Cannot boot after usb key errors.

[Emery]

Setup
Freenas 9.3, booting from usb key (mirrored setup, as I have 2 8GB usb keys). About 2 months ago, I got an error relating to one of my usb keys (can't remember the error), but it had to do with corruption or write failure on one of the usb keys.

Summary of events

- Freenas sent me an alert about errors off one the usb keys.
- I follow the intructions to try resync the bad usb key from the good one (I don't remember what I did).
- Alert disppears
- A couple months pass by.
- A couple of weeks ago I decide to apply the latest updates.
- When my nas reboots to complete the update, I get this type of error.

> error: no such device: XXXUUIDXXXXX...
grub rescue>

- I removed both my usb keys and try to boot off one of them one at a time.
- One of the usb keys doesn't even load grub (so this one looks like the corrupted one).
- The other gives the above grub error.

My question is what could I do? I was hoping not to boot off an installation image.

Here's what I tried.

grub rescue> ls
(hd0) (hd1) (hd2) (hd3) (hd4)

The 5 disks I'm seeing off grub are what I assume to be the 5 disks forming my zpool used by the nas. So obviously I haven't been able to load my grub configuration by setting the ROOT and PREFIX variables in grub and then "insmod normal".

Is it normal for me not to see the usb key in the list of hd devices, even though I was able to load grub from the usb key?

 

[dlavigne]

Why not just reinstall the same version to a new key and upload your saved config?

 

[Emery]

You're absolutely right.

To fix the problem, I simply booted off a new usb key with the installation ISO and did a reinstall. For those curious, the installation process, found the freenas installation on my good working usb key, and performed an upgrade which meant I didn't lose my configuration.

However, I'm lazy, and I wanted to be able to find, with grub's shell, my grub configuration and manually boot off my working usb key. I still don't understand why "ls" only displayed my 5 sata disks and why my usb key that was used to boot from, didn't show up in the list command.