Initial setup help needed... [SOLVED]

I am setting up my first unRAID server.  I got all the hardware to be seen at the BIOS level and when I initially ran the unregistered version of unRAID 4.7 I selected 3 of the 2TB drives just to see how it worked, etc.  I setup the parity drive and 2 data drives, and the initialization completed successfully.  My next step was to get it seen by my home network (Windows 2008 Domain).  As I couldn't get this setup on the unregistered version, I was ready to move forward and purchased a Pro license (done this afternoon and key file received).

When I got home I shutdown the box and loaded the USB drive onto another machine and put the key file on.  Initially I did this wrong and put it on the root of the drive, but got that fixed).

When I plugged the USB drive back into the unRAID system the system would not boot from the USB drive.  I tried loading defaults in the BIOS and re-setting the same things I did when I initially setup the system - no go.  I formatted the USB drive and tried that - nothing.  The system would go to boot and then I would just get a blinking dash...

After unplugging all 10 drives I did get the USB drive to boot, so after a lot of trial and error I found that if any of the 3 2TB drives that I initially used in the first unRAID were plugged in, I would get the blank screen and blinking dash.  If all 3 drives are unplugged I get the boot menu.  These drives are all directly connected to the on-board SATA ports.

I don't want to proceed forward without these 3 drives.  I pulled them from the system and connected them to another machine where I removed the partition and did a quick NTFS format on the drives.  This didn't help.

How can I get the system to boot up on the Flash drive and keep all 10 drives connected?  I'm sure that I am just missing something basic, but I don't know what it is.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks and I'll list the hardware below.

-DC

Case:  Old Chief-tec Server case

PSU:  OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W

Mobo: ECS A885GM-A2 (has 5 SATA ports)  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135272

CPU:  Sempron 145 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103888

Memory:  G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

Exp card:  Rosewill RC-218 PCI Express SATA II Controller Card  

Exp card:  Rosewill RC-201 PCI SATA Silicon Image Controller Card

Hard drives:

2 ea  Hitachi 2TB 7200rpm (model HDS5C3020ALA632)

4 ea  Western Digitial 2TB Green (model WD20EARS)

3 ea  Seagate 1.5TB Barracuda XT 7200rpm

1 ea  Hitachi 1TB 7200rpm (don't have the model #)

The flash drive is not being seen as bootable once you get past a certain number of drives.  You need to see if you can figure out how to turn of Int13 on the SATA controllers BIOS or int19 in your BIOS.

Thanks for the reply!

I'm not sure that is the issue.  It was a lot of troubleshooting last night, but I believe I tried booting with just 1 drive connected of the three that are causing me issues, and I got the same problem - blinking cursor and no unRAID boot.

Also, I did get it to initally boot up with all 10 drives present prior to last night (during my first initial setup).

Since all I did try last night with the 3 drives from my initial setup was removing the partition  and creating a new simple volume in Windows 7.  Is there something with the MBR that I need to reset?

Thanks again!

-DC

My board does that when the drive boot order is off. The boot USB drive has to be first in the list of the drives. Even if I set it to boot only from usb.

Thanks for the reply!

Okay - I found the issue.  If any of the 3 drives from my initial unRAID setup were present in the system, I could not boot - I would get a flashing cursor after POST.  If I took all 3 drives out, the other 7 drives would work (I tried all combinations of drives as well as moving the problem drives to different on-board SATA ports.  Interestingly the 1 WD 2TB Green drive I was having issues with would boot if connected to one of the SATA controller cards)

I pulled the 3 drives and used HDD LLF Low Level Format Tool from HDDGuru.com (http://hddguru.com/software/HDD-LLF-Low-Level-Format-Tool/) to do a MBR format.  

Once all 3 drives were formatted, they individually and together would allow my system to boot unRAID off the USB drive.

Now, onto setting this beast up...!  15.5TB usable, here I come!

-DC