Truenas won't recognize hard drives

[kamalov]

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?

That's awesome. Not sure how to detect by a live Linux iso. Do you mean plug into a system that has Linux as an os?

 

[danb35]

Do you mean plug into a system that has Linux as an os?

No, rather to download one of the Linux distros that will boot and run directly from a USB stick (many now will, including Ubuntu desktop), burn that to a stick, and boot from it. See if it will see your drives that way.

 

[jgreco]

[mod note: Moved to TrueNAS SCALE forum since this is not a FreeBSD system. -JG]

 

[winnielinnie]

download one of the Linux distros that will boot and run directly from a USB stick

Yes, even better, actually. On the same system itself.

So say you download the Debian or Ubuntu ISO, boot it from a USB plugged into your server (as if you want to play with a live Debian session directory from the USB without installing anything.)

Then see if you can detect/list your WD Red Plus drives within this live session.

 

[kamalov]

Yes, even better, actually. On the same system itself.

So say you download the Debian or Ubuntu ISO, boot it from a USB plugged into your server (as if you want to play with a live Debian session directory from the USB without installing anything.)

Then see if you can detect/list your WD Red Plus drives within this live session.

thank u for the advice.

I put Ubuntu on a flash drive and booted from it on the same system. Ubuntu only saw the Flash Drive and the SSD that has the TrueNAS Scale. It didn't see the other HDD's. I tried one HDD at a time and nothing.

Next I wanted to rule out more hardware issues. I tried using the same connectors and cables that were on the SSD on 1 HDD at a time to rule out bad cables. Still nothing. Put that cable and connector combo back on the SSD and it sees the SSD. BIOS still sees the HDD's.

So, not sure if I should change some settings in the BIOS or somehow "initialize" the brand new HDD's?

 

[winnielinnie]

I put Ubuntu on a flash drive and booted from it on the same system. Ubuntu only saw the Flash Drive and the SSD that has the TrueNAS Scale. It didn't see the other HDD's. I tried one HDD at a time and nothing.

This just got really weird...

So now, do you have a different computer to test this with? Plug one of your new WD Red Plus drives into a different computer and boot up with the Ubuntu live ISO.

If there are no issues there, then at least we can narrow it down to your TrueNAS server hardware / configuration.


But if it still doesn't list the drive on the other computer, then there's something weird going on with your newly purchased Red Plus drives...

 

[kamalov]

This just got really weird...

So now, do you have a different computer to test this with? Plug one of your new WD Red Plus drives into a different computer and boot up with the Ubuntu live ISO.

If there are no issues there, then at least we can narrow it down to your TrueNAS server hardware / configuration.


But if it still doesn't list the drive on the other computer, then there's something weird going on with your newly purchased Red Plus drives...

It is weird. So here are more troubleshooting steps that I have taken:

1. Loaded Ubuntu via a flash drive on a different device (windows 10 machine) with 1 HDD at a time since I only had 1 slot to add another drive.
2. No HDD showed up under disk utility or terminal.
3. Contacted WD tech support.
4. Tried connecting those drives 1 at a time to the windows machine running windows 10.
5. Windows didn't see the drives even to format/initialize.
6. Downloaded and ran WD software per WD recommendation. Same results as before.
7. It seems like the HDD were dead on arrival as unlikely as it sounds. Waiting on return labels from WD to replace the HDDs.

Thank you everyone for your input. I will keep you posted once I get the new HDD's. Realistically it will be in 2023.

 

[winnielinnie]

What... the... heck...

How is that possible?

Three newly purchased drives, all DOA?

But you said all three are detected in the BIOS screen? What did WD tech support have to say about that, if you told them?

Windows can't read them. TrueNAS SCALE can't read them. Not even Ubuntu can read them. Doesn't matter which computer, either.

Yet the BIOS recognizes all of them?

 

[kamalov]

What... the... heck...

How is that possible?

Three newly purchased drives, all DOA?

But you said all three are detected in the BIOS screen? What did WD tech support have to say about that, if you told them?

Windows can't read them. TrueNAS SCALE can't read them. Not even Ubuntu can read them. Doesn't matter which computer, either.

Yet the BIOS recognizes all of them?

That's what I thought too. The odds of that are so slim that I thought it had to be some kind of a bios setting or something else. The tech support wanted me to check it mainly on windows, ran thru whole bunch of steps I had already taken, then download their utility. Once the utility didnt recognize it they said they would rather just swap them out. I told them about it showing up in the bios but they didnt care. It still shows up in the bios as WDC WD80EFZZ-6 (0.0

 

[winnielinnie]

It still shows up in the bios as WDC WD80EFZZ-6 (0.0

Not sure if it's helpful, but my WD Red Plus 8TB drives have a different model number than yours:
WD80EFAX

 

[kamalov]

So I got an external HDD dock from Amazon and plugged the drive into that and then loaded on a windows machine.

Windows saw it and wanted to initialize. But every time I tried to initialize it gave me an error "incorrect function".

I then loaded the Ubuntu on the same machine via the flash drive. Ubuntu sees it. When I run "lsblk" it shows up as 0B disk. How do I initialize properly for TrueNAS Scale with Linux cli?

 

[danb35]

When I run "lsblk" it shows up as 0B disk.

That isn't right; it should show up with its full capacity. Is that the same thing you see if you plug the disk directly into the motherboard?

 

[kamalov]

That isn't right; it should show up with its full capacity. Is that the same thing you see if you plug the disk directly into the motherboard?

No. I can't get the drives to show up directly connected to the motherboard on 2 different machines. I tried with all 3 drives and the same thing.

 

[danb35]

That's, frankly, weird. OK, under Ubuntu, what happens if you run sudo badblocks -wsv /dev/<id>, where <id> is whatever lsblk shows for that disk?

 

[kamalov]

 

[kamalov]

That's, frankly, weird. OK, under Ubuntu, what happens if you run sudo badblocks -wsv /dev/<id>, where <id> is whatever lsblk shows for that disk?

badblocks: invalid starting block (0): must be less than 0

 

[winnielinnie]

Once the utility didnt recognize it they said they would rather just swap them out.

The fact that Western Digital's own utility can't even recognize the drives is just insane. For all three drives.

Are they going to replace all three?

 

[kamalov]

The fact that Western Digital's own utility can't even recognize the drives is just insane. For all three drives.

Are they going to replace all three?

WD recommended that I send them back to the vendor (b&h). B&H approved the return but don't have them in stock anymore. So now I need to find something else. Would you guys recommend a different product?

 

[winnielinnie]

So now I need to find something else. Would you guys recommend a different product?

Now you got me worried.

I'm looking at the difference in our model numbers, and it the only thing I could find is mine (EFAX) has a 256MB cache, while yours (EFZZ) has a 128 MB cache.

To order a "WD Red Plus" from Amazon looks like a gamble now, since there are different third-party sellers.

Ironically, you might end up with better drives if you order three WD 8TB external drives (Elements, My Book, or Easystore), and just shuck them.

 

[kamalov]

Now you got me worried.

I'm looking at the difference in our model numbers, and it the only thing I could find is mine (EFAX) has a 256MB cache, while yours (EFZZ) has a 128 MB cache.

To order a "WD Red Plus" from Amazon looks like a gamble now, since there are different third-party sellers.

Ironically, you might end up with better drives if you order three WD 8TB external drives (Elements, My Book, or Easystore), and just shuck them.

Are the drives in them meant for NAS?