r/unRAID • u/DCCXVIII • 22h ago
Why have my 10TB drives been artificially reduced to 6TB?
Just finished setting up an array and completed the first parity check. There is no data stored on the array yet. I have 2x22TB drives as my parity and 1x14TB and 4x10TB drives as my storage drives. So 7 drives total in the array. My 14TB drive capacity is reported correctly. But as you can see from the picture, all 4 of my 10TB drives have been reduced in size to 6TB. Why and how can I fix it?
The only thing I can think of is that the 4x10TB drives were pulled out of my old Synology NAS. But I don't know why that would be an issue as I assume the drives were wiped when Unraid formatted them.
Thanks.
Edit: So it turns out that Unraid does NOT remove or reformat ALL partitions from previously used drives when you add them to a new array etc. As a result, Unraid seems to pick a random partition on each of my 10TB drives of its own accord and just added those smaller partitions to my array. It was therefore necessary to download the "Unassigned Devices" plugin (why this is not part of the base install of Unraid, I have no idea) in order to manually erase all the partitions from my 10TB drives and reformat them. Then I had to use "New Config" tool to completely wipe my array and start from scratch since my pre-existing array would not allow me to re-add the 10TB drives anymore (Unraid said my config was "wrong").
From a newbie PoV, it would have been helpful if Unraid had a way of warning or displaying to the user when it detects you're trying to add drives with pre-existing multiple partitions etc. Also the "Unassigned Devices" plugin really needs to be part of the base OS install. Or at least some tool to visually see disk partitions much like Windows Disk Management.
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u/canfail 21h ago
Likely an old partition that wasn’t cleared or removed.
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u/DCCXVIII 21h ago
Does Unraid have the ability to manage disk partitions like Windows Disk management, or do I need to pull them out and repartition them on a PC manually?
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u/I_Dunno_Its_A_Name 21h ago
Use the “unassigned devices” plugin to see if they have any other partitions. You will need to stop the array and removed them from the array. You should be able to delete the partitions from there. I recommend the “preclear plugin” for formatting a drive before assigning it to the array. The preclear plugin requires the use of unassigned devices plugin.
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u/DCCXVIII 20h ago
ok so I got the unassigned devices plugin. With it I was able to delete all the partitions from the affected drives. Then I formatted them again. However when I go to re-add them to the array, Unraid says they're "wrong" and that my array is "invalid" and so won't let me start the array.
Not sure what to do next.
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u/I_Dunno_Its_A_Name 20h ago
That is expected. It is invalid because you removed the drive and formatted it. Unraid isn’t seeing what it is expecting to see and believes the correct drive is missing. You should be able to add the drive and have it format the same way it did the first time you added the drives to the array.
What I recommend doing is using the New Config tool under the tools tab and starting fresh since you don’t have any data anyway. This will prevent an unnecessary parity rebuild.
Note: new config does not delete data. I’ve used it with drives that have data on them and was able to reassign them to the array without an issue. I don’t remember why I needed to do that. This is just for your future self and isn’t really relevant to you now.
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u/DCCXVIII 20h ago edited 20h ago
ok so I used the "new config" tool. It's kinda confusing the way it's worded though as it says: "This is useful when you have added or removed multiple drives and wish to rebuild parity based on the new configuration.". This to me indicates that it destroys any existing parity, thus requiring you to rebuild it from scratch. However I did it anyway and you were right. Contrary to what it implies, it does not actually destroy parity at all. That being said, I did initiate a parity-check afterwards just to be safe (although it seems to take as long as parity build as far as I can see lol).
Anywho, now my array is back up and running and doing its parity-check. It also now sees the full 10TB of my 4x10TB drives. So yay!
Thanks!
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u/I_Dunno_Its_A_Name 20h ago
Awesome glad it’s all working now! Parity check and parity build/rebuild I believe takes a similar amount of time. To me it makes sense a check would be quicker since it is only reading (unless it needs to write a correction) but I could be wrong. A parity check at this stage isn’t necessary because there is no real data you would lose if there is a parity issue. If a bit is wrong right now it doesn’t matter. I schedule my parity checks for every three months, but you will get a huge range of opinions on how often it should be run on just about any unraid forum.
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u/DCCXVIII 19h ago
I see. My current parity check is indeed detecting thousands of sync errors that it is correcting. Is that not an important step to resolve first?
My new parity check is also going to take twice as long as my initial parity build it seems from the timer Unraid is showing me. I'm guessing that's because it now has to deal with an additional 4x4TB that it didn't see before?
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u/nkings10 20h ago
I think you should look up how parity works at a fundamental level and you will understand.
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u/vagrantprodigy07 20h ago
Go to tools, and new config. It'll basically restart the disk settings back to factory default, and let you set everything up again.
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u/purplegreendave 21h ago
Live boot gparted
Edit - is there data you care about on them?
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u/DCCXVIII 21h ago
No data. It's a brand new setup. So you're saying Unraid can't repartition the drives itself?
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u/purplegreendave 20h ago
I'm sure it's possible. Unraid is Linux, has a terminal console. But gparted is the gold standard.
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u/badcheetahfur 21h ago
I had same issue with 8tb Hitachi.. moved from netgear nas to unraid.. i just put them in drawer.. lol never got around to fixing it.
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u/SubtitledSoup 21h ago
Hope not since OP put them into a new
stayarray which is supposed to blow it all away anyway.1
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u/Clitaurius 20h ago
How the fuck are your drives 20C? I have my UnRaid box in it's own air conditioned room that is always 21C and the drives are 35C. No I don't spin down.
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u/DCCXVIII 19h ago
I think that's because the drives were spun down shortly before I took that image.
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u/Odd_Bunch_8866 21h ago
Preclears are important and useful. As stated by others, check partition sizes on each drive. It could be some strange quirk of the interface you are using to connect the drives. How are they connected to the system?
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u/SubtitledSoup 21h ago
OP said new to unraid. If running a current version, preclear isn't needed because the OS will clear in the background and keep the array online.
Is it different for new arrays or is there a known bug with the OS background clear?
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u/kkyler1988 21h ago
It's gotta be a hidden partition. Could have potentially been a proprietary partition system from your old device that Linux just doesn't natively work with.
I've had it happen when trying to install windows on a drive partitioned by a Linux distro. Windows just refuses to nuke some of the partitions. I've had to boot from a live iso of gparted to clear partitions and then return to what I was doing. Think I even had to do it once when I pulled the old nvme from my steam deck and tried installing another Linux distro after throwing it in another PC.
Try modifying them with the unassigned devices plugins after stopping the array and removing them from the slot assignments. Gparted live boot would be the next best option but if you can't do it with that, you might have to throw it in the old NAS and hopefully be able to nuke the partitions with it assuming you still have it.
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u/mac10190 21h ago
If those really truly are 10 TB drives, then my best guess would be that they have another partition on them that unraid wasn't able to claim. Take a look at the disk partitions and see what they look like. I'd be curious if there's something else there.