ZFS Health: Pool is not healthy

[intercom]

Disks are just a year old, the message "Pool is not healthy" is not exactly a great description of what is wrong.

Anyone have an idea to what I should do?

Code:

root@truenas[~]# zpool status -v
  pool: boot-pool
 state: ONLINE
status: Some supported and requested features are not enabled on the pool.
        The pool can still be used, but some features are unavailable.
action: Enable all features using 'zpool upgrade'. Once this is done,
        the pool may no longer be accessible by software that does not support
        the features. See zpool-features(7) for details.
  scan: scrub repaired 0B in 00:01:04 with 0 errors on Thu Oct 12 03:46:05 2023
config:

        NAME        STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        boot-pool   ONLINE       0     0     0
          sde2      ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors

  pool: pool_8tb_disks
 state: ONLINE
  scan: scrub repaired 0B in 10:49:32 with 0 errors on Sun Oct 15 10:49:34 2023
config:

        NAME                                      STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        pool_8tb_disks                            ONLINE       0     0     0
          mirror-0                                ONLINE       0     0     0
            19dd7e2f-637a-11ee-ad2d-5404a63ccf23  ONLINE       0     0     0
            19d325f9-637a-11ee-ad2d-5404a63ccf23  ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors

  pool: tank
 state: ONLINE
status: One or more devices has experienced an error resulting in data
        corruption.  Applications may be affected.
action: Restore the file in question if possible.  Otherwise restore the
        entire pool from backup.
   see: https://openzfs.github.io/openzfs-docs/msg/ZFS-8000-8A
  scan: scrub in progress since Thu Feb  9 08:23:24 2023
        1.50T scanned at 2.02G/s, 143G issued at 193M/s, 10.4T total
        0B repaired, 1.34% done, 15:33:14 to go
config:

        NAME                                      STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        tank                                      ONLINE       0     0     0
          mirror-0                                ONLINE       0     0     0
            94e66eae-2abc-11ed-9a4e-74d4358cf659  ONLINE       0     0    10
            94d8fc2c-2abc-11ed-9a4e-74d4358cf659  ONLINE       0     0    10

errors: Permanent errors have been detected in the following files:

        tank/bigdata/Alex:<0x894b>
        tank/bigdata/Alex:<0x824c>
        tank/bigdata/Alex:<0x8166>
        tank/bigdata/Alex:<0x888b>
        tank/bigdata/Alex:<0x89a8>
        tank/bigdata/Alex:<0x84cf>
        tank/bigdata/Alex:<0x81e1>
root@truenas[~]# 

 

[intercom]

Anyone?

 

[NugentS]

Please read forum rules

 

[Etorix]

Meaning: @intercom please describe your setup in detail.

zpool status shows that "tank" has corruption in metadata. This cannot be repaired; you have to destroy the pool and restore. But it would be useful to understand what could have caused the damage.

 

[intercom]

Meaning: @intercom please describe your setup in detail.

zpool status shows that "tank" has corruption in metadata. This cannot be repaired; you have to destroy the pool and restore. But it would be useful to understand what could have caused the damage.

I thought my screenshots would provide some info, it is a Asus P9X79 motherboard, 32 GB ram, 2x 16TB disks (which is the problem pool) and 2x 8TB disks that works fine.

What does it involve to "destroy the pool and restore"? Do I have to delete all 16 TB of data, then create a new pool?
If so, I cant understand why on earth people use TrueNAS - I have never had this happen to me on a mac or windows computer in my life.

 

[intercom]

I mean, isn't that the point of running a mirrored setup, so that if there is corruption then I would have a backup?

I ran 'smartctl -a' on the two drives in question:

Code:

root@truenas[~]# smartctl -a /dev/sdc
smartctl 7.2 2020-12-30 r5155 [x86_64-linux-5.15.131+truenas] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-20, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Seagate IronWolf Pro
Device Model:     ST16000NE000-2RW103
Serial Number:    ZL2PTG4J
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 0e549e7dc
Firmware Version: EN02
User Capacity:    16,000,900,661,248 bytes [16.0 TB]
Sector Sizes:     512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate:    7200 rpm
Form Factor:      3.5 inches
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   ACS-4 (minor revision not indicated)
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.3, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 3.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Fri Oct 20 13:35:19 2023 CEST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
See vendor-specific Attribute list for marginal Attributes.

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x82) Offline data collection activity
                                        was completed without error.
                                        Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0) The previous self-test routine completed
                                        without error or no self-test has ever
                                        been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection:                (  567) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:                    (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
                                        Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
                                        Suspend Offline collection upon new
                                        command.
                                        Offline surface scan supported.
                                        Self-test supported.
                                        Conveyance Self-test supported.
                                        Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
                                        power-saving mode.
                                        Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01) Error logging supported.
                                        General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time:        (   1) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:        (1412) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time:        (   2) minutes.
SCT capabilities:              (0x50bd) SCT Status supported.
                                        SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
                                        SCT Feature Control supported.
                                        SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000f   074   064   044    Pre-fail  Always       -       26831176
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0003   090   086   000    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   020    Old_age   Always       -       62
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   010    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000f   085   060   045    Pre-fail  Always       -       314747103
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   090   090   000    Old_age   Always       -       8914
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   100   100   097    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   020    Old_age   Always       -       64
 18 Head_Health             0x000b   100   100   050    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
187 Reported_Uncorrect      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
188 Command_Timeout         0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022   064   037   040    Old_age   Always   In_the_past 36 (0 226 36 32 0)
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       20
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       933
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   036   063   000    Old_age   Always       -       36 (0 20 0 0 0)
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0010   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x003e   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Pressure_Limit          0x0023   100   100   001    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
240 Head_Flying_Hours       0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       8797h+51m+20.798s
241 Total_LBAs_Written      0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       50393892693
242 Total_LBAs_Read         0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       585582866332

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Short offline       Completed without error       00%      8890         -
# 2  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%      8145         -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

root@truenas[~]#
root@truenas[~]# smartctl -a /dev/sdd
smartctl 7.2 2020-12-30 r5155 [x86_64-linux-5.15.131+truenas] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-20, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Seagate IronWolf Pro
Device Model:     ST16000NE000-2RW103
Serial Number:    ZL2PN5QQ
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 0e5130fe0
Firmware Version: EN02
User Capacity:    16,000,900,661,248 bytes [16.0 TB]
Sector Sizes:     512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate:    7200 rpm
Form Factor:      3.5 inches
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   ACS-4 (minor revision not indicated)
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.3, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 3.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Fri Oct 20 13:36:41 2023 CEST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
See vendor-specific Attribute list for marginal Attributes.

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x82) Offline data collection activity
                                        was completed without error.
                                        Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0) The previous self-test routine completed
                                        without error or no self-test has ever
                                        been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection:                (  567) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:                    (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
                                        Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
                                        Suspend Offline collection upon new
                                        command.
                                        Offline surface scan supported.
                                        Self-test supported.
                                        Conveyance Self-test supported.
                                        Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
                                        power-saving mode.
                                        Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01) Error logging supported.
                                        General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time:        (   1) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:        (1459) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time:        (   2) minutes.
SCT capabilities:              (0x50bd) SCT Status supported.
                                        SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
                                        SCT Feature Control supported.
                                        SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000f   082   064   044    Pre-fail  Always       -       159418496
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0003   080   079   000    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   020    Old_age   Always       -       71
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   010    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000f   085   060   045    Pre-fail  Always       -       332302695
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   090   090   000    Old_age   Always       -       8915
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   100   100   097    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   020    Old_age   Always       -       72
 18 Head_Health             0x000b   100   100   050    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
187 Reported_Uncorrect      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
188 Command_Timeout         0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022   064   037   040    Old_age   Always   In_the_past 36 (1 27 37 33 0)
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       24
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       934
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   036   063   000    Old_age   Always       -       36 (0 21 0 0 0)
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0010   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x003e   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Pressure_Limit          0x0023   100   100   001    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
240 Head_Flying_Hours       0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       8800h+02m+19.012s
241 Total_LBAs_Written      0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       50402441101
242 Total_LBAs_Read         0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       585076776682

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%      8459         -
# 2  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%      8147         -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

 

[Etorix]

I thought my screenshots would provide some info,

None of the screenshots tell us whether it is bare metal or virtualised, which motherboard, and CPU, how much RAM, ECC or not, which model(s) of drives, how and to what controller they are attached… All of that, and possibly some more, is relevant.

What does it involve to "destroy the pool and restore"? Do I have to delete all 16 TB of data, then create a new pool?

Yes. That's why one must always have backups (a redundant array, in itself, if not a backup). If you don't have a backup, get some drives, move the data out and check that the data is still valid. (Yes, manually inspecting files one by one…)

I mean, isn't that the point of running a mirrored setup, so that if there is corruption then I would have a backup?

Yes. But redundancy is not a backup. Redundancy protects against drive failure or occasional errors; not against an overheating controller or errors in non-ECC RAM being written back to disk.

If so, I cant understand why on earth people use TrueNAS - I have never had this happen to me on a mac or windows computer in my life.

Never used "SOS" from DriveUtility, or ran any Windows equivalent?
ZFS does warn about corruption (where HFS, APFS, FAT or NTFS happily let data rot on drive silently…), and works hard to prevent it. But when corruption occurs nevertheless, extreme measures apply.

 

[intercom]

None of the screenshots tell us whether it is bare metal or virtualised, which motherboard, and CPU, how much RAM, ECC or not, which model(s) of drives, how and to what controller they are attached… All of that, and possibly some more, is relevant.


Yes. That's why one must always have backups (a redundant array, in itself, if not a backup). If you don't have a backup, get some drives, move the data out and check that the data is still valid. (Yes, manually inspecting files one by one…)


Yes. But redundancy is not a backup. Redundancy protects against drive failure or occasional errors; not against an overheating controller or errors in non-ECC RAM being written back to disk.


Never used "SOS" from DriveUtility, or ran any Windows equivalent?
ZFS does warn about corruption (where HFS, APFS, FAT or NTFS happily let data rot on drive silently…), and works hard to prevent it. But when corruption occurs nevertheless, extreme measures apply.

Ok I see, it is not a VM - its a "normal" computer. CPU is Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3930K CPU @ 3.20GHz.
32GB RAM. ECC I dont know what even is, I apologize.

I have backup in the cloud of almost the entire drive, but could I just replace the files in question and then "reset" the status of the pool or something? If only the file names were a bit more descriptive than:

Code:

errors: Permanent errors have been detected in the following files:
        tank/bigdata/Alex:<0x894b>

        tank/bigdata/Alex:<0x824c>

        tank/bigdata/Alex:<0x8166>

        tank/bigdata/Alex:<0x888b>

        tank/bigdata/Alex:<0x89a8>

        tank/bigdata/Alex:<0x84cf>

        tank/bigdata/Alex:<0x81e1>

Is it possible to get a better description of the filenames than this?

 

[Etorix]

No, because these are not data "files" these are ZFS metadata, i.e. ZFS internal structures. Your data is potentially still there and still valid—but you'd have to check. Unfortunately, this metadata cannot be restored or corrected, and from there it's only going to get worse until data loss eventually occurs because files, or even entire directories, cannot be properly identified.

 

[NugentS]

@intercom you have still failed to describe the hardware properly. Please do so.
ECC = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECC_memory Which you do not have as I don't believe that CPU supports it.

Look at my signature - that indicates the sort of thing we need to see (note to self - must include PSU details when I remember what it/they are)

 

[intercom]

I have been kind of a geek all my life and I work as a programmer, still I have no idea what 80% of the info you listed are.
Ill try my best:

Its a Midi tower
Asus P9X79 motherboard,
32GB Ram
Truenas-SCALE (Bluefin)
Pools:

Boot pool is a 120GB SSD:

Usecase: Media files and data hoarder backups from up to 30 years ago...


Would it mean that I "only" need to empty out the "Alex" partition and then delete that and make a new one?

 

[NugentS]

Thats actually a decent board - with Intel LAN - which is good
Which ports on the motherboard are you using for which drives as there are:

1. 2 SATA 6Gb Ports (PCH) - white
2. 4 SATA 6Gb Ports (PCH) - light blue
3. 2 SATA 6Gb Ports (Marvell 9128) - dark blue

Assuming I have googled the correct board

Deleting the Alex dataset is certainly worth a try.
Delete, scrub, examine result and then restore Alex

Your specific errors are chksum errors - 10 each on each drive - which is why I am asking what ports they are plugged into
chksum errors are often, but not always the results of cabling errors - but for the same number on both drives - points more at the SATA ports. But it might be worth replacing the cables anyway

 

[intercom]

Thats actually a decent board - with Intel LAN - which is good
Which ports on the motherboard are you using for which drives as there are:

1. 2 SATA 6Gb Ports (PCH) - white
2. 4 SATA 6Gb Ports (PCH) - light blue
3. 2 SATA 6Gb Ports (Marvell 9128) - dark blue

Assuming I have googled the correct board

Deleting the Alex dataset is certainly worth a try.
Delete, scrub, examine result and then restore Alex

Your specific errors are chksum errors - 10 each on each drive - which is why I am asking what ports they are plugged into
chksum errors are often, but not always the results of cabling errors - but for the same number on both drives - points more at the SATA ports. But it might be worth replacing the cables anyway

I took som pictures to show a little better.

There are 2 grey connectors, these are connected to the two 8TB disks. Then there are 4 more blue ones, I dont think there is a color difference between them.
The ones going to the "problem pool" disks are divided between SATA3 and SATA 2 (the blue ones in the middle and the blue ones at the far end from the grey ones.

The boot drive is connected to the other one of the two connectors in the middle.

Problem pool disks has these connectors on them that extends the data and power connectors, might be possible source of problem?

 

[NugentS]

Can you please be specific about the model of motherboard you have as I seem to have got the wrong one in my google-fu
SATA power cables are ideally not extended. Molex carries a lot more power - so yes - its possible.
Whats the GPU?

Lastly how old is that PSU? I am guessing - very

 

[intercom]

Can you please be specific about the model of motherboard you have as I seem to have got the wrong one in my google-fu
SATA power cables are ideally not extended. Molex carries a lot more power - so yes - its possible.
Whats the GPU?

Lastly how old is that PSU? I am guessing - very

Specific details about motherboard: (I also found manual here: http://ftp.tekwind.co.jp/pub/asustw/mb/LGA2011/P9X79/E8038_P9X79.pdf )

Code:

# dmidecode 3.3
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 2.7 present.

Handle 0x0002, DMI type 2, 15 bytes
Base Board Information
        Manufacturer: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
        Product Name: P9X79
        Version: Rev 1.xx
        Serial Number: 112500590001938
        Asset Tag: To be filled by O.E.M.
        Features:
                Board is a hosting board
                Board is replaceable
        Location In Chassis: To be filled by O.E.M.
        Chassis Handle: 0x0003
        Type: Motherboard
        Contained Object Handles: 0

Handle 0x002A, DMI type 10, 8 bytes
On Board Device 1 Information
        Type: Ethernet
        Status: Enabled
        Description: Onboard Ethernet
On Board Device 2 Information
        Type: Sound
        Status: Enabled
        Description: Onboard Audio

Handle 0x006B, DMI type 41, 11 bytes
Onboard Device
        Reference Designation:  Onboard LAN
        Type: Ethernet
        Status: Enabled
        Type Instance: 1
        Bus Address: 0000:00:19.0

The GPU active now is:
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GT218 [GeForce 210] (rev a2)

But there is also a GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost in there that suddenly doesnt show up in lspci today, which it did yesterday (I have isolated the GT218 and passing the GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost to a Ubuntu VM). I think the reason why its gone is that I need to set up BIOS again. I think my BIOS battery is dead cause settings keeps resetting themselves all the time, like "Secure Boot" goes back to UEFI.

The PSU? Youre guessing its old? Well youre right haha. I dont know exactly how old, but...
I am in the middle of a scrub (these takes 20 hours), but I might just cancel it and then try to replace the SATA cables. But I guess that wont fix any of my current troubles, "only" prevent further future problems, right?

 

[NugentS]

Remove as much as you can. IF - and its definately an IF the PSU is going weak - then removing a GPU cannot harm. Mind you they are not terriblky greedy GPU's

Replace the BIOS battery if you even think that might be an issue - do that next.

I am more worried about the SATA power extensions than the SATA cables at this point

 

[Etorix]

I am in the middle of a scrub (these takes 20 hours), but I might just cancel it and then try to replace the SATA cables. But I guess that wont fix any of my current troubles, "only" prevent further future problems, right?

Correct. It's all about prevention now.
Possible causes could be non-ECC RAM (cannot fix, as the CPU does not support ECC), bad data cables (but two of them in sync), bad controller (do not use Marvell, connect ZFS drives to the PCH), or flaky power supply (ageing PSU, extension cables). And we may never know.

Deleting "Alex" may clear all errors, since the metadata is there, but this is not much different from deleting the whole pool as "the rest" is only a few GB.

 

[NugentS]

Actually looking at those extension cables - are they just power and SATA into one module OR are you adding additional ports onto the SATA cable from the PSU (and plugging in disks. The later is the situation to avoid, the former shouldn't be an issue (providing quality is good)

With a very old PSU - you might be limited in the number of actual SATA ports from the PSU so have added to them. Molex carries a lot more power

 

[chuck32]

I am more worried about the SATA power extensions than the SATA cables at this point

Very possible. it took like 3 hours and one reboot for my machine to start giving me CRC errors after I used a SATA Y-Splitter. That worked fine previously but I'm pretty sure it was connected to molex before. If you absolutely have to use that extender, at least use molex.

With a very old PSU - you might be limited in the number of actual SATA ports from the PSU so have added to them. Molex carries a lot more power

I'm really torn here, if it ran for so long maybe it'll keep running longer or maybe it's on its last legs. Depending on the quality of the PSU you should maybe consider replacing it. Just my personal opinion.

I think my BIOS battery is dead cause settings keeps resetting themselves all the time, like "Secure Boot" goes back to UEFI.

Secure boot and UEFI are not mutually exclusive, I'm pretty sure secure boot is a UEFI feature. You mean legacy / UEFI get changed?

In close to 20 years of fiddling around with computers I had maybe two dead batteries but the last case I remember it explicitly said during POST that the BIOS had been reset to defaults and asked to continue or go to setup. But I'm with @NugentS here, replace it if you suspect it. I just wanted to point out that maybe your BIOS should tell you about it.

 

[intercom]

Ok so I have taken in what youve all said, thanks for the help so far.

I replaced the BIOS battery, but after a reboot it still resets the BIOS completely (Time is back to 00:00 in the year 2005), so I dont know whats happening with that.

I have replaced the SATA cables for both disks and chucked those connectors shown in my last post in the trash. Now I am going to start the process of backing up 10TB so I can delete the entire pool and remake it.

Do you have any tips on how I should set up my pool now when I redo it? When I did it the first time I had no idea what to do (I still dont) so Im not sure if the setup was good at all. Any tips and tricks are welcome.

And any idea about the BIOS issue? I think this is cause for a lot of problems, I mean, it wont even download Truenas updates if the system time is off. So I wonder if there is some way to fix the BIOS battery issue, if the motherboard would have to be replaced then that essentially means an entire new build as its hard to find old parts and i would have to buy new CPU/fan/memory/PSU.

Thanks again guys!