HDD diagnostics (Unraid / Linux)

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mdf

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#286021 31-May-2021 10:51

I could do with some pointers on diagnosing (confirming) potential HDD issues on an Unraid server (or possibly just on linux).

I have an old HP Microserver running Unraid with three drives - parity, HDD 1 and HDD 2. A month or so ago, HDD 2 started clicking. I shut down the system, pulled HDD 2 and ordered a new HDD. Got busy and time passed and am only just now getting around to installing the new HDD.

Booted into Unraid for the first time in a while today. I cannot start the array as it now appears that the parity drive is missing (unexpected) as well as HDD 2 missing (expected) - i.e. it cannot be seen/detected by the system at all.

My guess is that this is that the parity drive is also dead (with the worst possible timing), but just hoping for some pointers to confirm that one way or another. Unfortunately I don't have another system ready to hand that I can test the drive

Lias

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#2716042 31-May-2021 11:08

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openmedia

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#2716104 31-May-2021 11:37

If you're running linux just run some smart tests on the drives.

smartctl -a /dev/sda

smartctl -l selftest /dev/sda

smartctl -t conveyancing /dev/sda

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JeremyNzl

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#2716139 31-May-2021 12:49

Scrutiny for Unraid

https://github.com/AnalogJ/scrutiny

michaelmurfy

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#2716144 31-May-2021 13:13

So you've in a bit of a sticky situation as you currently don't have any redundancy. I would be VERY careful with running anything above this post without an understanding of what it does as you could well lose everything.

First off, can you see the disk by running "fdisk -l"?

Have you tried plugging the parity drive into another slot on the Microserver and adding it in manually as the parity drive?

You're also safe to plug this drive into a computer to rule out the Microserver itself being the issue. It won't mount, but you should be able to see the device there.

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Ge0rge

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#2716220 31-May-2021 14:54

Could you put hdd2 back in and try booting again?

K8Toledo

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#2716278 31-May-2021 18:12

mdf:

I could do with some pointers on diagnosing (confirming) potential HDD issues on an Unraid server (or possibly just on linux).

I have an old HP Microserver running Unraid with three drives - parity, HDD 1 and HDD 2. A month or so ago, HDD 2 started clicking. I shut down the system, pulled HDD 2 and ordered a new HDD. Got busy and time passed and am only just now getting around to installing the new HDD.

Booted into Unraid for the first time in a while today. I cannot start the array as it now appears that the parity drive is missing (unexpected) as well as HDD 2 missing (expected) - i.e. it cannot be seen/detected by the system at all.

My guess is that this is that the parity drive is also dead (with the worst possible timing), but just hoping for some pointers to confirm that one way or another. Unfortunately I don't have another system ready to hand that I can test the drive

Linux/Windows/Various

smartmontools (smartctl)

(Windows)

CrystalDiskInfo

HDD Guru forum (diagnostics/recovery info)

Mehrts

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#2716362 31-May-2021 19:26

For any suspect drive failures, it's best to try and clone the drive ASAP. I.e make an image of the disk.

Then you can take the cloned image, make multiple copies and try to recover files using various methods without stressing the already compromised drive.

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mdf

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#2716403 31-May-2021 21:32

Thanks everyone.

I've tried both the (failed) parity drive in another bay without success, and a new drive in the parity drive's old bay (which showed up fine).

fdisk -l does not show the parity drive at all. I also tried fdisk with the known failed (clicking) drive. It showed up, albeit with something extremely odd-looking.

I am therefore guessing the parity drive is poked too and I'm better off just biting the bullet and replacing it?

Fortunately, I'm pretty sure the failed drive didn't have anything on it when it failed, so if both it and parity have died I shouldn't have lost any data. Double plus fortunately, everything important is also backed up to a couple of different online backup services (albeit it will be long and painful to rebuild everything from scratch if it comes to that).

While I've got a knowledgeable audience, a follow up query. if I physically remove my one good drive and reset Unraid to factory with new drives, can I then just reinsert my one existing drive with the data visible to Unraid? I appreciate I will need to rebuild parity after that but that seems to be the simplest way to check everything is working as it should.

hio77

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Lizard Networks

#2716500 1-Jun-2021 08:37

The brilliant thing about unraid is as long as it wasn't a btrfs array (which it shouldn't be) the data will be 100% intact on the working drive.

So put in a fresh parity, you might need to reset and readd, boot it up with just the data assigned then stop array and start it again with the parity. It should sync based on the existing drive.

If the data is important I'd still do a manual backup first.

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