Lost pool via wipefs -a /dev/sdX

TrueNAS General
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I was using CHATGPT to assist with setting up my upgraded server/NAS and I blindly followed what it was saying without understanding why it was giving me those commands. I issued the “wipefs -a /dev/sdX” command to all the drives in the pool. No I cannot import the pool. Is it possible to get the pool back? I could connect the drives back to the old system, I did not wipe the original boot disk, and CHATGPT gave up on me.

Any ideas? Thanks for any help

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Welcome to TrueNAS and the forums!

Potentially you could get the data back. Checking the “wipefs -a” command and option, I see this:

So, in theory, re-adding the partition tables would then restore the ability to access the ZFS member disks.

However, this is complicated and further damage is possible for less skilled people. (Which I had to guess you are less skilled, because you used “wipefs” without knowing what it does…)

Your best bet is to find local help in re-creating the partitions by:

  • Testing on unused disk
  • Making a copy of one of the real disks, then trying it out on the copy
  • Whence the partition seems good, use zfs -l /dev/sdX# on the disk and partition to see if ZFS recognizes it.
  • If ZFS seems good, you can give it a try on the other real disks.

Note the sdX# requires replacing X with the device letter, and # with the new partition.

As for giving you step by step instructions, I won’t take that responsibility for your data. Sorry.

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Thanks for the quick reply. I was able to use Claude to assist in its recovery! It appears some AI are smarter than others!! Learned my lesson though!!

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It amazes me that people blindly follow AI agents. Yes, they are quite good, but there is always that 10-20% of the time when it hallucinates and leads you astray and people are doing this on their production systems :face_with_spiral_eyes:

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Sorry for your loss… but glad you recovered! :slight_smile:

FWIW: I always include something like the following for my AI inquiries:

## RULE
Assume the operator is a beginner at Linux and TrueNAS so provide clear stepped instructions.
Ask for clarifications if unsure or missing information.
Always provide a risk assessment on the proposed methods.
Provide a blast radius impact of the proposed solution or commands.
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I use AI often, always to realize they lose the original objective and they change variable names and they chase rabbits down holes. Eventually it will improve but if you are unfamiliar with the command you are typing, don’t do it! This morning i had to teach it some math, lol. It got lost in the trees and forgot about the forest.

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I… am not sure that was the lesson to be learnt here…

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That wasn’t my lesson, just an observation. CHATGPT gave up on me. It couldn’t recover my pools. I have learned to understand what AI is telling me before I execute its suggestion.

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Even the “best” can go very bad:

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That is bonkers. If I were their client, I would be looking for possible alternatives right about now; because that is unacceptable.

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That’s not the lesson. The lesson is don’t blindly trust any AI. Whatever answer you get, you check it, do your due diligence, and then perform a dry run or execute it on a test platform, with backups always in tow.

I use AI tools sparingly to steer me toward the answer but I never trust them. After all, they’re learning from resources that are filled with garbage among the correct information.

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