Double check my steps to change a hard drive

[skyking376]

I only have to ever touch Unraid every 1-2 years (other than monthly parity checks, all pass with zero errors) so when I change/upgrade I have to "reinvent" the wheel each time. 

 

Steps I have already completed:

-- Checked ages of hard drives (3 - 6 years). Parity disk = (1) 4TB, data disks = (5) 2TB. Reason parity is 4TB is old 2TB parity died years ago and replaced with 4TB looking to future (today). Back when I replaced parity (from 2TB to 4TB) person said that 1 drive (the oldest one I want to replace today) was starting to show signs of failure and old age. He said that not imminent to replace but might want to think about doing so. So currently NOTHING has failed and everything works normal, I just want to replace that old drive that showed errors in past. 

-- Upgraded unraid to version 6.8.3 (10-21-2020)

-- Ran SMART disk tests (10-21-2020) all pass, 1 disk (that I want to replace) has same errors as it did a few years ago.

-- I have new 4TB drive ready to connect into media tower. Not precleared and still in anti-static bag.

 

Steps I am planning to do in order:

1) stop the array

2) Clean power down of media tower

3) take out old drive, put new drive (not precleared) in same spot, same SATA cables, same everything

4) Power up media tower

5) Assign the replacement disk using Unraid webGUI

6) Click checkbox that says "Yes I want to do this" and then START.

7) Wait for rebuild to complete than go back to normal with 2TB of extra storage to play with. 

 

My Questions:

1) Since new drive will be overwritten for first 2TB (size of old drive being replaced) but the second 2TB of the 4TB drive won't have zero's written to it, do I need to (or should I) preclear new disk before I start this process?

2) Are my steps above correct before I start this upgrade?

[trurl]

Go to Tools - Diagnostics and attach the complete Diagnostics ZIP file to your NEXT post in this thread.

[skyking376]

Following instructions as directed. Diagnostics attached. Thank you team...

deathstar-diagnostics-20201022-1051.zip

[trurl]

Not clear any need replacement. Which disk were you planning to replace?

 

18 hours ago, skyking376 said:

1) Since new drive will be overwritten for first 2TB (size of old drive being replaced) but the second 2TB of the 4TB drive won't have zero's written to it, do I need to (or should I) preclear new disk before I start this process?

The entire new disk will be rebuilt from parity. The part of parity beyond 2TB will take care of making sure that additional 2TB is consistent with parity.

 

18 hours ago, skyking376 said:

2) Are my steps above correct before I start this upgrade?

I'm not sure there is a checkbox in step 6.

 

After step 3 you should double check all connections on all disks before powering up. Bad connections are the most frequent problem with rebuilds.