5.0b2 or 5.0b3 - should I wait if WD Green drives already pre-cleared; no jumper

[dwoods99]

Just wondering if I should really wait for 5.0b3 if I already have some WD Green drives (never jumpered but used)

that have been pre-cleared with 5.0b2?

 

These drives were formerly formatted with NTFS under Ubuntu, for backing up Raid5 contents.

 

I personally don't care if the drives start at sector 63 or 64, or any perceived speed increase.

I simply want to be sure they are recognized and used properly under 5.0b2 (or 4.6 final).

 

If 5.0b3 comes out after I get unRAID setup and working, I understand that I could then use the -A option on the updated pre-cleared.sh script, or simply not use it so that new drives will have the same sector start as the current ones.

 

I am open to testing 5.0b3 but not willing to wait another couple of weeks to do so.

Unless a mod PMs me and lets me know otherwise (PM stays private), I can't justify waiting any longer.

 

Is there any problem with going ahead with 5.0b2 now that I don't know about yet?

 

[SSD]

Just wondering if I should really wait for 5.0b3 if I already have some WD Green drives (never jumpered but used)

that have been pre-cleared with 5.0b2?

 

These drives were formerly formatted with NTFS under Ubuntu, for backing up Raid5 contents.

 

I personally don't care if the drives start at sector 63 or 64, or any perceived speed increase.

I simply want to be sure they are recognized and used properly under 5.0b2 (or 4.6 final).

 

If 5.0b3 comes out after I get unRAID setup and working, I understand that I could then use the -A option on the updated pre-cleared.sh script, or simply not use it so that new drives will have the same sector start as the current ones.

 

I am open to testing 5.0b3 but not willing to wait another couple of weeks to do so.

Unless a mod PMs me and lets me know otherwise (PM stays private), I can't justify waiting any longer.

 

Is there any problem with going ahead with 5.0b2 now that I don't know about yet?

 

 

Only Tom knows the schedule for 5.0b3.  Perhaps he may PM you.

 

I would suggest that you move back to 4.7.  You just need to revert your password files

 

- passwd

- smbpasswd

- shadow (maybe just remove this one)

 

If you have a flash backup from before you upgraded, use that.  Otherwise just pull the vanilla files from the 4.7b1 distribution.

 

Recreating userids should not be hard.

 

Then you can use 4.7b1 to format your disks for sector 64 partition, and move to 5.0b3 when it comes out.

 

That's what I would do anyway.

[dwoods99]

That was also my thinking but thought that 4.x beta1 was a bigger risk, even though from what I saw of the change log it's mostly a bug fix + sector 64 HDD acceptance.

 

User/password redo is not a problem.

Since my Pro key is tied to a USB stick, I understand I simply need to overwrite the main files of 4.7b1 over the 5.0b2 files, and leave key file where it is.

 

I guess it's worth looking over the 4.7 beta testing thread to see what the early reports are showing.

[SSD]

4.7b1 looking good so far in early testing. Definitely lower risk than 5.0b3 which will contain much more significant changes.

[prostuff1]

5.0b3 is going to have many more changes and have some that will not be conducive to going back to a previous version.

[SSD]

5.0b3 is going to have many more changes and have some that will not be conducive to going back to a previous version.

 

True - but once he adds a 64 sector partitioned disk, with 4.7 or 5.0b3, the ability to go back is lost.

 

I am more concerned about the 5.0b3 changes to support AFP and other enhancements.  And 5.0b3 is not scheduled to become a "official release" version.  There will be 5.0b4 and then release candidates (if I'm reading the Roadmap correctly).  4.7b1 is going to move quickly to release candidate and release version.

[dwoods99]

Thanks for input.

 

I guess that just leaves the question of whether or not it really matters if I pre-clear the 2TB drives with -A option (sector 64), if those same drives are already pre-cleared under 4.6/5.0b2...

so basically, just use them now as Sector 63 or pre-clear again using -A for 4.7b1?

[lionelhutz]

Using sector 63 will cause the drive to suffer a certain perfomance loss. Probably not much with large files but it's still there.

 

Using sector 64 will make it so you can not revert to an older version of unRAID. 7.7b1 is looking good so far but there is not much community feedback on sector 64 use yet.

 

I'd run 4.7b1 and try one drive at sector 64 and let it run for a while (maybe a week or more) doing reading and writing and a few parity checks. Then, that can give you more confidence in adding more drives.

 

But then, I'm not sure about your whole question. Are you setting up a new array or adding some drives to an existing array?

 

Peter

[dwoods99]

Brand new unRAID array, first time user.

Transferring movies from a previous Ubuntu setup with RAID5, 12 x 1TB HDD.