One or more devices has experienced an error

[Mlovelace]

so, bearing in mind that I understand about a quarter of what everyone has said in this thread, what's the prognosis here?
Is my data ruined?
what should I do next?

You need to run a memory test to make sure your memory isn't causing your issues. Search Memtest86+ and follow the instructions.

 

[Ericloewe]

so, bearing in mind that I understand about a quarter of what everyone has said in this thread, what's the prognosis here?
Is my data ruined?
what should I do next?

First, back it up.
Second, take a look and see what is lost and what isn't.
Third, read up on stuff so you understand what's going on.

 

[Fraoch]

Is my data ruined?

It probably is, sorry to say. It could only be one file that's corrupted or it could be more than that.

what should I do next?

Is there somewhere you could put your data temporarily? Your FreeNAS server is not a safe place for your data right now until you can determine what's going on and can fix it.

Back up the data first, then test your memory.

 

[ives31]

I've been going through my data (mostly movies and tv) and it all seems to be working fine.
I can't find any corrupted data.

 

[Starpulkka]

Im thinkin that data is ok, zfs should tell you witch named files are gone, check that has hdd jumped off and on raid.. edit: heh i wasnt fast enough, but still back up data some where safe NOW

 

[Fraoch]

I've been going through my data (mostly movies and tv) and it all seems to be working fine.
I can't find any corrupted data.

Well OK but you've been very lucky. Consider this whole thing kind of a freebie warning then. But you do really need to test everything thoroughly now as you're getting warnings that something is wrong.

You cannot trust your FreeNAS with your data in its present state. Without ECC memory, there's the distinct possibility you may never be able to fully trust it, I'm afraid.

 

[ives31]

Are you saying that freenas should tell me which files are corrupted? where would it tell me that?
Also,can someone give me some pointers on how to do a ram test?
As far as I can see Memtest86+ is a program that you install to test memory, but how do you install it on freenas?

 

[Fraoch]

How did you install FreeNAS? You can "install" Memtest86+ in the exact same way - you either burn a CD or write to a USB drive. In fact if you have Windows on another computer you can write a USB drive directly.

It's a "live" operating system. You boot it (selecting the USB drive in the BIOS first), then it runs entirely from the USB drive, not touching your hard drives at all. It doesn't "install" itself.

Let it run as long as you can, at a minimum overnight. It should report NO errors otherwise there's a problem with your RAM.

As it runs, please take the time to look over some documentation on FreeNAS. At least take a look at @cyberjock 's guide - the link is in his signature. FreeNAS can be quite complicated. Although you can run it without being an expert you should know what you're getting yourself into here.

 

[ives31]

How did you install FreeNAS? You can "install" Memtest86+ in the exact same way - you either burn a CD or write to a USB drive. In fact if you have Windows on another computer you can write a USB drive directly.

It's a "live" operating system. You boot it (selecting the USB drive in the BIOS first), then it runs entirely from the USB drive, not touching your hard drives at all. It doesn't "install" itself.

Let it run as long as you can, at a minimum overnight. It should report NO errors otherwise there's a problem with your RAM.

As it runs, please take the time to look over some documentation on FreeNAS. At least take a look at @cyberjock 's guide - the link is in his signature. FreeNAS can be quite complicated. Although you can run it without being an expert you should know what you're getting yourself into here.

thanks for the clear explanation
I'll run it tonight

 

[cyberjock]

I've been going through my data (mostly movies and tv) and it all seems to be working fine.
I can't find any corrupted data.

Working fine is no indicator that things aren't corrupted. Sorry to say but that's a fool's errand.

You need to stop putting data on the server and copy off what you have if you don't have a backup elsewhere. There is definitely corruption on your pool. The question is whether it's a single document or massive corruption of lots of files. There's no way to know until you start troubleshooting.

I will tell you though (and I'm just being honest), if you don't know how to do a RAM test on your own and don't understand scrubs you shouldn't have put data on your FreeNAS box. You clearly need to know alot more about the fundamentals before using FreeNAS. Unfortunately, you may pay the price of not knowing this stuff with your data. Time will tell.

First, Backup your data if you don't have a copy already. PERIOD. That is unequivocally #1.

Second, go find out what is wrong. That's going to involve a RAM test first. And let me tell you, it's not looking good right now.

 

[ives31]

Working fine is no indicator that things aren't corrupted. Sorry to say but that's a fool's errand.

You need to stop putting data on the server and copy off what you have if you don't have a backup elsewhere. There is definitely corruption on your pool. The question is whether it's a single document or massive corruption of lots of files. There's no way to know until you start troubleshooting.

I will tell you though (and I'm just being honest), if you don't know how to do a RAM test on your own and don't understand scrubs you shouldn't have put data on your FreeNAS box. You clearly need to know alot more about the fundamentals before using FreeNAS. Unfortunately, you may pay the price of not knowing this stuff with your data. Time will tell.

First, Backup your data if you don't have a copy already. PERIOD. That is unequivocally #1.

Second, go find out what is wrong. That's going to involve a RAM test first. And let me tell you, it's not looking good right now.

well, my usb key pen wont make a bootable memtest (dont know why) so I can't do a memory test at the moment.
However, when I was looking at building a nas box all the stuff I saw on youtube about freenas was saying how easy it was and it was so secure and simple to use.
just put your data on there and it's fine.
What I've found out is that completely the opposite is the case.
It seems like you need to do a lot of research to use freenas.
All I wanted was a simple storage device for my files. I didn't really want to know about zpools,scrubs,memtests etc and to spend most of my day asking dumb questions on a forum. Whilst i appreciate the help I've got here, most of it has gone over my head and despite this forum being for people new to freenas, I feel that this isn't really a place to lean about freenas.

 

[Ericloewe]

well, my usb key pen wont make a bootable memtest (dont know why) so I can't do a memory test at the moment.
However, when I was looking at building a nas box all the stuff I saw on youtube about freenas was saying how easy it was and it was so secure and simple to use.
just put your data on there and it's fine.
What I've found out is that completely the opposite is the case.
It seems like you need to do a lot of research to use freenas.
All I wanted was a simple storage device for my files. I didn't really want to know about zpools,scrubs,memtests etc and to spend most of my day asking dumb questions on a forum. Whilst i appreciate the help I've got here, most of it has gone over my head and despite this forum being for people new to freenas, I feel that this isn't really a place to lean about freenas.

It's easy to learn - but you're expected to have read at least some basic information, like Cyberjock's guide (link in my sig). Otherwise, nothing would ever get done around here.

 

[cyberjock]

Yeah, you *can* just throw data on FreeNAS and hope for the best. Many do. Some lose their data (sadly, too many) and some don't.

As I tried to make clear in my noobie presentation (and I'll quote it):

Your dedication to learning how to use the g command line and setup FreeNASwith the proper features to monitor your hard drives, your UPS, and your hardware will determine how safe your data is.

If you choose to do the bare minimum learning, your data is not as safe as someone that has spent a few weeks to become thoroughly familiar with FreeNAS and custom scripts.

If you choose to spend the necessary time to get If you choose to spend the necessary time to get familiar with FreeBSD command line and scripting you can have a very safe and reliable storage location for your data.

FreeNAS isn't something I'd trust my mom to use. If you aren't willing to dig in with both teeth you are probably better off sticking with an OS you already know.

FreeNAS is particularly popular because of ZFS. ZFS is amazing. It's designed for high reliability. But it comes with serious engineering expectations and such. They can't be ignored and expect a good outcome. It's unfortunate, but that's the reality of it.

 

[ives31]

Hi,
I ran memtest on my memory.
As soon as it started I got errors.
After a few minutes there were thousands of errors (see pic)
I presume this means my memory is dead?

 

[anodos]

Hi,
I ran memtest on my memory.
As soon as it started I got errors.
After a few minutes there were thousands of errors (see pic)
I presume this means my memory is dead?

yes, but at least you didn't have to run memtest very long to find it out.

 

[cyberjock]

So at this point you are at the stage where we say "you are f*cked". You're in for some hurt now because of bad RAM. See all those warnings about why ECC RAM is so important. You just became a poster child.

Basically anything you've ever put on your pool is potentially corrupt. So if you have backups I'd get a system with ECC support, recreate a new pool, then move your data back.

Now you see why my first post said "this is gonna be messy". I saw the writing on the wall and I knew where this was going to end up. ;)

 

[ives31]

congratulations

 

[Ericloewe]

congratulations

Please spare the sarcasm. It's rude, especially after being offered support in a nasty situation.

Everything Cyberjock said you could've read before using an inadequate system to store your data.

For what it's worth, everyone here hopes you didn't lose data and that this was a valuable learning experience for you and for others who doubt the need for ECC RAM.

 

[Mlovelace]

Hi,
I ran memtest on my memory.
As soon as it started I got errors.
After a few minutes there were thousands of errors (see pic)
I presume this means my memory is dead?

This is the second time I've seen Corsair push out a bad dimm. Sorry for your loss, hopefully you've still got the data on the external drives

 

[cyberjock]

congratulations

Spare yourself the pain next time and *read our documentation thoroughly*. Our ECC recommendations have been very common reads around here. Around here the running joke is that I kill a kitten every time someone provides a build that can't do ECC.

Situations like yours are precisely why I have this statement in my noobie presentation...

Your dedication to learning how to use the command line and setup FreeNAS with the proper features to monitor your hard drives, your UPS, and your hardware will determine how safe your data is.

The community has created a robust series of documents that should prevent mistakes like yours. At this point the only reasons people shouldn't get all the warnings they need to not lose their data from a silly mistake is from either ignoring the recommendations or not caring enough to read up thoroughly. Just 2 years ago *none* of the stickies and documents existed. You learned by losing data if you weren't willing to learn FreeBSD on your own. You've got it damn easy compared to what I had to go through.