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Replacing A Failing Disk


RussellS

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Hi, I am a fairly recent DrivePool user having migrated from FlexRAID. I have a 10TB media server with 4x3TB data drives and 1x3TB parity drive. At the moment I'm not using any RAID functionality until I've understood DrivePool properly and then my plan is to setup SnapRAID (unless anyone has a better suggestion). So as it stands at the moment I just have the 4x3TB data drives pooled and am not using the parity drive at the moment. I also run HD Sentinel Professional to monitor the drives and inform me of any issues etc. 

Anyway, the reason for my post. HD Sentinel has informed me that one of my data drives is starting to go bad and I want to swap it out. I have gone through the DrivePool manual but it only seems to mention removing a drive from the pool or adding a new drive to the pool but I couldn't find anything specific to replacing a bad drive so I wanted to ask for some clarification here.

The data on the failing drive is still accessible so I am currently copying all the data from the PoolPart.xxxx folder on the failing drive to a new 3TB drive.

I can see 2 possible options:

1.) Should I copy the PoolPart.xxx folder itself and then just physically remove the old drive and fit the new one in it's place and then assume DrivePool will see the same PoolPart.xxxx folder and just carry on as before.

2.) Should I copy just the contents of the PoolPart.xxxx folder to the new drive and then in the DrivePool GUI remove the failing drive from the pool, swap the drives over and then add the new drive to the pool. I assume then DrivePool will create a new PoolPart.xxxx folder on the new drive which I can then move the copied data into.

...or is there another option that I'm missing.

Thanks for any help.

 

Russell

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With failing drives I think it is always a good idea to copy/backup that drive first, just to be sure. Bear in mind though that a new re-balancing pass may place files on the suspect HDD again. This is one of the reasons I recommend Scanner because it will try to (tell DP to) evacuate a suspect HDD and prevent new files being written to it.

In any case, the default way of dealing with this is, I think (and how I would do and have done it):
1. Add a new HDD to the Pool;
2. Through the GUI, remove the suspect HDD;
3. Let DP do its magic (be patient); and,
4. Once done, remove the physical HDD.

You're 2nd option seems fine as well except that when you remove through the GUI, DP will already try to move files from the HDD-to-be-removed to the other disks in the Pool. Option 1 does not work, even though a new HDD may have a PoolPart.xxx folder, DP will (typically?) not actually recognize that as part of a Pool as the GUID of the HDD is different.

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Thanks for your advice.

In the procedure you suggest, at what point do I copy the data from the old drive to the new one. Do I do that before step 1 so the new drive already has the data on it. Also, at step 2 where I remove the old drive in the GUI will DrivePool not then do what you said later in your post and 'try to move the files from the HDD-to-be-removed to the other disks in the Pool.'

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So moving the files from the old HDD to the other remaing HDDs in the Pool (of which the HDD you just added would be one) is done automatically by DP once you click on Remove in the GUI for the failing HDD (this is what I call "Let DP do its magic"). It may take a while. The reason I am recommending to copy to a HDD outside the Pool first is just that, given you do not have duplication, I would like to safeguard the data as simply as possible. I think (but do not know) that reading from it to move through a Remove (in the GUI) may put a bit more stress on the failing HDD then a simple copy first.

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Ah, I understand now. So the initial manual copy of the data to the new drive is 'just in case'. Then I add the new drive to the pool, remove the old drive from the pool at which point DrivePool should copy all the data to the PoolPart.xxxx folders on the other drives (including the new one) and then once that's done and verified I can delete my original copy.

I didn't realise it would do that.

 

Thanks again.

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