Drive Error Red X

[GTP]

Hello,

 

I got on my server Sunday and disk 11 had a red x on it and said it had 4 errors. I just finished the read check and it has given me the green box that says the array has no errors. I tried to reboot but it still has the red X on it. It says unmountable disk present. I have attached the log file for the array after running the long and short test on the offending disk 11. Please let me know if you need anything else to help. I think I need to format and rebuild the drive from parity but before I do that I just wanted to verify with you that I don't have a dead disk and I am following the correct procedure.

 

Thank you for your help!

 

-GTP

tower-diagnostics-20200902-2319.zip

[itimpi]

Do NOT attempt to format the drive or you will lose its contents.    Looking at the SMART information in the diagnostics it looks as though the drive is probably fine.

 

the correct way to handle an unmountable drive is covered here in the online documentation.   If you are not sure of any step then feel free to come back and ask questions.   Data loss is normally only caused by the user taking inappropriate recovery steps.

 

do you have backups of your data just in case something goes wrong?

[GTP]

Thanks for your help @itimpi I followed the instructions but the disk still has the red x after the the check/repair and restart. I have attached the text from the repair for analysis. Thank you again for taking a look.

 

Best,

 

GTP

disk11repair.txt

[itimpi]

2 hours ago, GTP said:

Thanks for your help @itimpi I followed the instructions but the disk still has the red x after the the check/repair and restart. I have attached the text from the repair for analysis. Thank you again for taking a look.

 

Best,

 

GTP

disk11repair.txt 1.06 MB · 1 download

The check/repair does not remove the red ‘x’ as that requires a rebuild, so the disk is still being emulated.   What is important is whether the ‘emulated’ drive now mounts OK as when you go through the rebuild process whatever shows up as being on the emulated drive is what ends up on the rebuilt drive.

[trurl]

14 hours ago, GTP said:

I think I need to format and rebuild the drive from parity

FYI for anyone. This is NEVER the right answer. Format, like any write operation, updates parity. So after the format, parity agrees the disk has been formatted. Then, rebuilding from parity just results in a formatted disk.

 

@GTP

 

Posting new diagnostics will give us the answer to

37 minutes ago, itimpi said:

whether the ‘emulated’ drive now mounts OK

But you can also just look at Main - Array Devices

[GTP]

@itimpi @trurl I apologize but it still says "unmountable: no file system" after running the repair? I am sorry I am not understanding I thought that after I started it in normal mode it would rebuild from the emulated disk. I know I should never format but why would the file system still be missing. I attached a screenshot. Thank you both for taking a look at my issue.

 

Best-

GTP

  

[trurl]

I am just now looking at your diagnostics and the repair log. My main point was to make sure nobody thought formatting was a good idea.

 

That repair log looked very bad. How exactly did you do that repair? Did you do it from the webUI or from the command line? If from the command line, what was the exact command you used?

29 minutes ago, GTP said:

I thought that after I started it in normal mode it would rebuild from the emulated disk.

No, thankfully it won't just begin a rebuild all by itself, and you don't want to rebuild from where you are because all you will get is the same unmountable disk you have now, except it won't be disabled anymore.

 

Stop the array and unassign that disk, then see if you can mount it read-only with Unassigned Devices. Maybe the actual disk isn't unmountable but the emulated disk is because of other problems such as invalid parity.

 

Do you have backups of anything important and irreplaceable?

 

Also, the way you have docker configured is far from ideal, but we can deal with that later.

[GTP]

4 minutes ago, trurl said:

I am just now looking at your diagnostics and the repair log. My main point was to make sure nobody thought formatting was a good idea.

 

That repair log looked very bad. How exactly did you do that repair? Did you do it from the webUI or from the command line? If from the command line, what was the exact command you used?

No, thankfully it won't just begin a rebuild all by itself, and you don't want to rebuild from where you are because all you will get is the same unmountable disk you have now, except it won't be disabled anymore.

 

Stop the array and unassign that disk, then see if you can mount it read-only with Unassigned Devices. Maybe the actual disk isn't unmountable but the emulated disk is because of other problems such as invalid parity.

 

Do you have backups of anything important and irreplaceable?

 

Also, the way you have docker configured is far from ideal, but we can deal with that later.

Thank you so much for your help @trurl I was able to mount the disk as an unassigned device. I don't know what that means but I hope its good. I unfortunately do not have backups but its nothing that can't be re-downloaded. I am new to Unraid so I will take any advice you regarding docker or my disks. Thank you again! 

 

Thank you,

 

GTP

[trurl]

Just now, GTP said:

I was able to mount the disk as an unassigned device. I don't know what that means but I hope its good.

It is good because you still have the files. It is bad because we don't know the cause of the disk becoming disabled nor the reason the emulated disk was unmountable. Since you rebooted after you began to have problems, syslog from your diagnostics don't tell us anything about what may have happened.

 

Do you have any ideas about this? Do you have any reason to think your parity was invalid? Your screenshot didn't show all disks. Were any of them showing anything other than zero in the Errors column?

 

To get that disk back into the array will require New Config / Parity Sync. But before we proceed with that lets see if we can figure out what went wrong, or at least make sure there isn't something currently wrong that would prevent parity rebuild.

 

You have a lot of disks, and I haven't examined SMART for each of them. Do any of the disks show SMART warnings on the Dashboard? Post a screenshot of the Array section on the Dashboard page.

[GTP]

2 minutes ago, trurl said:

It is good because you still have the files. It is bad because we don't know the cause of the disk becoming disabled nor the reason the emulated disk was unmountable. Since you rebooted after you began to have problems, syslog from your diagnostics don't tell us anything about what may have happened.

 

Do you have any ideas about this? Do you have any reason to think your parity was invalid? Your screenshot didn't show all disks. Were any of them showing anything other than zero in the Errors column?

 

To get that disk back into the array will require New Config / Parity Sync. But before we proceed with that lets see if we can figure out what went wrong, or at least make sure there isn't something currently wrong that would prevent parity rebuild.

 

You have a lot of disks, and I haven't examined SMART for each of them. Do any of the disks show SMART warnings on the Dashboard? Post a screenshot of the Array section on the Dashboard page.

@trurl I had just finished a parity check the day before and it showed no errors. Then when I came down the next day to the red x it showed 4 errors on disk 11. No other drives showed any errors. I have not seen a SMART warnings and will post the screenshot below. 

 

Best,

 

GTP

[trurl]

That looks good. Have you checked the files on the disk with it mounted Unassigned?

[GTP]

This is going to sound dumb but how do I do that on an unassigned disk?

 

Thank you,

 

GTP

[trurl]

Just thought I should warn you that you don't want to reassign that disk without doing New Config first. Reassigning a disk is the way you get it to rebuild, and you don't want to rebuild it.

[trurl]

1 minute ago, GTP said:

This is going to sound dumb but how do I do that on an unassigned disk?

Post a screenshot of Main - Unassigned Devices

[GTP]

Don't worry @trurl  I am not doing anything without your explicit instruction. I have attached the screenshot as requested. I will not touch anything unless you tell me to.

 

Thank you,

 

GTP

[trurl]

The slider under "Share" will let you share it on the network so you can look at it from your PC. Maybe you will have to unmount it before it will let you change that, I'm not sure.

[GTP]

@trurl I have switched the slider to share but I cannot see the share on my network because the array is not started. Should I start the array with Disk 11 mounted as an unassigned device? I don't want to mess up the config or anything, I am sorry if these are dumb questions.

 

Best,

 

GTP

[trurl]

Just to make sure. On Main - Array Devices, does it show disk 11 as No Device or similar?

 

I guess you will have to start the array to get SMB started so you can look at that UD on the network. Or you could examine the files from the server itself if you know how to use Midnight Commander (mc from the command line) or just how to work from the command line.

[GTP]

@trurl Yes it shows disk 11 as No device is that bad?

 

Best,

 

GTP

[trurl]

2 minutes ago, GTP said:

@trurl Yes it shows disk 11 as No device is that bad?

No that is correct, just being cautious. Go ahead and start the array. Disk 11 should be missing, disabled, and unmountable but you should be able to look at the Unassigned disk on the network.

[GTP]

@trurl I just checked the drive and all the files are there! What is the next step?

 

Thank you,

 

GTP

[trurl]

Unmount that Unassigned Device.

 

Stop the array.

Go to Tools - New Config and keep all assignments.

Before starting the array, reassign disk11.

Make sure you do NOT check the box saying parity is valid, because it needs to be rebuilt. It may only be a little out-of-sync but it should be rebuilt anyway.

Then Start the array to begin parity sync.

 

If there are any problems during parity sync, post your diagnostics but let it continue pending further advice.

 

What you should see during parity sync is a lot of Reads on all data disks, a lot of Writes to parity, and zeros in the Errors column.

 

Parity sync errors are expected, be interesting to see how many.

[GTP]

@trurl Ok it has started! Thank you so much for your help. After it finishes I will post here again either way. In regards to my docker config what did you see and what should I do to fix it?

 

BTW YOU ROCK!!!

 

Thank you,

 

GTP

[GTP]

@trurl Sorry for posting so soon but there are 334,580 errors found on disk 11 so far and its only .2% done. I am worried now.

 

Best,

 

GTP

[trurl]

Post diagnostics