NAS box

[fn-quser]

I have a NAS box ASRock C2750DI motherboard with a RAID5 spanned between 5 drives with two partitions. Here's the problem: It's not my box it was my son who unexpectedly passed away recently. He was a savy tech and I only assumed he used FreeNas to serve his house. No other files on anything else so getting into this box is all I have. When I boot the box I get This is a NAS data disk and can not boot system. I can boot the box into the bios where the raid is configured and see all 5 2TB drives. If I load FreeNAS on another stick will it see the raid? If anyone has a better idea of how to go about accessing the volumes. I can boot off a USB stick with Mint and see all 5 drives but unable to open them.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[gpsguy]

I'm sorry to hear about your loss.

With regards to FreeNAS, don't do any RAID configuration in the BIOS, ZFS is software RAID. The message you are seeing is normal, when FreeNAS can't find the boot device.

If you don't know where his boot disk is, I would install FreeNAS the current version (9.3.x) on a new flash drive, following the instructions in the documentation. Once you are able to boot it up, you should be able to use "auto import volume". You'll probably have to reconfigure the sharing, etc. to be able to access the data. There's a link to the documentation (yellow) at the top of the page. If you'd like a PDF version, you can download one using the link in signature.

If you need additional help, just let us know.

 

[fn-quser]

Txs for the quick response I'll give this a shot now. Fingers crossed.

 

[fn-quser]

I have FreeNas installed it did try to create a new pool which I canceled. Before I did the auto import I wanted to ask a question first. What if he wasn't running FreeNas will this corrupt the data by doing this? Is there any way of knowing? I truly do appreciate the response.

 

[BigDave]

I have FreeNas installed it did try to create a new pool which I canceled.

This would not have happend if the disks were configured as part of a FreeNAS volume.

What if he wasn't running FreeNas will this corrupt the data by doing this?

I would consider how important this data is and would be very careful before doing anything you might regret.
I urge you to consider professional help with this, unless you are a savvy tech yourself.
I'm sorry for your loss.
Dave

 

[fn-quser]

Any recommendations of where to get this type of professional help online? Tech Savvy to an extent mostly on the windows side but accessing this data is pretty important. The board does have ipmi so I could do a join.me meeting. This isn't the type of thing I can take to BestBuy for help. I've turned the system off and pulled the FreeNas usb stick.

Thanks again

 

[pirateghost]

When you boot without the USB drive, does it say 'this is a freenas data disk' or just a 'NAS data disk'?

 

[BigDave]

Any recommendations of where to get this type of professional help online? This isn't the type of thing I can take to BestBuy for help.

I would just search the web for Data Recovery Services, Your City, State.
Like buying any other service, check the company out thoroughly before trusting them.

 

[fn-quser]

Pirate Ghost all it says when it boots is "This is a NAS data disk and can not boot system". I'll being to look around for recovery services then. I was hoping it was just the OS and could get loaded. When I boot off a Mint usb drive all I see if the 5 drives. One thought I had is do I need to load the motherboard raid driver for FreeNas to see the partitions because all it saw was the drives alone.... I won't do anything till I hear back.

Thanks

 

[pirateghost]

Pirate Ghost all it says when it boots is "This is a NAS data disk and can not boot system". I'll being to look around for recovery services then. I was hoping it was just the OS and could get loaded. When I boot off a Mint usb drive all I see if the 5 drives. One thought I had is do I need to load the motherboard raid driver for FreeNas to see the partitions because all it saw was the drives alone.... I won't do anything till I hear back.

Thanks

Freenas doesn't work well with hardware raid. This doesn't sound like a hardware raid though.

You said you can see the raid array in BIOS, can you provide us with a screenshot of the configuration?

This sounds an awful lot like 'fakeraid' if mint sees the individual disks. If so, freenas likely doesn't appreciate the raid interference. There are no drivers to load in freenas for this. Don't make any attempt to load drivers.

 

[gpsguy]

The motherboard has both Intel and Marvell SATA controllers. I'm sure the Marvell's are doing "fakeraid".

I know you said that you see "This is a NAS data disk and can not boot system". When you quoted it the second time, were you quoting it from what you wrote down or did you fire it up and again and verify it. If you didn't start it up again, please do some and report back. The message we expect to see is nearly the same, but says "FreeNAS" instead of just "NAS".

Frankly, I wouldn't start looking for data recovery services yet.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

Before I did the auto import I wanted to ask a question first. What if he wasn't running FreeNas will this corrupt the data by doing this?

I'm pretty sure that if you attempt auto-import and FreeNAS doesn't find a pool it recognizes, it won't modify anything.

 

[fn-quser]

Here are some pictures I took of the bios, boot order, boot options. I can access the ipmi but not the RAID via the web interface. After looking at it closer it looks like it's two mirrors one on each controller not a raid 5. Any additional thoughts are greatly appreciated. I put all the photos in one zip file.

Txs again

 

[pirateghost]

That message should say it was a FreeNAS data disk if it was a FreeNAS system. I do not think it is a FreeNAS box, unless old versions said that.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

After looking at it closer it looks like it's two mirrors one on each controller not a raid 5.

That's now how it looks to me. Capture4 looks like two individual drives and one mirrored pair to me ... but I'm not familiar with those controllers. It looks like two of the drives are candidates for booting.

1. Where are the rest of the 5 2TB drives you referred to? I see only 2 or 4 in your screenshots, depending on interpretation. Do you see them physically inside the box?
2. Was there any other device (USB stick, other flash device) attached at any time other than when you tried to use the FreeNAS stick you created? If so, what happens when you select that device as the boot device? If not, perhaps one of the 2TB drives is the boot device.
3. Can you figure out if your son had an account on this forum, or on any other internet discussion forum? If so, a search of his postings would most likely reveal what he was running and perhaps even how it was configured. The 16GB of ECC RAM and WD Red drives are consistent with a FreeNAS build.

If you're anywhere near ZIP code 12037, PM me and I'll do my best to help.

 

[fn-quser]

Robert,

I am relatively close 3hrs and didn't see where to PM so if you can PM me first I will reply. To answer your questions I don't know why when I boot into Mint, or even when I booted into FreeNas off the boot drive I created I see five drives but not in the BIOS really odd. I sent ASRock an email today asking if they can email an iso with the support utiltiles the RAID manual references. It's suppose to have some sort of web access to configure the RAID. When I went to his house all I saw was this box which had three network cables plugged into it a switch and a chrome book. Chrome book is pw protected going through the channels with Google to get his account info. This is going to be a processes I already gave them a copy of the death certificate and it's going to be an up hill climb.

Physically in the box there are the 5 drives and I can see where two are plugged into the left side of the board and the other three are on the right. I looked around for accounts that may of referenced his gmail account but he never really disclosed any of this. When I say unexpected no one even get to say goodbye by the time we gotten there..

 

[gpsguy]

Even if you get something from ASRock, I'd hold off on trying to "configure the RAID". I'd hate to see you do something that might damage the data.

To send a PM, open this URL - https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?conversations/ Near the upper right hand corner, select the box that says "Start a New Conversation". In the participants box, start typing "Robert Tre..." and select his name from the list. I'm sure you can do the rest.

 

[fn-quser]

Txs gpsguy. I looked at it but wasn't sure and figured since everyone has been so helpful I needed to reply. I do appreciate the input from everyone. As far as the raid controller I just want to know how it's configured why one drive isn't visible in the bios? ASRock got back to me and said I need to get in touch with a dealer... He did allot with newegg for his work so I guess I can start there.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

if you can PM me first I will reply

Done.

 

[pirateghost]

o answer your questions I don't know why when I boot into Mint, or even when I booted into FreeNas off the boot drive I created I see five drives but not in the BIOS really odd.

Because it isn't true hardware raid. It is what we refer to as 'fakeraid'. You need an OS that supports it, and the drivers installed.

I sent ASRock an email today asking if they can email an iso with the support utiltiles the RAID manual references. It's suppose to have some sort of web access to configure the RAID.

See first answer. This 'web gui' is only accessible when you have a supported OS with the appropriate software/drivers installed. You will never see anything in an OS that doesn't support the fakeraid.

When I went to his house all I saw was this box which had three network cables plugged into it a switch and a chrome book.

This tells me he has the IPMI port plugged in and accessible over the network, which allows you to see all kinds of things hardware wise.

It does appear that this setup is in some sort of ZFS configuration, so FreeNAS should be able to Import it, but I do not think it is a FreeNAS ZFS array.