Can't install FreeNAS on a SSD but HDD work.

[guillaumesoucy]

Hi,

I realyse I can use the SATA III ports who I planning to use for the OS drives for data storage. So finally I buy a 4 GB very resistant USB stick from NewEgg Canada, I will just keep the server room door closed and locked and I will be very carefull when manipulating the wires in the back of the server chassie for avoid to unplug the USB stick. Like I saids above, I will use the 2 extra SATA III ports for plug 2 more 6 Tb disk so I will have 26 disks, 24 in the front hot swap 3.5in slots and 2 internal via 2 internal 3.5in spaces. When all disks will be formatted, its 142 Tb! A lot of space!

Have a great night!

Guillaume

 

[pirateghost]

They make adapters to plug into the internal USB header so you can plug in your thumb drive

 

[guillaumesoucy]

Good idea, I will try to find one. :)

 

[joeschmuck]

To answer your original question even though you are now going down the path of using a USB flash drive as a boot device, what brand/model is your SSD? Also did you perform a "secure erase". This can be unique for certain SSD's and I won't be telling you anything more than you should figure out how to perform a secure erase if you want to attempt something like this. There is no reason I can think of why the SSD shouldn't work as a boot drive. Maybe the problem is in your BIOS setup for the controller. And as someone else mentioned, you haven't posted your hardware listing so this leaves too many things to just guess at.

 

[guillaumesoucy]

Hi,

Yes I try a secure erease and it work! But I like the idea of a USB stick on a USB header, so I brought a 4 GB USB stick and a USB header from newegg.ca so with this configuration I can have 26 HDDs for the storage instead 24 since I can now use the two vacant SATA III ports inside the server chassi. A total of 142 TB.

Also I know I must not use USB for data disks but, this is a good idea to use eSATA instead USB? So if yes, all my four PCI Express 1X slots are used for SATA III controllers, but I have vacant three PCI Express 16X slots, originaly I had four but one is used the the graphic card because the mother board has no VGA ports, so I plug a 16 MB cheap video card... So can I plug a PCI Express 1X eSATA controller into one of the PCI Express 16x slots for use the 16x slots in that way? By doing this, can I hook a 8 Bay eSATA Sans Digital enclosure using eSATA to my FreeNAS box? And also, I know when using USB, when I shut down the machine the enclosure will sync with the host machine and shut down automaticly, but I see when I reboot the machine the enclosure just don't power up until I press manualy power on it, that may cause issues if the power goes out and the UPS is out of battery power and the equipement is shutted down, because the enclosure will not power up automaticly and I use this enclosure for my security cameras and the recording of my two phone lines for security purposes.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Guillaume

 

[joeschmuck]

Glad to know the secure erase allowed you to use a SSD if you ever wanted to in the future.

You sure do ask a lot of questions...

Yes, you can plug a PCI Express 1X into a 16X slot without issue. The downside to using a 1X SATA card is you are limited in bandwidth so if you are planing to have many drives on a PCI Express card, you are better off getting one that has a true PCI Express 4X interface or even 16X. You should read up on the PCI Express interface standard.

 

[guillaumesoucy]

Hi,

Thanks for the info. :)

Also, did you recommand eSATA for data disk with FreeNAS? I need an array for my security cameras and I want to verify if I can plug it via eSATA.

Guillaume

 

[Knowltey]

You're the only one that gas said eSATA in this thread.

 

[gpsguy]

A number of users have had problems using expansion units like these. Search the forum for "port multiplier".

After doing the search and reading about the problems, you will find some alternative solutions.