I have built a new unRaid server based on the following hardware:-

 

Asus M4A78LT-M

AMD X2 250

Antec TruePower New Modular 650W Power Supply

Fractal Design R3 Case

Seagate 1.5TB ST31500541AS (x2)

Hitachi 1.0TB

Lexar Firefly 2Gb

unRaid 4.6 Final

 

Can someone take a look at my syslog to see if it is ok, there are a couple of red errors according to unMenu, I'm particularly concerned about the 'unRaid kernel: ata1.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4)' error

syslog-2010-12-12.txt

I have the same mobo as you and I get these errors too.  My unraid server has been working fine since July 2010 so I'm not sure if these errors indicate a true problem or not. 

 

Hopefully one of the more experienced members will chime in here.

I have built a new unRaid server based on the following hardware:-

 

Asus M4A78LT-M

AMD X2 250

Antec TruePower New Modular 650W Power Supply

Fractal Design R3 Case

Seagate 1.5TB ST31500541AS (x2)

Hitachi 1.0TB

Lexar Firefly 2Gb

unRaid 4.6 Final

 

Can someone take a look at my syslog to see if it is ok, there are a couple of red errors according to unMenu, I'm particularly concerned about the 'unRaid kernel: ata1.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4)' error

 

They are quite normal after waking from a s3 sleep.  the disks basically need to be re-initialized by the drivers before they respond. What you are seeing is the set of lines where communications is being re-established with the disk.

 

unMENU highlights in "red" any line with the word "error" in it even if the line were to say: No errors exist

 

I'd be VERY concerned about several other lines in your syslog.  You basically have a ticking time-bomb in your server.   Do a search for

"Gigabyte HPA" on the forums and learn why you might want to upgrade your BIOS and or motherboard.

 

Dec 11 13:15:25 unRaid kernel: ata2.00: HPA detected: current 2930275055, native 2930277168

Dec 11 13:15:25 unRaid kernel: ata2.00: ATA-8: ST31500541AS, CC35, max UDMA/133

Dec 11 13:15:25 unRaid kernel: ata2.00: 2930275055 sectors, multi 16: LBA48 NCQ (depth 31/32)

Dec 11 13:15:25 unRaid kernel: ata3.00: HPA detected: current 1953523055, native 1953525168

Dec 11 13:15:25 unRaid kernel: ata3.00: ATA-8: Hitachi HDT721010SLA360, ST6OA3AA, max UDMA/133

Dec 11 13:15:25 unRaid kernel: ata3.00: 1953523055 sectors, multi 16: LBA48 NCQ (depth 31/32), AA

Is it possible HPA is on his drives because the drives were once used in a system that had a Gigabyte mobo?

 

I just scoured my syslog and found no "HPA detected" messages.

I'd be VERY concerned about several other lines in your syslog.  You basically have a ticking time-bomb in your server.   Do a search for

"Gigabyte HPA" on the forums and learn why you might want to upgrade your BIOS and or motherboard.

 

Since you are not using a Gigabyte motherboard. The most likely cause of this HPA issue is that the disks in question previously were used in a system with a Gigabyte motherboard. This is not something to be concerned about. If you wish to remove the HPA, realize that it will appear to unRAID to be a different disk because of the size difference. In effect you will destroy the data on the disk. If you wish to proceed, the easiest method I have found (and I've tried them all) for cleaning up the HPA is to use a SeaTools for DOS bootable CD:

 

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=SeaTools&vgnextoid=720bd20cacdec010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

You are correct... I missed the hardware config in the original post and did not see he was not using a Gigabyte MB.  As you said, the HPA was probably added added when they were on a different MB.  He has the remnants of what the old motherboard did to the drives and the time-bomb is defused. (he cut the blue wire )

You are correct... I missed the hardware config in the original post and did not see he was not using a Gigabyte MB.  As you said, the HPA was probably added added when they were on a different MB.  He has the remnants of what the old motherboard did to the drives and the time-bomb is defused. (he cut the blue wire )

 

Phew! you had me worried there!

 

The Hitachi drive was used as a system disk on a Gigabyte board, the Seagate had only been connected to the Gigabyte board when I flashed the bios. What do I have to do with the seagate tools to remove the HPA? also can I use the seagate tools to remove the HPA on an Hitachi drive?

 

Thanks for the advice

Seagate tools will remove HPA from all drives that I've tried. It is in the advanced options "Set capacity to maximum native". I hope you have a non Gigabyte board to perform the operation with...

 

http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=201271&NewLang=en

Just beware...

Only change one drive at a time.   Stop the array, fix one drive then re-start the array.  It will act as if you replaced the drive with a larger one and will re-construct the drive onto itself.   Let it perform the reconstruction.   You will be without parity protection until the drive is re-constructed onto itself.

 

Only after the first drive had had the HPA removed and is back in the array and re-constructed, and all the drives are online should you do anything to the second drive.

 

If you attempt to fix both drives at the same time it will be as if you had two new disks in the system.  The array will not start and it will simply say "too many wrong or missing disks"

 

Fix one drive, let it re-construct the one drive, then stop the array a second time and fix the other.

 

Joe L.

Thanks for all of the advice. I'll use seatools to clear the HPA so that it doesn't cause any confusion in the future.

I decided to remove the HPA on all 3 drives and start with a clean installation of unraid.

 

After removing the HPA I selected the data drives and found that all of the user shares were intact and all of the data appears to be there. I selected the parity drive and the drive was shown as a new parity drive and it is now doing a parity check.

 

Will the data be OK? or am I best deleting it all and copying the data across from my readynas duo again?

I decided to remove the HPA on all 3 drives and start with a clean installation of unraid.

 

After removing the HPA I selected the data drives and found that all of the user shares were intact and all of the data appears to be there. I selected the parity drive and the drive was shown as a new parity drive and it is now doing a parity check.

 

Will the data be OK? or am I best deleting it all and copying the data across from my readynas duo again?

The data will be OK, but the file-system was created when the partition was smaller, therefore the extra space you freed up might not get used.  I think unRAID will attempt to expand the file-system to the partition size (as it does when upgrading a disk) but I have no idea if it will do it when you first start an array with an new initial configuration.

 

Joe L.