New Motherboard - Won't boot from Unraid USB

[JP]

My old Unraid motherboard / cpu / ram died on me a few weeks ago.  I think it was about 11 years old so I didn't bother to troubleshoot much.  I knew I needed to upgrade anyway, so I did.  I got the following:

 

• CPU:  Intel i5 - 12400
• Motherboard:  Asrock Z690 Steel Legend (has 8 SATA ports)
• RAM:  G.Skill Trident Z RGB Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin SDRAM (PC4-25600) DDR4 3200 CL16-18-18-38 1.35V Dual Channel Desktop Memory Model F4-3200C16D-32GTZR 

 

Everything seems to work ok.  It posts and I can boot to a USB Windows 10 flash drive (to install Windows if I wanted) just fine.  All the parity, data drives, and cache drive are recognized in the BIOS.  However, the motherboard won't boot to the UNRAID USB Device that I took from my previous server.  I did plug the UNRAID USB Flash Drive into another PC and all the files are there (made a backup of them as well).  I've looked through the BIOS and nothing is standing out that I need to switch.  It is confusing since it boots to the Windows Flash drive just fine, but not to the Unraid flash drive, which I know was working in my previous server.  Any thoughts on what I might be missing here?  Thanks for any help.

[JP]

Oh, I should mention that the BIOS does see the UNRAID USB Flash drive as well.  It just won't boot to it.  Again, it boots to a Windows USB Flash drive just fine.  Confused.  

 

Upon boot, it just continues to go to the BIOS screen, rather than booting the UNRAID Flash.  It does see it in the boot priority list as being first.

Edited October 1, 2022 by JP
additional information

[Hoopster]

46 minutes ago, JP said:

 

Upon boot, it just continues to go to the BIOS screen, rather than booting the UNRAID Flash

In the BIOS boot order is your flash drive called UEFI:{brand of flash drive} or something similar?

 

Some recent ASRock (and other brands as well) boards will only boot UEFI and not legacy.  On your flash drive, if there is a folder named EFI- that means it wants to boot in legacy mode.  To tell it to boot UEFI, rename the folder to EFI (remove the trailing - character).

Edited October 2, 2022 by Hoopster

[JP]

Thank you @Hoopster!  That did it.  One last question if you don't mind.  Since I made a backup of my USB UNRAID FLASH is there a place I can go to find what my latest drive assignments were?  I haven't started the array since the parity drive it has listed isn't what I thought it would be.  It might be accurate, but I would feel better knowing that all the drives are where they should be before starting the array.  Thanks again.

[Hoopster]

2 minutes ago, JP said:

is there a place I can go to find what my latest drive assignments were? 

In the config folder of the flash drive do you have a file called DISK_ASSIGNMENTS.txt?

 

Alternatively, do you a recent notifications email (only if you set it up in notifications) with unRAID array health report?  This will also show disk assignments by serial number.

[JP]

11 minutes ago, Hoopster said:

In the config folder of the flash drive do you have a file called DISK_ASSIGNMENTS.txt?

 

Alternatively, do you a recent notifications email (only if you set it up in notifications) with unRAID array health report?  This will also show disk assignments by serial number.

 

No, I actually do not see a CONFIG folder at all on my backup.  No, I stopped the health reports since I only setup notifications to tell me when something was wrong, but the information passed in those emails does not show all the disk assignments (lesson learned).  Is there any other place it might be on the flash?  

[Hoopster]

55 minutes ago, JP said:

 

No, I actually do not see a CONFIG folder at all on my backup.  No, I stopped the health reports since I only setup notifications to tell me when something was wrong, but the information passed in those emails does not show all the disk assignments (lesson learned).  Is there any other place it might be on the flash?  

The Config folder has your license, all settings configured in unRAID, plugin and docker container configuration if installed via Apps, user scripts, etc.  Is this folder present on your flash drive?  Not having it in a backup is a concern but it is more important that it is found on your unRAID flash drive.

 

The Parity drive will not have a filesystem.   If you are unsure which is the parity drive, you can use the New Config tool and assign all drives as array drives. When you start the array, one will show up as unformatted.  DO NOT format it, that is the parity drive.

 

Stop array and do new config again assigned the "unformatted" drive as the parity drive and the others as array drives.

[JP]

I am very sorry.  I don't know what I was looking at, but I do have a CONFIG folder.  However, I don't have a file in it called DISK_ASSIGNMENTS.TXT (see attached).

 

I understand the steps you have outlined with the NEW CONFIG, but what about setting up the other disks in the array basically whereever I see fit?  I thought those needed to be back in there same spot as before (i.e. Specific Western Digital Drive = Disk 5, etc.).  Are you saying that it doesn't matter where the data drives are allocated, as long as they are indeed in the array somewhere.  Obviously, you wouldn't want one to be allocated to PARITY.  Parity does need to be specific, but it sounds like the other data drives don't matter where they go as long as they are indeed flagged as data drives...correct?

 

I'm half inclined to just start the array as-is.  Something tells me UNRAID has it correct.  I just don't remember flagging a SEAGATE drive as parity, but it is likely I did.

 

 

[Hoopster]

17 minutes ago, JP said:

Are you saying that it doesn't matter where the data drives are allocated, as long as they are indeed in the array somewhere

As long as you have single parity, array disk order is not important.  unRAID tracks disk by serial number.  If a particular drive used to be in slot 2 for example and is in slot 4 in a new config, that does not cause any problems for unRAID as long as the serial numbers are reported correctly.  Serial numbers are usually messed up if the were previously or are currently connected to some type of RAID controller.

 

The only real damage that can be done by doing a new config is to assign what was an array data drive as parity.  That will wipe out the data on it.

[JP]

That's a relief.  I'm sorry to get so granular here, but I don't want to mess something up, especially when I think I could just probably start the array as-is and it would be correct. 

 

I guess what I don't understand about NEW CONFIG is wouldn't starting the array now without going through NEW CONFIG essentially accomplish the same thing?  Basically, we only want to know where the parity drive is, right?  So if I start the array now, and all the disks are assigned to somewhere, the only thing that would happen is if the parity was assigned to a data drive slot, then it would ask me if I wanted to FORMAT it...right?  That would be the tell-tale sign.  If nothing asks to be formatted then I think you can assume everything is in its place just as it was before my recent crash.  Does that make sense?  

[JorgeB]

https://wiki.unraid.net/Manual/Changing_The_Flash_Device#What_to_do_if_you_have_no_backup_and_do_not_know_your_disk_assignments:

[JP]

Thanks everyone.  In hindsight this was a little reckless of me, but fortunately, it all worked out.  I found a label document I used to label all my drives inside my previous case so I could quickly determine what was what in the event of a HDD failure and just to keep things organized.  The last entry was the Seagate Drive with its respective serial number that matched what UNRAID currently thought was the parity drive.  That made so much sense that I started the array and everything looks good.

 

Now, if I would have had a brain in my head, I would have simply pulled all the drives (easy to do in this new Silverstone CS380 case) and using those labels it would have been obvious there was only one parity drive and which one it was.  Feeling pretty stupid that I didn't think of that, but oh well, moving on.

 

Thanks again for all the help.  I do appreciate it.

Edited October 2, 2022 by JP
typo

[trurl]

2 hours ago, JP said:

the only thing that would happen is if the parity was assigned to a data drive slot, then it would ask me if I wanted to FORMAT it...right?

Much more importantly, it would write parity to any disk assigned as parity. So it is very important that you not assign any data disk to any parity slot.

 

Why do you think it might have parity wrong? Is this some old flash backup you are working with?

[JP]

7 minutes ago, trurl said:

Why do you think it might have parity wrong? Is this some old flash backup you are working with?

 

No, I just noticed in some of the instructions for unraid somewhere that the process you should go through when upgrading your motherboard is ensure that the drives are allocated as they were before (i.e. parity and data).  I had a pretty strong feeling that unraid was correct once I booted up the server, but since the instructions said to be sure, I thought I should probably do so for good measure.  Ultimately, I didn't have definitive information, but enough that I felt confident unraid was correct so I just started the array and everything went fine.   

[SageTX]

On 10/1/2022 at 7:20 PM, Hoopster said:

In the BIOS boot order is your flash drive called UEFI:{brand of flash drive} or something similar?

 

Some recent ASRock (and other brands as well) boards will only boot UEFI and not legacy.  On your flash drive, if there is a folder named EFI- that means it wants to boot in legacy mode.  To tell it to boot UEFI, rename the folder to EFI (remove the trailing - character).

 

OMG Thank You!!!  This needs to be put SOMEWHERE in an upgrade sticky.

 

THANKS!!!!!!