Uncorrectable parity/CRC error after connecting hardware RAID5

[John W]

Hi everyone, I'm new here and new to FreeNAS/Unix/NAS in general. Thank you in advance for any insight you can provide.

Maybe a week ago I installed FreeNAS 9.3 on a stand-alone computer (SSD install), and everything installed fine and I was shown the IP address to navigate to. However, since I didn't have any storage drives at that time, I didn't do any configuration through IP. Fast forward to last night (1/22/15) and my 4 HDD's had been checked with HD Tune on another system and connected to a port multiplier (Datoptics SPM394) and installed in my NAS box. After powering on, I saw the attached screenshot instead of booting to FreeNAS successfully.

I tried changing the SATA cable running from the SPM394 output to the motherboard and got the same error message on boot. In BIOS, I can see a 9001GB RAID5 on one of my SATA ports and all drives were checked with HD Tune. Any options/insights that you have are appreciated.

System specs:
motherboard: GA-990FXA-UD3
RAM: 8GB DDR3 (checked OK via MemTest86 for 22 hours)
port multiplier/RAID controller: Datoptics SPM394
boot drive: Samsung 830 Pro 64GB (laying around)
HDD's: 4x HGST 3TB NAS drives

 

[John W]

Forgot to mention, PSU is an EVGA 750W 80+ unit.

 

[Ericloewe]

... connected to a port multiplier (Datoptics SPM394) ...

Well, there's your problem, most likely. And why on Earth are you using Hardware RAID/fakeRAID? Are you trying to fry your data on purpose? Worse, you're using a port multiplier's RAID features!

Start by dumping the port multiplier and connect the drives directly to the motherboard. System is still less than ideal, but that's a different problem.

 

[Fraoch]

Have you read the hardware guide?

http://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/hardware-recommendations-read-this-first.23069/