outofmysystem

New key issue and all working fine. Avoid the Kingston DataTraveler 100G3 USB 3.0.

So it turns out the issue isn't with the motherboard, it's with the Kingston DataTraveler 100G3 USB 3.0 stick I'd bought to replace the ageing USB 2.0 stick that was in the previous system. I'd recently gotten my registration key moved to this new one, but despite everything I've tried, it will not cold boot from it. I had a spare ADATA USB 2.0 stick laying around and restored the same backup that went on to the Kingston DataTraveler to it and it cold boots just fine. I've mailed LimeTech to see if they can move the registration key to the ADATA one as it seems to solve my cold boot problem.

So this USB Key is new and was created using the unRAID USB Creator and I chose to install it with a flash backup I'd previously taken from when it was in the old machine and I took the option to enable UEFI. I've downloaded a trial version of unRAID (same version v 6.9.2) to another USB and did not take the UEFI option in the Creator. It cold boots perfectly. I don't know where this leaves me but something from the backup that's causing this boot issue? When the system's up, it all works perfectly.

Hi. The EFI folder exists.

The unRAID USB key is fine - stuck it in another machine which booted into the menu immediately. A Windows 10 Install Media USB Key works in the new machine without issue - boots up straight away. Just cannot get unRAID to boot without first going into the BIOS and then exiting. The intention was not to have a monitor attached as the server will be in the attic so this is really frustrating.

Well, I tried switching USB ports and that didn't help. I've disabled both Fast Boot options and still the same. Black screen with a single line. I can't get to the BIOS at that point by hitting the Del key. Need to remove the USB, reset and then hit Del. Reinsert the USB key once the BIOS is open, exit the BIOS and it boots from USB. Driving me potty.

Thanks for the reply. I remember there's 2 fast boots, one MSI one and one it says is related to Windows 8. The last one I know is enabled so will give that a try and will swap USB ports too.

Built a new system based on an MSI Z940-A Pro motherboard with an i5-10600 and I'm having a nightmare getting this thing to boot correctly. My older system was on it's way out so I built the new rig and moved the disks across. The array is fine and all is working ok once it's up, but once I reboot, I'm met with a blank screen with a single underscore. The only thing that works is removing the USB key, booting into the BIOS, changing nothing, re-insert the USB and exit the BIOS. UnRAID boots correctly then. Things I've tried Used unRAID USB Creator to create a new USB drive with UEFI enabled and restored from a flash backup Installed a 1030 GT graphics card although the intention was to use only the iGPU for Plex Quick Sync Switched from UEFI to CSM in the BIOS Disabled any UEFI boot devices Enabled only UEFI boot devices Has anyone seen similar behaviour? As long as I go into the BIOS first with the USB key removed, will it then boot correctly.

Well, that last parity rebuild finished successfully. I guess I'll go and check a few things that live on Drive 2 and see if they look intact. This morning I took out all of the SATA cables and replaced them with ones I had and actually slotted 4 of them into the Marvell SATA ports (I know!). So either one of the SATA cables is dodgy or one of the SATA ports on the board. This morning I ordered an LSI SAS 9207-8i and cables which will arrive next week which should remove either the ports or the SATA cables from the equation. Seeing as Disk 2 passed an extended SMART test, I'm wondering if the reads errors were down to the ports/cables, but don't know enough to make that call. I'm hoping I'm out of the woods now but thank you SO much for your help and patience with this. Coming back to the thread over multiple days is very much appreciated.

So, I've changed out all of the SATA cables and reseated everything. All 6 HDDs are online with the parity drive showing as emulated. A Parity-Sync/Data-Rebuild operation is running at the moment but it'll likely fail like the rest. I've dug out an old server that only has 6 SATA ports so I've got no way to add all 6, plus the SSD cache drive. I can order a PCI Express (PCIe) SATA III (6G) SSD Adapter but that will take a while to arrive. Annoyingly, I just found 2 x 3TB Reds in the old server I forgot I had so could have done a straight swap for the dodgy disk. I think it's possible to get the data off the faulty disk 2. Would using unBalance to scatter the data from it be an option or should I just bite the bullet and rsync all it's contents to another server on my network?

Yeah, that's fine. The extended SMART test ended without errors. tower-diagnostics-20210807-0321.zip tower-smart-20210806-1955.zip

So for this, would I just copy all of the files to another server or should I copy them over an existing drive in the array? I'm a bit confused by that, sorry.

Thanks very much for all your help with this. I definitely wasn't running an extended SMART test and rebuilding parity at the same time. I figured out I was setting the disks to spin down which was interrupting the SMART test so I rebooted and I'm running that again and hopefully that will complete overnight and I'll upload the results. It's possible there is an underlying hardware problem as this server is quite old, but maybe a completed test will shed some light. I haven't seen anything in remote syslog during the multiple crashes I've had when trying to rebuild parity.

Hi. It literally just stopped after running for a while - I saw up to 20%. I was watching it tick over then when I looked again, the screen looked like it hadn't been running any test. Is it worth just cutting my losses and proceeding with the parity swap? I can't tell if it's the board that's defective or just this drive that's causing all the problems. Where can I track the extended SMART test if not on the GUI? Is there a log file i can tail so I can keep an eye on it? Thanks - Edit - found on Reddit.

Last time I checked, the extended SMART test on Disk 2 was at 20% then it just seemed to stop. unRAID GUI now shows "No self-tests logged on this disk". No errors or anything appeared on the remote syslog and the server remained up. Latest diags attached. tower-diagnostics-20210806-1254.zip