Greetings all.
I've decided to put together a NAS from spare parts I have accumulated over the years. My system seems to meet the hardware requirements (see below). It will be used principally as a media server for occasional use and a place to back up some files. It will not be on 24/7 or see heavy use. The only parts I needed were some hard drives, and therein lies the problem. I invested in 6 x WD 4TB SMR drives with the intention of using them under Truenas. I learned after the fact that SMR and Truenas file system (ZFS) do not play nicely together, so I have gone in search of a Nas OS that does. I believe it can be done under Unraid, if the data is mostly read only and my parity drive is a CMR of the same size (4TB).  Is this in fact doable?
The second issue is Unraid requires the ability to boot from a USB stick: That is a problem for me: For some reason, I cannot get my system to boot from a USB device. The motherboard should be able to boot from a USB device, but for some reason it will not. If I plug in a USB device at any point of the POST process, the system will lock up. If i boot without a USB device plugged in, and go into the bios, at any time if i plug in a USB device, the Bios will freeze up. Strangely, there is no issue with my USB keyboard or mouse being plugged in. So this is another hurdle I must clear before considering Unraid (or is there a way to run Unraid on anything else (ie a SSD). My research says no, at least, no simple way to do so.

Unraid seems to be very flexible, intuitive and I am hoping I can go ahead with this project. Any recommendation on these two issues would be greatly appreciated.
Sys. specs
CPU: i5-750
GPU: 525W
Motherboard: Gigabyte P55A-UD4P rev. 01
Bios: Award Modular Bios v 6.00PG (non-UEFI) F14
Memory: DDR3 1333 - 2 x 8GB
HD's: 6 x WD Red SMR 4TB drives, 1 x WD Red Plus CMR drive

Look for BIOS updates, and verify the boot order (ideally hard drive boot as 1st priority with the USB as the first BBS priority).

 

Thanks Squid, but been there, done that.
MB has latest Bios version.

Played with the boot order, to no success.
Under Integrated Peripherals, Legacy USB and USB Storage are enabled.
Am reluctant to re-flash Bios to an older version, or re-flash to newest version. Will keep that as a lasted option, but I really don't think the bios is an issue.

 

It's a head scratcher

Are you trying to boot in UEFI or legacy mode?

• if trying UEFI mode make sure the EFI folder on the Unraid flash drive does not have a trailing ‘~’character
• if trying legacy mode make sure that CSM option is enabled in the BIOS.

Thanks folks,

 

Somehow, I am able to boot from USB. I have NO idea how come all of a sudden I can.  I have been pulling out hard drives and re-arranging things so maybe there was some loose connection somewhere.. Anyways, everything looks stable so I am able to go forward. A big thanks to everyone for their assistance