One or More Disks are Missing

[airjrdn]

I've gotten this message a few times, and am just curious, when it happens, what should I do?  I'm still testing DrivePool out, and I love the concept, but just want to make sure things work the way I expect before purchasing it and "moving to production" with it.

 

So, ignoring for the moment "why" it happens, when it happens, should I reboot, or disconnect/reconnect the drive, or what?

 

Also, when it says "ST2000DM 001-1CH164 SCSI Disk Device (S/N: --------) 34°C - 1.82 TB (Pool: DrivePool (R:\))" is missing, what's the recommended way of me determining which physical disk that is given that I have several in a drive bay, two or three externals, and an internal drive or two?

 

Thanks for your time

Edited August 12, 2014 by Christopher (Drashna)
Removed drive's serial number

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Well, you can use the Serial number (S/N) from the drive to identify which one it is, using StableBit Scanner (check the disk details). 

 

As for when this happens, that depends on why/how. 

Since it's listed as a SCSI device, I'm guessing it's an external eSATA device?

If so, then yes, disconnecting and reconnecting it should fix the issue.

[airjrdn]

Yes, it's eSATA.  The drive has failed.  I'm running recovery software on it now just to find out what was there.  All important data I can duplicated and backed up, but I'd still like to find out what I'm now missing.

 

Serial numbers are a tad difficult to get to for internally mounted drives though.

 

I just need to physically label them once and be done with it I suppose.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Well, StableBit Scanner has some options for labeling the drives. And since DrivePool pulls from that information...

Also, if the drive is still detectable, the serial number will be displayed in "Disk details" in StableBit Scanner.

 

Also, mounting the drives to a folder path, is another really good way to organize the disks.

http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q4822624

 

 

Unfortunately, DrivePool doesn't maintain a list of what files are where. We rely on NTFS for that, in part because running a database can be very resource intensive.

If everything was duplicated, then you should be fine. However, if it wasn't, then getting a record from the recovery tool would be a good idea.

 

Also, if you don't mind me asking, how did the drive fail specifically?

[airjrdn]

Everything wasn't duplicated, but it will be soon. I bought a 2TB drive at BestBuy last night to replace the failing one.  The 2TB that failed is under warranty, so I'm exchanging it for a new one, and I ordered two additional 2TB drives as well.  I'm going to set everything up to be duplicated 2x, and some things (family photos) to be duplicated 3x.  The important stuff is also backed up using CrashPlan both on and off-site.  In addition, family photos are stored on Flickr and Smugmug, and protected with RAR files with 2% recovery and those are protected with disParity.  

 

As for how it failed, I'm not sure, but it happened suddenly.  The drive wants to be formatted when Windows recognizes it, and sometimes message box shows up complaining about CRC errors.

 

The only data it could have held that I didn't have setup for duplication was tv shows and/or movies, and those I can re-rip since I own them.  It will just be a pain to determine what movies or show episodes are now missing.  That's why I had that data set not to be duplicated. It'll be a pain, but not catastrophic.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

yeah, it's a good idea to store really important stuff multiple locations!

 

As for the drive, if you use Disk Management, I'm sure it will report the drive as "RAW". If that's the case, then the Partition Table got corrupted. Probably by the same thing that is causing the CRC issues.

If that is the case, then all you may need to do is repair the parition table. There are tools to do so, and my person preferred tool is EaseUS Partition Recovery:

http://www.easeus.com/partition-recovery/index.htm

 

As for determining what episodes are missing.... well, I know it's meant for automating download, but it's also a great inventory system: Sick-beard. As long as it can identify the existing episodes, it will list them and display which ones are not present, as well.

[airjrdn]

Thank you for the suggestion.  I'm running EaseUS Partition Recovery against the drive now and will let you know how it turns out.  The drive began clicking off and on when the issue occurred.  If I can get a file listing and run something against the drive to wipe at least part of the data, I'll be a happy camper.

 

Depending on where this gets me, I may check out Sick-beard as well.  I use XBMC as my media center front end, and have played with Plex (not with much luck).  I haven't yet found anything to categorize/catalog my tv shows and movies (other than a file structure and naming convention I came up with) that I really like.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Hopefully, it's able to repair the partition table for you. If not.... then it may be down to data recovery. And *that* should give you a list of files, at the very least.

 

 

Sickbeard has a number of options. And if you set it up right, you can rip to a directory, which sickbeard will periodically scan. It will then move the files to the destination, add metadata (if specified) and even update XBMC or Plex automatically. So it may work out well for you.