Broken USB Drive - "Missing Operating System" - No Backup


scuba

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Hi there,

 

I have done the switch to unraid for my server about 2 months ago.

I had everything set up and running smoothly. I mainly use the server for data storage, media streaming and some data science projects (therefore I have been running Linuxserver.io's Unraid Nvidia Version of unraid [v6.7.0] to make use of GPUs in R and Python).

I use a SanDisk Ultra Fit 16GB USB3 for the OS. (Motherboard only supports USB2 but it worked for weeks with multiple shutdowns and cold starts.)

 

This week we set for a vacation (4 days) and since nobody would be using the server I shut it down. When we came back I wanted to boot the server and access it. However, it did not come online (running headless). I plugged in a display and just saw a "Missing Operating System" Notification. In BIOS there is no booting device set other than the SanDisk Flash Drive. Also by booting via Boot Manager I get the "Missing Operating System" Notification.

 

When trying to plug the flash drive into my Windows PC, I see no name for the drive (should be UNRAID, right? - created the drive via Flash Creator Tool) and Windows tells me, the drive needs to be formated to be used.

I suspect the flash drive died during the vacation or something was written badly (?) during the last shutdown.

 

The worst part is: The last backup is from right when I started using unraid and I probably changed the Hard drives since. Hard Drives changed at least their position physically since the backup was done, as I had heat issues.

 

The wiki tells me the following in the section "What if I can't backup my device?":

Quote

To ensure no data loss after the server is booted, you will need to make sure you assign each disk to the array / cache exactly as it was prior to the failure. If you do not know which disks were assigned where, create a post in the forum for further assistance.

This is a bit troublesome, as I dont know which drive was assigned where. I have 2x 10TB (1 as parity, 1 for data) and 2x 5TB (both for data). The wiki tells me to create a post and ask for assistance - so here I am, asking you humble people for help :D

 

My Solution route would be something like this

  1. create a new USB boot device
  2. use Unassigned devices Plugin to find out which one of the 2x 10TB is the parity drive and which one is the data drive (parity should be unreadable I guess)
  3. I had the 10TB data drive as the first disk of the array
  4. ?? I have no clue how to find out the order of the two 5TB drives ??
  5. Do a proper backup and save in cloud once the server is backup and running

 

Anybody here that could help me find out which disk is which? I have not done anything to the USB drive or the server till now (only tried different USB settings in BIOS and different USB ports but nothing worked for me).

If any of you need further information, just ask :D

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The usual recommendation is to assign all disks as data disks in the array, and none as parity. The disk that was parity will show up as unmountable since it doesn't have a filesystem. Then you can New Config and reassign that one as parity and make any other changes to the order of the remaining disks. You might even check the box that says parity is already valid before starting the array, but you should probably do a parity check anyway.

 

If for some reason more than one disk is unmountable, come back for further advice.

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