Can't boot after removing data drive

[snowboardjoe]

I think this is my motherboard doing this (ASUS M5A78L-M LX PLUS AM3+ AMD 760G Micro ATX AMD). Had it for years as I've been building my unRAID server from 3 to 8 drives over time. I'm trying to remove on of my data drives physically (already removed cleanly from the unRAID config). This occupied /dev/sdb. Any attempts for that slot to be vacant results in an unbeatable system. I've tinkered with the BIOS settings and boot priority and it keeps changing it to not boot from the USB drive. When I reset the BIOS config again and re-insert the old drive, it will boot into unRAID (otherwise it's just a blank screen). I'm using Rosewill drive cages too, so not sure if that's a factor here too, but I don't think so.

 

Anyone else run into this with an ASUS motherboard? What the hell is happening here? Why does /dev/sdb need to be attached to a hard drive to boot?

[trurl]

28 minutes ago, snowboardjoe said:

Why does /dev/sdb need to be attached to a hard drive to boot?

 

There is no /dev/sdb until unRAID boots. Since you aren't getting to that point the question is meaningless.

 

Sorry but I don't know what to suggest. You have to make the BIOS boot from your flash drive.

[snowboardjoe]

3 minutes ago, trurl said:

 

There is no /dev/sdb until unRAID boots. Since you aren't getting to that point the question is meaningless.

 

Sorry but I don't know what to suggest. You have to make the BIOS boot from your flash drive.

 

Yeah, I understand that. The only way that I can get it to boot unRAID is to make sure all disk slots are occupied and reconfiguring BIOS to point back at USB drive. If any disk slot is open, BIOS gets confused and won't boot from USB.

[ufopinball]

I don't recall having this sort of issue, and I previously ran builds such as "ASUS M3A78-T MB w/ AMD Phenom II X6 1100T 3.3GHz", "ASUS F2A85-V PRO w/ AMD A10-5800K Trinity 3.8GHz" and "ASUS Prime X370-PRO MB w/ AMD Ryzen 7 1800X 8-Core 3.6GHz".  So long as you're not constantly swapping disks in and out between booting, I've not had this problem.  If you insert or remove a drive, then the BIOS may re-juggle the boot order, so maybe this is what you are seeing?  I'm not sure I got that from your description, but I'll throw it in here, just in case.

 

As an alternative, you may want to go into the BIOS and reset to all default setting, and start over.  Clearing the CMOS on the motherboard may be a more difficult (but possibly cleaner) way to accomplish the same thing.