Usb stick (Sony) has died.  I did purchase the license for a second usb stick.  Unfortunately, the configuration on this stick is not current.  What is the best course of action going forward?  I would like to save the data on my drives and can rebuild parity drive if needed.  Clearly, I would like to avoid destroying any of the data drives.

 

A few additional details:

 

- Was running v 3.0 (it was working fine so I never upgraded)

- system recognizes new usb stick

- there are 12 drives in the system

- I know the id of the parity drive

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Kevin

 

Basically:

Boot up on the second USB drive

Assign your existing drives, making certain to assign the parity drive to the parity slot.  If possible, assign the data drives to their old slots.

 

If it shows any drive as "unformatted" DO NOT CONTINUE, something is wrong with the drive assignment. Seek help here.

 

Assuming no drive shows as unformatted, (unless of course you just installed a brand new disk, and you know it is really unformatted) you can use the "Restore" button. (Which does not restore, but instead, as its description indicates, sets the initial drive configuration based on the currently assigned drives and then calculates parity on those same currently assigned drives.)

You will probably have to check the little checkbox for "I'm sure" to enable the "Restore" button and press it to set the new drive configuration (the config is new to the second USB drive, not new to you)

 

It will then go about calculating parity on your existing assigned data drives.  When it is done calculating parity, you should be up and running.

 

Joe L.

 

 

 

Situation is getting worse - my system does not recognize the second USB stick.  I get the same error no matter which USB port is used - 'Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Bott Media in selected Boot device and press a key'

 

I even tried another USB drive with Unraid basis - same results.

 

The BIOS sees the memory stick and I have set the boot device accordingly.  I have even tried other setups just to see if I get a different result - the only result is one in which nothing happens at all - a step backward... 

 

Many motherboards, when faced with a bad boot device, will reset the BIOS to initial values.  Thus any special settings you did when you first installed everything may be gone.  Boot device/order is not the only thing you need to worry about.

 

Go into the BIOS and make sure the USB is not only the first boot device, but set to the right value (my Asus board requires it to be set to "Forced FDD").  It may be under a heading like "hard drives" or similar but should be near the boot order menu option.

 

 

Bill

Situation is getting worse - my system does not recognize the second USB stick.  I get the same error no matter which USB port is used - 'Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Bott Media in selected Boot device and press a key'

 

I even tried another USB drive with Unraid basis - same results.

 

The BIOS sees the memory stick and I have set the boot device accordingly.  I have even tried other setups just to see if I get a different result - the only result is one in which nothing happens at all - a step backward... 

 

I have exactly the same issue with my config, not been able to solve it but will try the other options as per Bill's post.

Just for my info, when you have that message and you hard reset the box does it work? (it does for me...)

Have you tried to format the USB key with the HP Format Tool? http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,64963-order,1-page,1-c,peripherals/description.html

 

I had two 1GB usb drives of different brands that refused to boot in any motherboard.

 

Format the usb drive with the HP tool as FAT32, formatted as a DOS boot disk.  Then run syslinux and copy unRAID to the usb stick.  Both of my USB sticks booted fine after this.

Thx for the tip! I'll try that asap

Nope, no luck...

Not sure if this will help (Or is available)

But one problem I had was getting the MBR onto the USB Key.

I did mine through fdisk/mbr

 

Perhaps these switches will help

 

This is from the syslinux page:

 

For the DOS and Windows installers, the -m and -a options can be used

on hard drives to write a Master Boot Record (MBR), and to mark the

specific partition active.

 

Well the strange thing is that if I hard reset the box, it boots correctly on the key. The same applies if I press any key when the message is displayed...