Bad sectors found on a RAID 0 two HD array, what to do?

[someone92]

After a good shutdown, my computer didn't work the next day. Win2k was
crashing (locking) when I tried to start it (even in safe mode). On
the next boots I noticed that scandisk wasn't able to scan one of my
partitions (scanning forever at 66%). So I figured that the problem
was a bad sector on one of my 2 HDs on my RAID 0 array. I tried DOS's
scandisk, Partition magic's check for error with the same result, they
were not able to scan the HD. (partition magic returned a #50 read
fault error). So I tried Ranish partition manager to verify (V option)
the drives and found that it was unable to continue scanning the
drives at
Cylinder 12509 head 1 sector 1

I had to get my system working again I soon as I could so before
trying to Low level format the faulty drive or any other bad sector
scans I just used partition magic to resize the partition and stop
using cylinder 12509 head 1 sector 1 (I left it unallocated). And
restored my backups

My questions are:

Does my problem really is a bad sector one of the drives?

Is it normal? I got them both 1 month ago, should I return the faulty
drive or wait to see if I constantly find new bad sectors?

Will I be able to scan the drives for errors in my RAID setup and tag
the sector as faulty (to retreive a perfect drive) or will I need to
scan the drives one by one on a standard EIDE interface? If I do so,
will I loose all my data and partition/RAID setup.

My drives are 2 Western digital WD1200JB 120Gig IDE drives.
They are supposed to be very reliable aren't they ?

I found 2 interesting products on the web to scan my drives:
spinrite 5.0
DIY datarecovery's HD Workbench 1.0

Wich one should I use? Got any other suggestions? Is there a product
that could support RAID?

Should I use Western Digital's own LLF and scanning tools?


Here's my RAID 0 setup
ABIT KT7A-RAID motherboard
2 WD1200JB installed as RAID 0

Thanks in advance

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

After a good shutdown, my computer didn't work the next day. Win2k was
crashing (locking) when I tried to start it (even in safe mode). On
the next boots I noticed that scandisk wasn't able to scan one of my
partitions (scanning forever at 66%). So I figured that the problem
was a bad sector on one of my 2 HDs on my RAID 0 array. I tried DOS's
scandisk, Partition magic's check for error with the same result, they
were not able to scan the HD. (partition magic returned a #50 read
fault error). So I tried Ranish partition manager to verify (V option)
the drives and found that it was unable to continue scanning the
drives at
Cylinder 12509 head 1 sector 1

I had to get my system working again I soon as I could so before
trying to Low level format the faulty drive or any other bad sector
scans I just used partition magic to resize the partition and stop
using cylinder 12509 head 1 sector 1 (I left it unallocated). And
restored my backups

My questions are:

Does my problem really is a bad sector one of the drives?

Very likely.

Is it normal? I got them both 1 month ago, should I return the faulty
drive or wait to see if I constantly find new bad sectors?

Your power supply OK?

Will I be able to scan the drives for errors in my RAID setup and tag
the sector as faulty (to retreive a perfect drive)

Not sure but try FindBad. www.partitionsupport.com

or will I need to scan the drives one by one on a standard EIDE interface?

Depends on whether the RAID obscures the individual physical drives
and/or Findbad refuses to run on the RAID.

If I do so, will I loose all my data and partition/RAID setup.

Not with FindBad unless this bad sector happens to hold crucial data.

My drives are 2 Western digital WD1200JB 120Gig IDE drives.
They are supposed to be very reliable aren't they ?

I found 2 interesting products on the web to scan my drives:
spinrite 5.0
DIY datarecovery's HD Workbench 1.0

A waste of money for a simple bad sector.

Wich one should I use?
Neither.

Got any other suggestions? Is there a product that could support RAID?

Try FindBad and find out.

Should I use Western Digital's own LLF and scanning tools?

Preferably if your data is of no concern and you want to know if there is
reason for warranty return.

Otherwise, anything that is able to overwrite a bad sector is equally fine.
Using a secure delete on a file that the sector is in will already do the job.
Overwriting the sector with a sector editor, etc., anything.

 

[someone92]

After repartioning my HD and stop using the bad sector area. I've
reinstalled my system yesterday using my backups. Everything was
working fine, until I tried to open my computer this morning. The same
problem as yesterday, windows would no load and I found 2 more bad
sectors using Ranish Partition Manager.

But what I found out is that if I let Ranish or DOS scandisk go one it
finally continue the scanning and find the bad sectors (add it to the
bad sectors list too). So using them I can repair my system.

I really begin to think I should return the faulty drive. Could it be
because of my RAID setup and be cause by the ABIT KT7A RAID
controller.

I didn't test the 2 drives individually yet to see wich one of them is
broken (or are they both containing bad sectors)

What do you think is the best solution is it to return the faulty
drive?

Could it be caused by a virus (AVG do not detect any). My system
backups dates from last week and I didn't have any problems at that
point. But the virus could be installed in the MBR.

One strange thing I have noticed is that it's always the same
partition who gets bad sectors. All my 6 other partitions are ok. It's
the one I have installed all softwares (I have a partition for WIN2K's
system files and one for the programs). The rest of the drive do not
develops bad sectors.

Thanks in advance

 

[Will Dormann]

I really begin to think I should return the faulty drive. Could it be
because of my RAID setup and be cause by the ABIT KT7A RAID
controller.

How are the drives mounted in your case? If they are sandwiched one on
top of another, that makes a nice little oven to assure premature
failure. (Unless perhaps you have a fan blowing directly on/through them)

I didn't test the 2 drives individually yet to see wich one of them is
broken (or are they both containing bad sectors)

It might be a good idea to test them individually.

What do you think is the best solution is it to return the faulty
drive?

If it's under warranty, why not?

Could it be caused by a virus (AVG do not detect any).

No, not really.


-WD

 

[none]

How are the drives mounted in your case? If they are sandwiched one on
top of another, that makes a nice little oven to assure premature
failure. (Unless perhaps you have a fan blowing directly on/through them)

Yes they are mounted one on top of another, but with empty bay between
them. I knew it could get very hot so a fan is blowing directly through
them. But the fan was off at the time of the first failure (I was tired of
the noise of my 5 fans so I turned off 3 of them). It was working very well
this way since I turned them of 2 or 3 weeks ago. And They were turned off
last year for many months when I was using fujtsu hard drives without any
problems. Now they are western digital HDs. At the time of the second
failure (the next day) all the fans were in operation (I thought it could
have cause the problem). You think even with an empty bay between them the
temp could cause the drive to fail without a fan blowing at them? The
temperature condition where I live were not too high this week (about
20C,68F) but with a little bit of humidity. But I've seen a lot worst (and
for a long time my system was overclocked).

 

[none]

Oh, by the way, can a CPU overheat cause HD problems like bad sectors?
My CPU is currently at 59C. It's an Athlon XP 1800+ (using the original
cooler). I have 3 fans, plus the CPU fan, a chip motherboard fan, and 2
fans in my Enermax power supply. Usualy I get 48-55C. Is the 59C I see
today is too high for this CPU? (but right now I'm running An antivirus
scanning my HDs and downloading a lot of files). Yesterday when I checked
my CPU temp it was about 54-55C.

in responce to a question ask my power supplu is a good one, an enermax
460W power supply.

 

[Will Dormann]

On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 23:52:27 -0400, Will Dormann wrote:

Yes they are mounted one on top of another, but with empty bay between
them. I knew it could get very hot so a fan is blowing directly through
them.

When I said "sandwiched", I was sort of implying that the drives were
nearly touching. But that's not the case with you, which is good. As
for whether the fan is necessary or not, you'll have to check the temps.

If the drives are hung off of a RAID controller, I don't know of any way
to check the temperature via SMART. Another thing to consider is that
the drive manufacturer is Western Digital. I'm not sure if they have
changed their policy, but traditionally their drives have not had
onboard temperature monitors. Under 45C is a reasonable target for
hard drives.

If your fans are too loud, replace them with quieter ones, like the PC
Power & Cooling silencer.
http://pcpowercooling.com/products/cooling/silencerfan/index.htm



-WD

 

[Will Dormann]

Oh, by the way, can a CPU overheat cause HD problems like bad sectors?
My CPU is currently at 59C. It's an Athlon XP 1800+

Very unlikely. Your CPU temp isn't much to worry about, unless you are
experiencing stability problems like BSODs or spontaneous reboots. I
have an 1800+ CPU and depending on ambient temperature and load it can
get up to 70C without any stability issues.

in responce to a question ask my power supplu is a good one, an enermax
460W power supply.

I've got one of those too. They are highly recommended.


-WD

 

[J. Clarke]

Oh, by the way, can a CPU overheat cause HD problems like bad sectors?
My CPU is currently at 59C. It's an Athlon XP 1800+ (using the original
cooler). I have 3 fans, plus the CPU fan, a chip motherboard fan, and 2
fans in my Enermax power supply. Usualy I get 48-55C. Is the 59C I see
today is too high for this CPU? (but right now I'm running An antivirus
scanning my HDs and downloading a lot of files). Yesterday when I checked
my CPU temp it was about 54-55C.

60C is fine for an Athlon--they can handle much higher temperatures than
that but 60 is a good target--allows for inaccuracy in the sensors and
gives some headroom in case something goes wrong with the cooling.

in responce to a question ask my power supplu is a good one, an enermax
460W power supply.

Is it working properly though? Power supplies sometimes break in a manner
that causes the voltages to go out of spec intermittently--I've seen power
supplies drop all the voltages 20% for five minutes and then come back to
normal, and I've seen that happen with several brands, including Antec and
Enermax. When that happens I also usually see disk trouble. It was just
dumb luck that I was watching the voltages once when it happened--after
that I knew to look for it. In each case replacing the power supply made
the trouble go away.