Hello all.  I have a usb3 Sata dock (https://amzn.to/3fokjTd) that I use to test out/explore old or used hard drives.  I recently found a usable 4tb drive I want to incorporate into my array.  Can I preclear it while it's in the dock (after formatting it to xfs)?  Well I know I can preclear it, but will the preclear be persistent once I remove it from the dock and add it to my array via my internal sata bay?  Or should I connect it to my internal sata bay first, and then preclear it?  Hope that makes sense. Thanks

Depends. You won't know until you try.

 

Some USB interfaces pass the drive through intact, others remap the drive sector locations.

 

Worst case the drive will be cleared when you add it, meaning another pass and several hours, but not the end of the world. Clearing to add an array drive is much quicker than a pre-clear cycle.

Thanks for the reply!  Is it relevant that I can get SMART data off the disk via the dock?

 

Anywho, I will give it a spin.  Worst case is that I need to preclear it again.  Thanks again...

30 minutes ago, akshunj said:

Worst case is that I need to preclear it again.

Why? Pre-clear is just a testing routine, you can add it to the array without a valid preclear.

1 hour ago, akshunj said:

Can I preclear it while it's in the dock (after formatting it to xfs)?

Do you mean format it to xfs then preclear it? Why format it at all if you are going to clear it?

Thanks for the replies.  I could not preclear the drive from my dock. The script would not run.  But your replies helped me to educate myself a little more about the preclear script and what it's for. Thanks again