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Help Replacing/Restoring Damaged Disk


SHPServer

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Hi.  I'm running WHS 2011 on my HP Microserver n40L.  I've got three 2TB drives pooled using DrivePool.  Last week, I started having troubles running scheduled and manual WHS backups on all of my clients.  At the same time, noticed that the WHS backup service seemed to be radomly turning off.  After some research I determined that I might be having a problem with one of my drives.  (I believe I read that if a drive is going bad, WHS won't run the backup service).  I installed StableBit Scanner and, sure enough, discovered that one my 2TB drives had some bad sectors and the SMART data indicated problems.

 

After using Scanner to attempt to repair the files and repair the disk, I noticed that the disk in question now appears as "missing" in DrivePool.  I can still access the disk but cannot "add" it back. 

 

I've got a new disk on the way and I'd like to figure out the best way to replace/restore the damaged disk.  Some of the files in DrivePool located on the damaged disk are not duplicated.  Some of those files I don't care about but others I do.  Fortunately, I use WHS to perform twice daily backups of the entire Server (including all of the drives).

 

Can you help me map out a plan?  It seems as though I'll need to "remove" the missing drive (on DrivePool and then physically from the server box) and install the new drive.  [i guess I could also add the new drive first - using a an external enclosure - and then remove the bad drive from the box and then take the new drive out of the enclosure and move it into the box.]  Should I then use the WHS server backup to restore just that drive?  When should I "add" the new drive to the Pool.

 

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks!

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Well, on the damaged disk, you should be able to access all of the files in the hidden "PoolPart.xxxx" folder in the root of the drive.

 

So basically, add the new disk to the pool, and copy the contents of the "bad/missing" disk's PoolPart folder, to the new disk's PoolPart folder (the "xxxx" part will be different on the disks).

 

After you've done that, everythign should show up in the pool. 

 

After that, physically pull the "bad" disk from the system and then remove the missing disk from the dashboard.

 

And then you'll want to "Re-measure" the pool, to make sure it identifies everything properly.

 

 

And it should be  that simple. Though, you may want to download the WSS Troubleshooter, and run the "Reset NTFS Permissions on the pool" option to make sure everything is configured properly.

http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Utilities

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drashna:

Thanks so much for the insight.  I will try that.  I should share an update.  Tonight, I upgraded my version of DrivePool (I was running a very early version) and the new version seems to be automatically moving files off of the damaged drive onto the healthy ones.  (And, interestingly enough, the "bad" disk is no longer listed as "missing" it's now listed in the pool as "damaged".)  I will still replace that drive when the re-balancing is done, but it's an interesting development.

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SHPServer,

 

That's actually normal behavior if you have both StableBit DrivePool and StableBit Scanner installed. When you have both installed, it adds a "StableBit Scanner" balancer to DrivePool which will clear out any disk that Scanner marks as damaged or bad, in an effort to prevent data loss.

 

It will also try to not use any disk that has exceeded the temperature ratings/limits, as these drives are more prone to failure.

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You mean the "Windows Server Client Backup Service", correct?

 

If this is the case, I know this sounds weird, but could you try running "wbadmin delete catalog". This will "break" your server backups, but I've found that on ... well SBS2011E (the Small Business sister product) and 2012 Essentials, that this may actually help/fix the issue. The worst thing it does is that you'll need to re-setup server backup.

 

 

That, or see if a location outside of the pool works properly. If it does, then could you move it back, and then do this:

http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Log_Collection

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