SAA Drive failure...Help pls

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mystical
  • Start date Start date
M

Mystical

Hi, what a mess! long story short, I Raid 0'd two new Maxtor 120GB
drives. About a week later whilst doing some video work a BSD appeared
and no amount of effort brough the system back to life. So i re
formated in the raid bios and made two JBODS instead...for safety!!!!!!

Again, a week later whist rendering a big video file XP reported with a
yellow exclamation mark that a possible hardware failure had resulted
and couldnt write all data to disk 1 (my D Drive).

On my computer the drive is shown as 0 bytes used, file system RAW.
If i click on the drive it reports........" D not accessible, more data
is available"

The drive is NOT listed in disk managemnt so i cant do anything to it.

My concern is that this is second failure, one for Raid 0 and now JBOD.
I cant seem to test the drive because Maxtor do not support testing with
powermax on an NVIDA nforce 4 chipset.

Is there a solution? Ive lost confidence in saving DATA to this drive
now, i suppose i could do a low level formate in raid set up on boot,
but will this fix it...this is my second go at this.

Could it be that they are getting too hot, there is only 1/2" separating
them.

Does anyone know how to test it with a third party software?

Or should i jus t send it back and wait 6 weeks for a no fault found
responce!

Thanks in advance
Martin

My system is
Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-9
Athlon 64/3000
512MB twinmoss ram
XP pro SP2
 
Mystical said:
Hi, what a mess! long story short, I Raid 0'd two new Maxtor 120GB
drives. About a week later whilst doing some video work a BSD
appeared and no amount of effort brough the system back to life. So
i re formated in the raid bios and made two JBODS instead...for
safety!!!!!!

Again, a week later whist rendering a big video file XP reported with
a yellow exclamation mark that a possible hardware failure had
resulted and couldnt write all data to disk 1 (my D Drive).

On my computer the drive is shown as 0 bytes used, file system RAW.
If i click on the drive it reports........" D not accessible, more
data is available"

The drive is NOT listed in disk managemnt so i cant do anything to it.

My concern is that this is second failure, one for Raid 0 and now
JBOD. I cant seem to test the drive because Maxtor do not support
testing with powermax on an NVIDA nforce 4 chipset.

Is there a solution? Ive lost confidence in saving DATA to this drive
now, i suppose i could do a low level formate in raid set up on boot,
but will this fix it...this is my second go at this.

Could it be that they are getting too hot,
there is only 1/2" separating them.
Click to expand...

Yes, very desirable to monitor the drive temps using the SMART data.
Does anyone know how to test it with a third party software?
Click to expand...

Yes, the SMART data is available using Everest.

Hitachi's Drive Fitness Test would be worth trying too.
Or should i jus t send it back and wait
6 weeks for a no fault found responce!
Click to expand...

I wouldnt with an intermittent fault like that.
 
Mystical said:
Hi, what a mess! long story short, I Raid 0'd two new Maxtor 120GB
drives. About a week later whilst doing some video work a BSD appeared
and no amount of effort brough the system back to life. So i re
formated in the raid bios and made two JBODS instead...for safety!!!!!!

Again, a week later whist rendering a big video file XP reported with a
yellow exclamation mark that a possible hardware failure had resulted
and couldnt write all data to disk 1 (my D Drive).

On my computer the drive is shown as 0 bytes used, file system RAW.
If i click on the drive it reports........" D not accessible, more data
is available"

The drive is NOT listed in disk managemnt so i cant do anything to it.

My concern is that this is second failure, one for Raid 0 and now JBOD.
I cant seem to test the drive because Maxtor do not support testing with
powermax on an NVIDA nforce 4 chipset.

Is there a solution? Ive lost confidence in saving DATA to this drive
now, i suppose i could do a low level formate in raid set up on boot,
but will this fix it...this is my second go at this.

Could it be that they are getting too hot, there is only 1/2" separating
them.

Does anyone know how to test it with a third party software?
Click to expand...

Try Bart's DiskTool.
http://www.nu2.nu/utils/
 
Previously Mystical said:
Hi, what a mess! long story short, I Raid 0'd two new Maxtor 120GB
drives. About a week later whilst doing some video work a BSD appeared
and no amount of effort brough the system back to life. So i re
formated in the raid bios and made two JBODS instead...for safety!!!!!!
Click to expand...
Again, a week later whist rendering a big video file XP reported with a
yellow exclamation mark that a possible hardware failure had resulted
and couldnt write all data to disk 1 (my D Drive).
Click to expand...
On my computer the drive is shown as 0 bytes used, file system RAW.
If i click on the drive it reports........" D not accessible, more data
is available"
Click to expand...
The drive is NOT listed in disk managemnt so i cant do anything to it.
Click to expand...
My concern is that this is second failure, one for Raid 0 and now JBOD.
I cant seem to test the drive because Maxtor do not support testing with
powermax on an NVIDA nforce 4 chipset.
Click to expand...
Is there a solution? Ive lost confidence in saving DATA to this drive
now, i suppose i could do a low level formate in raid set up on boot,
but will this fix it...this is my second go at this.
Click to expand...
Could it be that they are getting too hot, there is only 1/2" separating
them.
Click to expand...
Does anyone know how to test it with a third party software?
Click to expand...
Or should i jus t send it back and wait 6 weeks for a no fault found
responce!
Click to expand...

Your failure mode is consistent with overheating. I have no
experience with rendering, but if it causes a lot of disk accesses
the disks will heat up. My experience with overheating is that
the disk becomes completely unresponsive until it has cooled down
and been power-cycled. However it does come back. Other disk
problems usually leave the disk dead or badly damaged.

Advice: Get good cooling for ther HDDs now. There are fans you can
attche to the disks. There are enclosures that provide airflow. In
addition you can use SMART software to read the disk temperatures,
e.g. the smartmontools. You can also do the manual test: If the disk
is to warm to touch comfortably, it is overheated.

Don't repeat the overheating. Heat is one of the primary HDD
killers. Cool HDDs are much more reliable.

Arno
 
Hi, what a mess! long story short, I Raid 0'd two new Maxtor 120GB
drives. About a week later whilst doing some video work a BSD appeared
and no amount of effort brough the system back to life. So i re
formated in the raid bios and made two JBODS instead...for safety!!!!!!

Again, a week later whist rendering a big video file XP reported with a
yellow exclamation mark that a possible hardware failure had resulted
and couldnt write all data to disk 1 (my D Drive).

On my computer the drive is shown as 0 bytes used, file system RAW.
If i click on the drive it reports........" D not accessible, more data
is available"

The drive is NOT listed in disk managemnt so i cant do anything to it.

My concern is that this is second failure, one for Raid 0 and now JBOD.
I cant seem to test the drive because Maxtor do not support testing with
powermax on an NVIDA nforce 4 chipset.

Is there a solution? Ive lost confidence in saving DATA to this drive
now, i suppose i could do a low level formate in raid set up on boot,
but will this fix it...this is my second go at this.

Could it be that they are getting too hot, there is only 1/2" separating
them.

Does anyone know how to test it with a third party software?

Or should i jus t send it back and wait 6 weeks for a no fault found
responce!

Thanks in advance
Martin

My system is
Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-9
Athlon 64/3000
512MB twinmoss ram
XP pro SP2
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info guys, I havent taken the back off yet ,but Maxtors
power max disk diag software did pick up the SATA drives on my nforce4
chipset ( they pointed out that it wouldnt!, maybe they have updated the
software!) Anyway it took about 0.1 of a second to point out the drive
had failed and sent me off in the direction of obtaining an RMA for
return.
When i remove the drive i will check the connections and get better
cooling. Ive had Maxtor drives throughout and this is the first one
that has failed, the rest have outlived the life of the PC!
Well there is always a first!

Insidently, you'll love this, when my Raid 0 failed firstime I lost all
my data on both, a real pisser...i lost about a weeks work. So once i
was sure all was lost i slotted in Maxtors maxblast disk format utility,
id never used it before, so i though id give it a try instead of
windows, maybe the fault wouldn't happen again i thought!

Well forsome unknown reason to me when maxblast software, asked to
format, i clicked yes and this is the REAL PISSER, it formated my USB
backup drive......10 years of work down the tubes....if you have never
seen a grown man cry, well.......:((

PS i did try ontrack data recover program but 95% was gone, only rubbish
left.
The moral of the story, never leave a USB backup drive connected to your
machine when formatting..........just in case :((

Regards
Martin
 
Mystical said:
Thanks for the info guys, I havent taken the back off yet ,but Maxtors
power max disk diag software did pick up the SATA drives on my nforce4
chipset ( they pointed out that it wouldnt!, maybe they have updated
the software!) Anyway it took about 0.1 of a second to point out the
drive had failed and sent me off in the direction of obtaining an RMA
for return.
When i remove the drive i will check the connections and get better
cooling. Ive had Maxtor drives throughout and this is the first one
that has failed, the rest have outlived the life of the PC!
Well there is always a first!

Insidently, you'll love this, when my Raid 0 failed firstime I lost
all my data on both, a real pisser...i lost about a weeks work. So
once i was sure all was lost i slotted in Maxtors maxblast disk
format utility, id never used it before, so i though id give it a try
instead of windows, maybe the fault wouldn't happen again i thought!

Well forsome unknown reason to me when maxblast software, asked to
format, i clicked yes and this is the REAL PISSER, it formated my USB
backup drive......10 years of work down the tubes....if you have never
seen a grown man cry, well.......:((

PS i did try ontrack data recover program but 95% was gone, only
rubbish left.
The moral of the story, never leave a USB backup drive connected to
your machine when formatting..........just in case :((
Click to expand...

Moral of the story its to never leave the backup connected when
you attempt any recovery except copying from that backup.
 
Mystical said:
Thanks for the info guys, I havent taken the back off yet ,but Maxtors
power max disk diag software did pick up the SATA drives on my nforce4
chipset ( they pointed out that it wouldnt!, maybe they have updated the
software!) Anyway it took about 0.1 of a second to point out the drive
had failed and sent me off in the direction of obtaining an RMA for
return.
When i remove the drive i will check the connections and get better
cooling. Ive had Maxtor drives throughout and this is the first one
that has failed, the rest have outlived the life of the PC!
Well there is always a first!

Insidently, you'll love this, when my Raid 0 failed firstime I lost all
my data on both, a real pisser...i lost about a weeks work. So once i
was sure all was lost i slotted in Maxtors maxblast disk format utility,
id never used it before, so i though id give it a try instead of
windows, maybe the fault wouldn't happen again i thought!

Well forsome unknown reason to me when maxblast software, asked to
format, i clicked yes and this is the REAL PISSER, it formated my USB
backup drive......10 years of work down the tubes....if you have never
seen a grown man cry, well.......:((

PS i did try ontrack data recover program but 95% was gone, only rubbish
left.
The moral of the story, never leave a USB backup drive connected to your
machine when formatting..........just in case :((
Click to expand...

This is why you use removable media and keep some of it somewhere that you
have to drive to.
 
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