Raid help

[bemficag]

Hey Guys,

I have two question about Raid. First of all, I just bought fours Seagate Barracuda (ST310005N1A1AS-RK) 1TB each, to be used on Raid 5. So, I've tried to format them but I cannot get the 100% of the size. I mean I only can get something like 970 GB.
So, someone knows how to solve this problem?

Second, I had used the Linuxmce 0710 for a long time wih raid 5, and I had tons of movies, musics, and pictures. So, I don't know why, but I decided to upgrade the version to 0810. Then, I did the upgrade, and after the installation I set up the old Raid 5 on Pluto structure but I couldnt get my files back. I dont know if the files still there or they gone.

Somebody can help me about it??

Best regards

Bemfica

[bemficag]

Hi everybody,

So, I still needing your help, please!

Thanks

[sambuca]

I'll try to help, having used raid5 in lmce in the past (ditched it when moving to 810). Now I instead use an external USB disk as backup for my data and non-raid disk in lmce. As RAID is no backup solution, you need backup anyway. RAID is really best for increasing availability of the data.

1. Did you format using ext3? In that case it may be that you see the same problem as mentioned here http://boncey.org/2006_11_18_reclaiming_ext3_disk_space, that disk space is reserved for the super-user.

2. Don't know for sure what lmce does when it sets up a raid5, assuming you set it up in the web admin. I would try to verify that the raid settings are in fact correct, and check from the console if you see anything on the drives.
You say upgrade, and I assume you did a new install with 810 (as there is no upgrade path). Did you keep the install from messing with your raid disks?

best regards,
sambuca

[tempx]

Hi,

Regarding your first question I believe that it could depend on a number of this but if I should guess most likely not all disks has been included in the raid. Check with mdadm command wich disks have been included and verify that the raid is ok. I would recomend to set up the new raid array trough linuxmce webadmin, then you can monitor the progress and see if something goes wrong during the setup.

Regarding your second question: I managed to bring up an already created raid array when reinstalling lmce 810 from scratch. I first installed kubuntu 8.10 and then activated the raid with the command "sudo mdadm --assemble --scan", the raid device was then visible in the /dev directory.  I then installed linuxmce and the raid array was automatically detected.

I do not know if this could be of any help, but I hope you manage to get your raid up and working again.

Good luck.

Best regards

[bemficag]

Thanks tempx... I'll try to do what you said.

Happy holidays

Bemfica