Grrr, this is why I never want to mess with my server...

 

I wanted to upgrade to 4.5.3 (or any of the 4.5 releases) to try out the performance increases I've been hearing so much about.  I have been running 4.4.2 up until this point with minimal to no problems.

 

I also took the opportunity to erase all of the unused BubbaRAID files off my flash drive, so I fully admit that I may have deleted one file too many.

 

I erased everything that said 'bubba' on it, and I replaced bzroot, bzimage, and memtest.  I rebooted the server, and 4.5.3 came right up with the screen I was hoping not to see - all my drives showing as unformatted.  No problem, I think, just reboot it (based on advice I've read here).  I reboot - same thing.  Reboot again, same thing.

 

So now I figure I'll revert to 4.5.  This time I only replaced bzroot and bzimage.  Reboot the server aaaaaand....nothing.  Server gives the initial 'successful boot' beep, but not the second 'unRAID ready' double-beep.

 

I hook a monitor and keyboard up to the server and see that unRAID is frozen while loading.  I see something about 'kernel panic'.  It didn't get as far as the login screen, so I can't capture a syslog.

 

I shut down the server (hard), remove the flash drive, and plug it into my Win7 PC.  Luckily I had made a full copy of my flash drive's contents before changing anything, so I can just revert to that....except that I saved it in the backups folder on my unRAID server.  Stupid.

 

So then I try deleting everything on the flash and copying over everything from the 4.5.3 download folder.  Plug the flash back into the server and power her up.  Different response this time - after BIOS, it stops on a screen that says 'Boot Error'.  I double checked the boot priority in BIOS, the flash drive is still set as the first and only boot device.

 

Tried the same thing with 4.5.  Same error.  I'm now going to try it with 4.5.1 (just cause I haven't tried that one yet), and failing that, 4.4.2 (freshly downloaded from LimeTech's site).

 

Wish I could post a syslog for y'all, but that doesn't seem to be an option right now.

 

Edit: I get the same 'boot error' with 4.5.1 and 4.4.2.  Looks like my server is completely inoperable for the time being.  :'(

 

Edit2: Does the syslinux tool only run on Windows XP?  I thought that maybe I had somehow deleted the hidden file that makes the flash drive bootable and that I should run the syslinux tool on it again.  Unfortunately, syslinux doesn't seem to work on Windows 7 - it just flashes up and then disappears.  Running it in WinXP compatibility mode doesn't work either.

 

Edit2: Does the syslinux tool only run on Windows XP?  I thought that maybe I had somehow deleted the hidden file that makes the flash drive bootable and that I should run the syslinux tool on it again.  Unfortunately, syslinux doesn't seem to work on Windows 7 - it just flashes up and then disappears.  Running it in WinXP compatibility mode doesn't work either.

 

I know the syslinux tool works on windows 7. Used a win7 machine to prepare my usb thumb drive for my unraid install.

 

How are you trying to run syslinux? Are you bringing up a command prompt first then running it? Don't try running it from the run menu as you'll get the results you are seeing.

You are right, I was misreading the instructions.  I was attempting to just double click the syslinux file, instead of invoking it from run/cmd as instructed.  Thank you!

 

Edit: I appear to be back in business now.  Was able to access my flash backup and restore my key, shares, etc.  Upgraded again to 4.5.3 and it seems to be working now, all disks mounted properly.  Currently rebuilding parity (I probably could have used the 'trust my parity' procedure).

 

Whew, crisis averted!  Thanks again gabbott.  These things always seem to work themselves out when I sleep on them.