Does UnRaid OS prefer the Ext4, NTFS or Fat32 format standard?

[binar]

Fellow Forum Members,

Some 5 months ago I successfully created an Unraid Server build. Now 5 months later I want to build myself a bigger system plus add a cache disk and simply cut no corners this time.

 

My plan is to format all of the 6 data hard drives and also erase my USB stick so I can install the latest Unraid OS.  Will I experience license activation problems by erasing the USB stick and then installing a newer version of the UnRaid OS? I paid for my license key some 11 months ago. When formatting the 6 data drives does UnRaid OS prefer the Ext4, NTFS or Fat32 standard to format the data drives in?     Any advice will be appreciated. 

Edited October 16, 2020 by binar

[JorgeB]

2 hours ago, binar said:

Will I experience license activation problems by erasing the USB stick and then installing a newer version of the UnRaid OS?

Not if you keep the same flash drive.

 

2 hours ago, binar said:

When formatting the 6 data drives does UnRaid OS prefer the Ext4, NTFS or Fat32 standard to format the data drives in? 

None of the above, Unraid only supports reiserfs, xfs and btrfs, xfs is the recommended filesystem for most.

[ChatNoir]

And to clarify, Unraid will do the formatting, no need to do it beforehand.

[wgstarks]

8 hours ago, binar said:

 

My plan is to format all of the 6 data hard drives and also erase my USB stick so I can install the latest Unraid OS. 

You don’t need to erase your flash drive. Just update from within the webUI.

[binar]

Thank you to all for your posts.  Upgrading my UnRaid OS from within the webUI is something I considered. However, my concern is now that I have added a cache disk and 3 more data drives making the new configuration changes is going to be too complicated.  Therefore, I figured if I start over again with a fresh UnRaid OS install onto a newly formatted USB stick I can bypass configuration complications and just let the new UnRaid OS install automatically configure the new cache disk and 3 new data hard drives. 

 

Nevertheless, does the UnRaid OS have a feature that will allow me to reset back to its original state? My idea now is to not connect any of the data drives and just bootup the UnRaid OS alone.  It will probably give me a warning that my UnRaid Array is corrupt due to the missing data hard drives.  But then I could upgrade to the latest version within the webUI.  Bottom line is, how can I erase the entire old UnRaid Array and reset the OS to an original state?

[trurl]

51 minutes ago, binar said:

reset the OS to an original state

Unraid runs in RAM. When you create a new Unraid flash, or when you upgrade, what you get are the archives of whichever version of Unraid. The OS is installed fresh from those archives into RAM at each boot. So, the OS is always in an original state.

 

The config folder on flash contains any plugins, docker templates, any settings you have made in the webUI, your disk assignments, and your license .key file.

 

You should at least keep the license .key file from the config folder if you are going to use the same flash drive. If you don't want to keep anything else then just start from a new install. If using the same flash, copy the license .key file to the config folder.

 

If you do want to keep anything else, no need to start over. If you are just wanting to change some disk assignments and keep whatever data is already on some of those disks, just go to Tools - New Config and assign disks as you want. Just be sure you don't assign a disk to the parity slot if it has data you want to keep.