Oh dear they might have died

[JoyPadJedi]

PC just froze on me then got a BSOD. Culprit was the nvidia RAID driver. Rebooted and instead of the Windows logo screen there was nothing - just a black screen. Couldnt get into recovery console (froze on checking disk). Managed once to view the partition info in Windows setup - C: was there but it was [Unknown] - d'oh!

MBR corrupted or something? Hope so. Just cleared the array (RAID0) and I'm reinstalling Windows as I type this. So this is good news so far, the disk(s) is not freezing the system anymore.

What can cause MBR corruption? Could this be a sign of poor HDD health? Once Windows is reinstalled I want to check them, so what's the best utility for checking Raptors? They are in RAID config, so it'll either have to be DOS-based or not rely on SMART readings!

Cheers and wish me luck.

 

[JoyPadJedi]

B**ger -failed format. Hopefully one of the disks has died as it will be easier and more convenient to RMA a HDD than my MB. Disabled RAID now and managed to format one of the Raptors, will test the other one once Windows is back.

 

[JoyPadJedi]

This bizarre problem turned out to be the BIOS. Once I had got the drives working again (formatted in another PC), I cleared the CMOS and reloaded the BIOS and all was fine. Prior to this the OS would fail install due to a "non ACPI compliant MB". Crazy.