EARS Jumpered / Unjumpered Thread


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There have been so many questions and confusion about the EARS and whether they should be jumpered or unjumpered.  I thought I would create this sticky and ask people to refer people to this post when they ask question related to the EARS and jumpering drives.  The goal is that it will answer all of the questions and reduce the time we spend answering questions on this topic.

 

Please help me review this.

 

Moderators - feel free to directly edit.  Others, reply in this thread with updates or suggestions.  But be warned that comment posts will be deleted after they are applied.  In the end this will be a single post locked thread.   - bjp999

 

Before reading further, immediately go into the unRAID "Setting" tab, and change the value of "Default partition format" to 4K aligned.  This will not affect in any way drives that are already in use by unRAID.  It simply sets things up so that future disks that are precleared, rebuilt, or added to the array directly are aligned on sector 64.  This assumes you are using unRAID 4.7 or newer.

 

Several of the steps below require you to know the partition alignment of your EARS drive(s).  The easiest way is to use myMain (part of unmenu) and go to the Inventory tab.  It will tell you the alignment (either 63 or 64).  If is is blank, it means that unRAID (or preclear) will create the partition based on the "Default partition format" you just set.

 

The following should guide what you do with an EARS drive.

 

1. If you buy a new EARS drive, do not install jumpers.  Preclear the disk.  Make sure preclear tells you it will align the partition at sector 64.

 

2. If you have a jumpered EARS, already in your array, and aligned at sector 63, LEAVE IT ALONE.  There is zero performance advantage in removing the jumper and moving to sector 64 alignment.

 

3. If you have a jumpered EARS, already in your array, and aligned at sector 64, and you are not experiencing performance problems, LEAVE IT ALONE.  (You always have the option of later changing the partition alignment.)

 

4. If you have a jumpered EARS, already in your array, and aligned at sector 64, and you ARE having performance problems, follow the steps below (TO REMOVE THE JUMPER ON AN EARS DRIVE ALREADY IN THE ARRAY)

 

5.  If you have an unjumpered EARS, already in your array, and aligned at sector 64, LEAVE IT ALONE.  This is the optimal setting you are looking for.

 

6.  If you have an unjumpered EARS and it is already in your array, aligned at sector 63, and are not experienceing performance problems, LEAVE IT ALONE.  (You always have the option of later changing the partition.)

 

7.  If you have an unjumpered EARS and it is already in your array, aligned at sector 63, and you are experiencing performance problems, follow the steps below (TO PROPERLY ALIGN AN UNJUMPERED EARS DRIVE ALREADY IN THE ARRAY)

 

8.  If you have an unjumpered EARS that is NOT in the array (e.g., was previously used in another system) and, is aligned at sector 64, treat as any other disk to be added.  You should preclear it and add it to the array in the normal way.

 

9.  If you have an EARS that is NOT in the array (e.g., was previously used in another system), and did not meet the critieria in #8 above, follow the steps below (TO ADD A USED EARS DRIVE TO THE ARRAY).

 

10.  If you have used the "WD align" software, it is unknown how you should proceed.  Ask a question in the general support forum to see if other users have recommendations.  

 

11. If we've omitted your situation, please create a post in general support forum.

 

 

TO REMOVE THE JUMPER ON AN EARS DRIVE ALREADY IN THE ARRAY

 

1 - Make sure the unRAID alignment setting is "4K aligned"

2 - Take a screenshot of the unRAID main page.  Save it in a JPG or print it out.

3 - Stop the array

4 - Unassign the disk from the array

5 - Start the array (may need to check the checkbox to start the array) - THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT.  Array must be started with disk missing.

6 - Stop the array

7 - Power down

8 - Remove the jumper

9 - Power up

10 - From telnet prompt run the following commad.  This clears the MBR and is necessary to change the partition alignment.

 

dd if=/dev/zero count=200 of=/dev/sdX

 

where sdX the is device.  Look on unmenu, myMain or the unRAID devices page for the 3 letter device code (e.g., sda, sdb, ...)

 

11 - Reboot (click reboot buttong on unRAID GUI)

12 - Array should not start automatically.  DO NOT START IT YET!

13 - Preclear (optional - if you precleared it when it was new and it is not giving trouble, no need to preclear it again)

14 - Verify that the unjumpered disk is assigned to its prior slot (e.g., if this was disk3, make sure the disk is again assigned to disk3)

15 - If not - go to the devices page and assign it to the devices page

16- Go to main page and compare it to the screenshot taken in step 2

17 - You should see unRAID saying that it will rebuild the disk.  (You may need to click a checkbox to enable the start button)

18 - Start the array

19 - Disk will rebuild, let it finish

20 - Verify contents of rebuilt disk

 

TO PROPERLY ALIGN AN UNJUMPERED EARS DRIVE ALREADY IN THE ARRAY

 

1 - Make sure the unRAID alignment setting is "4K aligned"

2 - Take a screenshot of the unRAID main page.  Save it in a JPG or print it out.

3 - Stop the array

4 - Unassign the disk from the array

5 - Start the array (may need to check the checkbox to start the array) - THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT.  Array must be started with disk missing.

6 - Stop the array

7 - From telnet prompt run the following commad.  This clears the MBR and is necessary to change the partition alignment.

 

dd if=/dev/zero count=200 of=/dev/sdX

 

where sdX the is device.  Look on unmenu, myMain or the unRAID devices page for the 3 letter device code (e.g., sda, sdb, ...)

 

8 - Reboot (click reboot buttong on unRAID GUI)

9 - Array should not start automatically.  DO NOT START IT YET!

10 - Preclear (optional - if you precleared it when it was new and it is not giving trouble, no need to preclear it again)

11 - Verify that the unjumpered disk is assigned to its prior slot (e.g., if this was disk3, make sure the disk is again assigned to disk3)

12 - If not - go to the devices page and assign it to the devices page

13- Go to main page and compare it to the screenshot taken in step 2

14 - You should see unRAID saying that it will rebuild the disk.  (You may need to click a checkbox to enable the start button)

15 - Start the array

16 - Disk will rebuild, let it finish

17 - Verify contents of rebuilt disk

 

TO ADD A USED EARS DRIVE TO THE ARRAY

 

1 - Make sure the unRAID alignment setting is "4K aligned"

2 - Take a screenshot of the unRAID main page.  Save it in a JPG or print it out.

3 - If EARS is jumpered ...

  - Power down the server

  - Remove the jumper

  - Power up the server

4 - From telnet prompt run the following commad.  This clears the MBR and is necessary to change the partition alignment.

 

dd if=/dev/zero count=200 of=/dev/sdX

 

where sdX the device.  Look on the unRAID devices page for the 3 letter device code (e.g., sda, sdb, ...)

 

5 - Reboot (click reboot buttong on unRAID GUI)

6 - Preclear the disk (use the -n option to skip the pre and post read if you have confidence in the drive)

7 - Drive is ready to be added to the array

 

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There have been a number of people that had issues with an EARS when the jumper state was changed. I wouldn't recommend ever changing the jumper state on an EARS. People have removed the jumper and then have the drive throw a lot of errors while trying to use it. Sometimes a preclear or 2 will get it working again but a few times people ended up just RMA'ing the drives.

 

Also, you have nothing specificially about adding a new drive.

 

I would do this as 4 different procedures;

 

TO PROPERLY INSTALL A JUMPERED EARS DRIVE - basically set to unaligned and install.

 

TO PROPERLY INSTALL AN UNJUMPERED EARS DRIVE - basically set to 4k aligned and install.

 

TO PROPERLY ALIGN A JUMPERED EARS DRIVE - clear the mbr and use the unaligned setting.

 

TO PROPERLY ALIGN AN UNJUMPERED EARS DRIVE - clear the mbr and use the 4k aligned setting.

 

 

And leave it at that. Removing the jumper just adds confusion to the mix. The install would be the same for a new or used drive.

 

Peter

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There have been a number of people that had issues with an EARS when the jumper state was changed. I wouldn't recommend ever changing the jumper state on an EARS. People have removed the jumper and then have the drive throw a lot of errors while trying to use it. Sometimes a preclear or 2 will get it working again but a few times people ended up just RMA'ing the drives.

 

Also, you have nothing specificially about adding a new drive.

 

I would do this as 4 different procedures;

 

TO PROPERLY INSTALL A JUMPERED EARS DRIVE - basically set to unaligned and install.

 

TO PROPERLY INSTALL AN UNJUMPERED EARS DRIVE - basically set to 4k aligned and install.

 

TO PROPERLY ALIGN A JUMPERED EARS DRIVE - clear the mbr and use the unaligned setting.

 

TO PROPERLY ALIGN AN UNJUMPERED EARS DRIVE - clear the mbr and use the 4k aligned setting.

 

 

And leave it at that. Removing the jumper just adds confusion to the mix. The install would be the same for a new or used drive.

 

Peter

 

I thought the drive hangs wound up being related to preclear issues.  Joe L., care to comment here.  Can you post some links to threads of users having issues removing the jumper that would not be addressed through the documented procedure?

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Added a brief mention.  I don't think we know exactly what do to with WD aligned drives.

 

From what I read, it moves the partition so that it is aligned. Repartitioning the drive should undo WD align. A drive with a single WD aligned partition should be treated as a jumpered drive. If the drive is repartitioned, it should be treated as unjumpered.

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  • 2 weeks later...

What about jumpered drives in the array that you are not changing?  I thought it was said once jumpered just leave it.

 

Moving forward, set to 4k-aligned, add new EARS drive no jumper and use the -A command with preclear and you are set.

 

Is this not accurate?  The thought is there is no gain for existing drives, so just leave them.  Then when adding new drives, set the 4k and align it with preclear and -A.

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What about jumpered drives in the array that you are not changing?  I thought it was said once jumpered just leave it.

 

Moving forward, set to 4k-aligned, add new EARS drive no jumper and use the -A command with preclear and you are set.

 

Is this not accurate?  The thought is there is no gain for existing drives, so just leave them.  Then when adding new drives, set the 4k and align it with preclear and -A.

 

Yes.

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Added a brief mention.  I don't think we know exactly what do to with WD aligned drives.

 

From what I read, it moves the partition so that it is aligned. Repartitioning the drive should undo WD align. A drive with a single WD aligned partition should be treated as a jumpered drive. If the drive is repartitioned, it should be treated as unjumpered.

 

Here is a quote from Limetech on the WD alignment tool: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=9936.msg94986#msg94986

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TO PROPERLY ALIGN AN UNJUMPERED EARS DRIVE ALREADY IN THE ARRAY

 

1 - Make sure the unRAID alignment setting is "4K aligned"

2 - Take a screenshot of the unRAID main page.  Save it in a JPG or print it out.

3 - Stop the array

4 - Unassign the disk from the array

5 - Start the array (may need to check the checkbox to start the array) - THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT.  Array must be started with disk missing.

6 - Stop the array

7 - From telnet prompt run the following commad.  This clears the MBR and is necessary to change the partition alignment.

 

dd if=/dev/zero count=200 of=/dev/sdX

 

where sdX the is device.  Look on unmenu, myMain or the unRAID devices page for the 3 letter device code (e.g., sda, sdb, ...)

 

8 - Reboot (click reboot buttong on unRAID GUI)

9 - Array should not start automatically.  DO NOT START IT YET!

10 - Preclear (optional - if you precleared it when it was new and it is not giving trouble, no need to preclear it again)

11 - Verify that the unjumpered disk is assigned to its prior slot (e.g., if this was disk3, make sure the disk is again assigned to disk3)

12 - If not - go to the devices page and assign it to the devices page

13- Go to main page and compare it to the screenshot taken in step 2

14 - You should see unRAID saying that it will rebuild the disk.  (You may need to click a checkbox to enable the start button)

15 - Start the array

16 - Disk will rebuild, let it finish

17 - Verify contents of rebuilt disk

 

Why is step 8 needed?

 

TO REMOVE THE JUMPER ON AN EARS DRIVE ALREADY IN THE ARRAY

 

1 - Make sure the unRAID alignment setting is "4K aligned"

2 - Take a screenshot of the unRAID main page.  Save it in a JPG or print it out.

3 - Stop the array

4 - Unassign the disk from the array

5 - Start the array (may need to check the checkbox to start the array) - THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT.  Array must be started with disk missing.

6 - Stop the array

7 - Power down

8 - Remove the jumper

9 - Power up

10 - From telnet prompt run the following commad.  This clears the MBR and is necessary to change the partition alignment.

 

dd if=/dev/zero count=200 of=/dev/sdX

 

where sdX the is device.  Look on unmenu, myMain or the unRAID devices page for the 3 letter device code (e.g., sda, sdb, ...)

 

11 - Reboot (click reboot buttong on unRAID GUI)

12 - Array should not start automatically.  DO NOT START IT YET!

13 - Preclear (optional - if you precleared it when it was new and it is not giving trouble, no need to preclear it again)

14 - Verify that the unjumpered disk is assigned to its prior slot (e.g., if this was disk3, make sure the disk is again assigned to disk3)

15 - If not - go to the devices page and assign it to the devices page

16- Go to main page and compare it to the screenshot taken in step 2

17 - You should see unRAID saying that it will rebuild the disk.  (You may need to click a checkbox to enable the start button)

18 - Start the array

19 - Disk will rebuild, let it finish

20 - Verify contents of rebuilt disk

 

Why is step 11 needed? The array has just been booted.

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  • 2 months later...

I'm at my wits end with EARS drives!  >:(

 

(tl;dr version at the bottom)

 

About a year ago, I bought a EARS drive to use as a parity drive(not knowing about the Advanced Format issue), so when I first popped it in without the jumper the parity sync was going at about 1-5MB/s or less. After finding out the issue I tried putting the jumper on it, but that caused a bunch of errors. Had to RMA the drive, and when the replacement arrived I jumpered it right away, and put it in it in. Every worked smoothly, parity sync was going at about 40MB/s iirc.

 

Fast forward to last week.

 

The EARS started showing errors after parity checks, and had a bunch of warnings on the SMART test. So I RMA'd it again, I upgraded UnRaid to 4.7 to support AF drives, and popped in the replacement WITHOUT the jumper... parity sync was ONCE AGAIN going at 1-5MB/s. Looked around the forums, found out I forgot to change the settings in Unraid to support the AF format, DOH! Ok, fine, followed the instructions under "TO PROPERLY ALIGN AN UNJUMPERED EARS DRIVE ALREADY IN THE ARRAY" in the first post on this thread, did the preclear, and 50hrs later parity sync STILL goes at 1-5MB/s (though it occasionally seems to spike up to 10-20MB/s, only for a minute every hour at best), and started having SMART errors ("sectors pending" I think). Looked around the forums again, and I *THINK* I saw a post that said if you used a EARS drive with the wrong alignment settings, it gets stuck that way and cant be changed, and will start having errors if you try to change it (I cant for the life of me find that post again). Is this the case, or has all this frustration finally driven me insane?

 

tl;dr -

Popped in an unjumpered EARS drive with the wrong alignment settings in Unraid 4.7. Corrected the alignment settings, followed the instructions on the first post, parity sync speeds still go at about 1-5MB/s and caused SMART warnings. Is this drive pretty much scrap now and requires replacement AGAIN?

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I'm at my wits end with EARS drives!  >:(

 

(tl;dr version at the bottom)

 

About a year ago, I bought a EARS drive to use as a parity drive(not knowing about the Advanced Format issue), so when I first popped it in without the jumper the parity sync was going at about 1-5MB/s or less. After finding out the issue I tried putting the jumper on it, but that caused a bunch of errors. Had to RMA the drive, and when the replacement arrived I jumpered it right away, and put it in it in. Every worked smoothly, parity sync was going at about 40MB/s iirc.

 

Fast forward to last week.

 

 

Agreed, they are total crap. Too much hassle and they are already giving me smart errors of bad blocks and they are a LOT newer than my healthy regular drives. AVOID at all costs.

The EARS started showing errors after parity checks, and had a bunch of warnings on the SMART test. So I RMA'd it again, I upgraded UnRaid to 4.7 to support AF drives, and popped in the replacement WITHOUT the jumper... parity sync was ONCE AGAIN going at 1-5MB/s. Looked around the forums, found out I forgot to change the settings in Unraid to support the AF format, DOH! Ok, fine, followed the instructions under "TO PROPERLY ALIGN AN UNJUMPERED EARS DRIVE ALREADY IN THE ARRAY" in the first post on this thread, did the preclear, and 50hrs later parity sync STILL goes at 1-5MB/s (though it occasionally seems to spike up to 10-20MB/s, only for a minute every hour at best), and started having SMART errors ("sectors pending" I think). Looked around the forums again, and I *THINK* I saw a post that said if you used a EARS drive with the wrong alignment settings, it gets stuck that way and cant be changed, and will start having errors if you try to change it (I cant for the life of me find that post again). Is this the case, or has all this frustration finally driven me insane?

 

tl;dr -

Popped in an unjumpered EARS drive with the wrong alignment settings in Unraid 4.7. Corrected the alignment settings, followed the instructions on the first post, parity sync speeds still go at about 1-5MB/s and caused SMART warnings. Is this drive pretty much scrap now and requires replacement AGAIN?

 

Totally AGREE!  Too much hassle and the two I have added are already showing block errors and they are a lot newer than my old, but healthy drives. I already pulled one and replaced with a regular drive. Will do the same to the other soon.

 

AVOID at ALL costs.

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Well, I've just found out that my EARS drives already in the array are unjumpered. In the future, I'll align those drives to 4K, but I'd like to be sure that the following procedure WILL NOT erase my drives (they don't need pre-clearing again) in unRaid 4.7:

 

 

TO PROPERLY ALIGN AN UNJUMPERED EARS DRIVE ALREADY IN THE ARRAY

 

1 - Make sure the unRAID alignment setting is "4K aligned"

2 - Take a screenshot of the unRAID main page.  Save it in a JPG or print it out.

3 - Stop the array

4 - Unassign the disk from the array

5 - Start the array (may need to check the checkbox to start the array) - THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT.  Array must be started with disk missing.

6 - Stop the array

7 - From telnet prompt run the following commad.  This clears the MBR and is necessary to change the partition alignment.

 

dd if=/dev/zero count=200 of=/dev/sdX

 

where sdX the is device.  Look on unmenu, myMain or the unRAID devices page for the 3 letter device code (e.g., sda, sdb, ...)

 

8 - Reboot (click reboot buttong on unRAID GUI)

9 - Array should not start automatically.  DO NOT START IT YET!

10 - Preclear (optional - if you precleared it when it was new and it is not giving trouble, no need to preclear it again)

11 - Verify that the unjumpered disk is assigned to its prior slot (e.g., if this was disk3, make sure the disk is again assigned to disk3)

12 - If not - go to the devices page and assign it to the devices page

13- Go to main page and compare it to the screenshot taken in step 2

14 - You should see unRAID saying that it will rebuild the disk.  (You may need to click a checkbox to enable the start button)

15 - Start the array

16 - Disk will rebuild, let it finish

17 - Verify contents of rebuilt disk

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if you value your data on those disks and cannot take the time to copy it elsewhere before you go through this process I strongly recommend you do absolutely nothing.

 

Yes, in a lab, when tested with small files, the 4k alignment makes a difference, but when used for media files (files larger than a few meg) I doubt you'll really notice the difference. 

 

Unless the performance up to now on your array has been unacceptable, live with the drives as is.

 

Too many people have had to RMA the drives after changing jumper settings.  All it would take is one error on ANY disk while you go through that process you described to possibly lose the data on both disks (the one you are re-building, and the one with the error)

 

When you expand your array, and can copy all the files off a disk you wish before an attempt to change-jumper, then you will be less at risk.

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if you value your data on those disks and cannot take the time to copy it elsewhere before you go through this process I strongly recommend you do absolutely nothing.

 

Yes, in a lab, when tested with small files, the 4k alignment makes a difference, but when used for media files (files larger than a few meg) I doubt you'll really notice the difference.   

 

Unless the performance up to now on your array has been unacceptable, live with the drives as is.

 

Too many people have had to RMA the drives after changing jumper settings.  All it would take is one error on ANY disk while you go through that process you described to possibly lose the data on both disks (the one you are re-building, and the one with the error)

 

When you expand your array, and can copy all the files off a disk you wish before an attempt to change-jumper, then you will be less at risk.

 

Joe L.,

 

Thank you for the advice. That's what I'll do.

 

 

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Joe L.s advise in regard to removing a jumper from an EARS drive does not apply since you drives are UNjumpered. There is no increase in the likelihood of a RMA. You will erase the data on the drive and will have to reconstruct the contents of the disk as described in steps 14-17.  

 

If your currently satisfied with the performance of your array then waiting until you expand the array and can copy the data to a new drive first is the safest course of action.

 

There was a report of a 10% speed improvement when this procedure was followed on a parity drive. But, doing this to the parity drive posses a negligible increase in the chance of data loss.

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The best plan would be to  buy a new disk and rebuild onto that one. Then, when the rebuild is finished and validated you can clear the old drive and either use it to rebuild yet another disk or add it as a new disk. That way, you will have a "fall-back" drive in case something goes wrong.

 

Peter

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Folks,

 

I'm new to unRAID (using 5.0b7) and have the WD20EARS drives (unjumpered).

Under "Disk Settings" partition format is set to "4K-alignment" and I've used the preclear script without using the -A/-a options. However, the preclear stated that the alignment starts at sector 63 and in myMain (inventory view) it says the same - align to 63.

 

Is this OK? Weren't the preclearing supposed to align starting from sector 64?

Should I change this (I haven't had any errors yet, but speed is around 30MB/s between two internal HDDs)?

 

Thanks in advance,

Samcon.

 

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Hi Folks,

 

I'm new to unRAID (using 5.0b7) and have the WD20EARS drives (unjumpered).

Under "Disk Settings" partition format is set to "4K-alignment" and I've used the preclear script without using the -A/-a options. However, the preclear stated that the alignment starts at sector 63 and in myMain (inventory view) it says the same - align to 63.

 

Is this OK? Weren't the preclearing supposed to align starting from sector 64?

Should I change this (I haven't had any errors yet, but speed is around 30MB/s between two internal HDDs)?

 

Thanks in advance,

Samcon.

 

what version of the preclear script did you use?  (If you do not know, type

preclear_disk.sh -v

to find out)

 

On earlier ones, you needed to use the -A option.

 

You'll not see errors with partitions starting on sector 63.   The disk will work fine, just a bit slower when reading and writing small files.   With a parity disk, and 5400 RPM drives, your speed is about as good as it will get.

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what version of the preclear script did you use?  (If you do not know, type

preclear_disk.sh -v

to find out)

 

On earlier ones, you needed to use the -A option.

 

You'll not see errors with partitions starting on sector 63.   The disk will work fine, just a bit slower when reading and writing small files.   With a parity disk, and 5400 RPM drives, your speed is about as good as it will get.

 

Thanks Joe, I've used version 1.11 of the script.

 

If I prefer to convert it to 4K alignment, assuming I prefer not to preclear it again, what's the recommended method?

 

Samcon.

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