[error getting used space]-message when adding a second drive

[MockY]

I have FreeNAS 8.0 installed on a 4GB thumb drive. I also have 2 new 3TB drives. I first physically just installed one of the drives and then create a new volume. The creation of it is successful. I then turn of the FreeNAS and physically install the second one. However, when creating it, I get these errors listed for this volume

Code:

Error getting used space (Error) 	- Error getting available space - Error getting total space

I moved around the drive, as in using the "faulty" drive in different SATA channels, including the one where the first volume was successfully created, but I still get the same error.

I made the conclusion that the drive was faulty since I never got it to work, even by itself in the "healthy" channel. I therefore went and bought yet another 3TB drive of the same kind and repeated the procedure. Again, I can create the first volume, but the second volume produces the same errors. I have never had an issue with a single WD drive in my life, and 2 in a row seems very unlikely. So the issue seems to lay with FreeNAS.

Why is this occurring and what can I do to fix it?

I have extremely simple needs when it comes to FreeNAS but I have already encountered 2 bugs (the first being it fails to import NTFS drives and then trashes the contents of it, and the second is the above issue).
Should I download a prior version and use that instead of this maybe?

 

[Darkaine]

Import of NTFS is broken I believe. I tried as well (Luckily my data was intact) but I ended up using an external enclosure to back it up to my PC then send it back to the drive via network after I formatted the drive.

As to the problem at hand, Have you tried the disk in another computer to be sure its FreeNAS? Do you have an external enclosure or something you can put it in to test it? Either way you should try it in another machine. However I share your view of Western Digital as they are my drive of choice. Is the drive you have in there identical to the problematic drive?

 

[MockY]

Yeah, the NTFS import is broken, but I can definitely live without it. I simply copy the data over to new drives instead, so that feature is definitely not crucial. But it is still a bug which obviously makes me cautious on trusting the software with my data in case of other bugs (which the problem at hand seems to indicate)

Yes, the drive is identical to the one I first tried. I unfortunately have no enclosures that supports drives over 2TB at the moment, but the BIOS is identifying the drive just fine. I tried to use Ultimate boot disk in order to run WD diagnostic test, but that version does not detect a drive at all. I will have to download the latest version from their website (though last time I tried, that version was broken and refused to boot). I highly doubt it is the WD drive, but testing wont hurt anything I guess.

 

[MockY]

I now put the new replacement drive, the one that showed with the topic error once added as a second volume, as the only single drive. It is created successfully without any errors. So there is nothing wrong with the drive. Unfortunately I have already RMAd the first drive with Newegg.

So the issue is clearly with FreeNAS, but why? Multiple 3tb drives are not supported?

 

[Darkaine]

That could be, but I wouldn't know since I only have 2 250GB drives in mine. Maybe proto or one of the other big posters would know. I MAY have seen something about 3TB not being supported. Its possible though it was something else lol, I've looked into alot of NAS solutions before I found this one.

 

[Darkaine]

Sorry to resurrect an older post but I too am now getting this error after a reboot.

 

[ProtoSD]

I'm not sure about 3TB drives being supported or not, but have you tried wiping the drive? Look @ question #19 in the FAQ link in my signature below.

Edit: guess you might not wanna wipe your drive if it has data you want. Hmmm...

 

[ProtoSD]

@Darkaine, are your disks mirrored or just 2 separate UFS disks? If they're not mirrored, you could unmount them from the command line and try 'fsck'ing them.

 

[Darkaine]

Is there a way to do this through the interface? Or do I actually have to plug a keyboard and screen to the sucker? Also may I ask what "fsck' is supposed to mean/do?

 

[ProtoSD]

You need to do it from the command line. You could connect with ssh if you have that setup, otherwise you need to hook up a keyboard/screen ;-)

fsck is like chkdsk for windows, but I'm not sure it's a good idea to use if your disks are mirrored. If they're not, then you unmount them 'umount /dev/disk-device' and then 'fsck /dev/disk-device' if it's just one big partition, otherwise you'll probably need to 'gpart show /dev/disk-device' to see what your partitions are. fsck needs to run on the partition device like /dev/ad0s1a, unless you're using the whole disk. gpart show will show you any partitions.

 

[Darkaine]

They are separate (Not in raid or anything like that just cause I usually back up on DVDs but place it on the NAS for easy access.) but how could both disks fail at the same time?

 

[ProtoSD]

how could both disks fail at the same time?

Well it's not likely, but definitely possible. Most likely something weird happened with FreeNAS, but I'm just trying to help you verify that your disks are ok. With UFS, if you had to, you could boot up an Ubuntu live CD and mount your disks and look at stuff. The 'fsck is just to check your disk structure hasn't been corrupted.

 

[Darkaine]

ROFL, as it turned out it was a faulty IDE cable (Need to get more as this is my last multi drive cable). That also answers the "How could both disks fail at the same time" question. I mean obviously its possible but unlikely. Thanks anyway mate.

Makes sense that it failed though as I've had this server for quite some time, the drives are relatively new though.

 

[ProtoSD]

yeah, that'll do it. I guess I skipped that step, but for some reason I assumed your disks were 'online'. If you had ssh setup you could login see if they were there. Glad you figured it out without too much stress.

 

[MockY]

I think I now know what caused the initial problem. The SATA controller I used to test these two 3tb drives were set to AHCI (otherwise the motherboard wont use them). Once I reverted back to SATA mode and used the other built in controller, both drives were successfully added. I now have 2 volumes that runs fine.

Why BSD wont fully support AHCI is beyond me (and it makes me loose out of 2 channels), but at least I can start using it. I simply have to buy more controller cards and forget using the once I have built in on the motherboard.

 

[ProtoSD]

MockY, that is really strange how AHCI is behaving for you. I have AHCI enabled and am able to use all 6 of my SATA ports without any problems. The only thing that happens is I'm unable to use the USB-DOM port (Disk on Module), but I just plug my flash drive into a regular USB port and that problem is solved.