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Difference between disk verify and volume validate

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(@dhanson)
Posts: 9
Member
Topic starter
 

Disk "verify" and volume "validate" seem to do very similar read tests. Is there an important difference I'm missing?

What is the criteria for choosing one over another?

Also... Why do many external drives not report any SMART info or hours used? Is SMART only read over SATA interface?

Thanks!
DH

 
Posted : 13/09/2016 3:57 pm
(@softraid-support)
Posts: 8008
Member Admin
 

Verify takes a disk and reads the disk, to be sure it is readable. It is a simple function performed on the entire disk.

Validate is a volume based function. it has two purposes:
It ensures all data in the volume is readable (like a verify, but only in the volume area)
For RAID volumes, like Mirrors and RAID 5, it compares all data against the parity data and updates it if necessary. This is useful to make sure all the data in the volume has up to date parity information.

As a side note, SoftRAID does not update parity information on unused portitions of a disk until a full rebuild is performed. (there is no need). A validate will update parity in the entire volume, including parts which have never been written to.

SMART data is generally not available over FireWire, USB, or some eSATA buses. Thunderbolt does support SMART data. So SoftRAID has no access to SMART parameters on buses that do not pass this information through.

 
Posted : 13/09/2016 5:02 pm
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