Maintain File Creation Date

[jdoggvt]

Scanner recently informed me of a failing drive so I initiated a 'remove' (which I thought was supposed to happen automatically but maybe my settings are wrong?). A large portion of the drive's content was movies and it appears that the original file creation date was overwritten with the current date which caused all of my 'recent movies' in XBMC/Kodi to show the files that were moved to safe drives as opposed to the most recently added files. Is there a setting that I'm missing that would have kept the original creation date?

[Christopher (Drashna)]

What OS and what version of Stablebit DrivePool are you using?

 

 

And no, it shouldn't change the creation or modified date.  I've double checked though (using a "3 day old" drive, and it's showing creation and modified times of april 2013).

 

 

And yes, the StableBit Scanner balancer in StableBit DrivePool should automatically start moving files off of the damaged disk. 

Though, this is only for unreadable sectors. We don't do this automatically for "SMART" errors, as LCC and temp warnings will trigger this behavior as well. 

[jdoggvt]

Well it appears that the actual file dates are unchanged like you said, I guess there's something going on with XBMC/Kodi that's causing everything to be out of order.

 

This is an example of the notifications I was getting about the drive every 6-8 minutes; it certainly didn't want me to overlook the warnings!

 

S.M.A.R.T. Failure on "MEDIASERVER-PC" running at "MediaServer".
One or more disks are expected to fail within 24 hours:

    ST2000DL ST2000DL003-9VT1 SCSI Disk Device
        Model: ST2000DL003-9VT166
        Serial number: [Removed]
        Case: media server
        Bay: 10

 

The email notifications alternated between 'drive is suspect' and 'drive is failing'. I took this to mean 'abandon ship' so started the removal manually.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Well it appears that the actual file dates are unchanged like you said, I guess there's something going on with XBMC/Kodi that's causing everything to be out of order.

 

Okay, so it definitely did retain them properly then.

 

However, if the disk fell out of the system (and pool) temporarily, it could cause that behavior, as the files on that disk may not appear in the pool temporarily.

 

This is an example of the notifications I was getting about the drive every 6-8 minutes; it certainly didn't want me to overlook the warnings!

 

S.M.A.R.T. Failure on "MEDIASERVER-PC" running at "MediaServer".

One or more disks are expected to fail within 24 hours:

 

    ST2000DL ST2000DL003-9VT1 SCSI Disk Device

        Model: ST2000DL003-9VT166

        Serial number: [removed]

        Case: media server

        Bay: 10

 

The email notifications alternated between 'drive is suspect' and 'drive is failing'. I took this to mean 'abandon ship' so started the removal manually.

Then that's one of the more critical errors, and if it's sending it repeatedly, then it's likely increasing constantly. 

 

Depending on what SMART errors you're seeing in StableBit Scanner, then, yes, it is definitely a sign to "abandon ship" and replace the drive.

 

If you're seeing errors like reallocated sectors, uncorrectable sectors, or similar, then that's definitely a bad sign. There are a number of other bad ones too, and StableBit Scanner should tell you briefly what the value means.

 

 

 

I know it doesn't really help you now, but you can configure DrivePool to move off files in the case of SMART warnings, as well.

To do so, click on "Pool Options" -> Balancing.  Open the "Balancers" tab, and click on the "StableBit Scanner" balancer.  There should be a bunch of checkboxes here, and some already checked.  You specifically want the second set. The first is the "move unduplicated data out if there is a SMART warning" (or to that effect). And below that is a "move duplicated data" (this one isn't as critical, and you can leave unchecked). 

[jdoggvt]

Ok cool, thanks for the tip. I've updated the settings per your recommendation.

 

Also regarding the files showing up in the 'recently added' list incorrectly, all I had to do was refresh the movies/tv shows one by one (either from the internet or from local data) and the list started showing up correctly. Just thought I'd leave this here in case anyone else experiences this (though usually it's just me ).

[Christopher (Drashna)]

You're very welcome.

 

And I'm glad that a "simple refresh" has fixed the issue with XBMC/Kodi