So, I have a new UNRAID build; 3 2TB WD Reds, all passed 3 preclears no problemo.  UNRAID setup went great, everything working super duper.  I'm even hosting files, parity syncs are working as intended.

 

BUT!  Sometimes when my server starts it takes awhile for the third hard drive to be recognized prior to booting UNRAID (ya know, on that fancy MOBO black screen that lets you enter setup or change the boot order).  It's plugged into the 4th SATA port.  I have the 1st SATA, 2nd SATA, and 4th SATA port plugged in (I skipped the 3rd on the MOBO for some reason).  Is this something I should be worried about?  Sometimes it's recognized right away and startup is super snappy.  Other times it takes > 1-2 minutes.  I even had one time, upon getting rather frustrated, when I entered BIOS setup prior to the detection finishing and it wasn't shown in my drive list at all.

 

Bad SATA cable maybe?  Having an empty 3rd SATA slot is an issue?  Any ideas?

..my first guess woiuld be power cable or PSU.

Did you swap sata ports...is it always the same mobo-port or same disk, same cable, same power connector that shows the effect?

 

With unRaid 5RC you should be able to re-order the array..it is no longer depending on sata-port no.

I haven't done any troubleshooting, as I wasn't too sure it was an issue.  It's always the third hard drive.  And it's always been plugged into that same SATA port.  I suppose I'll swap the SATA port it's plugged into on the MOBO to see if that has any effect and go from there.

 

As far as the PSU goes and its cabling, I believe the cable line has multiple connectors and one of them is powering a non-issue drive.  I'll have to give it another look tonight.  Since I had finally gotten things working and am in full backup mode with my dvd collection I got a bit wary of trying anything. 

Well, I swapped SATA ports on the MOBO (from 4th to 3rd) and I tried booting with much success.  I guess I'll keep an eye on things as I find it in me to reboot the server over time.  Thanks for the thoughts.