[SOLVED] v4.6 New array; will not respond after adding a second drive

Just finished the pre-clear on a jumpered 2tb EARS, shut down from my browser. I moved the server into its new home, reconnected the cables, booted up, came back to my desk and assigned this EARS as a parity drive via unMENU. I used the power down button inside unMENU, then went back and slid an empty (quick formatted in Windows' Disk Management) 2tb EADS in the slot next to the parity drive. I pressed the power button and it lit up, so I went back to my office. /tower will not load in my browser, and neither will a telnet session. I go back to the server, press and hold the power button until it shuts down. I remove the newly added drive and power up again. Now /tower loads fine. eh?

OS at time of building: 4.6

CPU: AMD Sempron 140

Motherboard: ASUS M4A785-M Micro ATX

RAM: Kingston 2GB

Case: Cooler Master 590

Drive Cage(s): Icy Dock 5 in 3

Power Supply: CORSAIR Builder Series CMPSU-500CX 500W

I'm ready to add whatever portions of the syslog are required, but all portions result in a log that's too large to post. Which parameters are required?

Just finished the pre-clear on a jumpered 2tb EARS, shut down from my browser. I moved the server into its new home, reconnected the cables, booted up, came back to my desk and assigned this EARS as a parity drive via unMENU. I used the power down button inside unMENU, then went back and slid an empty (quick formatted in Windows' Disk Management) 2tb EADS in the slot next to the parity drive. I pressed the power button and it lit up, so I went back to my office. /tower will not load in my browser, and neither will a telnet session. I go back to the server, press and hold the power button until it shuts down. I remove the newly added drive and power up again. Now /tower loads fine. eh?

 

OS at time of building: 4.6

CPU: AMD Sempron 140

Motherboard: ASUS M4A785-M Micro ATX

RAM: Kingston 2GB

Case: Cooler Master 590

Drive Cage(s): Icy Dock 5 in 3

Power Supply: CORSAIR Builder Series CMPSU-500CX 500W

 

I'm ready to add whatever portions of the syslog are required, but all portions result in a log that's too large to post. Which parameters are required?

You probably just need to use the system console to set the flash drive as the boot device again in the BIOS.  If you have one of those BIOS that are so "helpful", you'll need to reset the boot device EVERY time you add a new disk to the server.

Joe L.

Many BIOS "help" you by making any newly added drive the "boot" drive if there is not already a hard-disk defined as the boot device.  

 

You probably just need to use the system console to set the flash drive as the boot device again in the BIOS.  If you have one of those BIOS that are so "helpful", you'll need to reset the boot device EVERY time you add a new disk to the server.

 

Joe L.

Most BIOSes have the ability to configure a bootable hard disk and a bootable removable device.  The hard disk is usually for the OS, and the removable a CD drive.  (On some motherboards, instead of making a bootable selection, you are asked to simply order them.  The one on the top is the bootable one.)  Once selected, the user can decide on the boot precedence (e.g., try to boot from the removable first, if not found try to boot from the hard disk).  

If your BIOS works like this, you may be able to configure the REMOVABLE device to be the unRAID flash and then set the removable device as the highest level in the boot order (above the "hard disk").  The trick is to make the BIOS think the USB is a removable type device so it appears in the list of removable devices, and not in the list of hard disks.  To do this, you need to use the "FORCED FDD" configuration for your flash.  This has no affect on how the OS will eventually see the flash, just on whether the BIOS views it as a removable device or a hard disk.  Since every BIOS is different, it is difficult to give step by step instructions, but see the link below for instructions on a different ASUS motherboard that may work similarly to yours.

*** Please note that if you don't have any removable devices in your computer, the removable device option might be totally missing.  If so, configuring the unRAID flash to FORCED FDD and then REBOOTING might be required to see the setting. ***

In my array, I used to use the USB as a "hard disk" and faced this fun (of changing boot options every time I added or rearranged disks) until I got to 12 disks.  At that time I hit some BIOS limit of number of disks it would list (and, of course, the USB was the one lopped off the bottom).  That's when I discovered the removable device boot option.  Since then, nothing I do with my hard disks affects my ability to boot.  I haven't been back in the BIOS since )

See this thread for more information..

During initial setup, I was s lightly concerned that FORCED FDD was not an option in the boot list. I was reading the thread about my board, but thought there was a BIOS revision or something to change its value.

Trying this now.

I hooked the server up to a monitor with both disks plugged into the Icy Dock cage, and a SATA drive was listed as 1st boot. In the boot sequence menu, there is still no FORCED FDD option, only REMOVABLE DEVICE. That's because it's under the Advanced > USB Configuration menu...

Hey it's the mobo.. I had the same thing happen to me... anytime you add a new drive to this motherboard.. it no longer puts the usb drive as the first boot.. so it messes it up

Hey it's the mobo.. I had the same thing happen to me... anytime you add a new drive to this motherboard.. it no longer puts the usb drive as the first boot.. so it messes it up

Virtually all motherboards work like this.  Did you read my post below - it might make this a non-issue for you.

Alright, the drive is now listed, but it's listed as hdc. I'm pretty sure that should be sdc.

Under Main > SATA Configuration, Ports 1-4 are set to IDE, and Ports 5-6 are also set to IDE. The parity drive is on Port 1, and the new data drive is on Port 5. I had previously read about AHCI, but did not fully understand what it meant because everything (the single drive) was working fine under IDE setting. Setting both to AHCI now.

Yay! sda and sdb are now listed in myMain.

Thanks guys.

Alright, the drive is now listed, but it's listed as hdc. I'm pretty sure that should be sdc.

 

Under Main > SATA Configuration, Ports 1-4 are set to IDE, and Ports 5-6 are also set to IDE. The parity drive is on Port 1, and the new data drive is on Port 5. I had previously read about AHCI, but did not fully understand what it meant because everything (the single drive) was wroking fine under IDE setting. Setting both to AHCI now.

Can you confirm that you got the Flash to boot as a removable device?

Alright, the drive is now listed, but it's listed as hdc. I'm pretty sure that should be sdc.

 

Under Main > SATA Configuration, Ports 1-4 are set to IDE, and Ports 5-6 are also set to IDE. The parity drive is on Port 1, and the new data drive is on Port 5. I had previously read about AHCI, but did not fully understand what it meant because everything (the single drive) was wroking fine under IDE setting. Setting both to AHCI now.

 

Can you confirm that you got the Flash to boot as a removable device?

 

Oh yes. Confirmed.