SOLVED Freenas no longer boots (blinking cursor)

TankForDays

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Nov 16, 2016
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6
I had Freenas 11.3 running until a few days ago when it inexplicitly lost connection (no internet connection etc). Decided to force reboot since this was headless and had no luck (static IP on router did not show up). I finally got my hands on a spare monitor so I could boot up to see what was happening and it looks like it's just stuck on a blinking cursor after BIOS loads. Some past threads indicate this is an issue with my boot device (SSD) perhaps?

What are my options to troubleshoot further and is there anything else I should check?

  1. I'm not sure if the SSD just randomly decided to die, but would be open to getting a new one and doing a refresh install (but is there a way to verify if this was in fact the issue?)
    1. If the SSD is still "functional" can I upgrade to TrueNAS Core?
  2. If I get a new SSD as the boot device, I was thinking its a good time to just force upgrade to the new TrueNAS Core. Can I do this and import the zpool assuming nothing is wrong with it?
  3. Lately I have seen sectors failing on my HDs slowly but I do not think it's necessarily related to the problem I'm having now but will mention it.
 

Samuel Tai

Never underestimate your own stupidity
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Apr 24, 2020
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Most likely your boot SSD died, but you should check the BIOS to make sure it's still pointing to it as the boot drive. Other possibilities are the boot sector is corrupted, loose cables/connectors to the SSD, and a bad power cable to the SSD.

You could try installing a Gparted live CD to a thumb drive, and booting from it, to see if it can make out any partitions on your SSD.

Regardless, getting your server back in service from a boot drive failure is pretty easy: swap in a replacement SSD; install the latest TrueNAS onto it; import your pool; and reconfigure your shares and users.

If you've saved off the system config, you don't need to do the last step. Just upload your config and reboot the TrueNAS server.
 

TankForDays

Cadet
Joined
Nov 16, 2016
Messages
6
Most likely your boot SSD died, but you should check the BIOS to make sure it's still pointing to it as the boot drive. Other possibilities are the boot sector is corrupted, loose cables/connectors to the SSD, and a bad power cable to the SSD.

You could try installing a Gparted live CD to a thumb drive, and booting from it, to see if it can make out any partitions on your SSD.

Regardless, getting your server back in service from a boot drive failure is pretty easy: swap in a replacement SSD; install the latest TrueNAS onto it; import your pool; and reconfigure your shares and users.

If you've saved off the system config, you don't need to do the last step. Just upload your config and reboot the TrueNAS server.

thank you for the feedback. Seemed simple enough however when I got a spare SSD plugged in and ran through the installer, everything seemed ok until I did a reboot. The reboot presents:

"This is a NAS data disk and can not boot system. System halted."

I hit F11 during bios to select the right boot device (I know its the right one because its 120gb SSD smaller drive while the other WD drives are all few TB). I tried doing a fresh install via the bootable USB, wiping the drive and again everything seems ok so I am pretty stumped.

One thing I'll mention is when I try to hit "DEL" to go into BIOS, and look at the devices it does not list this WD 120GB SSD. However I know the drive should work because it is in one of the drive selection options prompted when installing.

Any thoughts?
 

Samuel Tai

Never underestimate your own stupidity
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Joined
Apr 24, 2020
Messages
5,398
Does your system boot via BIOS or UEFI? You'll need to install the correct one for your system, and then adjust the boot order to point to the new boot drive.
 

TankForDays

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Joined
Nov 16, 2016
Messages
6
I actually installed it with BIOS first time and then the second with UEFI. For reference, this is the motherboard

Both options yielded the same results but I have added some screenshots to help explain the scenario better.
IMG_20220727_231848.jpg


Here you can see ada4 points to (00JH30) the boot drive I am installing to. I did this as UEFI with the "Format the boot device" option. After reboot take out flash drive and look at my BIOS settings.

IMG_20220727_233115.jpg


I don't understand why I can only see the other drive (68WT0N0 not the one I want). I also found the additional setting "Hard Drive BBS Priorities" which showed the following drive

IMG_20220727_233213.jpg


I selected this to move up the priority list, save changes, and still same issue... I also don't think this is a faulty SSD drive either given everything I went through.
 

TankForDays

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Joined
Nov 16, 2016
Messages
6
This is semi-obscure problem but after many different combinations, I finally got it working.

  • force proper drive order via BBS priorities as mentioned above
  • boot up bootable media as *SANDISK UEFI* (not just the regular SANDISK USB boot device option as there was a difference)
  • and installed it as boot via BIOS (I believe I selected this)
  • Reboot, left install USB in (despite instructions saying its ok to remove) but force/verify boot order was the main install SSD.
 
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