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Replace HDD in RAID 5


Shai

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Hello,

 

First time post. I am running Xpenology on DSM 5.2 on an old Dell Optiplex 755 Tower.

 

Just recently, I noticed that watching any movies from the server were constantly pausing and buffering. One of the drives was reporting a number of IO errors and I did some network speed tests and I think this drive is causing the issue. I have bought another drive to replace the one I think is causing the issue.

 

Are there any steps I need to do first to replace the disk or can I just remove the faulty hard drive and insert the new one?

 

I was trying to add the extra drive as a 5th one first, but there are only 4 internal SATA ports and one eSAT port on  the motherboard. Is there a compatible PCIe SATA controller card I could try using?

 

I am just a little nervous as I do not want to lose all the data on the Xpenology box.

 

Thanks,

Shy

 

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Thank you. I will definitely write down the serial number and I have also marked the disks inside the Dell, so I know which one to remove and check against the serial number.

 

Getting lots of IO errors even though DSM says the disk is healthy.

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Beside the HDD itself and s-ata cables a faulty mainboard (conductor path, capacitor, etc) or dying PSU can also lead to these errors. To be sure about the suspicious HDD check it on another PC with a diagnostic tool from the HDD‘s manufacturer. If the drive is reported as healthy and the errors remain after the exchange you may think about replacing the old OptiPlex.

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Oh wow, this is really good advice. I really didn't think of these things, so I will definitely look at these options.

 

If it looks like I need to replace the old Optiplex, is there a way to save the data or will I have to back it all up somehow?

 

Thanks so much for your help and advice so far, I really appreciate it.

 

Shy

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15 minutes ago, Shai said:

is there a way to save the data or will I have to back it all up somehow

 

Backups are always welcome in case anything goes wrong. When using SHR (Synology Hybrid RAID) I would recommend to mark which HDD is on which port. Users had trouble with corrupted SHR volumes in the past when they disassembled their system and plugged in their drives in different order.

 

One cool feature of Synology/XPEnology is that you can take your HDDs and plug them into a new system. If you stay with your loader/DSM version only the MAC of your new PC has to be entered in the grub.cfg or set it within the boot menu (pressing 'C' and enter: set mac1={your MAC address}). But that's mandatory if you don't rely on WoL.

 

To test your new system you simply can create a new boot stick with the same loader version, put in a small HDD or SSD and make a test installation on it. Check if everything works as desired. After that you can power it off, replace the drives with your currently used HDDs, put in your "old" boot stick and fire it up.

 

22 minutes ago, Shai said:

Thanks so much for your help and advice so far, I really appreciate it

 

You're welcome.

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37 minutes ago, jensmander said:

When using SHR (Synology Hybrid RAID) I would recommend to mark which HDD is on which port.

 

That is a good idea, I have marked what number the drives are according to their serial number, but have not marked which SATA port on the motherboard they connect to, so I will definitely do that once the first part of the backup has completed.

 

39 minutes ago, jensmander said:

To test your new system

 

Pity I just sold an old working Q9300 CPU with motherboard, graphics card and 8GB RAM the other day. Such is life I guess. Thanks again.

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