Yesterday, all of the sudden out of the blue (nothing changed), my unRAID server went offline. Tried to ping it (with multiple PCs) and got nothing back. I've tried to cold boot it 3 times and have no luck. I've tried rebooting my router just in case that was the problem, still no luck. I've tried replacing the Ethernet cable, still no luck. There are active link lights on the NIC on the server. I also took out the unRAID thumb drive and made sure all the network settings were ok on the config, and decided to upgrade to the latest stable build to see if that would somehow make a difference. Still no luck.

 

I'm pulling my hair out at this point and have no idea what to do...so I've turned to all of you experts out there :-)

Hook up a monitor and keyboard to the server.    Get a syslog. (if necessary, Reboot the system.)  For instruction on how to do this, see first post in this thread: 

So I hooked up the monitor and it's goes pretty fast through the boot process but I thought I saw it say there aren't any logical drives attached. And then it just hangs out on a screen that just has, "SYSLINUX 3.63 2008-04-10 CBIOS COPYRIGHT © 1994-2008 H. PETER ANVIN"

All of the drives have solid green lights lit up so now I really have no idea. Any ideas?

 

Run a checkdisk (on a Windows computer) on the flash drive.

So I hooked up the monitor and it's goes pretty fast through the boot process but I thought I saw it say there aren't any logical drives attached. And then it just hangs out on a screen that just has, "SYSLINUX 3.63 2008-04-10 CBIOS COPYRIGHT © 1994-2008 H. PETER ANVIN"

All of the drives have solid green lights lit up so now I really have no idea. Any ideas?

That message means that it never got as far as starting to boot unRAID.  This is almost certainly, therefore, an issue with the USB stick.

 

As was mentioned the first step is to connect it to a Windows/Mac and run a checkdsk on it.  This typically corrects such issues if it is just some corruption.

 

If this does not work then it is worth trying to run the make_bootable file to rewrite the syslinux boot environment.

 

It is worth making sure that you have a backup of the files from the USB Drive somewhere else (e.g on your PC/Mac).

I ran a chkdsk on the thumb drive (the original I got about 6-7 years ago) and there were no error's/nothing to fix. I backed it up and formatted it (quick format with fat 32) put the files back on, made it bootable and tried it again. No luck.

I decided to try a new thumb drive and did the same thing, except I put the latest build on it. Still nothing. The only change I'm seeing is it gets to a screen with no text on it and just a blinking cursor.

 

Any ideas?

I ran a chkdsk on the thumb drive (the original I got about 6-7 years ago) and there were no error's/nothing to fix. I backed it up and formatted it (quick format with fat 32) put the files back on, made it bootable and tried it again. No luck.

I decided to try a new thumb drive and did the same thing, except I put the latest build on it. Still nothing. The only change I'm seeing is it gets to a screen with no text on it and just a blinking cursor.

 

Any ideas?

The symptoms you are seeing at the moment suggest some sort of hardware related issue rather than an unRAID level one as you do not seem to be getting into the unRAID boot sequence where Linux starts loading.

 

After setting up a new USB drive, did you go into the BIOS settings to check what boot device is selected.  It is not unusual for this to go wrong unexpectedly.

 

Also note that your license key is tied to the USB drive GUID.  Limetech are quite good about transferring licenses if you email them with the details.

I ran a chkdsk on the thumb drive (the original I got about 6-7 years ago) and there were no error's/nothing to fix. I backed it up and formatted it (quick format with fat 32) put the files back on, made it bootable and tried it again. No luck.

I decided to try a new thumb drive and did the same thing, except I put the latest build on it. Still nothing. The only change I'm seeing is it gets to a screen with no text on it and just a blinking cursor.

 

Any ideas?

 

Go to the BIOS settings and see that the UBS drive is the first one in the boot order.  Be sure to check all of the the BIOS settings screens carefully as SOME BIOS (apparently) have the setting in two different places!

 

So if I boot it up and it says "no BIOS installed", is there a way to get one installed or recognized?

If you google "no BIOS installed" you will find a lot of possible causes for this problem.  This link is one of the those:

 

  http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000692.htm

 

Hopefully, you still have the motherboard manual or you can download it from the manufacturer to find out the keystroke which will take you into the BIOS setup program so you can start to identify your problem.  (If the BIOS has truly completely disappeared, you have a major hardware problem--- probably a bad motherboard.  However, don't panic yet as that is a very remote possibility.)

I somehow was able to get into the BIOS. I was pushing a bunch of buttons at boot so not really sure which one work, I think maybe delete? Anyway, I was able to verify the USB is first in line to boot.

 

I think re-formatted the original flash drive and copied the original files from the backup copy I had, ran makeboot.bat. Then tried to boot off of it. I'm getting a little further in the process, but still getting an error: "Menu.C32: not a COM32R image. boot:"

 

Any ideas on that one? I was reading this post: http://goo.gl/ls7WyX and wondered if I need a new key from Tom since I reformatted my thumb drive?

 

I think re-formatted the original flash drive and copied the original files from the backup copy I had, ran makeboot.bat. Then tried to boot off of it. I'm getting a little further in the process, but still getting an error: "Menu.C32: not a COM32R image. boot:"

This suggests that you have an incompatible set of syslinux files.

 

Any ideas on that one? I was reading this post: http://goo.gl/ls7WyX and wondered if I need a new key from Tom since I reformatted my thumb drive?

If you are using the same thumb drive then you will be OK.  The license being wrong/missing will not stop unRAID from loading - it will just revert to being the 'basic' version.

Remember that google is often your friend when you get messages like this.  When I googled "Menu.C32: not a COM32R image. boot:", I found that, apparently, it can be caused by having a mix of old and new system boot files.  (These are the files that actually get unRAID loaded and running.)  I seem to recall that somewhere in the beta or rc development program, LimeTech updated the syslinux version.  If one inadvertently got a combination of these files installed, one could get this problem. 

 

Here is what I would do:

 

First, if you have the patience, wait a day and see if someone who is much more familiar with the inner workings of syslinux to help you get those files straighten out.

 

Second, if that doesn't happen:

 

A--  Copy off the config directory from your flash drive. 

B--  Reformat the drive.

C--  Install the version of unRAID that you want to run

D-- Make the flash drive bootable by running make_bootable.bat

E-- Copy the just the files (not any directories/folders) of your backup of the config directory into the config directory of your flash.  Overwrite all files

F-- Boot from the flash drive. 

 

Your unRAID system should have the same settings, shares and passwords as it did before this all started. However, if you had any plugins installed they will be gone and you will have to install them again. 

 

(After thought-----  Double check that you have your plus.key in the config directory!) 

 

 

 

@itimpi and @Frank1940 -- Thank you both for all of your help. I couldn't have done it without you.

 

@Frank1940 -- I followed your steps from your 2nd suggestion and that's what finally made it work. Thank you thank you!

So I think I jumped the gun a little bit...I was able to get the original USB thumb drive to work yesterday. It booted up fine and could get to the files, etc.

 

This morning it was down again. I decided I needed to get a new thumb drive to work. I've tried 2 new thumb drives 3 times each doing these steps Frank1940 sent:

 

A--  Copy off the config directory from your flash drive. 

B--  Reformat the drive.

C--  Install the version of unRAID that you want to run

D-- Make the flash drive bootable by running make_bootable.bat

E-- Copy the just the files (not any directories/folders) of your backup of the config directory into the config directory of your flash.  Overwrite all files

F-- Boot from the flash drive. 

 

Every time, it just boots to a flashing cursor and nothing else on the screen.

 

Any ideas?