Hard Disk not in Format list

neilblue · Post by **neilblue** » 18 Jun 2013 10:55

Hello All

I have a disk that appears in the Disks, Management section stating files system is unknown or unformatted but this disk does not appear in the Disks, Format page under the Disks dropdown list. So I am unable to format it and mount it.

I've also attempted to format the main partition (whole drive) as UFS in the SHELL which according to the Diagnostics, Information page under partitions this format/slice/UFS partition creation happened. Even after this attempt the disk appears as unformated and doesn't appear in the list to be formatted.

Any information on this issue would help greatly. Thanks in advance.

I'm currently running 9.1.0.1 - Sandstorm (revision 775)

Jason

Post by **raulfg3** » 18 Jun 2013 11:30

some reused disk, contain metadata info, that make crazy N4F, please wipe first, prior to format: http://wiki.nas4free.org/doku.php?id=faq:0129

and be sure that is NOT your boot Disk.

neilblue · Post by **neilblue** » 18 Jun 2013 12:18

Thanks for the quick response. I'll follow the instructions from the FAQ.

I do apologize that I've missed that.

neilblue · Post by **neilblue** » 18 Jun 2013 12:50

I've tried running the script in the FAQ with one mod to allow it to run (was receiving 'Command not found' message), in the shell i've typed the following:

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/bin/sh /mnt/wipe.sh

instead of:

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./wipe.sh

I have received the output that is described in the FAQ but with no change in outcome as the disk still appears as unknown or unformated and I am unable to see the disk in the format list.

Anything else that I could try?

Thanks

Jason

neilblue · Post by **neilblue** » 18 Jun 2013 13:23

This is the drive in question:

DIAGNOSTICS|INFORMATION|DISKS(ATA)

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Device /dev/ada3 - FamilyMedia

Disk:		ada3
Firmware Rev:		CC32
ATA revision:		ATA-8
LBA 48:			yes
Geometry:		16383 cyls, 16 heads, 63 spt
Capacity:		1863GB
SMART Supported: 	yes
SMART Enabled: 		no
Write Cache Supported: 	yes
Write Cache Enabled: 	yes
APM Supported: 		no
AAM Supported: 		yes
AAM Enabled: 		yes
AAM Value: 		-127
Vendor Recommended AAM: 127

DIAGNOSTICS|INFORMATION|PARTITIONS

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Device /dev/ada3 - ST2000DL003-9VT166 CC32

******* Working on device /dev/ada3 *******
parameters extracted from in-core disklabel are:
cylinders=3876021 heads=16 sectors/track=63 (1008 blks/cyl)

Figures below won't work with BIOS for partitions not in cyl 1
parameters to be used for BIOS calculations are:
cylinders=3876021 heads=16 sectors/track=63 (1008 blks/cyl)

Media sector size is 512
Warning: BIOS sector numbering starts with sector 1
Information from DOS bootblock is:
The data for partition 1 is:
sysid 165 (0xa5),(FreeBSD/NetBSD/386BSD)
    start 63, size 3907029105 (1907729 Meg), flag 80 (active)
	beg: cyl 0/ head 1/ sector 1;
	end: cyl 180/ head 15/ sector 63
The data for partition 2 is:
<UNUSED>
The data for partition 3 is:
<UNUSED>
The data for partition 4 is:
<UNUSED>

Originally the partition 1 didn't exist until I created it using the shell (said <UNUSED>), this partition may have changed since attempting to wipe it using the FAQ but I didn't take note previously

I figured I'd include this info encase it helps.

Thanks again

Jason

Post by **raulfg3** » 18 Jun 2013 13:28

try to create a GPT label to wipe metadata info.
like is described here:
viewtopic.php?f=57&t=3999&p=20982&hilit=GPT#p20982

gpart create -s gpt "name of the disk where gpt will be created"

once done rebbot your NAS prior to format.

if still not work, my only suggest is to format in NTFS and label it on a windows machine, once done, must be detected and formated in UFS or ZFS , what you want.

neilblue · Post by **neilblue** » 18 Jun 2013 13:54

Thanks.. That isn't working either.

a GPT label didn't exist to destroy so I went on to create one but, after reboot, that still didn't help.

I'll pull the drive out and see if I can't get windows to clear it.

Thanks again for your help.

Jason

neilblue · Post by **neilblue** » 18 Jun 2013 15:14

Well this is very strange. I've formatted NTFS under windows 7. Put the drive back into the NAS and it still indicated unformatted. Cleared config and imported disks and now it's showing that the disk is UFS

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ada3 	1907730MB 	Family Media  	ST2000DL003-9VT166  	5YD41K7V  	10  	UFS  	ONLINE

but under the DIAGNOSTICS|INFORMATION|Partitions it's showing NTFS

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Device /dev/ada3 - ST2000DL003-9VT166 CC32

******* Working on device /dev/ada3 *******
parameters extracted from in-core disklabel are:
cylinders=3876021 heads=16 sectors/track=63 (1008 blks/cyl)

Figures below won't work with BIOS for partitions not in cyl 1
parameters to be used for BIOS calculations are:
cylinders=3876021 heads=16 sectors/track=63 (1008 blks/cyl)

Media sector size is 512
Warning: BIOS sector numbering starts with sector 1
Information from DOS bootblock is:
The data for partition 1 is:
sysid 7 (0x07),(OS/2 HPFS, NTFS, QNX-2 (16 bit) or Advanced UNIX)
    start 2048, size 3907024896 (1907727 Meg), flag 0
	beg: cyl 0/ head 32/ sector 33;
	end: cyl 1023/ head 254/ sector 63
The data for partition 2 is:
<UNUSED>
The data for partition 3 is:
<UNUSED>
The data for partition 4 is:
<UNUSED>

BTW, under the DISK|MANAGEMENT|DISK CONFIG I never have the option to select which format it is (always greyed out).

Post by **raulfg3** » 18 Jun 2013 17:03

well, perhaps you discover a bug in latest builds, I remember that in Disk | Management, you can select what format have the disk you select ( this mean that you previosly need to know that your disk is NTFS, ZFS, UFS, etc... ) and use selector to tell to N4F that preserve format.

Not sure if is a bug or is disble because now when you import disk, format are detected, perhaps this last conclusion is the true, but not sure.

Any other guy can confirm this???.

PD: and any one know how to destroy / wipe a disk to shown as system as "unformated" ???

neilblue · Post by **neilblue** » 23 Jun 2013 11:56

Still no luck with this. I've tried formatting NTSC, RAW, no allocation, changing from GPT to MBR and back. Nothing seems to help bring this disk up properly in N4F.

I think i've all but given up.

Thanks for the help though.

------------------------------------------------------------

**** EDIT *****

Well I finally got this drive to work. SORT OF!
I started playing around with cables thinking maybe that one that I was using was no good. It wasn't the cable but what I did find out is that when swapping HDDs from ada3(missing from format list) to ada4 I was able to see the drive in the format list. So I've formatted the drive, setup a mount point, setup samba share, swapped back the drives (ada4 back to ada3) and no problems. Everything works fine.

So long story short. ada3 does not appear in the format list. And to add to that statement neither does ada0 (I always assumed it was because ada0 and ada1 are in a RAID config). Could this be the bug?

--- EDIT #2 ----

And oddly enough to mention something about the DISK|MANAGMENT|DISK EDIT section where you can select the "Preformatted file system". This setting remains greyed out for me until I hit the "Save" button and for the split second that I have before the page forwards on I can select that drop down menu. Weird!

Manichee · Post by **Manichee** » 26 Jul 2013 20:40

So I just had this same issue trying to replace a zfs drive to a bigger drive. When I cleared and imported to get the old drive to clear and show the new drive, I was unable to select it in the format drop down box. What I had to do was to go to disk management and click the red X next to the new drive and remove it. Then click the blue + and add the new drive, I was able to select the format settings there. I was also able to use zpool replace to insert the new drive and it is reslivering now.

Lepy · Post by **Lepy** » 25 Aug 2013 01:35

I am having a similar issue with a WD 30EZRX even after updating to the latest version (847).

I have tried running the wipe.sh script on the drive, pre-formatting as NTFS using gparted, and swapping the sata port from one on a controller card to an onboard port. I can add the drive to the disk management page all day long, but the drive does not show up in any drop down lists (format or mount point when pre-formated as NTFS). The only drives that show up in the drop down menus are da0 (the flash drive nas4free is installed on) and da1 (a 1TB drive in a USB HDD cradle currently formatted as UFS and mounted on the nas4free system, not sure why it shows up since it is in use).

This 3TB drive was replacing a single ZFS backup drive that failed. I made sure to to remove the previous ZFS pool as well as samba and nfs shares and other services that referenced the removed pool. I have been using the same config file for quite some time, and I had to hand edit the drive identifiers when I upgraded hardware and moved from FreeNAS to nas4free. Could there be something fishy in the config file that is causing this issue? I think I have exhausted most of my options other than giving up and installing the drive in my desktop.

RedAntz · Post by **RedAntz** » 26 Aug 2013 04:46

Lepy wrote:I am having a similar issue with a WD 30EZRX even after updating to the latest version (847).

Did you try "Clear config and Import disks" to update ?

Lepy · Post by **Lepy** » 28 Aug 2013 23:21

Yes, I had previously attempted the clear and import command on the disk management page both with and without the new WD disk added. The command works as far as populating the page with the correct devices/names/serials when switching the physical SATA port of the new drive. Still, I am left with only da0 and da1 in the various drop-downs and no errors in the logs. Is there any other info you would like me to provide?

hotalot · Post by **hotalot** » 29 Aug 2013 01:39

You could try other OS. Download Freenas and boot it, create a new pool and dataset, then export the pool and try importing it with Nas4free. Use version 8.3 of Freenas cause version 9 uses a newer ZFS version (5000) wich is incompatible with current N4F version.

Lepy · Post by **Lepy** » 01 Sep 2013 00:24

Thanks for the suggestion hotalot. I used a live usb image of freenas 8.3.1 on a different machine to create and export a zfs pool. After I plugged the drive into my NAS4Free box and booted up, the exported pool was automatically detected and imported. I had to change the mount location from /pool03 to /mnt/pool03, but everything else seems proper. I'm glad to get the new disk working in my nas, but do not want to encounter this error when I add another disk. Is this a bug of some sort that will be fixed in an upcoming version?

hotalot · Post by **hotalot** » 01 Sep 2013 03:41

I don't know if it is a bug or not, may be it only happens with the embeded version of N4F.

Snunn1 · Post by **Snunn1** » 28 Sep 2013 22:25

I've had the same problem so I suspect it might need looking into. I've added a Bug Report on Soundforge so hopefully we might get to the bottom of it soon.

woodysranch · Post by **woodysranch** » 25 Oct 2013 17:20

I had the same issue, but was able to resolve it by the same method indicated above. I connected the non-formatable drive to a different SATA port. The drive then presented itself as ad3 (previously it was ad1), and I was able to format the drive.

Based on my take on what happened to me and others, this is what I think happens. When you connect a drive and set it up on NAS4FREE, that information is saved. If you subsequently remove the drive from that port and install a different one, it cannot forget the old drive, sees the discrepancy in drive parameters and this is the reason it is not available for format. There must be some hidden values that disappear from view when you remove the old drive and are not overwritten when the new drive is used. Perhaps there was a share set up on the original drive. Perhaps one could reverse all steps in reverse order in removing the old drive and that would allow that drive slot to be used by a new drive.

I would think the surefire solution would be to re-install NAS4FREE as that would eliminate all traces of previous drives. One of the lessons here is that there is no fault with the drive itself. In my case I upgraded firmware, did three different diagnostic checks and a low level format with SEATOOLS. It took a whole day, all for naught, as it was my previous experimentation of installing a different drive on that one SATA port that caused the problem, not the drive itself.

What ever parameters are saved, if there was some way to view and purge it, that should fix things, and I am sure this bug can be woked out.

Keynaan · Post by **Keynaan** » 06 Mar 2014 19:40

Hey there.

Has anyone found another solution? I have the same problem like my previous commenter. I can see the drive in Disks / Management but not in the disks lists under Disks / Format or Disks / Mount Point. I have formated the drive with a usb-adapter but am not able to mount it now into my system. When I do it manually, due to my embedded install it is going to be removed from the /etc/fstab after reboot.

Now I have updated the system to the current firmware which hasn't changed anything.

So, is there a solution besides reinstall everything clean?

Thanks a alot.

dandzen · Post by **dandzen** » 27 Apr 2014 15:28

Had the same error. Done everything from this thread (even reinstalled Nas4free with import config) - didnt helped.
So it was clear for me that problems in config file.
I have the ZFS pool on mirror(made from cli), so i decided to make a synchronize from zfs configuration in web gui ,
added check box Overwrite disks configuration and ... It works. Now i can see my new disk in format menu.

Tinkz · Post by **Tinkz** » 19 May 2014 14:25

dandzen wrote:i decided to make a synchronize from zfs configuration in web gui ,
added check box Overwrite disks configuration and ... It works. Now i can see my new disk in format menu.

it works for me, thanx dude

Bardman · Post by **Bardman** » 31 Aug 2014 14:52

raulfg3 wrote:well, perhaps you discover a bug in latest builds, I remember that in Disk | Management, you can select what format have the disk you select ( this mean that you previosly need to know that your disk is NTFS, ZFS, UFS, etc... ) and use selector to tell to N4F that preserve format.

Not sure if is a bug or is disble because now when you import disk, format are detected, perhaps this last conclusion is the true, but not sure.

Any other guy can confirm this???.

PD: and any one know how to destroy / wipe a disk to shown as system as "unformated" ???

I can confirm this rev 9.2.0.1 - Shigawire (revision 943) in a Z1 ZFS pool 4 disks 1 degreaded and i want to replace whit a new one. I can do what i want noting is working. The disk is visible in diskmanagement as unknown and unformatted. But does not show up in the format menue. In the status menue same, visible thats all.

Did try to delete the disk and reboot, Did try to bring the disk offline no problem but no solution pool stays degraded. Tryed a scrub (~15) hours no solution, Now it stays ofline

ZFS pool:

NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM
VD01 DEGRADED 0 0 0
raidz1-0 DEGRADED 0 0 0
ada0.nop ONLINE 0 0 0
ada1.nop ONLINE 0 0 0
ada2.nop ONLINE 0 0 0
1552807577901426273 OFFLINE 0 0 0 was /dev/ada3.nop

Disk management:
ada0 WDC WD20EZRX-00D8PB0 1907730MB WD-WMC4M0761212 ahcich0 ATI IXP700 AHCI SATA controller Always on ZFS storage pool device ONLINE Edit disk Delete disk
ada1 WDC WD20EARS-00MVWB0 1907730MB WD-WCAZA5546726 ahcich1 ATI IXP700 AHCI SATA controller Always on ZFS storage pool device ONLINE Edit disk Delete disk
ada2 WDC WD20EARX-22PASB0 1907730MB WD-WCAZAA159758 ahcich2 ATI IXP700 AHCI SATA controller Always on ZFS storage pool device ONLINE Edit disk Delete disk
ada3 WDC WD20EZRX-00D8PB0 1907730MB WD-WCC4M2764769 ahcich3 ATI IXP700 AHCI SATA controller Always on Unknown or unformatted ONLINE Edit disk Delete disk
da0 hp v165w 1100 3864MB n/a umass-sim0 AMD SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB 2.0 controller Always on UFS ONLINE Edit disk Delete disk

Help!!

I made a backup now of the remaininig three disks but tis is verry ....Grrrr

Testing with almost the same config did work and even very quiqly, Only difference where the disks

Thanks in advanced
Bart

Bardman · Post by **Bardman** » 31 Aug 2014 15:04

Manichee wrote:So I just had this same issue trying to replace a zfs drive to a bigger drive. When I cleared and imported to get the old drive to clear and show the new drive, I was unable to select it in the format drop down box. What I had to do was to go to disk management and click the red X next to the new drive and remove it. Then click the blue + and add the new drive, I was able to select the format settings there. I was also able to use zpool replace to insert the new drive and it is reslivering now.

Thanks it looks like it also thesolutiuon for me after reading (a lot in a cople of days). Disk is now initializing and already added to the virtual device. now just waiting to finish...

Bardman · Post by **Bardman** » 31 Aug 2014 15:37

Bardman wrote:
Manichee wrote:So I just had this same issue trying to replace a zfs drive to a bigger drive. When I cleared and imported to get the old drive to clear and show the new drive, I was unable to select it in the format drop down box. What I had to do was to go to disk management and click the red X next to the new drive and remove it. Then click the blue + and add the new drive, I was able to select the format settings there. I was also able to use zpool replace to insert the new drive and it is reslivering now.

Thanks it looks like it also thesolutiuon for me after reading (a lot in a cople of days). Disk is now initializing and already added to the virtual device. now just waiting to finish...

Ok its gonna work after put the disk online and replace its now resilvering.

Im gonna make a (dutch) manual for myself. With al this kind of S...t

mooblie · Post by **mooblie** » 09 Feb 2015 19:47

I have this problem - a disk that appears as "unformatted" in the Disk Management list does NOT appear to be available in the FORMAT drop-down list.

Working my way through the solutions above, but no luck so far.

This is embedded 9.3.0.2.1310 Nayla in an HP N36L Microserver.

Lee Sharp · Post by **Lee Sharp** » 13 Feb 2015 06:01

Stick the disk in another computer and erase and format it fat. Or run DBAN.

mooblie · Post by **mooblie** » 16 Feb 2015 20:53

Thanks for the suggestions - tried both those - no improvement. Still can see the drive in Disk Management, but not in the Format drop-down menu.

caterham · Post by **caterham** » 15 Mar 2015 19:02

Hello,
I ran into the same troubles after adding more disks to my system running embedded NAS4Free 9.3.0.2 (1349) .
The ZFS- pool- disks got other numbers, before they where ada2...ada5. After inserting two new disks, they became ada4...ada7. I could only see one of the new disks (ada2) in the drop- boxes for format or mount-point. I don't know why it was ada2, so please don't ask

. Delete and re- scan disks did not help, the ZFS-pool worked flawless.

In /cf/conf/config.xml under the tag <zfs> the pool- disks still where named as ada2...ada5, this is obviously wrong. So I had to modify the config.xml by hand. I couldn't find a way to do this in the web- admin tool. In my opinion this is simply a bug in the web- tool, it doesn't update this list. Maybe there should be a button in the Disk|Management- menu to do this.

Okay, how to fix it. Please be careful when manipulating on config.xml. Make a backup before editing.
You'll find the entries in config.xml here:

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   .......   
             <zfs>
                <vdevices>
                        <vdevice>
                                <uuid>931.......</uuid>
                                <name>pool01_raidz2_0</name>
                                <type>raidz2</type>
                                <device>/dev/ada2</device> /!-- change to new numbers --!/
                                <device>/dev/ada3</device>
                                <device>/dev/ada4</device>
                                <device>/dev/ada5</device>
                                <desc/>
                                <aft4k/>
                        </vdevice>
                </vdevices>

To modify the config.xml- file by hand, you must re- mount the USB- stick with read/write (if you are using one). The stick is usually mounted from da0 but please check this with the command mount, you'll find something like this : /dev/da0s1a on /cf (ufs, local, read-only).

You need a super- user shell on the nas-box (for example by using ssh and the su- command), check the wiki, how to become su on the box.

When logged in as su, do the following:
umount /cf
mount -o rw /dev/<your partition on the stick, see above> /cf
nano /cf/conf/config.xml

Now you can edit your file. After a reboot (with shutdown -r now), you should be able to select disks in the drop- boxes.

Hope this helps.... and now I have to find the problem with my external USB- attached NTFS- disk

hp.

rwinkel · Post by **rwinkel** » 29 Jun 2015 17:00

My problem is a little different. I'm reusing an old zfs disk to replace a failed one so I'm trying to wipe the label using the script at http://wiki.nas4free.org/doku.php?id=faq:0129 but it says "Operation not permitted." It doesn't matter whether it's in the disks-management menu or not. When I add it to the latter menu it says "unknown or unformatted" but I can't select it in the format menu. When I remove it from the list I still can't select it to format and I still get the permissions error from the shell script. What to do?

Thanks!

XigmaNAS

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