Hello @all. I hope to get a little support by some unraid experts.

I am currently still in trial mode as I just started with unraid.

My Setup:
Cheap MW NAS N5105 Motherboard

32 GB RAM
3 x 20 TB Seagate

1 x 16 TB Seagate

1 x 1 TB NVME cache

32GB Flash drive Verbatim Store n Go / Store n Stay

All was working as expected with version 7.1.4, no issues at all.

After the update to Version 7.2.0 the boot stops to the error "waiting up to 30 sec for device with BOOT UNRAID to come online". First thing I did was switching back to 7.1.4 which worked and the system boots up normally. I then tried different methods upgrading (via USB creator, manually creating the usb stick and so on) but Version 7.2.0 won't boot up, always halting at the step mentioned above.

I then saw something in the logs like "change in capacity of sda (apparently being the flash drive) from 6xxxxxxxxx (can't remember the exact number) to 0" so I tried unplugging the usb flash drive, plugging it back in again and suddenly it commenced with the boot sequence. All search results said "disable fast boot" etc. but it was disabled already. I am currently confused why version 7.1.4 works flawlessly with the same usb flash drive but 7.2.0 doesn't.

Maybe someone experienced the same issues and may kindly help me with the issue?

Thanks in advance.

Edited October 30, 2025Oct 30 by compiler666

3 minutes ago, compiler666 said:

plugging it back in again and suddenly it commenced with the boot sequence

So do you mean it is working now?

Thanks for your fast reply @trurl , much appreciated.

It works if i unplug the flash drive when it halts at "waiting 30 seconds......" if I don't unplug the flash drive it switches to "press enter to reboot" after some time. So unplugging the flash drive and plugging it back in then boots the system. As if the flash drive is disconnecting at one point during boot and then the System cannot find it anymore unless I unplug/replug it . For me at the moment it is only a workaround as this needs to be done everytime I restart the system.

However as mentioned above, this does not happen with version 7.1.4. so I would rule out a hardware defect of the mainboard or the usb flash drive.

Edited October 30, 2025Oct 30 by compiler666

If you completely power down instead of just rebooting, does it work then?

No. I already tried that as well. Sorry for not mentioning that.

I already tried the second USB 2.0 port on the mainboard. But this also yields the same result. Never the less no issues with 7.1.4 .

Edited October 30, 2025Oct 30 by compiler666

1 hour ago, compiler666 said:

I then tried different methods upgrading (via USB creator, manually creating the usb stick and so on)

Does this include trying with a flash drive using a stock install without copying your config? If that also doesn't work, please post the diagnostics from 7.2.0 after replugging the flash drive and finishing boot.

Hi @JorgeBThanks for your reply. I think I tried it first with a stock install without copying the config files. As I am not sure right now I will try to replicate it again later.

Is the complete diagnostics export necessary to check on an issue that only appears during boot or can I grab specific parts from the export like the "syslog.log"? I am not feeling too well exposing all information about my system as I am not that familiar with unraid yet, especially if not all logs are needed to see what might happen during boot.

Syslog should be enough to see the issue.

Ok so now I double checked creating a new stock 7.2.0 install via the usb creator without copying the config folder.

Same behavior.

I now copied my config over to the flash drive again to get the system bootet as it was before - of course after replugging it during boot at the "waiting for 30 sec....." message.

Attached you will find the Syslog.log file after using the "flash drive replugging workaround".

Thank you again so much for looking into it. I do see the disconnect in the syslog. But I am absolutely clueless why this only happens on 7.2.0 (maybe kernel related?!)syslog.txt

p.s.: In line 896 the usb disconnect can be found.

Edited October 30, 2025Oct 30 by compiler666

24 minutes ago, compiler666 said:

maybe kernel related?!

Maybe, though there's not much difference on the kernel vs 7.4.47, it's still 6.12.x, but don't see anything else other than the device dropping. If you haven't yet, try a different USB port.

Also, look for a BIOS update; if nothing helps , you may need to wait for a newer release with a different kernel.

Thanks again. One thing that I did not try yet is to use a usb 3.0 port as it was stated as not recommended. I only switched between 2.0 ports.

Guess I will try another usb flash drive (even though I am still boggled why it perfectly works with 7.1.4).I read that you can only switch flash drives every 12 months, is there any highly available and possibly affordable usb flash drives that are recommended?

Even though I do not need to reboot the server very often I am worried that the system might have a hard reboot due to poweroutage or for whatever reason and I physically need to reboot it again with the workaround.

Maybe someone comes across the same issue with his device and a fix for this can be found / solved with a new release. I guess I will be running it with the workaround for now even though it is a bummer not to be able to reboot the server remotely while not physically near the server.

Cheers

15 minutes ago, compiler666 said:

use a usb 3.0 port as it was stated as not recommended.

With the latest kernels, these are typically fine now, so worth a try.

So I can report that neither USB 3.0 port worked. Same behavior.

Cheers to everyone that tried to help.

Maybe this is an issue with legacy mode vs UEFI?

And what is the usb drive partitioned as? MBR or GPT? Maybe you could try the other partition

Mine was dead doing the reboot not even terminal access locally.
I did a power reset and it started up after that, no swapping of USB ports

Same here. Everything were fine in 7.1. Just upgraded to 7.2.2, after a few days, I just rebooted and got gifted with this message presenting me from booting. And I just bought a paid license.

Ok, one update here: I was actually moving my configs from a Sandisk usb stick to a new Samsung one (that one recommeded on the forum).

After doing that, both usb sticks stopped working.

But I DID chage something: I renamed the drive name from "UNRAID" to "UNRAID-Y" and "UNRAID-S" so I could set the drives apart on my Mac...

And that broke the boot. Renaming them again to the original "UNRAID" name, got everything back to work.

21 minutes ago, snagnever said:

renamed the drive name from "UNRAID" to "UNRAID-Y" and "UNRAID-S

Yes, that won't work

I'm having this same issue. Any version post-7.1.4 fails to find the USB drive. It's named UNRAID. Verbatim 32GB drive.

Seems like some incompatibility got introduced for "some" types of USB drives.

Following...

I'm having the same issue upgrading from 7.1.4 where the USB fails to be recognised. Anyone find a fix yet?

At what point in the boot does it fail?

Do you get the boot menu?