Forum Home
Press F1
Thread ID: 113026	2010-10-02 02:02:00	Another RAID problem!	Billy T (70)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1141030	2010-10-02 02:02:00	Hi Team My new computer has two OS disks and two data disks in RAID 1 format (mirrored). The disks are WD 640GB Caviar Black. I previously suffered a RAID disk failure and it was replaced under warranty by Computer Lounge, but I was without the computer for three days. When I collected it I bought a spare drive so that I could replace any subsequent failures myself, and just take the faulty disk back for warranty replacement. Today I had another disk failure (an OS disk as it turned out) and on Computer Lounge advice I've identified the one that is faulty by disconnecting drives in turn until the computer failed to show data or failed to boot. I took that one out and put in the new disk, but although the computer now boots OK from the known good disk, it shows the repalcement as a missing disk (Red circle with cross). Short of a lead fault, it looks to me like I've got a third faulty disk. Are there any options I've overlooked? Cheers Billy 8-{) :badpc:	Billy T (70)
1141031	2010-10-02 04:36:00	Have you rebuilt the RAID array? Have you formatted the new hard drive?	Snorkbox (15764)
1141032	2010-10-02 14:03:00	If you are using Windows software RAID it will show the disk you removed as missing, once you have inserted a new disk you need to destroy the old array (right click on the missing disk and remove it) initialize the new disk, then go to your OS disk and re-create the mirrored array.	Deimos (5715)
1141033	2010-10-03 03:43:00	With Speedy's kind assistance off Forum, all is up and running again but at this stage I'm not 100% sure why or how! I had previously identified an OS disk that would not boot (by disconnecting disks in turn until either boot failed or Data was missing) then inserted a new disk, but it was not recognised. When I picked up the computer after a previous RAID disk failure I had been assured by the computer suppliers that all I had to do was identify the disk (by the means above, but they didn't tell me that until later) insert the new disk and reboot. I then bought from them another WD 640GB disk identical to the rest to hold as a spare. Obviously it was unformatted. When I put this disk in, the RAID screen showed an X in a red circle indicating no disk present. But even after the blank disk had been formatted in another computer, I got exactly the same outcome. So I put back in the original failed disk that had been checked by Speedy and seemed to be OK, then wonder of wonders, this time it was detected and rebuilt, so now I have a fully operational system again. So, I now have to find out why the blank but formatted disk was not accepted in the same way and automatically rebuilt! It is all very confusing really, and the only good thing is that both times I've had a failure, the computer kept running normally, which was the whole object of the exercise in the first place. Comments and advice from those with RAID experience would be welcome, as would pointers to where I could buy a USB2 SATA II enclosure that I can put my spare disk in for checking. CPU Core i5 Lynnfield 2.66GHz 8MB LGA1156 MoBo is ASUS 7P55D EVO Kingston HyperX 2x2GB DDR3-1600 Sapphire ATI Radeon HD5750 512MB GDDR5 PCI-E Corsair HX650 PSU Lian-Li Lancool PC-K56B mid tower case Twin data disks in RAID 1, Twin OS Disks in RAID 1 All disks WD640AALS SATA II Cheers Billy 8-{) :help:	Billy T (70)
1141034	2010-10-03 23:01:00	Billy, are you using the hardware array controller builtin on the motherboard. Any amendments or fixes usually have to be controlled before the O/S boots out, although Intel Storage matrix has storage which can be used from within Windows but isnt the same as windows raid.... When a drive fails in RAID, you usually have to tell the raid controller to start rebuilding the array, it doesnt start automatically AFAIK	SolMiester (139)
1141035	2010-10-03 23:56:00	Billy, are you using the hardware array controller builtin on the motherboard. Any amendments or fixes usually have to be controlled before the O/S boots out, although Intel Storage matrix has storage which can be used from within Windows but isnt the same as windows raid.... When a drive fails in RAID, you usually have to tell the raid controller to start rebuilding the array, it doesnt start automatically AFAIK Pretty sure it's a software RAID and not hardware.	GreacherTech (15784)
1141036	2010-10-04 00:26:00	Pretty sure it's a software RAID and not hardware. You have to be careful in your statement of software RAID as that implies software only, and the use of the SATA controller for RAID includes both hardware and software. The hardware selects the drives, builds the array and is controlled outside of windows, BUT uses the mainboard CPU for RAID calculations where software RAID, completely windows based has been around since win 2000. You are assigning hardware RAID as only a dedicated raid Controller which has its own processor.	SolMiester (139)
1