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Using potential faulty disk only for duplicated files


Harri

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Hi,

 

I'm using Drivepool together with a bunch of disks. After a longer power off period one of the HDDs is not recognized correctly (the used PC detects it as raw - another as NTFS). 

 

I'm atm using testdisk to see what I can do to repair the MFT etc. and get the disk backup and running. However I would not like to keep unduplicated files on it (to leave it out completely I have not enough space). Is there a possibility to use this disk only for dupliacted stuff? 

 

Any other proposals?

 

Thanks! 

 

 

 

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Was the PC turned off correctly the last time it was used? Is the PSU ok - are these and other components old - i.e. end of life?

 

if you use the disk and it corrupts data - how would dp "know" which copy was correct?

 

You could end up with a lot of headaches and heartache

 

Does the smart data indicate any issues?

 

I would be very careful what you trust this disk to do.

 

If its under warranty (and you have a defined issue) i would see if you can get a replacement - if not then possibly borrow a replacement from a friend while you wait for a new drive to arrive

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If the disk is having consistent issues, as spider99 has said.  replacing it may be for the best.

 

As for preventing unduplicated data from ending up on the disk, that absolutely can be done, and is rather simple:

  1. Click on "Pool Options" and select "Balancing"
  2. Open the "Balancers" tab
  3. Click on the "Drive Usage Limiter" balancer
  4. Find the disk in question and uncheck "Unduplicated" for the drive.
  5. Save the settings

This will cause the pool to balance the unduplicated data off of the drive, and prevent new unduplicated data from being placed on it. It will only be used for duplicated data at this point.

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@Spider: AFAIK the PC was turned off correctly. The HDD is in an external x8 Drive Bay solution. 

 

Right now on another computer everything looks fine. Chkdsk was fine f.ex. . For me the problem looks like a MBR issue. So my plan is to evacuate unduplicated files asap. Depending on how the drive behaves in the following days I will then either replace it or format it. If there are only duplicated files (only 3x dupliacted would be perfect). The removal, format and reinstallation will work quite fast. 

 

Update: HDD got recognized now without a problem. Right now everything is being analyzed, then things should be moved. And then I will see. 

 

Unfortunately external USB drives are always a bit "problematic". Lets see if everything works out...

 

@Drashna: Thanks. 

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Unfortunately external USB drives are always a bit "problematic". Lets see if everything works out...

 

 

Which is why I generally recommend against them for long term usage.  They're great for transferring, backing up and storage, but for prolonged online usage, .... well, this is not an uncommon issue, unfortunately.

 

 

Hopefully, everything comes up fine with the disks, and this was just a fluke.   If not, well, at least know you know how to force certain drives to be used for duplication, only. :)

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Hi all,

 

I'm still trying to get everything back running. Atm I removed two faulty drives from the pool. One is showing significant errors on at another computer and chkdsk sorts tons out...
The other one is running fine on another computer. However my plan is still to clear it out completely and see what I will do then.

 

After days of rebalancing and duplicating I'm now getting some errors. 

Drivepool is showing "Duplication Warnings". Most of them are "The system could not find the path." or so. 

 

Is there a easy possibility to get a complete list of failed files? Where can I find it? 

 

dpcmd fails with "illegal char in path" (there is a blank space which is the problem). Using " " around the filename does NOT help. 

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For the list of files, we don't store this, We pull the list from the drive, when it's asked for.  So, unfortunately, without that drive working, we don't know what was on it. 

 

And if these are on USB drives, it may be a bad controller or cable or even connection that could be causing the issue. Especially if it doesn't happen on the other system.

 

As for the "The system could not find the path.", this would happen if the drive disconnected temporarily. 

 

As for the dpcmd failure, what version of drivePool are you using?

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Sorry, I should have read more carefully.

 

First, the dpcmd tool doesn't have issues with spaces in the file names.  However, if there are disk errors, it could be actually invalid characters in the the file name, which could cause this behavior. 

 

Also, the service log may indicate what the file was (but I'm not sure about that).

 

Also, it may be worth trying to "pipe" the output to a text file, as that may show the full string.

(aka add " > filename.txt" to the end of the command). 

 

 

If that still has issues, try enable file system logging and reproduce the issue.

http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_2.x_Log_Collection

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As far as I can see it has something to do with the space... 

PS C:\> dpcmd get-duplication 'K:\sortiert\normal wichtig\'


dpcmd - StableBit DrivePool command line interface

Version 2.2.0.834

Illegales Zeichen im Pfad.


Usage:

  dpcmd get-duplication [parameter1 [parameter2 ...]]

Command:

  get-duplication - Outputs duplication related information about the specified path.

Parameters:

  poolPath - Path to a file or folder on the pool.


PS C:\> dpcmd get-duplication 'K:\sortiert\unwichtig\'


dpcmd - StableBit DrivePool command line interface

Version 2.2.0.834

Found '\\?\K:\sortiert\unwichtig\'

  Expected number of copies: 1
  Found number of copies: 7
  Is directory: True
  Has multiple sub-duplication counts: False

  - \Device\HarddiskVolume11\PoolPart.4857b717-fa72-47c5-bee7-6ab1a4e0664d\sortiert\unwichtig
  - \Device\HarddiskVolume13\PoolPart.d7fdd86d-6c12-4f6e-8ceb-c45d30ecfef2\sortiert\unwichtig
  - \Device\HarddiskVolume15\PoolPart.1189118a-3918-478f-a9dc-7b142f590df3\sortiert\unwichtig
  - \Device\HarddiskVolume16\PoolPart.f8d3cd48-4620-4834-9ae7-34da99876cfa\sortiert\unwichtig
  - \Device\HarddiskVolume19\PoolPart.71b3a753-c025-4135-b4fa-4f8b289d17a7\sortiert\unwichtig
  - \Device\HarddiskVolume21\PoolPart.ee0b4b43-faa7-46dc-895f-66a1f41e30cc\sortiert\unwichtig
  - \Device\HarddiskVolume9\PoolPart.d519d779-4fa6-4186-90cb-7fedcd0a8bf0\sortiert\unwichtig

PS C:\>

I have found nearly all of those 16 missing files on the defective hdd. 

 

One example:

DrivePool.Service.exe	Warning	0	[FileDuplication] Error checking file \\?\Volume{b9960c42-ebe0-4a40-8306-56ef4d360ade}\sortiert\normal wichtig\yyy\xxx\unsortiert\ccc Tag 1\aaaa.mp4 for duplication consistency. Das System kann den angegebenen Pfad nicht finden	2017-10-07 00:45:24Z	1444277650406

However the indicated Volume-ID is not in use by any of the installed disks. And checked against the removed hdd none of them has this ID. I also checked my mailalerts. No hints to this ID. 

 

Is there a possbility to check what this ID belongs to? 

 

Edit: And those problematic files are in a folder which should be duplicated...

 

Edit 2: 

 

I checked the Folder directly on all HDDs and found all the missing files there, at least once. Intact and usable. However if I use the Pool i get some errors or they are unusable. 

Edited by Harri
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the volume listed in the service logs is the volume for the pool drive, actually.  So that would be why you're not finding it.

 

And it mentions that the specified path is not found.  That would indidcate either a NTFS permissions issue (where "SYSTEM" doesn't have full control), or that one or more disks may be disappearing from the system, at least temporarily. 

 

And to find the locations, you'd want to use the "dpcmd check-pool-fileparts", as this can list the path for the folder/file, as long as it is already showing up in the pool.

 

 

 

As for checking the volume ID, you can run "mountvol". (specifically, "cmd /k mountvol", or just run mountvol from a command prompt)

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You are damn right... its the pool. 

 

Thanks for mountvol. Did not know this. Once more something learned :-) .

 

When I try to run check-pool-fileparts on the problematic subfolder I get:
 

PS C:\> dpcmd check-pool-fileparts 'K:\sortiert\normal wichtig\'


dpcmd - StableBit DrivePool command line interface

Version 2.2.0.834

Error: Die Syntax für den Dateinamen, Verzeichnisnamen oder die Datenträgerbezeichnung ist falsch

And yeah... looks like some Security stuff is not working...

 

One exemplaric file shows me:

 

 yOK3TC.jpg

 

Any ideas on how to fix this? 

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There is always more to learn. :) 

And yeah, mountvol is a very useful tool. 

 

 

As for the error, that is the correct syntax and everything, so yeah, definitely an issue. 

 

Honestly, if you think the drive is faulty, I would recommend just pulling the drive, right now.

 

If you don't want to do physically pull it, the "dpcmd ignore-poolpart" command may actually work.

 

Open the "faulty" disk, and find the hidden "PoolPart.xxxxxx" folder.  Grab that "xxxxx" part from the path, and run this:

dpcmd ignore-poolpart x: xxxxx

Where X: is the pool drive, and the "xxxxx" is the part from the PoolPart folder. 

 

This will cause the disk to show up as "missing".  Remove it, and then see if that helps.

 

If not, then try rebooting, and then running a CHKDSK pass on all of the disks in the pool 

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The faulty drives are already pulled... I'm in the restoring process (reduplicating etc.) .

 

I would think fixing the NTFS stuff is the next step. 

 

Edit:

 

I have tried to fix the issue following http://community.covecube.com/index.php?/topic/2038-fix-file-permissions-windows-10/

 

result: 

flps36.jpg

 

15KvUF.jpg

 

 

Any ideas on how to fix this? Perhaps Update to a newer beta?

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Since it all the files were readable when I opened them directly I expected something else. 

 

Chkdsk will check them now. Might take a couple of days... 

Phase 2: Die Dateinamenverknüpfung wird untersucht...
Status: 382812 von 464978 fertig; Phase: 82%; Insgesamt:  0%; ETA: 999:00:00
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Sorry. 

The logs don't show anything specific.

If you could, enable logging again and make sure to trigger the error. Note and report the time that it iccurs at. 

 

Also, make sure you're on the latest beta before doing this.
http://dl.covecube.com/DrivePoolWindows/beta/download/StableBit.DrivePool_2.2.0.878_x64_BETA.exe

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