Boots only to motherboard splash screen when 8TB drive connected

[meph88]

So I just built a machine for use as a NAS.

Unraid ticks all the boxes as my software solution for this build so I got the trial and so far things have been great.

I had it operating with a 320GB hard drive as a cache and a 2TB hard drive for storage and all was good.

I pulled an 8TB hard drive out of a windows machine and installed it.

When the 8TB drive is connected the machine powers on then stays on the motherboard splash screen which shows ASROCK and has some key options for boot menu, uefi setup and so on.

If I unplug this drive the system boots normally.

I have replaced the SATA cable, same result.

I can connect the drive while the system is powered on and it stays on and runs normally but the drive never shows up within the system.

I really want to get this working so any help here with this issue is appreciated.

[JorgeB]

This looks like a board issue with the 8TB disk, see if there's a bios update.

[meph88]

Afraid not, updated the BIOS, same result.

Thank you for the suggestion but in this case the issue persists.

[ashman70]

How are you connecting this drive? If you are using the trial you are limited to three devices aren't you? What file system is on the 8TB drive? When you connect the drive to your system and go into your BIOS, does it recognize it?

[Squid]

Sounds to me like the BIOS changes the boot order when the new drive is connected (not an uncommon occurrence).  Especially since Windows by default makes drives "active" which means that as far as the BIOS is concerned, they are bootable whether or not there is a boot sector on them or not.

 

Have you tried selecting F12 to change the boot order on the fly to the unRaid stick.

 

Also, to support hotplugging of a drive, the SATA options in the BIOS must be set to AHCI

[meph88]

I am connecting it to the motherboard with a Sata cable, a known good cable into a known good Sata slot.

The trial is limited but I am using only 3 storage devices in this system.

Actually I can't tell if BIOS recognises it, when the drive is connected I can't even get in to the BIOS. I have tried disconnecting it, entering BIOS and then connecting it, I don't know if this should work but it doesn't detect it.

Maybe the BIOS does change the boot order, issue is I can't change it as the system stalls on the motherboard splash screen and nothing works at all, no key options actually take me anywhere.

I have AHCI set.

The drive is definitely working, I pulled it from a Windows machine and have connected it to a Mac and reformatted it as Exfat.

Thanks for the suggestions but so far still no resolution.

[mr-hexen]

How about posting some details of your setup?

 

Motherboard? CPU? Power Supply? We're kinda blind here.

[S80_UK]

Is the motherboard OK with other hard drives?  Just wondered if the power supply might be faulty (enough power to boot up a bare board, but not much else).

 

EDIT: Ignore  me.  I just re-read the original post - you already checked it with two other drives.  I guess it fails with just the 8TB and without the other two connected?

[thestewman]

 

Describe the make and model of 8tb HDD.

 

 

[meph88]

Thanks for the replies.

Ok, so the setup is this:

Motherboard - ASROCK B85M-ITX

PSU - Cooler Master V550

CPU - Intel Core i3-4170 @3.70GHz (Sourced from BIOS)

8GB of DDR3-1600 Memory

 

The offending hard drive is a Seagate Archive HDD 8000GB

The drive was in a Windows machine and was shared on the network, working fine for a long time.

I have mounted it successfully on a mac with an external drive caddy so I have established the HDD is working normally.

 

Since my unraid machine boots successfully and runs well I have also established that it works.

 

Issue is, I connect that drive to that rig and suddenly......nothing. The machine stops booting normally or even at all.

As far as I can tell this kind of drive should be ok to use with this hardware so I am lost as to why this issue occurs.

Maybe there's some compatibility setting I am missing but I am out of ideas.

I even tried disabling legacy USB support and it did not help (actually it stopped my USB ports working and I had to reset my CMOS, whoops).

So yeah, I don't  know what else to do honestly.

 

 

[ashman70]

So have we established if the BIOS can see this drive or are you not able to even get into the BIOS when the drive is connected to your motherboard?

[meph88]

When this drive is connected and I power on the machine it goes to the ASROCK splash screen with a number of "Press F2 or Del to enter setup" and so on commands listed on screen but the system never goes past this screen and no key commands have any effect therefore I am unsure if the BIOS can see this drive.

[ashman70]

The only thing I can think of is some odd incompatibility with the motherboard. Do you have room for a SATA add on card? That might be the only other way to get the drive added to your system.

[meph88]

Sadly I do not have one of these.

[JorgeB]

I also believe this is a board incompatibility, besides adding a controller your best option is contacting Asrock support for a bios update.

[thestewman]

There are a lot of the Seagate 8tb Archive HHD being used with good reports

 

Last ditch effort

 

Follow the below instructions for Cleaning the disk and make it into a MPR disk

 

ReplyQuoteNotify.'>http://www.howtogeek.com/215349/how-to-remove-an-efi-system-partition-or-gpt-protective-partition-from-a-drive-in-windows/

ReplyQuoteNotify.

[meph88]

I've now tried a sata to USB 2 converter and had the same result.

I then plugged in a 4TB external HDD and guess what, I get the same exact issue.

Could this motherboard really not support drives larger than 2TB?

[meph88]

SOLVED!!!!!!

I got it working!!!!

So, if anyone finds themselves in the same situation, here is what I did.

 

I plugged in a hard drive that already had a full installation of windows 10 on it and set in the BIOS to boot from that drive.

Once Windows 10 loaded I navigated to http://www.asrock.com/feature/3tb/ and downloaded the ASROCK 3TB+ Unlocker Patch. The link is the icon at the very bottom of the page.

I ran the EXE in the zip folder.

This ran a short and quick installer.

After I did this I could see the 8TB drive in the Windows system.

I powered down and set boot back top my Unraid drive and wouldn't you know it..... the 8TB drive now shows up and is usable!!!!!

 

I hope this saves someone else out there the headache as this is not clearly described ANYWHERE!!!! The tool itself has a small and vague description.

 

I am now purchasing a full Unraid license as I am very happy with the OS and with the community support I've gotten here, thanks everyone.