RAID problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter Andrew R. Gillett
  • Start date Start date
A

Andrew R. Gillett

I have two 160 gig SATA drives in a RAID 1 configuration.

The other day, I rebooted my PC and found that the RAID array had
somehow spontaneously been split into two, i.e. each drive had its own
array, each of which was listed as "Degraded".

One of the drives boots into Windows normally (although the first time I
got the message "Windows has recovered from a serious error"). The other
drive fails to boot, so clearly has become out of sync with the first
drive.

I've been advised to go into the RAID setup for the second disk and
choose the "Clear Disk" option, then rebuild the array based on the
contents of the first disk. Does anyone know how long this kind of thing
typically takes? When I tried it, there was no on-screen indication that
it was doing anything, and I couldn't hear any disk activity. It
remained like this for 5 hours before I gave up and reset.

The motherboard is a MSI K8N Neo2.
 
Previously Andrew R. Gillett said:
I have two 160 gig SATA drives in a RAID 1 configuration.
Click to expand...
The other day, I rebooted my PC and found that the RAID array had
somehow spontaneously been split into two, i.e. each drive had its own
array, each of which was listed as "Degraded".
Click to expand...
One of the drives boots into Windows normally (although the first time I
got the message "Windows has recovered from a serious error"). The other
drive fails to boot, so clearly has become out of sync with the first
drive.
Click to expand...
I've been advised to go into the RAID setup for the second disk and
choose the "Clear Disk" option, then rebuild the array based on the
contents of the first disk. Does anyone know how long this kind of thing
typically takes? When I tried it, there was no on-screen indication that
it was doing anything, and I couldn't hear any disk activity. It
remained like this for 5 hours before I gave up and reset.
Click to expand...

Nice software. Maybe dump this one and get something real?

Honestly, Linux software-RAID resyncs at about 20...40MB/s. On faked
and true hardware Raid I have seen rates as low as 120GB/24h
i.e. ~ 1.5MB/s.

Arno
 
Andrew said:
I have two 160 gig SATA drives in a RAID 1 configuration.

The other day, I rebooted my PC and found that the RAID array had
somehow spontaneously been split into two
Click to expand...

Let me guess... Windows 2000 software-RAID?! )8-[

I recently had a similar experience (and in some aspects, with worse
consequences); trying to boost performance on as many fronts as
possible, I created a "Program Files" directory on a RAID-0 partition
(I had to call it "RAID Program Files" on drive C).

Well, you guessed -- at some point, the mapping/mounting of the folder
to the RAID-0 volume just spontaneously and mysteriously disappeared.
I had already installed a few softwares in it, and now the machine is
unstable. I tried to do a clean slate, uninstall the programs that I
had so far, then get rid of the RAID Program Files folder, then install
again -- now the programs keep complaining about missing components --
yes, they *are* looking for components below the RAID Program Files
directory :-(

The thing is, I'm so afraid to re-install or even repair Windows; I
have no shred of evidence that I can trust it to recognize the data
partitions and do the right thing -- if it doesn't, then all my data
goes bye-bye, since it is split in two (hmmm, some HD data recovery
software *not done by Microsoft*, perhaps?)

Carlos
--
 
Arno Wagner said:
Nice software. Maybe dump this one and get something real?

Honestly, Linux software-RAID resyncs at about 20...40MB/s. On faked
and true hardware Raid I have seen rates as low as 120GB/24h
i.e. ~ 1.5MB/s.
Click to expand...


And what kind of rebuild rates do you see on top HW SCSI RAID controllers?
In W2K3 Server using W2K3's SW RAID 1(mirroring) and SATA RAPTORs on an
Intel chipset mobo ICH SATA controller, I've seen over 20MB/sec. RAID 1
build speeds. That's while the server was serving its LAN clients
effectively.
 
Previously Ron Reaugh said:
And what kind of rebuild rates do you see on top HW SCSI RAID controllers?
In W2K3 Server using W2K3's SW RAID 1(mirroring) and SATA RAPTORs on an
Intel chipset mobo ICH SATA controller, I've seen over 20MB/sec. RAID 1
build speeds. That's while the server was serving its LAN clients
effectively.
Click to expand...

This was just a warning that the rates may be very low. Our Sun
StorEdge at work rebuilds RAID5 at disk speed. I also observed pretty
low speed on an Adaptec SATA 8 disk controller for RAID5, maybe
5 MB/s or so with no additional load. The market really has the
full spectrum from increadibly slow up to whatever the disks can
handle.

Arno
 
Well Carlos, I certainly hope you have your data backed up. If not,
better get on it.

Irwin
 
Back
Top