9.3 Compact Flash Compatibility

[eduardoalvim]

Just trying to make a FreeNAS 9.3 STABLE fresh install on a "8GB SanDisk Ultra Compact Flash Card", but got a bunch of errors after the ada0 selection. Weird: The CF is listed as "CanDisk CDCFHSNJC", is it right?
Is there a list of CF supported? Thanks!

 

[danb35]

There's not a list of compatible or incompatible CF, but I don't think it's compatibility, as such, that's the problem. It's possible your CF card is defective, or perhaps that your motherboard's IDE controller is doing something odd. What hardware are you using? Have you tried installing to a USB stick?

 

[eduardoalvim]

Thanks for replying. The odd thing is that this same system is fully functional running FreeNAS 8.3.0 RELEASE p1, installed on a 2GB SanDisk Compact Flash. I just removed the 2GB piece, inserted the 8GB piece on it's place and tried to install 9.3...

 

[danb35]

A lot has changed since 8.3.0. Again, what hardware are you using? It's possible your CF is flaky, it's possible your hardware is flaky, it's possible your hardware isn't supported by 9.3.

 

[cyberjock]

The fact that the name is "Candisk" makes me think it's a Chinese knockoff and you didn't buy a true Sandisk device. Typos like that are typical and the tell-tale that you bought a fake.

 

[Ericloewe]

The fact that the name is "Candisk" makes me think it's a Chinese knockoff and you didn't buy a true Sandisk device. Typos like that are typical and the tell-tale that you bought a fake.

The card is either a fake (maybe one of the mythical 128MB cards with firmware hacked to show 8GB available) or badly damaged.

CF itself should work magnificently (by flash standards) when attached to a proper IDE controller. It should also work relatively well with SATA, if you can get a good PATA/SATA bridge (some must exist, drive makers used them in the early SATA days).

 

[9C1 Newbee]

The fact that the name is "Candisk" makes me think it's a Chinese knockoff and you didn't buy a true Sandisk device. Typos like that are typical and the tell-tale that you bought a fake.

Maybe they were trying to spell "Kingston".

 

[anodos]

The card is either a fake (maybe one of the mythical 128MB cards with firmware hacked to show 8GB available) or badly damaged.

I vote for the latter. I have seen lots of counterfeits with substandard components that fail prematurely and spectacularly, but never hacked firmware.

 

[eduardoalvim]

Thanks for the input. That day I went out to buy a pendrive (Toshiba brand) and made the upgrade using it. By the way, before that, I tryied once more with the CF and the system recognized it as "Sandisk". Althought I could make the installation begin, I couldn't finish it for some reason I can't remember now. System is now running very fast, with a read/copy performance I have never experienced with FreeNAS before.