SOLVED Cannot install 11.1-u7 on former (cleaned) RAID disks

[s0mm3r]

Hi

I'm realy losing my mind and chill right now.

I'm working on a FreeNAS server with 4 ZFS pools right now and I'm replacing the boot drives

I want to install FreeNAS on two 500GB disks which have been RAID members on a different server
I've cleaned the disks multiple times
on both linux and windows machines
with diskpart
with dmraid
zeroed them with dd (took about 6 hours)
'dmraid -r' shows no raid members
I've deleted every partition and created a new table with gparted
I even reformated the installation USB drive
and still
on booting the FreeNAS installer
it imports the RAID
and won't let me install on those 2 disks

I don't know what to do right now...
I tried 4 disks and none of them work

where the F*** does FreeNAS get the RAID information from??!??!??!
I'm out of ideas right now

please help
thanks

 

[s0mm3r]

I was able to fix it by creating a new RAID with those disks and deleting it again

I've put the disks in my tower and created a RAID 0 with them
the RAID manager said "warning there is a RAID..." so the information was indeed still on the disks (WTF?!?)
then I've deleted the RAID and put them back in the FreeNAS server

now the RAID is gone and the OS is installed

 

[wblock]

That was motherboard "RAID" (software RAID), not ZFS or FreeNAS information. The motherboard hides the metadata from the operating system (sort of). Motherboard RAID often leaves metadata on disks that will pop up later to cause problems. If you ever use motherboard RAID, be sure to destroy the RAID with the BIOS before reusing those drives.

 

[s0mm3r]

That was motherboard "RAID" (software RAID), not ZFS or FreeNAS information. The motherboard hides the metadata from the operating system (sort of). Motherboard RAID often leaves metadata on disks that will pop up later to cause problems. If you ever use motherboard RAID, be sure to destroy the RAID with the BIOS before reusing those drives.

Correct

but 'dmraid' should be capable of destroying that metadata
at least zeroing the drive with 'dd' normaly works
I have no idea where that data was hidden

 

[wblock]

Correct

but 'dmraid' should be capable of destroying that metadata

Sorry, I don't have any experience with that tool. Windows and Linux disk tools have let me down often enough that I generally don't bother with them, instead using gpart and the geom tools on FreeBSD.

at least zeroing the drive with 'dd' normaly works
I have no idea where that data was hidden

It depends on the brand of motherboard RAID. Some put metadata at the beginning, some at the end, and it varies in size.

But when those drives are connected to the same type of system that created the RAID on them, that information is hidden. You can dd to the drives, but the system reports them as smaller in size than they are, to protect the metadata. Connecting them to a different controller or a motherboard without that type of software RAID can make that data visible, but it's easiest to destroy it from the machine that created it.