Motherboard Died - MSATA - New Build Question

[kazooless]

My consumer grade motherboard made it almost 5 years! Unfortunately, it is now dead. :(

I'm reading the Hardware resource PDF and will most likely replace my board with a properly recommended board. However, so far I'm not seeing any with an MSATA slot. I always hated the USB dongle sticking out of the case, so I installed a Kingston 30GB MSATA drive directly on the motherboard. That is where my config is and such, and even though every upgrade I ran the backup so I could revert, I didn't copy a configuration externally to that drive. (Here is the drive: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DHWE3G0/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

So, if I get a new board that doesn't have an MSATA connection, obviously I can do a clean install of FreeNAS and import the disks. I had several jails installed and such. Will I have to recreate all of that? Or will I be able to find a config on the drives and import?

 

[nojohnny101]

If you do not have your config file, then I believe you can still import the volume but you are correct in the assumption that none of your users, shares, jails or settings will be preserved. That is stored in the config file which it seems you do not have a copy of.

 

[danb35]

If your .system dataset was on your pool (which it would have been by default), you have backups of your config file there.

none of your users, shares, jails or settings will be preserved

The jails will be--they're on the pool. Set the jail path in the new installation, and it should pick up any existing jails.

 

[kazooless]

Thanks guys. That gets me started. :D

In the meantime, I found the new Supermicro X11 boards have an M.2 slot, and I found an MSATA to M.2 converter. I'm in the process of ordering everything now.

 

[Ericloewe]

I found the new Supermicro X11 boards have an M.2 slot, and I found an MSATA to M.2 converter.

That won't work. Supermicro LGA1151 X11 boards only provide PCIe on the M.2 slots.

 

[kazooless]

That won't work. Supermicro LGA1151 X11 boards only provide PCIe on the M.2 slots.

You're saying this won't work?: "https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00XX4DM6Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1"

 

[Ericloewe]

Nope, as I said, the board does not provide SATA on the M.2 connector.

 

[kazooless]

Dang. That's a bummer. I ordered it with the new MB & such before you replied. :(

Not a huge deal in the scheme of things. Thanks for the help!

 

[kazooless]

Update: So I found a USB to MSATA adapter yesterday after Ericloewe pointed out the M.2 adapter I ordered won't work: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LRZPNHM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

But even better news is I got the old system to boot so I have a config file. Shortly thereafter, it started giving me BIOS boot codes (which it didn't before). Looks like I might have a RAM module going bad. Still, it will be very nice to have an updated system, especially one that has the recommended ECC build.

 

[kazooless]

Final report: Received all the parts today. Installed a Supermicro X11SSH-F with 2 sticks of Kingston RAM and a Pentium G4600. The board has an internal USB socket so I plugged in the external USB adapter for the MSATA card I bought into that. On boot, I just had to reset the IP address information and everything came up perfectly. It's way faster than the old system too!

Thanks for the help everyone!