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Thread ID: 127324	2012-10-17 08:08:00	what is up with my RAID array?	Billy T (70)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1307358	2012-10-17 08:08:00	Hi Team I'm running RAID 1 arrays for both data and OS and it has not been an altogether reassuring system. I lost a data mirror early in the piece and rebuilt that ok, but then had a run of OS disk failures which were apparently caused by faulty Raid driver and the disks were actually OK. Since that was fixed all has been well but this afternoon I got a warning that the OS array was degraded, i.e. one disk was down, so I fitted a new disk in the correct slot and rebooted, but after the raid health check all I got was a flashing cursor and XP did not load. I figured that I picked the wrong disk so I swapped the other one out but got the same result. This happened once before so I took it back to the supplier/builder under warranty and when I picked it up he said I was close but not quite there (but wouldn't tell me why, which p'd`me off a bit but I didn't want to make waves so I let it go). In the past I had successfully rebuilt data volumes, but I buggered if I know what I am doing wrong here. As I understand it, the computer should run happily on one OS disk, and indeed it was doing just that until I shut it down, but it has stayed down ever since! Is there some tip or trick that I am missing here? The best result I have had is four green displays with the new disk shown as a non RAID volume, which means that one OS disk was in there but not booting.I am powering down completely before changing disks (turning off the PSU) Any advice here would be most welcome, I don't want to take it back and look like a dick again! Cheers Billy :confused: Sent from my ancient Portege 3490 notebook	Billy T (70)
1307359	2012-10-17 08:48:00	What RAID system are you running? Just the host based RAID built in to a desktop mainboard or do you have a proper RAID PCI-express card with it's own CPU/RAM?	CYaBro (73)
1307360	2012-10-17 08:50:00	Yes, in a mirror/RAID1 the computer should work with 1 failed disk. I assume it's just using the Windows built in software RAID? Might be worth investing in a RAID card and setting up a proper hardware array.	WarNox (8772)
1307361	2012-10-17 09:20:00	I'm not sure to be quite frank, all I know is that it has the Intel Matrix Storage Console, which I am guessing is the 'poor man's raid system. There was a major global problem with one aspect of the software which kept rejecting good disks, and one of my current OS disks has a label on it (written by me) saying it is faulty but that disk has been working fine for two years now after the software was updated. My bet is that it is software RAID but I'm not sure it is 'Windows RAID', as mentioned above, it has the 'Intel MSC'. Do the disk assignments shift around if you pull a disk? i.e. I have 0 1 2 3 with 0 & 1 as the OS mirrors and 2 & 3 as the Data. I have inadvertently corrupted a data disk once, but it just set to and rebuilt itself. Is a hardware raid system easy to implement and will it take the existing disks and use them as-is? Cheers Billy 8-{)	Billy T (70)
1307362	2012-10-17 09:42:00	No, you will need to rebuild your disks if you want to change the RAID solution. As far as I know anyway. It is easy to implement though. I would back up your important data before doing anything.	WarNox (8772)
1307363	2012-10-17 21:44:00	Since it's a RAID 1 mirror, the two hard drives should be identical, except there's 99% chance that one will have a disk error, and the other one won't. I say "99%" because it's theoretically possibly both drives failed at once, though the odds are very slim. Also if something trashed the boot sector, it would also trash the mirrored drives boot sector. All is not lost however. I'd stop all attempts to fix the RAID, and get access to your files first. it should be as easy as mounting either drive in a USB enclosure, and connecting that to a working PC. See www.ascent.co.nz While strictly optional with a RAID 1 mirror, you can "break" the mirror. If both disks are OK, this will leave you with two identical disks, with the possible exception of a Windows disk signature. Once you break the mirror, you should turn off the PC, and remove one of the disks, and restart. Leaving both disks in may confuse WIndows.	kingdragonfly (309)
1307364	2012-10-17 22:17:00	May I respectfully ask why you are raiding this system? Seems a lot more to go wrong for a questionable advantage.	linw (53)
1307365	2012-10-18 01:05:00	May I respectfully ask why you are raiding this system? Seems a lot more to go wrong for a questionable advantage. Yes, of course you can ask......... This computer is mission critical for my business, and I elected to have it set up in RAID 1 (mirror) configuration for both OS and Data because even with the best of back-up intentions, data can be lost by a disk failure. As mentioned in my initial post, I have lost data through disk failure before, plus the time taken to load and set up all of my software is quite extensive, some it being rather archaic now (as I have posted previously, I still have to run DOS programs, plus some iterations of Windows that are long forgotten and I have several specialised instrument programs that are non Y2K compliant as well). The use of RAID has has saved my bacon on several occasions (bad batch of disks and a crook piece of software) restoration is fast and accurate and right up to date. Anyway, all is fixed now. I took it back to Computer Lounge and the problem was that the boot order was scrambled. No charge, and I was in my way again inside 20 minutes; they are good people to deal with. I've taken on board the comments about software RAID, and I've had enough questionable experiences with it to believe all of them, so next year I'm going to go back to CL and have another computer built with hardware RAID. That will require a full reload of all software so I'll probably move up from XP at that time. I won't be going too far though, I've no desire to go to the latest and breakest so I'll choose from one of the mature OS's and no doubt PF1 will guide me when the time comes. Cheers Billy 8-{) :)	Billy T (70)
1307366	2012-10-18 02:10:00	Cheers, Billy.	linw (53)
1307367	2012-10-18 02:44:00	RAID protects you from hardware failure, but it is not a backup . If you don't already you should also schedule regular backups and/or a system image if the setup is critical to you . If you get data corrupted or accidentally deleted the mirror won't help you . Your setup sounds much more critical that mine but personally after dabbling with RAID I decided it was not something for the average home user and went with a weekly system image instead . Hardware Raid controllers are expensive, some cost as much as a whole system by themselves . The onboard RAID functions of motherboards and cheap controller cards is not true hardware RAID and still does a lot of the work in software . Effectively there are 3 types of RAID controllers; Pure software - such as Windows built in RAID - can't be used for the OS (maybe mirroring is different? but you can't setup software RAID without first installing windows) Semi Hardware - using cheap controllers or onboard, can be set up first and then the OS installed onto it - probably what you have, still mostly software I believe . Proper Hardware RAID - costs a fortune, the controller does all the work	dugimodo (138)
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