Truenas won't recognize hard drives

[kamalov]

Hi,

I am new to this and installing Truenas on an old pc.
Motherboard: MSI X79-GD49 PLUS
CPU: I7-4930K
RAM: 16GB
SSD: 256GB
HDD's: 3 x WD Red Plus 8TB

So the Truenas turned on but won't recognize the HDD's. BIOS recognizes the HDD's. I read around the forum and tried doing only 1 drive at a time, switching power cables, switching PSU, switching SATA cables and so far nothing is working.

Please help.

 

[kamalov]

forgot to add that it has a nvidia 1080 EVGA graphics card in it.

 

[danb35]

Which version of TrueNAS, and where are you expecting to (and not) see the HDDs?

 

[kamalov]

Which version of TrueNAS, and where are you expecting to (and not) see the HDDs?

TrueNas Scale.

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

The drives are not visible in the installer? Please describe in more detail what you did, what you expected to happen, what happened instead.

 

[kamalov]

The drives are not visible in the installer? Please describe in more detail what you did, what you expected to happen, what happened instead.

1 - I flashed the image file for TrueNas Scale using Rufus on a USB drive.
2 - Then I installed it using that USB drive to a Samsung SSD (256G).
3 - Then I rebooted the system.
4 - It loaded fine, showing the IP address and giving you the 10 options you get initially
5 - I accessed the device using the web interface
6 - Realized cannot create a pool because the HDD's are not showing up in the web interface
7 - I "troubleshooted": Replaced cords, RAM, PSU, tried only 1 drive instead of 3.
8 - When I boot into the BIOS, the BIOS recognizes all the drives.
9 - TrueNAS is not showing the drives so that I can start with making a pool

 

[jgreco]

Welcome to the forums.

Sorry to hear you're having trouble. Please take a few moments to review the Forum Rules, conveniently linked at the top of every page in red, and pay particular attention to the section on how to formulate a useful problem report, especially including a detailed description of your hardware and what sort of controller you are using to attach disks to your system. Please be specific.

You've basically given no one anything to work with, so the responses will tend to be random guesses rather than anything useful.

 

[kamalov]

Welcome to the forums.

Sorry to hear you're having trouble. Please take a few moments to review the Forum Rules, conveniently linked at the top of every page in red, and pay particular attention to the section on how to formulate a useful problem report, especially including a detailed description of your hardware and what sort of controller you are using to attach disks to your system. Please be specific.

You've basically given no one anything to work with, so the responses will tend to be random guesses rather than anything useful.

I am sorry, I thought I did. I read it and thought I wrote about my hardware. I am not using a controller. The drives are attached directly via sata cables.

 

[HoneyBadger]

Welcome.

MSI X79-GD49 PLUS

Is your SATA controller set to "RAID mode" in the BIOS?

Advanced -> Integrated Peripherals -> SATA Mode

Check section 2-6 of the manual:

MSI Canada

Welcome to the MSI Global website. MSI designs and creates Mainboard, AIO, Graphics card, Notebook, Netbook, Tablet PC, Consumer electronics, Communication, Barebone, Server, industrial computing, Multimedia, Clean Machine and Car Infotainment.

ca.msi.com

This should be set to AHCI mode.

If this is already at AHCI mode, or it doesn't resolve problems, these drives may also have the 3.3V Standby issue - although a retail WD Red Plus shouldn't, unless that's been changed recently.

The Pesky PWDIS Feature In Newer SATA Specs

The SATA 3.3 specification's Power Disable feature is one you should take into account if you plan to acquire a HDD that supports it but still use an older power supply.

www.tomshardware.com

 

[danb35]

Do they show under Storage -> Disks? If not, at the shell, what's the output of lsblk?

 

[Arwen]

To me, sounds like the disks have a pre-existing partition table, thus, the NAS software thinks they are in use.

@kamalov
Do you know that creating a pool does not preserve existing data?
Were this disks in use before?

 

[kamalov]

Do they show under Storage -> Disks? If not, at the shell, what's the output of lsblk?

I don't think so. Please see attached

 

[kamalov]

To me, sounds like the disks have a pre-existing partition table, thus, the NAS software thinks they are in use.

@kamalov
Do you know that creating a pool does not preserve existing data?
Were this disks in use before?

Brand New HDDs from b&h

 

[kamalov]

Welcome.



Is your SATA controller set to "RAID mode" in the BIOS?

Advanced -> Integrated Peripherals -> SATA Mode

Check section 2-6 of the manual:

MSI Canada

Welcome to the MSI Global website. MSI designs and creates Mainboard, AIO, Graphics card, Notebook, Netbook, Tablet PC, Consumer electronics, Communication, Barebone, Server, industrial computing, Multimedia, Clean Machine and Car Infotainment.

ca.msi.com

This should be set to AHCI mode.

If this is already at AHCI mode, or it doesn't resolve problems, these drives may also have the 3.3V Standby issue - although a retail WD Red Plus shouldn't, unless that's been changed recently.

The Pesky PWDIS Feature In Newer SATA Specs

The SATA 3.3 specification's Power Disable feature is one you should take into account if you plan to acquire a HDD that supports it but still use an older power supply.

www.tomshardware.com

It was set to AHCI.
I will check that voltage article and troubleshoot.

 

[kamalov]

Welcome.



Is your SATA controller set to "RAID mode" in the BIOS?

Advanced -> Integrated Peripherals -> SATA Mode

Check section 2-6 of the manual:

MSI Canada

Welcome to the MSI Global website. MSI designs and creates Mainboard, AIO, Graphics card, Notebook, Netbook, Tablet PC, Consumer electronics, Communication, Barebone, Server, industrial computing, Multimedia, Clean Machine and Car Infotainment.

ca.msi.com

This should be set to AHCI mode.

If this is already at AHCI mode, or it doesn't resolve problems, these drives may also have the 3.3V Standby issue - although a retail WD Red Plus shouldn't, unless that's been changed recently.

The Pesky PWDIS Feature In Newer SATA Specs

The SATA 3.3 specification's Power Disable feature is one you should take into account if you plan to acquire a HDD that supports it but still use an older power supply.

www.tomshardware.com

So, I tried a different set of old HDD's that I had laying around. They all worked. So, it might be the PWDIS issue. Not sure how to fix it because I have a molex to SATA cable but my psu doesnt support that.

 

[HoneyBadger]

I can't endorse it personally, but some users have applied non-conductive tape to the pin in question. At least you seem to have identified the issue.

 

[kamalov]

I can't endorse it personally, but some users have applied non-conductive tape to the pin in question. At least you seem to have identified the issue.

I just tried it with 2 different types of tape and it didn't work. Any other ideas?

 

[winnielinnie]

I just tried it with 2 different types of tape and it didn't work. Any other ideas?

Did you try covering pins 1 through 3?

It's what I did for a couple shucked drives, and it worked as expected. The guides tell you to "cover pin 3", but this is tricky to do with precision, and to make sure the tape doesn't shift or curl. However, it's easier to cover pins 1 through 3 with a wider cut of tape, and still get the same result.

Just make sure you don't cover pin #4. Precision is key. I used Kapton tape.

 

[kamalov]

Did you try covering pins 1 through 3?

It's what I did for a couple shucked drives, and it worked as expected. The guides tell you to "cover pin 3", but this is tricky to do with precision, and to make sure the tape doesn't shift or curl. However, it's easier to cover pins 1 through 3 with a wider cut of tape, and still get the same result.

Just make sure you don't cover pin #4. Precision is key. I used Kapton tape.

I used electric tape as seen in this photo to cover the 3 pins.

 

[winnielinnie]

HDD's: 3 x WD Red Plus 8TB

Wait, I have those drives. They did not need anything special in terms of a SATA connector or covering any pins.

Do you have another computer to plug one into and see if it is detected by a live Linux ISO?