Eight failed NAS drives?

[ArkahmAsylym]

Hello all, new to the forums and am have an issue with my FreeNAS server build.  I currently have an AsRock Rack EP2C602 motherboard that I am installing FreeNAS on (flash media).  I'm using two E5-2660 Xenon processors and 32GB ECC RAM.  I was able to install FreeNAS on the USB Flash but the motherboard BIOS is not detecting my Western Digital 3TB Red (NAS) SATA drives.  I checked the PS SATA power and it was good.  I swapped around the SATA ports.  It has 14 ports (6 SATA III, 8 SATA II).  The MB post looks fine.  There are no error codes.  I disconnected all but one drive.  Still no luck in BIOS.  I have updated the AsRock BIOS as well.  I also swapped one of the drives to my Windows computer but the BIOS there didn't even detect it.  At this point I was thinking "aw crap, I have a bad drive" but I took one of the other NAS Drives and put it in my Windows computer and STILL NO BIOS detection!  I am new to using NAS drives.  Is there something different about them that I don't know?  I have 8 - 3TB drives and they can't all be bad...?  Does anyone know whats going on here??

[scottyseng]

It can happen...depends on how happy the postage people were that day.

I would double check the power supply sata connections / try another sata data cable.

It's odd that all of them aren't showing in BIOS on your PC / NAS build.

[Jurrunio]

PSU kills more drives than fall damage. Check that.

[ArkahmAsylym]

2 minutes ago, scottyseng said:

It can happen...depends on how happy the postage people were that day.

I would double check the power supply sata connections / try another sata data cable.

It's odd that all of them aren't showing in BIOS on your PC / NAS build.

Yeah, I know. I've actually already swapped the cables as well but no good.  Checked the power and even used another PS.

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

NAS drives function just like any other HDD, so as long as they have power and a SATA connection they should work. 

Even if the drives are damaged during shipping, they should still show up in the BIOS.  To me it sounds like they're just not getting power, but your tests so far seem to contradict that.

 

Try connecting the drives (one by one) to another PC and see if they show up there in disk managment (they may be unformatted, so don't expect them to show up in Windows).

Also try connecting a known good HDD (preferably a small old one that you don't mind losing)  to the NAS' motherboard and see if that one shows up in the BIOS.  Then try it again in another PC to see if the PSU destroyed the drives.

[ArkahmAsylym]

2 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

PSU kills more drives than fall damage. Check that.

See above post. Already swapped the PSU.

[Spotty]

9 minutes ago, ArkahmAsylym said:

I also swapped one of the drives to my Windows computer but the BIOS there didn't even detect it.  At this point I was thinking "aw crap, I have a bad drive" but I took one of the other NAS Drives and put it in my Windows computer and STILL NO BIOS detection!

So if you plug the drives in to another PC it's still not detected in the BIOS or operating system (Disk Management)?

 

It's unlikely that all 8 drives would be dead, for whatever reason...
Bad SATA cable(s)? Try with different SATA cables. Make sure both the SATA power from the PSU and SATA data to the motherboard are plugged in correctly.

[scottyseng]

Just now, ArkahmAsylym said:

Yeah, I know. I've actually already swapped the cables as well but no good.  Checked the power and even used another PS.

Any signs of life from the drives at all (vibration, noise?) Otherwise you have some really bad luck...

[Jurrunio]

5 minutes ago, ArkahmAsylym said:

See above post. Already swapped the PSU.

What PSU are they? Moving from one shitbox to another one won't fix it, just saying.

[ArkahmAsylym]

2 minutes ago, Spotty said:

So if you plug the drives in to another PC it's still not detected in the BIOS or operating system (Disk Management)?

 

It's unlikely that all 8 drives would be dead, for whatever reason...
Bad SATA cable(s)? Try with different SATA cables. Make sure both the SATA power from the PSU and SATA data to the motherboard are plugged in correctly.

@SpottyCorrect, It isn't detected in Disk Management (neither one I used).  I've already swapped cables without success.

 

@scottyseng The drives are not making noise, but WD REDs are normally quiet.

 

@Captain Chaos Already tried a 4TB seagate that I know works.

[ArkahmAsylym]

2 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

What PSU are they? Moving from one shitbox to another one won't fix it, just saying.

EVGA 750 G+ and Corsair 1050

[scottyseng]

Yeah, but the initial spin up should make you hear some slight noise / vibration. I have six WD Reds myself. They spin up with a small amount of noise on start up.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

16 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

PSU kills more drives than fall damage. Check that.

Rest in peace my Windows Server 2008 boot drive. That paperweight 500W PSU definitely did its job. 

[Spotty]

3 minutes ago, ArkahmAsylym said:

The drives are not making noise, but WD REDs are normally quiet. 

You should be able to hear, or at least feel, the drive spinning. Especially during start up.
 

4 minutes ago, ArkahmAsylym said:

EVGA 750 G+

Same PSU used for both systems or different PSUs tested? Are the modular SATA cables plugged in correctly PSU side? Tried with different SATA power cables as well?
Sounds like potentially a power issue if the drives aren't spinning up at all.

[ArkahmAsylym]

14 minutes ago, Captain Chaos said:

NAS drives function just like any other HDD, so as long as they have power and a SATA connection they should work. 

Even if the drives are damaged during shipping, they should still show up in the BIOS.  To me it sounds like they're just not getting power, but your tests so far seem to contradict that.

 

Try connecting the drives (one by one) to another PC and see if they show up there in disk managment (they may be unformatted, so don't expect them to show up in Windows).

Also try connecting a known good HDD (preferably a small old one that you don't mind losing)  to the NAS' motherboard and see if that one shows up in the BIOS.  Then try it again in another PC to see if the PSU destroyed the drives.

I think tomorrow I'm going to go through every one of the drives, one by one, and see if they show in my Windows Disk Management. Late here now so no time tonight.

[ArkahmAsylym]

2 minutes ago, Spotty said:

You should be able to hear, or at least feel, the drive spinning. Especially during start up.
 

Same PSU used for both systems or different PSUs tested? Are the modular SATA cables plugged in correctly PSU side? Tried with different SATA power cables as well?
Sounds like potentially a power issue if the drives aren't spinning up at all.

@SpottyI used a 750 G+ and a corsair 1050 PSU.  I double checked the cable connections in the PSU and even made sure the cables were labeled correctly for the connections (LOL).  Tried multiple SATA cables and even tested the PSU's with a Multi-meter at the source. I have 12/5/3V all in the correct spots.

[NelizMastr]

While the 3TB WD Red is arguably the worst WD Red in history, getting 8 faulty ones doesn't seem likely.

 

How are the drives connected? Is it a PC tower with regular drive bays or is it a rackmount case with a backplane? If the latter, make sure all power connections are in place. Backplanes need all the juice they can get.

 

Also test the drives in another system.

[Mikensan]

Very odd all 8 show the same symptoms - have you tried putting a hard drive from your windows machine (any known working disk) into your asrock motherboard? Possibly the SATA controller is having a bad day - or it is a fancy SATA controller and you have to boot to the SATA controller BIOS and configure the disks.

 

Even if you have to pull a 2.5" SATA out of a old laptop you know works to test - narrow down where the issue is.

[Windows7ge]

You said you can't see them in the BIOS but can you see them in FreeNAS?

Like others have mentioned I would feel if they're spinning and if they're clicking away.

[ArkahmAsylym]

@Spotty @Captain Chaos

 

@NelizMastr Drives are in a rackmount (4U) case but connected direct to the PSU.  Checked all the power items, all are connected and good.

 

@Mikensan I tried a 4TB seagate in the AsRock without success.  It couldn't see it either.  I'm new to this server thing so not sure if I need or have to boot into SATA.  Would need some help going through that anyhoo....

 

@Windows7ge Can't see the drives anywhere, FreeNAS or otherwise.

 

My plan was to take all the drives to a test bed today and hook them all individually to my spare PSU (known good) to see if I can get a spin up without the case fan noise.  I can also feel the things to see if they give any centripetal force on power up while holding them.  Unfortunately, I got sidetracked by RL things today and wont be able to get to it until Saturday now . I'll post progress here after messing with them on Saturday

 

Also I didn't think SATA NAS drives had a need/have jumpers? (Remember, I'm a NAS server NOOB)

[Spotty]

9 minutes ago, ArkahmAsylym said:

Also I didn't think SATA NAS drives had a need/have jumpers? (Remember, I'm a NAS server NOOB)

AFAIK It's just there in the event that someone needs to use them they can, but for most home users it's not necessary and you can just ignore it. The WD Reds can be used in a more commercial space, and are not necessarily just for home NAS.
 

11 minutes ago, ArkahmAsylym said:

I tried a 4TB seagate in the AsRock without success.  It couldn't see it either.  I'm new to this server thing so not sure if I need or have to boot into SATA.  Would need some help going through that anyhoo.... 

Could be an issue with the SATA controller on the board if it's not detecting other drives. Also might be a setting in the BIOS that needs to be changed, check the manual for your motherboard.

If you can, just pull them out and one by one attach them to a normal computer and see if they will be detected. Testing them on a known good working system, known good SATA cable, known good SATA port off the motherboard, and known good PSU. Go through each drive individually and test if they're working or not. Look for signs they're getting power such as noise or vibration.
If you have a USB HDD dock you could even test the drives there.

[NelizMastr]

If it turns out to be a faulty sata controller, you can pick up a cheap SAS controller with SATA breakout cables running in HBA mode.

[Mikensan]

During bootup after the POST look for screens that give you a key command to enter additional settings (CTRL+H etc..) and just poke around. Ideally you're looking to get into whatever raid management your motherboard has. Some raid controllers (like my M5015) do not present disks until they are in some form of raid (even if it is just a single disk).

 

Would be a little odd for a motherboard sata controller to do this, but I've seen stranger things.

[Stefan Payne]

On 2/12/2019 at 6:42 AM, ArkahmAsylym said:

See above post. Already swapped the PSU.

Yes and what PSU are you actually talking about?!

If I swap a LC600H with an MS Tech, I still have shit in my system.

We need the Model Number and Wattage of the PSU!

 

And do you have Graphics Cards in the System as well??

[ArkahmAsylym]

On 2/14/2019 at 2:58 AM, Stefan Payne said:

Yes and what PSU are you actually talking about?!

If I swap a LC600H with an MS Tech, I still have shit in my system.

We need the Model Number and Wattage of the PSU!

 

And do you have Graphics Cards in the System as well??

In my above posts I listed the PSU's I used.

On 2/11/2019 at 9:49 PM, ArkahmAsylym said:

EVGA 750 G+ and Corsair 1050