connection when you attached the cables.

I had this happen with my other EARS hd.

 

It did not work in unraid (blue dot, but not starting to clear).

 

I took the same hd and plugged to my Windows PC and it worked great with the jumper installed.

 

Then I connected a new Samsung F3 to the same sata cable that the WD was previously in and that

started to preclear straight away.

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