Disk problem

[Northwinds]

Hi all
I'm trying out a very basic build (until I can afford better parts) but am having a real problem with a disk disappearing!
I know if I upgrade the parts it will probably sort it but that's not an option right now so am wondering if there are any test or reports that will tell me exactly why its happening and what I can do in the short term?

Probably the most expensive part so far is the Seagate 4TB NAS HDD which is connected to an old P4 mobo through a pci sata card.
FreeNAS 8.3.2 (32bit) is running on a CF card on an ide connector.

FreeNAS itself has no problem booting - it just doesn't see the other drive half (or more) of the time. I've tried swapping the sata cables and power connections, and then rebooting and it works great. I then go out for an hour and come back and it's gone again!
Swap around the cables once more and its fine again, but eventually disappears again!
I'm pretty sure its not a problem with the drive itself as its brand new, but is there any way I can check or any logs that will tell me why its disconnecting?

Many thanks in advance!

 

[dlavigne]

You could try looking at the BIOS settings. Or it might end up being a hardware issue...

 

[Northwinds]

Great suggestion - thanks!
Any thoughts on what I should be looking for?
Cheers!

 

[joeschmuck]

Some BIOS's do not support a 4TB drive so you would be looking for something that states it supports the new 4K drives up to 4TB. You didn't list your MB model so it's tuff to help you beyond there. IF you have a 2TB drive you could try, give it a shot, it might be 100% reliable at connecting.

The other thing to do is replace your sata drive cable, those can easily cause problems, even if it's a locking connector. Try it in a different SATA port on the MB too.

I almost was going to say that 2GB is too small but since you are using UFS, I think that will be fine.

 

[Northwinds]

Good point joeschmuck re the 4TB restriction, but actually after dlavigne's BIOS suggestion I checked everthing I could on the next start and ended up selecting "Load High Performance Defaults" and suddenly everything loaded great!

I haven't done any long testing yet but will get back once I reinstate my backup jobs.

The BIOS by the way is an AMBIOS NEW SETUP UTILITY - VERSION 3.31a

I know the Mobo is a MSI build but without going into the case which is under the desk and behind a ouple of things - and i'm hoping to not do that until I can afford to replace the mobo - then I can't tell.

By the way swapping around sata and power cables was something I did several weeks ago to no avail, while I had the case open constantly and my front room constantly in a mess around it and unfortunately that solved nothing.

Fingers crossed on the BIOS solution tough - will update on any progress!

Just a thought - I don't suppose there are any third party BIOS repositories out there or options to hack/upgrade certian BIOSes to allow greater functionality or choice?

Cheers all and thanks for your help and suggestions!

 

[joeschmuck]

You don't want to dive into a modified BIOS. Way back when the computer came out and we were creating BIOS's with new features (I dabbled in it quite a bit), it was hard work but back in those days hardware was fairly easy to handle and you learned machine code like it was your native language, not interpreters. Now days not so much with all the changing hardware interfaces. You need to trust you manufacturer. Also, I doubt there is much out there for a modified BIOS.

 

[Northwinds]

Ok thanks for the advice.
Cheers!