[SOLVED] Raid 6 issues. Where to go from here?

[BlindBayMark]

Hello all. I'm looking for advice on what to do with my current media server. Currently I'm running 8x4TB WD Red in Raid-6 on an Adaptec 5805 controller card. One of the disks in the array has recently failed. The array is nearly full of video files. only a little over 3TB available. The Adaptec controller card is so old there haven't been updated drivers for years and the Adaptec Storage manager tool doesn't appear to work with the drivers Windows 10 is installing. I'm trying to figure out how best to repair/expand my current storage. Also, the only software requirements the server really has is running Emby and serving web pages.

Should I...

a) Buy a new 4TB drive and try to repair the array or just scrap the current array and buy new drives?
b) Switch to something like FreeNas or Unraid and create a new storage pool with a couple of larger drives?
c) Something else?

I'm not rich (unfortunately) so buying something crazy like 8 or more 10+TB drives isn't possible. As much as I'd like to.

 

[USAFRet]

With a RAID 6, you simply replace the failed drive and let it rebuild the array.
Of course, if they are all identical drives, the others may be near failing as well. Rebuilding the array will stress all drives for however long it takes to rebuild.

Is there an actual backup of this data outside the RAID array?

 

[BlindBayMark]

Important documents and files are backed up, but there is no backup of the majority of the arrays content. It's loss would be very unfortunate but not a "Oh god, my life is over" event.

Stressing out the array is what concerns me, and what prompted me to ask for advice in the first place. I lost an array about 6 years ago when I upgraded from 2TB drives to the 4TB drives I have currently. In hindsight I should have purchased another controller card also and created a second array instead of replacing the 2TB drives one at a time.

 

[USAFRet]

"unfortunate "

Just know that any physical drive can die at any moment. RAID, of any type, is not a substitute for a true backup.
Rebuilding this array WILL stress all the other drives. Since one has already failed, and presumably they are the same type and age...

And data loss is almost ALWAYS a case of "in hindsight, I should have..."

RAID is good for uptime. Not data protection.

 

[popatim]

I would go with the plan of a second controller and new drives since there is no full backup to restore from. From there is easy, just copy the data over.