Hard Drive inoperable after using it with FreeNAS

[Marijn]

Okay, so I have configured freenas a while ago just to check it out and see if it was right for me. Everything was working, and I was happy. I tested the power usage, and I didn't like that at all. I installed it on an old iMac and I couldn't get the screen to turn off either. Now, this was fine by me, not the fault of FreeNAS, just my personal preference, so I stopped using FreeNAS. But when I tried to use the Hard Drive that I had used for FreeNAS on my windows machine, I couldn't get it to work, I've tried multiple software to repartition it so I can use it on windows, and when those didn't work, I tried using the command prompt, I've searched though half of the internet by now, but can't find anything. I used the hard drive for FreeNAS 9.3.1 Stable, and I think that would format it in the ZFS file system, but i'm not sure. If anyone could help me, I'd be more than happy to provide any other info if necessary.

 

[dlavigne]

Use something like http://www.killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm.

 

[joeschmuck]

This is a simplistic answer just to get you over the hump... Run dban 2.3 on it, it comes as an ISO so you can burn a bootable CD. WARNING!!! Ensure you ONLY have the drive you want to erase connected to your system. You don't want to erase your windows drive or any other data by accident.

Run a simple one pass, could take a while but once it's done, your drive will be wiped out and Windows should be able to see it. If this fails to work then maybe your hard drive has a real failure.

 

[Marijn]

Okay, will try this when I get home again, thanks for the response both of you and I'll let you guys know if it worked!

 

[Mirfster]

DiskPart (on Win 7 and above) will do the trick. Just have to be sure to select the correct disk and use the "Clean" command. But you need to know what you are doing; otherwise you may wipe the wrong disk...

 

[Marijn]

DiskPart (on Win 7 and above) will do the trick. Just have to be sure to select the correct disk and use the "Clean" command. But you need to know what you are doing; otherwise you may wipe the wrong disk...

I have already tried this, and when I run the partition command after that, it echoes: Access denied, check system logs for more info, I have checked them, it only says: VDS failed to write boot code on a disk during cleanup operation. Error code: 80070005@02070008. This is weird, because I don't get an error while running the clean command, but when I run the partition command. But when I look in the system logs, its about the cleaning operation..

 

[Mirfster]

VDS failed to write boot code on a disk during cleanup operation. Error code: 80070005@02070008

Then I think your drive has failed.

Reference: http://www.jwgoerlich.us/blogengine...Diskpart-to-Create-and-Format-Partitions.aspx

The following are common errors displayed if there is a hardware problem:

DISKPART> clean
DiskPart has encountered an error: The device is not ready.
See the System Event Log for more information.

Resolution: If the event log entry states "The driver detected a controller error on \Device", the problem is likely your storage controller on your mainboard. Check your hard drive connections and reload your storage conroller driver. If the event log entry states "VDS fails to write boot code on a disk during clean operation. Error code: 80070015@02070008", the hard drive itself has failed.

 

[joeschmuck]

I agree that the drive may have failed as well but one of the easier options was dban, another option is to boot up Ubuntu int he Try Ubuntu mode and then run smartctl to test the drive, you can also erase the drive that way too. Another option, The Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD) which has Partition Magic and other tools, again, ensure the drive in question is the only drive connected to the machine. You will hate yourself if you wipe out a drive you didn't want to touch. At least with the running of smartctl, you can tell for certain if the drive has failed. Run a short test, check the results, if favorable then run a long test and check results.