Raid drive dead, now what?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Michael C
  • Start date Start date
M

Michael C

I'm using 4 drives in a raid 1 config (2 for the OS and 2 for data) and one
of the drives is already dead. I removed it and the machine is still running
fine. I'm sending the drive off for RA and should have a replacement soon.
What do I do when I get the new drive, just shove it back in? Or do I need
to format it first or do anything else with it?

BTW, I noticed something interesting about raid, although it's more reliable
there is now 4 times the chance that a drive will fail.

Michael
 
Michael C said:
I'm using 4 drives in a raid 1 config (2 for the OS and 2 for data) and
one of the drives is already dead. I removed it and the machine is still
running fine. I'm sending the drive off for RA and should have a
replacement soon. What do I do when I get the new drive, just shove it
back in? Or do I need to format it first or do anything else with it?

BTW, I noticed something interesting about raid, although it's more
reliable there is now 4 times the chance that a drive will fail.

Michael
Click to expand...

Yea, just attach the new drive where the old one was, go into the raid
controller menu on boot up and recreate the array. It should they copy all
the contents from the one good drive back onto the new one. Depending on the
controller it may boot into the raid config. page and do the mirror
semi-automatically (just asking for your OK to do it).
 
Alceryes said:
Yea, just attach the new drive where the old one was, go into the raid
controller menu on boot up and recreate the array. It should they copy all
the contents from the one good drive back onto the new one. Depending on
the controller it may boot into the raid config. page and do the mirror
semi-automatically (just asking for your OK to do it).
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. Does that mean it's not possible to do it while the
machine is running? Shutting it down is no problem I'm just curious.

Michael
 
Thanks for the reply. Does that mean it's not possible to do it while the
machine is running? Shutting it down is no problem I'm just curious.

Michael
Click to expand...

That depends on what your controller supports. Read the
documentation that came with it. If the machine doesn't
"need" to stay up, there is no good reason to not turn it
off, first.
 
Michael C said:
I'm using 4 drives in a raid 1 config (2 for the OS and 2 for data) and
one of the drives is already dead. I removed it and the machine is still
running fine. I'm sending the drive off for RA and should have a
replacement soon. What do I do when I get the new drive, just shove it
back in? Or do I need to format it first or do anything else with it?

BTW, I noticed something interesting about raid, although it's more
reliable there is now 4 times the chance that a drive will fail.
Click to expand...

I contacted the motherboard supplier, Super Micro and they said I'm meant to
insert the new drive *while* windows is booting! Then use the windows
software to rebuild the array. Would be good if it said that in the manual
:-) I won't get to try it out for the next couple of days.

Michael
 
I contacted the motherboard supplier, Super Micro and they said I'm meant to
insert the new drive *while* windows is booting! Then use the windows
software to rebuild the array. Would be good if it said that in the manual
:-) I won't get to try it out for the next couple of days.
Click to expand...

They have misinterpreted something then, there should not be
a need to plug in a drive while system is booting. However
they are correct that typically once the drive is connected
and system has booted, use of the controller management
software is a good way to rebuild the array onto the spare
drive.
 
kony said:
They have misinterpreted something then, there should not be
a need to plug in a drive while system is booting.
Click to expand...

You wouldn't think so, the bios reports that I'm doing everything right. It
asks if I want to rebuild and I say yes, it then says it will be rebuilt in
the OS. But this is what they wrote:

Michael,

You must have the Intel Management Raid Application utility
install. Remove the new replacement drive and power on to see it
bootable with one drive. If yes then try to insert the new replacement
drive before Windows bring up desktop screen.

After Windows OS complete boot-up into the OS and run Intel Management
raid application and follow the instruction how to rebuilt the raid.

Thank you,
DL
 
You wouldn't think so, the bios reports that I'm doing everything right. It
asks if I want to rebuild and I say yes, it then says it will be rebuilt in
the OS. But this is what they wrote:

Michael,

You must have the Intel Management Raid Application utility
install. Remove the new replacement drive and power on to see it
bootable with one drive. If yes then try to insert the new replacement
drive before Windows bring up desktop screen.

After Windows OS complete boot-up into the OS and run Intel Management
raid application and follow the instruction how to rebuilt the raid.

Thank you,
DL
Click to expand...


Seems a little buggy to me.
If that works, it should likewise work to simply install the
drive with system off, _not_ choose to rebuild the array in
the raid bios config screen, boot to the desktop and
similarly use the management SW to rebuild it.

You might check in occasionally for a bios update for your
board, I'd think IF this is a real issue they'd be looking
at fixing it ASAP.
 
I'd try all other options before inserting a drive while the system is
powered on, whether just booting or fully running. At the very least,
the BIOS might not recognize it, at worst you run the risk of zapping
components.
 
Bennett Price said:
I'd try all other options before inserting a drive while the system is
powered on, whether just booting or fully running. At the very least, the
BIOS might not recognize it, at worst you run the risk of zapping
components.
Click to expand...

It's meant to be hot swappable so there should be no problem. I already
tried inserting it after it's booted which didn't cause any problems (it
didn't fix anything either though :-)

Michael
 
It's meant to be hot swappable so there should be no problem. I already
tried inserting it after it's booted which didn't cause any problems (it
didn't fix anything either though :-)
Click to expand...


What does "didn't fix" mean?

After swapping it in, the management interface still can't
rebuild onto it?
 
kony said:
What does "didn't fix" mean?

After swapping it in, the management interface still can't
rebuild onto it?
Click to expand...

It doesn't even see it as being there. I guess it looks for the drives when
windows starts.

Michael
 
kony said:
Seems a little buggy to me.
If that works, it should likewise work to simply install the
drive with system off, _not_ choose to rebuild the array in
the raid bios config screen, boot to the desktop and
similarly use the management SW to rebuild it.

You might check in occasionally for a bios update for your
board, I'd think IF this is a real issue they'd be looking
at fixing it ASAP.
Click to expand...

I agree, it sounds dodgy. I'll try it on wednesday and let you know how I
go.

Michael
 
SCSI? SATA? IDE? You mentioned your MB (Supermicro), but that is
all we know.

Am I to assume this is an IDE drive? If so, I wouldn't hot swap it.


I'm not up to speed on SATA so I can't speak to that, and SCSI would
allow hot swapping in most (all?) situations IIRC.

In my IDE experience, you replaced the
drive (power off), booted into the RAID BIOS and rebuilt the mirror
(RAID 1 array) from there.

Now the only question I [u:4d8cbc6830]can't[/u:4d8cbc6830] answer
would be does the new drive need to be formatted before the mirror
can be rebuilt in the BIOS (I have never done this on an unformatted
drive). If that is the case, then an initial boot into windows would
do the trick. Format the new drive within windows like the drive it
is to mirror (I would assume NTFS), then reboot and create the mirror
in the raid bios mentioned above.

One other thing. Could the instructions be a poor translation from
Chinese (or another language)? I have seen where a "literal"
translation butchered the real intent, leaving a sloppy set of
instructions to follow....

Good luck

SG257
 
In my IDE experience, you replaced the
drive (power off), booted into the RAID BIOS and rebuilt the mirror
(RAID 1 array) from there.
Click to expand...

While that is true, it is also common for IDE et al to
support hot-swapping too, though with IDE it may require
having no other devices on that channel the spare is being
added to.
Now the only question I [u:4d8cbc6830]can't[/u:4d8cbc6830] answer
would be does the new drive need to be formatted before the mirror
can be rebuilt in the BIOS (I have never done this on an unformatted
drive).
Click to expand...

No, it does not begin writing files and thus, has no need
for a pre-existing filesystem
 
kony said:
What does "didn't fix" mean?

After swapping it in, the management interface still can't
rebuild onto it?
Click to expand...

I found a solution. I inserted it while windows was booting as Super Micro
said but it didn't work. The windows software still didn't see the drive. I
went into device manager and clicked search for hardware and it found it and
started rebuilding it. Weird, I didn't think doing that would find an IDE
drive that's wasn't there from the start.

Michael
 
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