SSD Not Listed for Install of FreeNAS OS

[Chris Moore]

I've created 2 more SSD paper weights

Are they still in warranty?

 

[cafenfrek]

Yes, but I'm not sure how I keep creating them...and now after my last reboot, I have zero plugins available due to a Null 500 error

 

[cafenfrek]

Are they still in warranty?

I had this error previously and had to reload FreeNAS; so I am going to do a fresh install one more time and see what is up. I guess I will do it via USB thumbdrive vice SSD which seems a bit antiquated.

 

[cafenfrek]

How are you preparing these SSDs? You shouldn't need to prep them at all other than to delete any existing partition table.

That might be the issue then...I was prepping them like you would prep the usb thumb drive with the iso file on them...I'm guessing this is a bad thing now.

 

[Jailer]

Create your usb thumb drive to make an install disk. Boot from the USB thumb drive to install to the SSD.

 

[Chris Moore]

You may be able to connect these SSDs to a Windows system (one at a time) to do a partition table wipe, after that, they may be working fine again. Let me know if you have a Windows system that you can give that a try with.

 

[cafenfrek]

Create your usb thumb drive to make an install disk. Boot from the USB thumb drive to install to the SSD.

I will certainly do this in the future. I'm guessing it has to do with how the disks are accessed during the install process after I have created them as install media. An expensive lesson for sure.

 

[cafenfrek]

You may be able to connect these SSDs to a Windows system (one at a time) to do a partition table wipe, after that, they may be working fine again. Let me know if you have a Windows system that you can give that a try with.

I do have a windows system, but no matter what tool I use, I can't reformat the drive due to write protection. It is the weirdest thing! Just another lesson with FreeNAS.

 

[garm]

Okey, this is interesting. What did you actually do to the SSDs??

 

[Chris Moore]

I do have a windows system, but no matter what tool I use, I can't reformat the drive due to write protection. It is the weirdest thing! Just another lesson with FreeNAS.

Have you tried the Microsoft command line tool named "diskpart"? It has worked with some of the problems that I have had.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

 

[Ericloewe]

I do have a windows system, but no matter what tool I use, I can't reformat the drive due to write protection. It is the weirdest thing! Just another lesson with FreeNAS.

That's because Windows has limited GUI tools for this. Using diskpart in the command line to destroy all partition tables will do the trick.
Of course, you can accomplish the same on FreeBSD.

Ninja'd.

 

[cafenfrek]

Okey, this is interesting. What did you actually do to the SSDs??

I followed the USB media creation steps in the install guide for a Mac. Installation starts fine, but the drive never shows up. I did get one SSD to show up, one time, but I think I booted from the USB by accident and ran the install from there. Anyway, I think it has to do with how the dd command copies the ISO over to the SSD. Whatever boot/install partition is created is write-protected and the installation program sees this and doesn't make the disk available for use to the system. It is the only thing that makes sense at this point. I'm going to get another SSD and use a USB as the install media and see if it is seen.

 

[cafenfrek]

Have you tried the Microsoft command line tool named "diskpart"? It has worked with some of the problems that I have had.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

I have not, but I will now as both you and Ericloewe have mentioned it.

 

[cafenfrek]

That's because Windows has limited GUI tools for this. Using diskpart in the command line to destroy all partition tables will do the trick.
Of course, you can accomplish the same on FreeBSD.

Ninja'd.

Thanks! Appreciate it.

 

[Chris Moore]

I followed the USB media creation steps in the install guide for a Mac. Installation starts fine, but the drive never shows up.

It is because you can't treat a SSD like a USB drive. It was once the case with FreeNAS that you could put the installer on a USB stick, boot from that stick and then install FreeNAS to the same media that you just booted from, but that has not been true for a long time and, I suppose that the guide may need a bit of clarification on that topic. I have not looked at that part of the guide in probably 3 years or more.
In your situation, to install on SSD, you need to do nothing with the SSD, you need to use a USB stick, make it into the installation media, boot from the USB stick and then the installer should allow you to install on another drive in the system, and the drive to choose is the SSD.
I thought that you were using a Supermicro system that had IPMI though. If that is true, you don't need to create installation media at all.

 

[Chris Moore]

I'm going to get another SSD

Don't do that yet. I think that you will be able to delete the partition on the SSD using the clean command from inside the diskpart tool.
The clean command doesn't care what is on the disk, it deletes the partition table. Just be careful you have the correct drive selected. Do you need help with that?

 

[cafenfrek]

Don't do that yet. I think that you will be able to delete the partition on the SSD using the clean command from inside the diskpart tool.
The clean command doesn't care what is on the disk, it deletes the partition table. Just be careful you have the correct drive selected. Do you need help with that?

No, I will be fine with it.

 

[cafenfrek]

Waiting on my buddy who gave me the original SSD to be done trying to fix it. He did run the clean command and it cleared partitions, but the drive was still write-protected and he couldn't format it. However, my original problem of not seeing my SSDs and making paperweights had been resolved. Solved.

 

[Chris Moore]

Waiting on my buddy who gave me the original SSD to be done trying to fix it. He did run the clean command and it cleared partitions, but the drive was still write-protected and he couldn't format it.

Did you try this:
https://www.pcworld.com/article/245174/restore_access_to_a_write_protected_hard_drive.html