****** If you have any questions about other hardware I am using, please clicky! ******

 

I need some help.  Yesterday, I installed one of the 2 port SATA cards recommended by Raj.  I did not boot the server after installing the card.

 

Today I received my last two WD20EARS and installed them.

 

Before installing the 2 port SATA card, I was able to boot the server with the five hard drives without issue and run one preclear cycle.

 

Now when I boot with all seven drives installed, I get an error after the BIOS initializes the controller cards that states:

 

BMC Responding

SATA 1 Hard Disk Error

Press F1 to Resume

 

If I press F1 it will boot into unRAID, but not see the drive.

 

The drive in question does have the power LED lit, but no activity.

 

I already opened the case up and checked all of the connections.  I applied slight pressure to ensure they were fully seated.  

 

When I move the drive from the top row of the RPC-4224 (I have the top row connected directly to my motherboard), the system will boot without issue into unRAID.

 

Is it possible to have just one slot of the hard drive trays on the RPC-4224 fail?  Could just one of the four breakout cables go bad all of the sudden?

 

Any other suggestions?

Also, I am getting an error that states:

 

ata7.00: SRST failed (errno=-16)

ata7.00: failed to IDENTIFY (INIT_DEV_PARAMS failed, err_mask=0x80)

ata7.00: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0

 

It repeats these a few times and then goes ahead and boots.

BMC Responding

SATA 1 Hard Disk Error

Press F1 to Resume

 

This generally means that the drive is failing SMART, and the motherboard is warning you of such.  Can you obtain a full SMART report for the drive?

 

When I move the drive from the top row of the RPC-4224 (I have the top row connected directly to my motherboard), the system will boot without issue into unRAID.

 

So unRAID detects the drive, and all appears to be normal?

 

Is it possible to have just one slot of the hard drive trays on the RPC-4224 fail?  Could just one of the four breakout cables go bad all of the sudden?

 

I've never heard of this happening, but that doesn't mean that it isn't possible.

Yes. unRAID detects the drive and all appears normal.

Any other suggestions?

Scratch that.  It was the drive.

 

RMAing it now.