SOLVED Had to power off and now I'm in GRUB rescue mode

[Shiroi Kage]

I came back today and saw that my FreeNAS box was really busy. Drives were being accessed like crazy and I was unable to do anything with direct access to the server, and the web UI as inaccessible. Pressing the power button normally starts a regular shutdown, so I tried it but nothing happened. It's not scheduled to scrub until the beginning of next month, and it's not connected to the internet so it shouldn't be updating either. So I did something that might be really stupid, and I forced a power off. When I booted again, I was on GRUB with the error "no such device: <some device ID>"

What do I do next? I have no idea how to use GRUB. I was booting off of a flash drive. Could it have gotten corrupted? Should I try to flash FreeNAS on a different USB stick and then attempt to import my array to it? Please advise.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I was booting off of a flash drive. Could it have gotten corrupted?

Could be.

Should I try to flash FreeNAS on a different USB stick and then attempt to import my array to it?

Worth a try, especially if you have a backup of your configuration.

 

[Shiroi Kage]

Could be.

Worth a try, especially if you have a backup of your configuration.

May I ask what you mean by a backup of my configuration? Does that mean all my settings? Cause if so, I have very few of them that aren't on default.

Also, this would be the first time I import disks into a FreeNAS system. Do I use "import volume" on the web UI to import my array?

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

Yes and yes. See 5.2.1 and 8.1.6 in the User Guide.

 

[Shiroi Kage]

Yes and yes. See 5.2.1 and 8.1.6 in the User Guide.

Thanks a lot! I'll be sure to back up my configuration more often from now on.

I installed a small, spare SSD into a spare SATA port and had FreeNAS installed. Volume imported successfully and the data looks fine at first glance. I'm scrubbing now to make sure the RAID is intact.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]