can't add my previous hard drive volume

[claude]

guys,

this form has helped me once before and i'm back again. i don't know anything about the Linux OS and it is starting to show. i really need some help, i don't want to lose over 2TB of un-backed up data (yeah i know) on my newly purchased drive.

i was running fine with latest version of freenas 8.x on my newly purchased 4TB seagate hard drive and one smaller 250GB hard drive. i am the UFS file system and windows sharing. everything was working fine for several days then i think my USB flash drive got scrambled. the freenas box will not mount my volumes or allow me into the web gui. this was after trying to mount an external USB drive and got the same message i will talk about below.

i rebuilt the flash drive and got the freenas working again. i got back into the web gui and started working with the smaller drive first (thank god!) i tried to auto import the drive and got the following error: "error getting available space error getting total space unknown", so after trying several times decided to try the volume manager to add a volume. i selected the 250GB hard drive ignoring the warning "existing data will be destroyed". my thinking was that it would only destroy the shares i had created which i would have to recreate, but instead it erased my data!

so how can i mount the 4TB drive without losing my data? can someone please help me while remembering i'm a Linux newbie.


thanks.

 

[cyberjock]

If you created a new volume where your data was, kiss that data goodbye. There's no recovering from that.

I can't seem to figure out what your hard drive are used for.. you simply mention that you have 2 of them, but no comment as to how they were setup, which had data, what UFS typ(mirrored, striped, etc.).

 

[claude]

jock,

this ordeal caused me to go into shock, and into a blackhole not wanting to do anything with computers. the disk had family movies and pictures. i don't know why freenas would not recognize the drive but like you said i can kiss the data goodbye. i was setting up a simple jobd configuration and was going to use backup software.

anyways thanks for the reply and i will check out your guide, i my not work with freenas again.

 

[cyberjock]

Anytime you are dealing with partitions and disks(regardless of the OS) you have to have a VERY clear head and triple check that the choices you are making are the ones you want.(and never do it after having a couple of beers).

Also, backups are always highly recommended no matter how "reliable" you think your setup is. That darn human-error can bite you in the butt without you realizing it.

 

[claude]

hey, jock -

guess i'm into pain. back again and giving it another try. i can tell you are a smart guy and i want to ask you one more question before i run off and F#@& something up again. now i want to just setup 3 drives as JBOD. i'll manage my own backups. when adding each disk freenas is using 8% of the space on each drive. tell me i'm dong something wrong? out of a single new 4TB hard drive i'm only left with 3.3TB? is this correct? can it be changed?

thanks,

claude

 

[cyberjock]

http://petapixel.com/2012/10/10/why-hard-drives-and-memory-cards-have-less-space-than-advertised/

 

[claude]

jock,

yeah, i do know about this but it does seem to me that 8% is extreme. i think freenas is using too large of a swap file. thanks for hitting me back.


claude

 

[cyberjock]

Where are you getting 8% from? I'm confused...

 

[Whattteva]

guys,

this form has helped me once before and i'm back again. i don't know anything about the Linux OS and it is starting to show. i really need some help, i don't want to lose over 2TB of un-backed up data (yeah i know) on my newly purchased drive.

i was running fine with latest version of freenas 8.x on my newly purchased 4TB seagate hard drive and one smaller 250GB hard drive. i am the UFS file system and windows sharing. everything was working fine for several days then i think my USB flash drive got scrambled. the freenas box will not mount my volumes or allow me into the web gui. this was after trying to mount an external USB drive and got the same message i will talk about below.

i rebuilt the flash drive and got the freenas working again. i got back into the web gui and started working with the smaller drive first (thank god!) i tried to auto import the drive and got the following error: "error getting available space error getting total space unknown", so after trying several times decided to try the volume manager to add a volume. i selected the 250GB hard drive ignoring the warning "existing data will be destroyed". my thinking was that it would only destroy the shares i had created which i would have to recreate, but instead it erased my data!

so how can i mount the 4TB drive without losing my data? can someone please help me while remembering i'm a Linux newbie.


thanks.

Sorry for your loss, but I was surprised you completely ignored the warning. If memory serves me, doesn't that warning also happen to come with a red background on the entire GUI admin page? I don't know how else they are supposed to emphasize that the operation you're about to do is highly destructive.

An entire red background with a warning text should've set off all kinds of bells in your head. Especially, since it's data you do not want to lose. I know everytime I see something similar to that, I triple/quadruple check to make sure I REALLY REALLY want to go through with it.

 

[claude]

whattt,

yes, i know. it was late and i was making many mistakes and they just compounded. i wasn't paying attention to the drive as i haven't been exposed to drives labeled by the serial or ao1, etc. i'm a windows idiot who never worked will real software platforms. when dos was around i was an expert. since windows GUI came along i forgot how to even do line commands.

thanks for your sympathy, and trust me, from now on i will never ever just blow by warning without reading them.


claude