Hard Drives Prevent Post

[AllstaRawR]

So... long story short:

 

1. I have two 4TB Red Pros. I turned off my computer. I turned it back on. It's stuck at the BIOS screen (press delete to enter). I'm confused.

2. I unplug and move things for a while, determine that I can boot past BIOS into OS as long as NEITHER of my Reds are installed. As in, either/or/both prevent going past POST.

3. I'm aware that these were both fully functional minutes before and am extremely doubtful that both would fail simultaneously. I tried moving them to my other computer. Either/Or/Both combinations all prevent THAT computer from getting past POST.

4. I scratched my head and came here at a loss.

 

What on earth is going on? These are my backup drives for data, so if they both failed... I'll be mildly distressed. Real advice would be appreciated.

[Jlryan]

Set the ports to hotswap in BIOS and plug them in after booting to windows, see if they pop up then.

 

I've got no other ideas as to how or why it's causing a halt in POST though...

[AllstaRawR]

Set the ports to hotswap in BIOS and plug them in after booting to windows, see if they pop up then.

 

I've got no other ideas as to how or why it's causing a halt in POST though...

 

I thought that was bad for the HDDs? To plug them in after it's booted, that is. I mean, I've seen the hot swap option in the BIOS, had no clue I could use it like that. I'm concerned because both drives are a mirror and I'm 99% sure they're fully functional. I don't want to mess one up and take my chances to 50%. I'm assuming something just got a corrupt sector written to both drives at the very root and that's hanging up the BIOS.

 

As a sidenote, HDDs are not my area of expertise. If it sounds like I'm proclaiming BS, I assure you it's completely accidental. I'm just going off what little I know about data storage...

 

EDIT: Would I have the drives plugged into SATA power at boot and just plug the SATA data cable in when I'm at the Desktop, or would I plug in both at the Desktop?

[Jlryan]

I thought that was bad for the HDDs? To plug them in after it's booted, that is. I mean, I've seen the hot swap option in the BIOS, had no clue I could use it like that.

 

I'm concerned because both drives are a mirror and I'm 99% sure they're fully functional. I don't want to mess one up and take my chances to 50%. I'm assuming something just got a corrupt sector written to both drives at the very root and that's hanging up the BIOS.

 

As a sidenote, HDDs are not my area of expertise. If it sounds like I'm proclaiming BS, I assure you it's completely accidental. I'm just going off what little I know about data storage...

Ohh they're in an array?

 

And yeah Hotswap means you can just plug in and unplug a drive without the need to reboot. You won't do any damage to a drive (only if you're forceful with removing a drive while the platters are still spinning, but hey).

 

I've got nothing other than swapping Sata cables, but they're not usually known for just randomly failing...

 

Your BIOS hasn't randomly "reset" itself has it? Turning off RAID? I've known a couple of boards to do that, but again I'm just spitting ideas

[AllstaRawR]

Ohh they're in an array?

 

And yeah Hotswap means you can just plug in and unplug a drive without the need to reboot. You won't do any damage to a drive (only if you're forceful with removing a drive while the platters are still spinning, but hey).

 

I've got nothing other than swapping Sata cables, but they're not usually known for just randomly failing...

 

Could you clarify on "Would I have the drives plugged into SATA power at boot and just plug the SATA data cable in when I'm at the Desktop, or would I plug in both at the Desktop?"

 

I kind of edited that in after you quoted my post, but before you posted. Yeah, I guess I'll try that next. My friend has a USB3 to SATA6 adapter, so I figured I'd grab that off of him tomorrow (today, it's 2AM) and try that. I can try this first though! I appreciate the advice. I'll get back to this on whether or not I figure out exactly what's going on...

[Jlryan]

Could you clarify on "Would I have the drives plugged into SATA power at boot and just plug the SATA data cable in when I'm at the Desktop, or would I plug in both at the Desktop?"

 

I kind of edited that in after you quoted my post, but before you posted. Yeah, I guess I'll try that next. My friend has a USB3 to SATA6 adapter, so I figured I'd grab that off of him tomorrow (today, it's 2AM) and try that. I can try this first though! I appreciate the advice. I'll get back to this on whether or not I figure out exactly what's going on...

No worries

 

You can leave the power cables plugged in and just plug the data in after boot, it doesn't matter. I'm just unsure of how it will behave with plugging in using hotswap if it's a mirrored array... It should be okay to plug in though, just unplugging I'm unsure of.

 

Though in theory it should support it as it's what RAID is meant for. In the event of a drive failure, you unplug the faulty drive, and install the new one without shutting down the machine. It would just automatically start rebuilding the array.

 

EDIT:

 

Oh and it's 7:55am here, not slept yet... oops

[AllstaRawR]

No worries

 

You can leave the power cables plugged in and just plug the data in after boot, it doesn't matter. I'm just unsure of how it will behave with plugging in using hotswap if it's a mirrored array... It should be okay to plug in though, just unplugging I'm unsure of.

 

Though in theory it should support it as it's what RAID is meant for. In the event of a drive failure, you unplug the faulty drive, and install the new one without shutting down the machine. It would just automatically start rebuilding the array.

 

EDIT:

 

Oh and it's 7:55am here, not slept yet... oops

 

I actually have experience with failed arrays. That's why I like RAID1, either drive works just fine all on it's own. I'm just not experienced with hotswap. I'll give it a shot after I sleep, actually. Here's to hoping for the best. Thanks again.