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No startup disk found!

Help! I just replaced the 80gb hard drives in my Xserve with 3 500 GB drives. I set it up so bay 1 was a stand alone drive (for the OS) and bay 2 and 3 were striped. I installed 10.5 Server, everything went fine. I updated to 10.5.7 along with the other updates listed and now my startup disk cannot be found. I hold down the option key and no drives show up. Sometimes it will boot, but it flashes a folder with a question mark first. I've tried resetting the PVRAM and NVRAM, I've tried selecting my startup disk, etc. I can boot from the install media still, but none of my drives boot. I know the drives are functional, any ideas? I am currently booting from the install media, but previously my startup disk did show up when in there, but it won't boot from it. I'll post again if it does not show up anymore.


Thanks,
Tim

Xserve, Mac OS X (10.5.7)

Posted on Jul 21, 2009 2:09 PM

Reply
17 replies

Jul 22, 2009 7:17 AM in response to linedpaper

My first inclination is to ask what the logs say when the computer finally does boot but if this a fresh install (as you make it sound) then I would just burn it down and start over. If the freshly installed 10.5 goes back to booting happily then it clearly a failed update from 10.5.x to 10.5.7. If the new install exhibits the same problem then it's some other problem that is coincident with the installation.

You also could boot from the installer DVD and run the Disk Utility on the drive and verify it and try to resurrect it - but if you have the freedom of simply starting over I would do that and (hopefully) move on after the updater works on the second try.

My $.02,
=Tod

Jul 22, 2009 8:14 AM in response to Tod Kuykendall

The strange thing is that I just started over to try to fix this same problem. I'm thinking it has to be some sort of hardware issue as I just built this machine up from scratch. I'm trying to get it online now and I'll check the logs. I've already ran verify in Disk Utility from the DVD. The only thing I haven't tried is going back to the 80gb stock drives that still have 10.4 on them...

Jul 22, 2009 9:20 AM in response to linedpaper

Extrapolating from the lack of drive identification here, I'd try another drive source (vendor, model) here, and preferably one that's been tested for use with Mac OS X Server. (This would not be the first time I've met a third-party drive that didn't quite work as expected; drives are not as cross-compatible as any of us would like.) If this is a drive that was sold for this use and where you're not the hardware integrator, then I'd ring up the vendor and ask for help.

Jul 22, 2009 3:00 PM in response to linedpaper

Putting back in the stock drives worked, so I guess I'll grab some other drives. I was using Western Digital drives, any suggestions on what should work? I don't want to buy hard drives from apple due to their markup.


This is not the answer you want.

Having done driver-level and diagnostic-level device implementation, integration and development, I've always viewed the extra costs that are involved here for the vendor's core designated peripherals as paying for the assurance that the devices will work in the system, and will continue to work going forward. If you don't want to pay Apple, find another vendor that sells (and that has a reputation for supporting) after-market disk drives for your Xserve box.

Sure, there's a profit in there for the vendor. But how much does your time and effort and testing cost you? The device SCSI and ATAPI and firmware interfaces are more ugly than most folks appreciate. Yes, most devices on the market are compliant with standards, but there's nothing that requires a particular sequence or return code or otherwise. Things get particularly ugly when you get to looking at the S.M.A.R.T. data.

I've hit significant differences from one revision of disk drive firmware to the next, and this from reputable manufacturers. Usually better. Sometimes worse. In a couple of cases, I've met two completely different devices that have the same product name, too; the vendor shifted suppliers, but didn't shift product names. Or cases where firmware version 3, 4 and 5, that are older than version 2.

I'm not making this stuff up, either. It's completely nuts. It's a testament to the guys that have designed and implemented and tested the drivers that random stuff even mostly works as well as it does, too.

Aug 28, 2009 9:33 AM in response to Mabel O'Farrell

Sorry for the long delay, the priority of this project slipped down a few spots as of late. I posted my hardware below. I was planning on upgrading this server to Snow Leopard and upping the hard drives at the same time. I was testing before with Leopard. I'll check with Apple and my Apple Vendors and make sure I get some drives that work well with the Xserve then. I guess the markup I'm going to pay will be worth it in comparison to the cost of my time. Thanks for all the help everyone!

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: Xserve
Model Identifier: Xserve1,1
Processor Name: Dual-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 2 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 1.33 GHz
Boot ROM Version: XS11.0080.B01
SMC Version: 1.11f5
LOM Revision: 1.2.8

No startup disk found!

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