drives fell out of raid now listed as free

Z

zeroibis

n00b
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Jul 19, 2014
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I had 2 drives drop from my raid 6 array at the same time. However, they appear to be fine as in they are listed as free now by the controller and their SMART data looks good.

Here is some screen shots of the console:

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2.png


3.png


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Does anyone think it would be possible for me to get it to detect the disks again and just have them rejoin the array? Or am I going to need to try to rebuild the array on them as if they were new drives?

Any other comments / suggestions would be appreciated.
 
While it is most likely coincidence, it is strange that the 2 drives that dropped out almost simultaneously were both the same model (which is different than the other 6 in the box.) There are ways to rejoin lost drives or force them back into an array, but that is generally a last-chance affair. It is safer to make sure you have good backups, and then just readd the drives and let it rebuild. Have you updated your card to the latest Firmware/BIOS/etc?
 
I doubt that there has been any driver updates on such an old card in the last few years. I added those drives over a year ago and have never that I remember updated the firmware/bios of the card.

I suppose after the rebuild I can check and if available update the firmware/bios.

As for the rebuild should I have it rebuild 1 drive at a time or should/ can I have it do both at the same time?
 
Typical Areca firmware problem... Though it may also be caused by failing drives/bad cables/weak psu.

Resetting the raid / adding the drives without a rebuild may lead to inconsistent data, for example in directory/file metadata. Rebuild if possible, and if you have a small set of very important data backup that first of all. Make sure that you know which two drives have failed, and if another drive gets dropped during rebuild or backup and your raid fails completely remove these two drives and restart. If the last dropped drive isn't too damaged it may get reinserted into the raid if your controller is similar to the Arecas I've owned. If you restart with a failed raid and several dropped drives connected the controller might do stupid things like reinsert one of the older drives.

Check for firmware updates even if it's an old card, Areca have fixed some of the bugs causing similar problems.
 
Started the rebuild on the first drive (ch7) so hopefully it will finish up in about 13 hours. I also took some time to cut a hole in the wall to add a second ac vent to the room so that will at least keep things cool during the rebuild lol. (room temp would avg around 80F in summer)
 
Wanted to update this. A few weeks ago it spit out the two new drives. At this point I suspect the Y power adapter they share is a cause. I have replaced it and moved them to be on a less loaded PSU line. This was done a few weeks back and I have not had issues since. I am now very sure the underline issue was likely being caused by power issues. If the issue returns or for future builds I will be using those fancy molex to sata adapters that have the capacitors in them to stabilize the voltage.
 
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