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Thread ID: 115512	2011-01-21 09:12:00	Well folks, I have yet another RAID Volume failure	Billy T (70)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1171453	2011-01-21 09:12:00	So, some opinions would be appreciated. System is an ASUS P7P55D EVO Mother Board CPU is Intel Core i5 750 2.67GHz Video card details not to hand but probably irrelevant. I have separate OS and DATA disks, all are WD Caviar Black WD6401AALS (640GB) Intel Matrix Storage Manager Intel SATA RAID controller RAID Option ROM version 8.9.0.1023 RAID Plug In version 8.9.0.1023 System is RAID 1 (drive mirroring) All other associated functions have the same version number. System was built in March 2010 and I have now had 4 RAID incidents. First was an OS disk, replaced under warranty very early in the piece. The second several months later, was an OS disk which recovered and rebuilt itself under strange circumstances even though it had been reported as faulty by the Matrix Manager. This disk is still in use. Could be a clue?? Third was during the New Year break, another OS disk, not the same one as above and a new disk was installed. Fourth was earlier this evening, this time a Data disk. Computer runs about 12-14 hours per day and is switched off at night. We have clean power and it runs off a UPS so there are no power interruptions etc. The only comment I can make would be that all the original disks were probably from the same batch. The computer is not worked hard and the most disk activity is during boot or data back ups. Is there any other possible cause, or is this just an extraordinary run of bad luck? Cheers Billy 8-{)	Billy T (70)
1171454	2011-01-21 15:07:00	Can't help sorry. I have numerous RAID setups and have only had 1 failure due to a BIOS upgrade. When I powered up the drives were no longer recognised as belong to the RAID array. Had to re-add them which re-formatted them. I always use RAID0 however and back up to a NAS drive that had 4 x 1GB drives as a RAID5 array. I only use seagate drives as well however my latest computer which has GB drives are reported by SMART as failing in about 20 days (that was 3 months ago). Seagate say that they do not support SMART in that way and say you have to run their program and it will either be a pass or fail. I would say a run of bad luck.	veldthui (15543)
1171455	2011-01-21 17:55:00	is this just an extraordinary run of bad luck? I'd say bad luck.	pctek (84)
1171456	2011-01-22 01:40:00	Well, I've installed a new drive and rebuilt the array and all is well again. My best bet is that the four drives initially installed in the machine (and the fifth one I bought at the same time as a spare) could have all been from the same batch. That is just a guess, I have no data to support that hypothesis as I didn't record the serial numbers, but maybe they were subjected to damage during shipping? There have been three full failures and one abnormal event (a failure that recovered and spontaneously rebuilt) so something has to be behind it all. I'll take the latest remains in next week for warranty replacement. Funny though, I had a premonition of failure last week and checked the RAID health two or three times, even though the systray icon said all was well. Cheers Billy 8-{)	Billy T (70)
1171457	2011-01-22 02:09:00	What version of Intel Matrix Storage Manager is installed? It looks like this can cause probs, if its an old version. I would see if there's an update on the Intel site	Speedy Gonzales (78)
1171458	2011-01-22 03:00:00	What version of Intel Matrix Storage Manager is installed? It looks like this can cause probs, if its an old version . I would see if there's an update on the Intel site The version numbers are above in my first post Speedy, but I'm not sure I'd like to try and change versions while the system is up and running . I presume that this sort of stuff has to be done during boot or it could cock-up the whole shebang! Bear in mind I seem to have had three clear disk failures and one RAID anomally that sorted itself out of its own accord (that's the one that you looked at for me, and that disk is still in use) . I'll do a search though and see what I find . Cheers Billy 8-{)	Billy T (70)
1171459	2011-01-22 03:09:00	I read recently on here, someone saying that WD black had quite high failure rates	Agent_24 (57)
1171460	2011-01-22 03:14:00	I'll do a search though and see what I find . Well, it seems that V 8 . 9 . 0 . 1023 is suspect and is known for causing even worse problems than I have, but it also explains the spontaneous rebuild I mentioned . A beta upgrade is out, but as yet unproven, but those who have downgraded to V8 . 8 say their problems are solved . As I said, I'm not sure I'd want to try to update the driver (or in this case downgrade to to 8 . 8) for fear of stuffing it up completely . Does anybody know what is actually involve in doing this, and I assume it must be done at boot and before the OS starts to load? Cheers Billy 8-{)	Billy T (70)
1171461	2011-01-22 04:35:00	Looks like intel dont release beta drivers, but they're not WHQL certified	Speedy Gonzales (78)
1171462	2011-01-22 05:02:00	And it looks like most people go to device manager (after extracting the drivers), then go to the folder / inf file (to either update / downgrade the drivers). With no probs at all	Speedy Gonzales (78)
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