Unraid remove parity drive I am downsizing and want to remove the 8tb parity, and replace it with one of the existing empty 4tb drives. Mar 1, 2025 · Not quite if you want to remove the drive. WARNING: Should not be done in UnRAID Version: 6. Apr 5, 2019 · I just added a bigger parity 2 drive and want do remove the parity 1 drive aferwards. Shut the server down. Mar 16, 2025 · Yes, you just won't have any parity protection. If you remove the parity drive than start the array, stop the array, than pop in the new one and assign it, unRAID will just copy the parity info without spinning all the other drives. if i have a 18TB parity drive and i remove a 1 TB drive from the array why does that effect the parity drive beyond the 1st terabyte. If all you want to do is replace your Parity drive with a larger one, then you don't need the Parity Swap procedure. Start array Oct 18, 2023 · I want to replace my current 10TB parity drive with a 14TB. The array will still be protected because I have 2 parity drives. At w Apr 7, 2024 · "This procedure is strictly for replacing data drives in an Unraid array. . ETA: Be prepared for 20TB parity drive rebuilds to take 36+ hours. I have an 8tb parity drive and 5 4tb data drives. Current Server/Scenario: Running Unraid 6. Stop the array 8. start the array Is it preferable to run the pre-clear script on the parity drive prior to step 3? It was pre-cleared when initially inserted into the array. 13 that has been freezing/ locking up. Then return to the Main tab and remove the drive you no longer want (and rearrange others if so desired). Historically, it was better known as the 'Swap Disable' procedure, probably because it requires the data drive to be disabled first, then involves a swap of the parity drive, the disabled drive, and the new replacement drive. Jun 22, 2015 · 1. 0. Oct 13, 2008 · It would allow us to have roaming data drives yet leaving the parity protected during the removal. there was no "remove drive" button or capability. Since the array is 8Tb (1+1+2+4) in size with 2. You'll have to do tools->new config and reassign all the drives except the parity to remove it from the array. 2? 1. I have a 4TB WD Red drive that I'd like to swap in to replace the parity drive, but I also want to completely remove a drive from the array, leaving me with 1 parity drive and 4 data drives. Yes - removing a drive invalidates parity requiring it to be rebuilt. After copying all files to another drive use Tools->New Config with the option to retain all assignments. 9. The first way is the "Remove Drives Then Rebuild Parity" method. 3 – go to devices tab, remove parity drive from configuration 4 – power down system via “powerdown” button 5 – remove existing 750 GB parity drive, replace with new 1 TB drive 6 – power on unraid 7 – go to devices tab, assign 1TB drive as parity drive 8 – start the array with the “start” button Make sure you have a copy of your array assignments, especially the parity drive. Make sure to power down your server and unplug it from the power source before removing the drive. Jun 9, 2023 · If you plan to replace parity no need to clear the drive, just empty the disk that you want to remove and do a new config with the new assignments and let Unraid re-sync parity. This method is quick and easy but does br Important! You cannot replace a drive with one that is LARGER than the parity drive! If your replacement drive is larger than the parity drive, then proceed to The parity swap procedure. Nov 29, 2022 · Remove Parity drive (doesnt need to be physically removed, I will just disconnect it) and install 1 x 18tb drive. It is: Feb 11, 2024 · Unassign the drive(s) you are removing. Ive got a 20TB drive on the way to become my new parity (existing 10TB) and want to remove the smallest drive (4TB, currently empty) to make way for this and stay at 6 drives total. Swap the 1st parity drive out and let UnRAID rebuild parity. Jan 16, 2016 · Hi, I currently have a 4 drive array in unraid, I'm looking to replace one of the drives with a much larger one. They do not have any data on them right now except for the XFS overhead (0 objects/directories/files). (If something goes wrong, you still have the old parity drive that you can put back!) Apr 3, 2023 · I would like to permanently remove a drive from the array, if I unassigned a slot, it does not allow me to decrease total number of slots. Why is that? tower-diagnostics-20230730-2247. e. Now then, this is where we remove the drives from the array. 7 says " unRAID does not (currently) provide a feature to remove a drive from the array without losing parity integrity. Boot system 5. Nov 9, 2022 · If you have a failed or failing data drive in the array, or if you just want to replace one of them. So the 57th bit of the parity drive is the parity bit for the 57th bit of all of the data drives. Still have to format the old parity but it will ask to do that when you start the array. adding a drive into the array just updating parity for the new drive and removing parity virtually from the drive to be removed. 1. For the cases (3) listed above, lets say we remove 1 data drive and add 1 new data drive in its place and let the raid rebuild that new data drive from the parity. disable docker and array auto start stop the array unassign old parity drive from parity slot start the array & stop the array power down, remove old parity drive & install new parity drive power Sep 30, 2023 · As title says is there a way to remove the unprotected warnings when not using a parity drive? I am just a simple home user and don’t care about data loss but I want to use Unraid for storage and docker. The following methods are for those who do not want to replace the drive, and are OK with a temporary loss of parity protection. Assign 18tb drive as Parity. See full list on docs. Stop the array. 3 I would like free up all the protection drive (i. The process of building parity will immediately begin. I have Nov 19, 2020 · Unraid only requires a clear disk when adding it to a new slot in an array that already has valid parity. Unraid server works in company and is used as backup storage for all pc(64) / servers(4). Using your unRAID web interface go to Utilities > New Config > Check the box and reset your drive config. " And it never did. The current alternative of doing a 'New Config' and then rebuilding parity from the remaining drives does leave a little window where another failure could cause a problem, but that was just as likely to have happened when trying to remove the drive Jul 30, 2023 · I added some new extra drives today, my new drives were bigger than what i had so i had to make a new array and make my new drive the parity drive. Apr 30, 2020 · One of my drives has failed, and I want to remove it from the array. I was going to use the 4tb I added as well as the first parity drive I already had installed which is 2tb. Boot system and assign old parity drive as a data drive 11. Stop the array by pressing "Stop" on the management interface. Google the unraid parity swap procedure. 2 due to a bug fixed in 6. You may have to stop the array and restart it for the parity size increase to take effectI can't remember if I did or not. In Unraid, the parity bits are stored on a parity drive independent of the data drives. 4. It only runs for the size of the small drive then, not the parity drive size. 2 x parity drive) from the array for temp. Or if you don’t care about a parity rebuild just edit the array config and put the new parity drive in the array and let it rebuild. E. I have already moved all the files from the disks I want to remove. Assign new drive as parity 6. disk 2 : 3tb. data storage. If it is not, follow the steps below. Start the Jan 9, 2025 · Good morning, I currently have an array with 12 data drives and want to remove the 8 smallest ones. zip Feb 8, 2022 · This video shows 2 ways to shrink an unraid array. One can dream Feb 17, 2014 · I'm currently running unRAID 5. (There is a method Jan 7, 2020 · I recently added a second parity drive 4tb in size. Now start the array to rebuild parity based on the remaining drives. Add old parity drive to a MZHOU SATA port 10. Oct 20, 2021 · Hello! I know this have been asked before but I just want to make sure I understand this correctly. I precleared both drives and put on in to replace the 1 TB parity drive. Also if I stop the array, I can't unassign that drive from parity and then assign as disk drive because unraid doesn't allow you to do this. Preserve current config ? do I select pools slots or drive slots? Remove the failed drive: The first step is to physically remove the failed parity drive from your UnRAID server. unassign the parity drive. You should try to: Select "no disk" on the drive you want to remove Start the Array so that Unraid forgets that this drive (S/N) is part of the Array Stop the Array Select this drive on the Parity slot Start the Array. Is there a way to follow the parity drive swap procedure and before removing the data disk for good, we can clear that data disk first? I assume that data on the data disk is safe to remove (if something happens then we have parity drive to restore back)? 6 days ago · Hello all,Currently I have unRAID 6. Power up server. assign the parity drive to a data drive slot. I am following along with the remove drives and rebuild parity method and had a question. 5 with six 2TB WD Green drives (1 parity, 5 data). I would like to remove a smaller drive and let parity rebuild the data on to other existing disks. How do I safely remove the failing parity drive? If it matters, I first created the array with a single parity drive and latter added a second parity drive. Today I wasn't thinking clearly and mistakenly put a new parity1 drive in my array which was without parity until then, now I realized my original plan was to put a bigger one as parity, I don't mind letting it rebuild parity, just wanna unassign the drive currently being used as parity1 and use it as data drive in the array, is that possible? Swapping out existing parity drives in UnRaid is a crucial maintenance task for users looking to maintain data integrity and reliability within your UnRaid s Mar 20, 2025 · I started a new config, removed the 18TB parity, and now it won't let me add a 2TB SSD as the new parity drive. Click the check box for Parity is already valid, make sure it is checked! Start the array! Apr 26, 2017 · i don't understand why removing a drive from the array necessitates rebuilding the entire parity though. Start array and let it rebuild parity 7. I've seen mention of "parity swap" feature but don't see it anywhere. This page describes how to do the 'Parity Swap' procedure, often known as the 'Swap Disable' procedure. Assign new drives to the aray. anyone ever do this/ Bob Oct 14, 2022 · Just doing some sanity check before replacing my old 10TB parity drive with something larger. Then you can format the old parity drive and add it to the array for data. remove parity 1 . disk 3 : 1tb Here is what I would like to do: 1. Apr 20, 2025 · I think I know the answer but want to check. Feb 20, 2025 · Hello all - Thank you in advance for any recommendations on the best course of action. 3. Build Parity drive. Nov 18, 2013 · The drive I will use during this guide is ‘disk 8’. 5Tb used the plan is to simply remove the failed drive, and not replace it, so basically reducing the size of the array from 8Tb to 7Tb. At the time i was new to unraid and didnt realise that even though i had a specific spec drive for my cameras, my parity drive would be busy writing all the changes too. Current config:Array of1x 1TB HDD - Parity - This drive is vibrating heavily1x 1TB HDD - Disk 1 - This drive is struggling to spin up1x 1TB HDD - Disk 2Pool Devices1x 250GB Feb 13, 2021 · Ok, so I would like to clarify for future readers, how exactly does one remove the 2nd parity drive, to be wiped clean for general use? I do not want to incorporate the drive in my array again. This parity bit works across the set of bits in the same relative bit position on each drive. Before we begin make sure you have the following: At least one parity drive in your array. Apr 25, 2018 · You did a check at the 1st of the month, but haven't done one since you rebuilt parity for the 2 drive removals. stop array + switch make party 2 to parity + start array again Dec 20, 2023 · 3. Devices page, then return to the unRAID Main page. The problem seems to be 2 issues in my Array. I then want to take the 8tb and another empty 4tb drive out of the system to use for a different bui Dec 31, 2015 · Hey Guys, I have an old 500GB drive that I want to remove from array. Only thing is that when I don’t use a parity drive there are so many warnings I would like to disable as visually find them annoying. UnRAID supports up to two parity drives; A Aug 27, 2019 · I originally had a 1 TB and 2TB HDD as my parity drives and 3 1TB hard drives for my data. My setup loks like this: parity 1 : 4tb. Nov 10, 2013 · To be able to remove a drive successfully all other drives and the parity drive need to be OK. At first I did not realize that I would only be able to add disk drives up to 2tb in size, since that is my smallest parity drive. What this does is reset the drive list that unRAID uses. Stop the array 2. I. Unraid does not require the replacement drive to be the same size as the old drive being replaced. I then removed the 2TB drive from the unraid parity and then swapped out one of the 1TB hdd in the data disk with the 4TB hdd. I took advantage of that in my testing, removing a 250GB data drive with a 5TB parity drive. I have an Unraid server with a total of 11 disks and no parity drive. I have enough space on the array to remove the disk and have parity protection again, but is it possible to remove a failed drive without losing all the data on it? Or is there a way to bring the failed drive back online long enough to move the data off of it and then remove it from the array? May 15, 2022 · The problem in all of those scenarios is this. Unraid will detect that the Parity Drive is missing. The drive i want to remove has nothing stored on it, however if i pull it and try and rebuild the config will I lose all my drive mapp Jan 28, 2022 · Struggling to find my exact scenario. After some research, some say it is as simple as 1. 11. Sep 9, 2016 · There's one other advantage to the parity protecting method, it can be much faster, if the drive to clear is much smaller than the parity drive, and turbo write is turned on. Puting array off for 24h is not acceptable and more over when parity will be rebuild on new disk there will be writes form backup to array too, so my old parity disk will be not valid if anything goes wrong. parity 2: 6tb disk 1 : 3tb. Remove the present Parity Drive. Mar 13, 2025 · Just stop the array, unassign the parity drive and then remove the old parity drive and add the new one, and start the array. Regardless he will be at risk for the rebuild when he adds the new drive, so what he should do is just change out all three. net Feb 8, 2018 · unRAID 6. 8. I'm on 7. Once I unassign the parity drive it warns you: "Start will disable the missing disk and then bring the array on-line. Mar 16, 2020 · 1). Power down. If there was a "remove drive" feature, it would have to do a complete pass on the drive being removed and update the parity drive based on the results => the system would be "at The added bit is known as a parity bit. select parity drive and then "unassigned" 3. Jul 8, 2017 · I currently have 6 disks in my array. (Use the dropdown box) 5. The wiki (and other resources) explain what Im currently have 6 drives taking up all my SATA ports and am trying to avoid using an HBA yet. Install new 16TB drive. Nov 10, 2013 · The first statement in the thread that describes how to do this in v4. In general, the best choice is to replace an unwanted or disabled drive by assigning a replacement drive, and allowing Unraid to rebuild it. start array But don't I need to do a "new config" for this? Apr 19, 2021 · I am currently have a 11 device array with 2 x parity disk under my Unraid 6. Install a replacement Apr 9, 2020 · 2. Remove 1 x 4tb drive, install 1 x 18tb drive and reinstall the 8tb drive. Verify serial number on this drive and set aside. unraid. 4. Start the array. The array doesn't have a parity device currently. This way, parity protection for the array is maintained. Mar 14, 2021 · I think Unraid tries to prevent a bad manipulation that would erase data in some situations. It says it's not the largest drive. Tools > New Config 3. It was never a "feature" of v4. In that case if a disk isn't clear Unraid will clear it, so preclear is really just for testing. Oct 8, 2018 · Is there any 'automated' or built in system or method to allow me to empty and remove drive(s) while keeping parity? I found a thread from 2013 about a method that requires putting the array in maintenance mode, running a command from console and waiting a long time, then creating a new configuration without the drive. I even rebooted to remove the 18TB drive and try again and still says my 2TB is not the largest drive. Swap the 2nd parity drive out and let UnRAID rebuild parity. stop array 2. I made the mistake of adding my security camera HDD to my main drive array. May 12, 2016 · Just to add some curve balls, lets say that i have a raid with 1 parity and 3 data drives. Install new drive on the same SATA port as the old parity drive 4. Assign the 16TB as Parity. Power down system 9. I bought 2 4TB HDD and want to add them to the unraid. 14 1x 20TB Parity Drive 13x Data drives of varying sizes I have maxed out my available drive slots in my case. I did i parity check which completed successfully Yet my drive is still disabled. Dec 15, 2022 · If you have your new drive already as unassigned in in UnRAID, skip these steps: Shut down your server by clicking MAIN -> REBOOT; physically remove the old drive for then server (optional) Install the new drive physically in the server; Boot the server; Go to the MAIN tab and click STOP, then click PROCEED The Parity Swap Procedure. Once I have copied all the data from it what do I do on the unraid WebUI to remove it from the array? I am running the latest v6 unraid. I just bought 1 disk that will be replacing 2 older drives. Jul 1, 2013 · 2. Nov 10, 2013 · There's really not much difference in the "at risk" time between what it would take to update parity to allow a drive to be removed, or to simply do a new parity sync. Yes - you can pre-clear a drive in parallel to any other array operation as a drive being pre-cleared is not part of the array. 0 w/ 2 parity drives One of my parity drives is failing (Reallocated sector count = 12 and growing). Just stop the array, unassign the parity drive and then remove the old parity drive and add the new one, and start the array. 7 => i. ? ? ? automatic zeroing/formatting by unRaid of the old parity drive to make it a data drive? 5. The first/original parity drive is failing. Aug 2, 2021 · How do I remove the parity drive on version 6. Install the replacement drive: Once you have removed the failed drive, you can install the replacement drive in the same slot. Double check all of the assignments, especially the parity drive(s)! If the cleared drive is “hot-swappable” you may now remove the cleared drive and follow the steps below. (VERIFY that all SATA DATA and Power connectors are firmly seated!!!!) 4. Jul 10, 2021 · during an unraid parity rebuild on a dual parity array let’s say a second drive fails - all my data would still be correct if I added back two drives and rebuilt right? I assume that the parity drives don’t stop doing their job during a rebuild, especially given it takes about 2 -days- for my array to do the parity. This is how. select new drive and the select "parity" 4. 2). Remove old parity drive 3. Prerequisites. Un-assign the drive on the 2. You may need this list if the "Retain current configuration" option doesn't work correctly 😳 Stop the array (if it is started) 😳 Rather than the procedure to remove a drive being: right-click the drive click Prepare for Removal. Tools, new config, preserve current assignments ALL, apply, go to main page, drop down the parity slot, VERIFY the serial number of the new parity drive, CHECK IT AGAIN. 3. Aug 21, 2022 · Power down, physically remove the old parity drive and and the 1TB drive, install the new parity drive, rearrange the drives the way you want in the case, power back up. stop + start array 3. My goal is not speed, but safety of data. I really wish there was a way to handle roaming elegantly. 2. Power on. 12. May 18, 2025 · Hi. So, remove your 2 drives, together this time, build parity, and let the monthly parity check on May 1 be your test that all your drive removals and parity rebuilds were handled successfully. fpage izr vlyg kkwqg adyx ivinnn aewn tmds eyiy nmqzwe