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Success! New cables arrived and rebuild of failed drive was successful. I think it was a power supply issues, but I cannot be sure because I changed cables and controller at the same time. The new controller was also much faster than my old solution. Rebuild has 97MB/s average, completing in 17 hours. My old solution would have used about 50-60 hours. Thanks for the help.

In my System Log I have observed the following error message: ntpd[1495]: kernel reports TIME_ERROR: 0x41: Clock Unsynchronized Does anyone know what this is?

Perhaps the Sharkoon REX8 value? This one has 7 external bays: https://www.sharkoon.com/product/1678/Rex8Val#desc

Your bottom disk will probably run very hot. Also the disk above might get hot as well because it will absorb heat from the disk below it. If you want to place them like this in the bottom of the case you are much better off if you put them on their sides with some air around them. Also, you can strip a fan somewhere, just to create some airflow along the drives. Any fan you might have laying around might to the job. At least your drives won’t cook. Also, make some kind of support so they don't tip over if you move the case.

Your drives don’t look very healthy. You will probably not be able to rebuild one of the disks, when you have two disks with these errors. I would try and backup the data from the disks to another place as soon as possible. I have learned a lot about SMART data in the last couple of months. I have three disks with exclamation marks on them. I did not take it too seriously because I did not understand the meaning of the SMART reports. When I get my Unraid back up and running I will start following the SMART reports on a monthly basis and look for trends. One interesting read was an article from Backblaze: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/what-smart-stats-indicate-hard-drive-failures/ It is about the statistical correlation between various SMART values and drive failures. Conclusion is that there are some values that need to be taken very seriously with regards to drive failures. If they start to change, it is time to swap out the drive. It might still be usable, but your data is not safe. The most problematic ones according to the article are these: Reallocated Sector Count Reported Uncorrectable Errors Command Timeout Current Pending Sector Count Uncorrectable Sector Count Your drives have high Current Pending Sector Count and Reallocated Sector Count.

I have done some searching and reading today. I have found that several users with this card (and some other models) have problems booting from USB when the LSI card is updated to the newer versions. I guess there might be some compatibility issues with some motherboards and boot sequences. The information in the threads was not conclusive however. However, I think I will leave the LSI card alone for the moment. When I get the cable I will try to use it and if it works out ok. I will not do any updating until it is required. Either way, I would still like some input on my questions above if anyone has any comments.

A third thing that is a bit confusing. On the LSI webpage these is both Bios and Firmware for the card: https://www.broadcom.com/support/download-search/?pg=Legacy+Products&pf=Legacy+Products&pn=SAS+9201-16i+Host+Bus+Adapter&po=&pa=&dk= Do I need to flash both, or does the firmware contain the bios? I think this is really confusing stuff. I am not very comfortable with it. I am just a computer layman, no IT professional. I don't think my MB support UEFI neither. Looks like that complicates the matter. I see that LSI has a utility called LSI Pre-Boot USB, but this looks like it is for newer cards?

I just got an LSI 9201-16i card I picked up from eBay. My first surprise when looking for information at the LSI support website is that the documentation for the card is severely lacking. It only contains a useless installation guide. Almost no other information is provided. There is no info on what the LED signals, no info on the configuration utility and no info on how to do updates. Pretty bad I must say. I expected better documentation. Guess I need some forum help instead. Hopefully there are som LSI owners that can shed some light on my questions. I plugged the card into my computer and booted up. I have no HDDs attached at the moment (waiting for cables). My Unraid runs on an older Asus P5B-E motherboard. The LSI posts the following during boot: LSI Corporation MPT SAS2 BIOS MPT2BIOS-7.05.01.00 (2010.02.09) Copyright 2000-2010 LSI Corporation Looks to me like the card is running an old bios version? Newest seems to be 7.27.01.01 on the LSI/Broadcom website. So, first question is: Do I need to update the card or will it run just fine without updating? I would prefer not to update if it is fine as it is. I also tried to access the LSI Corp Configuration Utility (CRTL+C during boot). When I do, nothing happens. The card posts that it will access the utility after initialisation. However, I only get a blank screen / nothing happening. So, second question is: How can I access the configuration utility? Do I need to have HDD’s attached to be able to load it? Do I need the configuration utility at all?

My bad, I figuered it out. Looks like the network cable was loose/not properly attached. Now onto the next problem. I will make a new thread for the LSI card and keep this for data rebuild.

Perhaps there is a simple answer to this: I booted up the system. I have a screen attached to the Unraid server. Also a wireless mouse and keyboard. On the screen I see: Tower login: _ However, I am not able to access the Unraid Web GUI from another computer. I have tried with two different ones. I think I have noticed this earlier, but I might be wrong. Is there something that causes the Web Gui to be deactivated if monitor/keyboard is attached to Unraid server?

My LSI card has arrived, but I am still waiting for the break-out cables. They will take another couple of days. Can I boot my existing Unraid installation without having any HDD's attached? My drives are completely disconnected. Is it ok to boot, or will it just mess things up? I just want to see if it boots up ok with the card installed.

BTW: Would there be any advantage for me to start with a new configuration, once I have successfully rebuilt my failed drive? My Unraid has been upgraded since version 4 (unsure from exact version). I am thinking that starting with a new config might have some advantages such as new files format? There might be other advantages as well?

This is hard to say. There was one power failure recently, but I cannot say for sure if it is connected. I ordered a new 850W EVGA PSU, that based on the reviews should be able to deliver ample stable power. I am still waiting for the new parts to arrive.

I pulled all the power cables and SATA cables to the HDD’s and wrote down the connections in a matrix to see if there is a common denominator for the drives that has random errors. Both drives are at the end of one of the molex power cables. I have a theory that this might be a contributing factor that could explain some of the problems I am experiencing. This could explain why I do not get any errors during SMART test but do get errors during rebuild. During SMART one or two drives are running. The other drives are idling or in standby. During rebuild all drives are at full work and probably drawing maximum power. Perhaps the PSU is struggling to deliver stable power from the 12V rail to all drives? Perhaps it becomes unstable or there are small fluctuations that cause random read errors? Could this also explain why I have had several drive failures? Can bad/low quality power cause pending sectors or bad sectors? What do you think of this theory? At least this little exercise has made is clear to me that I should get a new power supply just to be certain. Also, I plan to runs some days of stability tests while waiting for the LSI card and cables. I think I will run the memory and CPU test on the Ultimate Boot CD. This way I am assured that the rest of the system is stable.

BTW, here is diagnostics. Edit: Diagnostics removed.