Unable to GPT format disk ada0

[robsonj]

So I kept getting this error, On two repurposed 4Tb wd green drives and one brand spanking new 4Tb wd red. I couldn't figure it out.

In the end I moved the drive to a different SATA slot and was able to add it to my volume without issue.

Once added I shutdown the server and moved the drive back to the slot that was resulting in the gpt format error. On restart everything was fine still.

Any ideas of the cause or even why my solution worked?

Cheers
Jonathan

 

[joeschmuck]

Is this a FreeNAS issue or some other issue? I ask because we actually get requets for help and they do not pertain to FreeNAS.

It's likely the problem was due to there being data on the drive previously.

 

[robsonj]

Sorry, yes it is FreeNAS. I did try a wipe of the repurposed drives first, also tried mounting and formatting them without issue on Windows.

The wd red was a brand new drive, out of the packaging into the FreeNAS server.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

Any ideas of the cause or even why my solution worked?

My guess is you weren't formatting the drive you thought you were formatting. How were you identifying the drive(s)?

 

[robsonj]

Taking the brand new drive for example. I added it to the machine, then selected a drive to replace with it, selected the brand new drive from the menu when asked to select a replacement drive - it was the only one available as all other disks where already part of the volume. Hit ok and received the error message.

 

[robsonj]

Taking the brand new drive for example. I added it to the machine, then selected a drive to replace with it, selected the brand new drive from the menu when asked to select a replacement drive - it was the only one available as all other disks where already part of the volume. Hit ok and received the error message.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

it was the only one available as all other disks where already part of the volume

Well, that's weird.