cannot add disk anymore (freenas8)

[dom239]

hi (sorry for my english...)
I just installed freenas8 (after use of freenas 0.7.2)
The disks to be added does not appear anymore.
The first time it was OK, I had :
Import Volume (with several choice ) :
ada0p1 (200 MiB)
ada0p2 (904.3 GiB)
ada0p3 (140,9GiB)
ada0p4 (817,2 GiB)
Now I don't see anything anymore ???
I cannot format or do anything.
Create or import does not show the disk.
What did I do? I do'nt know.
The disk is not «*bad*», I can, under ssh (with mac terminal), see :
freenas# smartctl -a /dev/ada0
Device Model: SAMSUNG HD204UI
Serial Number: S2H7J1DB102860
or
freenas# egrep '^ad[0-9]|^ada[0-9]' /var/run/dmesg.boot
ada0 at ata3 bus 0 scbus1 target 0 lun 0
ada0: <SAMSUNG HD20da0 at umass-sim0 bus 0 scbus6 target 0 lun 0
ada0: 300.000MB/s transfers (SATA 2.x, UDMA5, PIO 8192bytes)
ada0: 1907728MB (3907027055 512 byte sectors: 16H 63S/T 16383C)

I physically disconnect the disk and format it with my mac (HFS+), fine, but he does'not show up in freenas.
I am tryning to format with windows/fusion in NTFS, but it is very slow. Will it work I am not sure.

Help .
Why thoses disks do not show up for creation or import?
I suppose I should have a «good» format to have a "new" disk, but which and how?
Many thanks for yours answers or ideas.
Dominique
PS I have 6 disks connected in sata. 3 are mounted and working OK, but the same problem appears now with the 3 others which does not... appear....

 

[ixdwhite]

Are you trying to import the previous data, or want to start fresh?

If you want to start fresh with a clean data disk, the best thing to do is to erase all partitions and destroy the table itself (if possible to do safely, i.e. with gpart). FreeNAS will then repartition the disk how it wants.

 

[dom239]

Are you trying to import the previous data, or want to start fresh?

First thanks for your answer.
For those 3 disks which does not "appear" I have no important data (just some tests) , so yes I want to start fresh with a clean disk like a new one. How do I erase ALL partitions, DESTROY the table itself. You talk about gpart. is it a unix command? On my mac on the Terminal there is no man page for gpart. Yes I want to start fresh, if you have time please tell me how to do it.
thank you
D.

 

[ixdwhite]

If you can connect the disk to a MacOS machine, then clearing it is pretty easy:

1. Attach the disk to the Mac.
2. Open Disk Utility.
3. Select the disk device (not any partitions) in the left hand column.
4. Select the Partition tab.
5. Under Volume Scheme, select 1 Partition.
6. Click the Options button below the partition display and make sure 'GUID Partition Table' is selected.
7. On the right hand side, change the Format: drop box to Free Space so the only partition is greyed out in the partition display.
8. Click Apply.

That will generate a blank GPT on the disk which FreeNAS should happily digest.

 

[dom239]

not yet !!!

If you can connect the disk to a MacOS machine, then clearing it is pretty easy:
.

Hi ixswhite,
thanks for this precise and simple answer.
I noticed the item 7 : drop box to Free Space. So i disconnect the HD, connect to mac and erase «*blank*» as you said.
I thought that was the simple and nice solution , but it is not yet !...
- View All Volumes display 3 volumes I had already (/mnt/ada2 /mnt/VNada3p1 and /mnt/volumeada4),
- Import Volume display no disk to import
- Create volume display only ada3 (1,8TiB) as before. I tried to «*create*» but nothing more appeared. It is probably the VNADA3p1 I had before...
So it looks like something is in some database of freenas itself, which does not find anything anymore.
Strange. I don't understand.
May be I should re-install completely Freens8. I hesitate …
Any more help from you will be welcomed.
Thanks
D.