Hi guys,

 

unRaid newb here...

 

I had an older box kicking around that a friend suggested I convert into an unRaid server....so I am.

 

The machine is:

Antec Sonata II

P4 2.4GHz

Asus P4C800 Deluxe

3GB Ram

Sybas PCI - SATA card (2 port) - New for this build

WD Green 3TB HDD (x3)

 

I don't have this hooked up to the network yet and was hoping I could fire it up and get the 3 drives all formatted and tested before connecting to the network.

 

1 of the 3 drives are found in the unRaid utility and has it at the wrong speed.

 

Says:

 

ata1: SATA Link Down

ata : SATA Link Down

ata : SATA Link Up 150kb/s

 

..and here are some BIOS screenshots

 

 

 

 

Damn, now it won't boot to the USB drive at all....

Should I have just stuck to my Popcorn Hour NMT and 4 bay NAS?

 

Have you tried bios options to force USB emulation as an HDD or FDD?  I have an ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe but I'm not sure it will even boot any more so doubt I will be able to check.  Search for "kicker disk" and find some ideas on how to boot up unRAID for non-USB sources as well.  You could still use the registered version of unRAID you would just boot from an alternate source to start.

 

Edit: just downloaded your manual from ASUS web site and it does have some force options - look at page 4-24 and see if any of them make it work.  Manual here: http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/sock478/P4C800/e1224_p4c800.pdf - assuming it shows up under the "USB Mass Storage Device configuration" anyway.

 

Edit2: Can't help with other problems but your MB SATA ports may not work with 3TB drives you may need to use the Syba card for those - assuming you can connect more than 2 to support the three you list.  Your MB ports are only SATA-1 ports anyway.

Thanks for replying Bob.  Oddly enough, this thing was booting to USB and then it stopped.  I think it was when I switched from version 4 to 5 of unRaid.

 

I'll try swicthing back and see what happens.

 

That said, it looks like this mobo will never run three 3TB drives and the Syba PCI - SATA card I bought only has 2 ports.  If I could at least get those two drives working, I could always grab another Syba card....otherwise, it's new mobo/case/cpu time.

 

Thanks

Mike

Alright, got it all booting from the unRaid flash USB now.  I wound up just connecting two the 3TB drives to the Syba pci to SATA card and will either get a 4 port card so all 3 drives can be connected or I'll have to break down and get a case/mobo/cpu if the unRAID adventure doesn't drive me away first.

 

Now when it boots and I select unRAID, I get the screen below and it just hangs there....

 

 

Ideas?

Sorry I gave you all I had for advice.  Maybe someone else had ideas.

No Problem Bob, I sure appreciate the help you gave.  It got me this far.

 

Now to determine what is causing this thing to hang like this.  I can't help but think the PC is just too old or at least too old to be fast enough to stream media.

 

I excitedly bought three 3TB drives and a PCI to Sata card only to find out I'd need more SATA ports right off the hop.

 

I also have a Ready NAS NV+ that has two 2TB drives in it (and has room for two more).  It stores media and can be connected to via my Popcorn Hour PCH-100 that has a 1TB drive inside.  All that works great, but the NAS duplicates drive 1 to 2 and drive 3 to 4 so I'll only ever have half the active storage of what's installed.

 

I'd love it if an unRaid expert  could help me

 

A) Determine if the computer I'm trying to use will ever run smoothly or if I should junk it and order new parts

B) Find out if unRaid will work as smoothly as the NAS set-up (my 8 year old can access movies on the NAS no trouble at all).

 

Thanks

Mike

Check for a BIOS update.

Good tip on the bios update. 

 

I'll try that.

Thanks

Mike

Alrighty...I flashed the bios (after much messing around trying to make the USB stick bootable)...

 

Now when I try to boot from the UNRAID usb stick (yes I made sure the bios was set to boot from USB and even re-prepared the stick to make sure)

I get this message:

 

Reboot and select proper boot device

or insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key_

 

It seems like my UNRAID USB key isn't configured properly....but I check it and re-did it and this machine has in fact booted from the UNRAID USB before.

To get this to boot again I would try the boot method mentioned in this thread first.  Then if it boots completely try getting your USB booting again.  tarataqa used a floppy but you could also boot from a CD there is an iso of booting off the CD used with ESXi builds but I don't have it available at work and can't currently find it either - that might work.

 

You might also look at the wiki links here for help.

Alrighty...I flashed the bios (after much messing around trying to make the USB stick bootable)...

 

Now when I try to boot from the UNRAID usb stick (yes I made sure the bios was set to boot from USB and even re-prepared the stick to make sure)

I get this message:

 

Reboot and select proper boot device

or insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key_

 

It seems like my UNRAID USB key isn't configured properly....but I check it and re-did it and this machine has in fact booted from the UNRAID USB before.

 

 

I think it's more likely that the USB was ok but there is a wrong setting(s) in BIOS.

I'll be revisiting this build this weekend to figure out if the existing PC can be used or if I'll have to move on and buy new components.

I've seen several older systems that will not boot if the USB flash drive is prep'd with the newer versions of SysLinux.    Try using the "MakeBootable" from v4.7 and see if the system will boot.  If so, then do NOT reformat the flash drive -- just copy the v5.0 files to it, and it should boot okay.

 

The clue as to whether it's prep'd with the "old" or "new" versions is the number of "dots" that go across the screen when UnRAID is loading.  If you see one line of dots for both bizimage and bizroot, then it's the newer (sometimes troublesome) version;  if you see several lines for bizroot, then it's the older version.  I've not seen any system that would boot from USB that won't work with the older version -- but have encountered quite a few that won't work with the new.

 

Ok...looks like I've got it booted (screen shot below).

 

Does it look all good?  I've been all over the wiki and even though I'm computer savvy, it seems like a very bloated process to get these up and running.  It'd be nice if there was a simple step-by-step tutorial with screen shots.  Maybe I'll make one when I'm done.

 

Here's what I have on the screen now....(pc is currently not connected to network or switch)

 

ok connect your rig to network, once that is done at that login screen type root then enter.

once you are at the root login type "ifconfig" for your ip address and remember it.

using a pc or mac use a web browser to access the unRaid Webgui - type in tower or just type in the ip address to get to it.

//tower and \\tower should work on a PC. http://tower.local should work on a Mac.