Dying boot drive?

[irixion]

Hi,

Fairly new to FreeNAS. I used some PC parts to build a NAS machine. I have the storage drives mirrored (1,3,2,4). I don't have the boot drive mirrored.

Getting straight to the point, my boot device is acting up. If I try to boot it, it gives me the lovely mess in the attached image. I'm assuming this means my boot drive is dying.
I tried to install FreeNAS on a USB stick and boot through that, but it's giving me Trap 12, which I'm assuming is because the USB sticks aren't compatible for whatever reason(?).

My question is, what is my best course of action to get my system back up and running?

 

[ethereal]

i would go with an cheap small ssd for the boot drive. you can get one from ebay very easily - they are much more reliable - i quickly replaced 3 usb sticks - never had a problem with the ssd

if you want more specific advice you need to give your system hardware - per the rules when you signed up for the forum.
put the specs in the post not the signature - then everybody can read it

 

[SweetAndLow]

USB devices are great if you need something simple and want to save a sata port. Ssd's seem to be more reliable for people. I have been using USB stick for 4 years now with zero problems.

 

[Redcoat]

Agree with comments about SSD's over USB. But from your screen shot looks to me like there's a problem with ada4 during the import - it says it's detached (has an error) ...

 

[irixion]

Why would it say it's detached? The WDC is the boot drive, and FreeNAS is installed onto that drive. This is why I assumed the drive is failing, but not yet failed seeing as it tries to boot from said drive. What would be my best course of recovery?

Anyway, my system specs:

Gigabyte GA-H110N Mobo
Intel G4560 @ 3.5 GHz
4GB Corsair LPX DD4 RAM

WDC Boot Drive
4x Seagate IronWolf drives, mirrored
Solid Gear Mini-ITX 270 Watt PSU

 

[Redcoat]

OK - well - the screenshot has a USB drive listed in it towards the top (a boot drive?), and below the line listing the start of ZFS import the first item is ada4 which you say is your boot drive, which is stated to be detached. Was the BIOS still set to boot from the USB when this screenshot was taken, perhaps?

Whatever - please note that FreeNAS requires a minimum of 8GB RAM, you have 4. You'll have difficulty attracting much interest to your problem here until you resolve that. See the User Guide link in the masthead for more information.

 

[irixion]

I know that it is strongly recommended to have at least 8. Money is a bit tight however, I will buy another identical stick.

The periph destroyed error I've been getting was occurring before I used any USB sticks. I decided to just install FreeNAS on a USB stick and mirror it, then find the configuration file I had backed up on a separate machine, plunk that in, remove the WDC drive, and then be up and running again until I could replace the drive. However, as I mentioned, money is tight, but RAM is on my to buy list for sure.

 

[SweetAndLow]

It's not recommended it's required. Fix your hardware then see if your problem still exists.