SOLVED: After plugging in a new drive USB will not boot


GTP

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Hi everyone,

 

I am very new to UNRAID but this issue is not making sense to me even after extensive googling. I have purchased the pro version and I currently have 9 x 8TB in storage, 8TB of Parity and 1 TB of Cache. I am attempting to add another 8tb drive to the array storage and when I plug it into the PCIe SATA port for some reason the USB drive will not boot. The really weird thing about this issue is as soon as I unplugged the new drive from the SATA port it was able to find the USB drive and boot UNRAID from the stick. So it seems I am stuck at 11 devices even though I have PRO. I appreciate anyone who can help me solve this issue as it is preventing me from adding additional storage. 

 

Edit: I did try going into the bios and verifying that it was only booting to USB, in fact I disabled all other forms of boot types and it just keeps scrolling cannot find boot device.... after verifying the PCIe devices

 

Edit 2: I have verified that it is only boot from Flash Disk still no joy

 

Thank you,

 

James

Edited by GTP
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Are their any logs or anything I can look at to see why it can't find the USB device after plugging in the new SATA drive? I did read the article on verifying your bios configuration and I have disabled every other boot method other than Flash Disk.

 

Thank you,

 

James

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I can definitely confirm this is not a licensing issue or anything like that. For some reason your hardware doesn't like you putting in that new drive. Maybe try switching the USB port you're using for the flash drive too. This is definitely a hardware specific issue you're running into here.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

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On 2/2/2020 at 3:22 PM, trurl said:

Your BIOS is probably changing the boot when you plug the new disk in. Go to the BIOS and set it to boot from the Flash again. 

Thank you for the suggestion but it is definitely booting only from the flash device, its the only device available to boot.  I did some further testing and it's so weird when I plug in the next drive it can't find the flash drive, but as soon as I unplug it from any available SATA port it won't start. I have 3 more available SATA ports and I have a Supermicro X8DT3 motherboard.  

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On 2/2/2020 at 4:03 PM, jonp said:

I can definitely confirm this is not a licensing issue or anything like that. For some reason your hardware doesn't like you putting in that new drive. Maybe try switching the USB port you're using for the flash drive too. This is definitely a hardware specific issue you're running into here.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk
 

Thank you for your help, I did try switching the USB as you suggested and unfortunately it is still not allowing me to plug in the new drive into any available SATA port. I have 3 more available SATA ports and I have a Supermicro X8DT3 motherboard. I have been googling all week but I have not been able to find any suggestions that worked. I tried unplugging one of my other drives and plugged the new drive into that SATA port and the drive was recognized. I did not install it or anything I just wanted to make sure the drive wasn't the cause. I then plugged the old drive back into the SATA port and the UNRAID started fine but as soon as I try to add the dreaded 10th drive it can no longer find the USB so weird...Thank you for your help!  

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On 2/2/2020 at 4:33 PM, itimpi said:

Sometimes the BIOS limits the number of bootable drives that can be seen.   I would suggest going into the HBA settings and disabling the option to boot from any HBA attached drives.

Thank you for your suggestion. Your suggestion seems very likely but I could not locate the HBA settings in my bios. I tried googling HBA settings for my motherboard a Supermicro X8DT3 but I could not find any information on HBA. I am new to UNRAIID but I found out that HBA means Host Bus Adapter. I don't see that setting in my bios. I am willing to try anything, thank you again for your help!  

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What HBA are you using?    Typically there is a keyboard combination available during the boot sequence to get into the BIOS of the HBA (rather than the motherboard).   From there you can disable the option for the HBA to report that any of the drives attached to it are bootable.   Another option that may be available in the motherboard BIOS is to avoid running the HBA Bios during boot.

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6 hours ago, itimpi said:

What HBA are you using?    Typically there is a keyboard combination available during the boot sequence to get into the BIOS of the HBA (rather than the motherboard).   From there you can disable the option for the HBA to report that any of the drives attached to it are bootable.   Another option that may be available in the motherboard BIOS is to avoid running the HBA Bios during boot.

I did some more research and I am using to SATA PCIe cards that have additional SATA ports on them. But I have 1 open port on my mother board and I tried plugging the drive into that and as soon as I do it won't recognize the flash device. After I unplug it all is well everything boots fine, plug it back in cannot find flash device.

 

Thank you,

 

James

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On 2/8/2020 at 9:25 AM, GTP said:

I did some more research and I am using to SATA PCIe cards that have additional SATA ports on them. But I have 1 open port on my mother board and I tried plugging the drive into that and as soon as I do it won't recognize the flash device. After I unplug it all is well everything boots fine, plug it back in cannot find flash device.

 

Thank you,

 

James

 

On 2/8/2020 at 2:25 AM, itimpi said:

What HBA are you using?    Typically there is a keyboard combination available during the boot sequence to get into the BIOS of the HBA (rather than the motherboard).   From there you can disable the option for the HBA to report that any of the drives attached to it are bootable.   Another option that may be available in the motherboard BIOS is to avoid running the HBA Bios during boot.

I just bought a SAS2008-IT. It has two flash ports on it that split into 4 each. I still cannot boot more than 11 drives. After adding the 12 it cannot find the flash device.

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5 minutes ago, PeteAsking said:

Maybe upgrade the motherboard firmware then

Thank you for your help I did try that but I actually just solved the issue and was writing up how stupid I was, it will be up in a second. Thank you again for caring to help out a stranger!

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PLEASE CLOSE THIS ISSUE

 

I finally figured out the root cause of the issue thanks to everyone's suggestions. It turned out to be the add-on SATA cards that I had bought off of Amazon. Even though they had no configuration, they were only allowing me to have 11 devices installed. I bought a new LSI card and removed both PCIe cards and plugged all my SATA connections from those two cards into the new 8 port LSI card. Everything now works and the new drive is clearing. The flash drive was found and I am happy as could be. I feel like the weight of the world is off my shoulders and I can now buy as many drives as my wife will let me. Thank you everyone!!!

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