TrueNas Mini E : integrated flash drive suddenly not booting

[csm]

Hello,

I have a TrueNas Mini E bought in 2021. This morning, the NAS was offline and was restarted. Then I got the message : This is a NAS data disk and can not boot system. System halted.

I ran setup and the 16Gb integrated flash drive (coming with the Mini E) was still visible. I disabled all other drives and tried booting the flash drive directly. But got the same message.

I opened the nas but couldn't find the flash drive, so I guess it's integrated in the motherboard.

What can I do ? The flash drive is visible in the bios, but won't boot. No error message beside the one mentionned.

I have checked many threads reporting the same problem.

Any help please ?

 

[Redcoat]

Item 4 is your SATADOM boot drive (plugged into a SATA port). I beleive that there's likely a power cable connected to it also.

Is the flash drive showing as the first device in the boot order? From your note above I can't tell if you checked that.

If this were my machine I would delete any another drives listed in the boot order as you don't want it to try any of the data drives (which will produe the error messsage you report).

You say you disabled all the other drives - by disconnecting them, or how?

 

[csm]

Yes

View attachment 68555

Item 4 is your SATADOM boot drive (plugged into a SATA port). I beleive that there's likely a power cable connected to it also.

Is the flash drive showing as the first device in the boot order? From your note above I can't tell if you checked that.

If this were my machine I would delete any another drives listed in the boot order as you don't want it to try any of the data drives (which will produe the error messsage you report).

You say you disabled all the other drives - by disconnecting them, or how?

Yes, I have this item 4 ! I suspected it was the flash drive, but wasn't sure. It shows in the bios.

I removed all the others drives from the bootup options. I will try to unplug all the drive physically.

If it doesn't work, do I have another choice but to install a SSD, reinstall TrueNas and use the import tool for the existing pools (I don't think I have a backup of the configuration...) ?

 

[Redcoat]

You could try reinstalling TrueNAS on the existing boot drive, or for a quick trial, to a USB stick (swapping that out, though, after a trial as they have a life problem, and replacing with an SSD or another SATADOM).

There's a chance that you can find a copy of an auto-saved configuration if you need it - come back and report progress and we'll cross that bridge if nenecessary.

 

[csm]

You could try reinstalling TrueNAS on the existing boot drive, or for a quick trial, to a USB stick (swapping that out, though, after a trial as they have a life problem, and replacing with an SSD or another SATADOM).

There's a chance that you can find a copy of an auto-saved configuration if you need it - come back and report progress and we'll cross that bridge if nenecessary.

After unpluging the pool drives and plugging in and out the flash drive from the sata port, it was detected and "booted" to crash. I think it's fried, see below

Any suggestion ?

 

[Redcoat]

It doesn't look good for the SATADOM, but I would try a new install to it, if only for the learning experience.

While that's goig on, find the best quality USB key you have on hand and be ready to make a fresh install on that to get your NAS up and running. Or, better, a USB SSD. Or a SATA SSD, or new SATADOM, whatever takes your fancy.

Come back when you are up and running and we'll look into trying to find a configuration backup.

 

[csm]

I reinstalled everything on a SSD. I found a config file from March 2023 and no major changes were made since then. So I restored the configuration and it was blissful.

However I have troubles with SSH, it won't work anymore. I even tried accepting password login and the connection is rejected.