FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201412090314 BOOT DRIVE FAILURE

[karthikeyan d]

Hi FreeNAS/TrueNas community forums
I have been using freenas as a file server form 2014 and my last update version was FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201412090314 .
i have tried updating to the next version in the past , but due to some issue , i could not up date from the above version.
Since my freenas server was running without any issues for past 6-7 years , so i dint want to risk fiddling around to try and upgrade.
I Dont run it 24/7 . I run it as a storage server and media server which is used only when necessary.

My Server Config
Motherboard = INTEL DG43RK
Processor = Intel Celeron CPU E3300 2 2.50 GHz
RAM =8 GB DDR3 1333 Corsair xms
PCIE HBA = 4 SATA PORTS (Some generic card )
L2ARC = Kingston 60 GB SSD
HHD = 7 (2TB Seagate ironwolf drives) in raid z1
SMPS = 650 W CORSAIR
Boot drive = 4 GB Kingston


Couple of days back , my freenas GUI showed a critical error - Boot volume state is UNAVAIL ; one or more devices are faulted in response to IO failure

following this the GUI became unresponsive , on restart the boot loader screen got suck in the following

i read through some forums and discussion , most of them said it would be a failing / failed usb boot drive .
i panicked and googled for my version of freenas iso (FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201412090314) . it was no were to be found.
more panic set in . Some how managed to find a 9.3 version (FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201504152200) . i installed it on a new usb drive and booted my OS , logged into the new OS and setwizard showed up . and i did the following ,

then GUI would not respond . i restarted the server and the boot loader got stuck again in as in the previous boot loader image .
Then the next day i inserted the old usb drive (kingston 4 gb ) and booted my freenas server. It booted up fine and ran with no errors for 2 hrs.Then the same Critical error on GUI - Boot volume state is UNAVAIL ; one or more devices are faulted in response to IO failure and boot loader go stuck on rebooting my freenas server.

I then changed the usb port from on the moterboard to rear IO usb port , the system booted up and is running fine for past 3 days , even after multipe reboots and multiple manual shutdowns. USB header or connector on motherboard gone BAD ? ??.


I BACKED UP MY IMPORTANT FILES
I HAVE SAVED MY CONFIG

NOW I WANT TO DO THE FOLLOWING

1) MAKE A COPY/CLONE THE CURRENT USB BOOT DRIVE (4 GB kingston )
2) MAY BE UPGRADE TO 9.3 version (FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201504152200) is this previous version an upgrade to mu current version (FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201412090314)
3)IS IT POSSIBLE TO JUMP VERSIONS AND GO TO freenas 10 or freenas 11

NEED HELP FIND ISO's and with CLONING MY OLD USB

PLEASE HELP

THANKYOU

 

[karthikeyan d]

I tried to create a mirror of my boot drive . Mirror was created successfully on a 32 gb SanDisk usb flash drive .

Now i have 2 usb boot drives on Freenas.
On rebooting my system , there was a black screen and blinking dash.

I thought I should rearrange my boot drive order in BIOS . and rearrange such that the primary boot drive was first in boot order and the mirror drive was second in boot order . Restarted the Freenas server . Same black screen with blinking dash.

Some how management to remove the mirrored drive by using
Code : zpool status freenas-boot detach gptid ( drive gptid/thred alpha numeric ).

My Question :
Why black screen with blinking dash.
Why dint my system boot even though I changed boot order in BIOS

KINDLY HELP ME
THANKYOU.

 

[karthikeyan d]

I tried to create a mirror of my boot drive . Mirror was created successfully on a 32 gb SanDisk usb flash drive .

Now i have 2 usb boot drives on Freenas.
On rebooting my system , there was a black screen and blinking dash.

I thought I should rearrange my boot drive order in BIOS . and rearrange such that the primary boot drive was first in boot order and the mirror drive was second in boot order . Restarted the Freenas server . Same black screen with blinking dash.

Some how management to remove the mirrored drive by using
Code : zpool status freenas-boot detach gptid ( drive gptid/thred alpha numeric ).

My Question :
Why black screen with blinking dash.
Why dint my system boot even though I changed boot order in BIOS

KINDLY HELP ME
THANKYOU.

In addition to my first post

The reason I want to clone my first boot drive Is because I cannot find FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201504152200 iso file .

Can some one help me with the link or the next best possible upgrade path.

 

[jgreco]

I've placed a copy of FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201506292332.iso

at https://extranet.www.sol.net/files/freenas/iso/FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201506292332.iso

Don't have time to delve deeper into this at the moment.

 

[karthikeyan d]

I've placed a copy of FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201506292332.iso

at https://extranet.www.sol.net/files/freenas/iso/FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201506292332.iso

Don't have time to delve deeper into this at the moment.

Thankyou , just started downloading .
Will let you know how it goes .