NASLite Network Attached Storage

I was sure that there would not arise any problem, after I finished the new box. How wrong I was.

After I burned the iso image, and booted from cd, everything seemed to go flawless: fast scrolling install texts, the word 'success' flashing here and there, and then suddenly:

================================

INITIALIZING

Starting environment configuration:

[ DONE ] - Filesystem configuration complete
[ FAIL ] - Unable to mount CD-ROM

umount: none busy - remounted read only
The system is going down NOW !!
Sending SIGTERM to all processes.
Sending SIGKILL to all processes.
The system is halted. Press Reset or turn off power
Power down.

==================================

Though I do like the mysterious poetic content, I am really puzzled and to a certain extend, desparate.

I need the DVD drive to install, it boots, it starts the software and then it even initializes and tells me that mounting the drive it is using is impossible.

I have the following configuration:

Intel D915PSY
Intel P4 3.0 Ghz
1024Mb Kingston Value RAM KVR400X64C3A/512
3ware 8006-2LP 2-port SATA RAID
2x Seagate 500Mb Barracuda 7200/10
Asus EN6200LE TC256/TD graphic adapter
Transcend IDE flash 32Mb
Samsung SH-D163B DVD drive SATA

The only thing I can think of, is that a DVD drive on SATA 0 is not supported in the software, and that there should be a slave IDE drive instead.
But that's just a guess.

So: PLEASE HELP (thanks)

Use ATAPI drive and not SATA.

Thank you for responding so quickly. I suppose you mean IDE, because also the SATA DVD drive is recognized in the BIOS as an ATAPI drive.

The idea was to reserve the IDE connector just for the Transcend Flash Module, to avoid possible conflicts.

I'll let you know if it works.

IDE is correct. Some BIOS allows for legacy support where SATA can be allocated as IDE. You may try that approach or use an IDE drive.

Hi PieterB
I see you have the Trancend disk. I'd be interested in finding out how it performs once you get it working.

Hallo!
I"m using Transcend disk For NasLite HDD,without any problems

After the difficulties (rotten power cable which came with the Transcend Module & the mounting of the DVD drive) install was like a summer breeze in winter.

Thanks to the second post of Tony, I was able to change the BIOS settings of the D915PSY. The legacy settings changed the SATA drive into an IDE drive, needed for NASLite. One IDE channel for the DVD, and one channel for the Transcend IDE module.

To answer willsy: file transfer is FAST (much faster than the firewire drive I was previuously using), and booting is super fast.

Very happy with NASLite!

Like I said, the supplied power cable for the Transcend Module was really bad. But I got it working with some pushing 'n pulling.

Transcend Europe was very quick in supplying the new cable. Connector seemed different; disassembled the connector, and connected the little part with the receptor on the module. No module present in the BIOS.

Then I (comparing the received cable with the flash module) concluded that the receptor on the module was a snap-in part, and I took a grip and pushed the receptor a little further (there was a small gap between the white thing and the module) down.

That was the end of the module. The receptor (it was fixed to the module, as the smart reader already assumed) snapped off -no way to ever repair the thing. Luckily it is pretty cheap.

I just send a bag with all the defective and non-defective parts to that very nice woman at Transcend Europe, and asked her for a ready assembled module ASAP.

I'll keep you posted.

Today, Mme Lesquillier (who is in charge of customer service of Transcend Europe) granted me (with all my stupidity) an immediate RMA.

Amazing service.

I am having the same problem with mounting the CD - get the exact same wording also. I have tried both a SATA and IDE DVD Drives and played with all the settings relating to SATA and IDE (Legacy etc) in the BIOS. No matter what combination I try, I cannot get my system to mount the CD.

In another PC it mounts fine and prepares to install.

I can load other boot-from-CD programs without an issue.

My system is built from all brand new parts this week:

Gigabyte P35-DS3P motherboard
1024MB Kingston RAM
Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8GHz CPU
4 x SATA II Western Digital 500GB drives
Bottom-of-the-line nVidia GeForce Video card

Can someone please advise where I might be going wrong here?

Thanks!

SANV

IMHO a genuin IDE drive should be recognized immediately; a SATA drive should be used through a BIOS legacy setting as an IDE drive.

Try different settings, one at a time.

I used a SATA DVD drive with legacy BIOS settings, and that worked fine.
The Transcend flash module was sitting in the only IDE connector on an Intel board.

What I miss in your hardware setup, is a RAID controller....

HTH

I have tried an IDE DVD drive and a SATA DVD drive set in BIOS as Legacy IDE, with no luck.

There is no specific RAID controller - But this may be my problem. I was reading in another thread that the Gigabyte motherboards built-in RAID utility is not recognised as a hardware RAID. Which is a shame as that is the reason I got a 6 SATA Gigabyte board...

Would this lack of a recognised RAID controller cause the CD not to mount? I don't think so as it mounts fine in another PC without a RAID controller... Hmmm. I'll keep playing around and order a hardware SATA RAID controller in the meantime. If anyone thinks of any suggestions that may get this CD to mount, please post a reply.

Thanks,

SANV

Check the hardware reference guide!
http://www.serverelements.com/file.php?dl=NASLite-2-Reference.pdf

The problem might be that the installer does not know where to install NASLite. You can use an IDE flash drive; the Transcend 32Mb 40 pin flash module sits directly in de IDE connector, and is very safe and cheap.

Your 4 hard drives are connected to one or two RAID controllers, depending on your needs (storage-safety).

HTH

I think you are missing something here. The CDROM drive is for loading and updating of the NAS box only. The Flash drive is not written, just used to store the NAS OS to boot from. After it is booted it runs out of DRAM on the motherboard, after boot the flash drive is not hit any further. This means that the CDROM and the Flash drive on the same IDE/ PATA channel is not a problem. It also means that using a small boot partition, 10-20MB on one of the storage drives is not in any way an impediment to the disk performance of the NAS box.

Flash drives are fine but there is little if any need of them for the NAS box, that is unless you just want a fancy hardware configuration that limits the long term reliability of your machine.

End RANT, now simply install an ATA CDROM drive and load the OS and start enjoying your NAS box. By the way, dual cores and gigabytes of RAM do not improve performance one bit.

Mike

I kept trying everything that has been suggested and everything else I could think of to get it to work, but without any luck. In the end I used my old AMD-based TrixBox PC and it installed fine. So, I will use my "new" PC for a PBX-in-a-Flash installation instead - it doesn't hurt to have a bit of grunt in an IP-PBX.

Thanks anyway for everyone's help!

SANV