RAID Array Failure :(

[TW]Fox · 21 Mar 2011 at 19:49

Joy.

Back in Windows, all working - moved to another SATA port. RAID bios still reports an error on one drive, and the Intel storage manager still reports that one drive has failed.

Not sure what to do at the moment, as I cannot get the diagnostic tools to work.

peterattheboro · 21 Mar 2011 at 20:17

Not related to this is it?

I have the same motherboard and have yet to have a fault.

- Potential Sandybridge issue:
- In some cases, motherboards featuring the 6 Series Chipset (P67 & H67) that have Sata devices connected to ports 2-5 could potentially degrade over time.
- Motherboards with devices connected to Ports 0 & 1 remain unaffected or using the 6Gb/s ports.
- Please note if your board is affected by the above issues, your statutory rights remain to RMA the board.
- Tests have found that under 5% of boards are affected.
- PLEASE NOTE THERE IS NO POTENTIAL ISSUE TO SANDYBRIDGE PROCESSORS

[TW]Fox · 21 Mar 2011 at 20:23

I was initially connected to Ports 0 and 1..

death_looms · 21 Mar 2011 at 23:57

Funny, had a similar thing happen to me on Sunday, I have 2 1tb WD blacks in a matrix raid (both raid 0 and 1 over 2 disks), and had a drive failure on one. My best guess is the RAID metadata was somehow corrupted, as removing the drive from RAID and re-adding it, and it seems fine to me now (ant the RAID 1 rebuilt with no issues).

Oh, and the WD tools don't seem to like working on a raid array (at least the windows based ones), like other tools out there.

Stonedofmoo · 22 Mar 2011 at 07:52

rjkoneill said:
i gave up on raid 0 a long time ago on mech drives.

I've been using RAID 0 arrays since RAID controllers were made standard on motherboards and never had a failure yet. The difference is I've always used WD Raptor drives followed by VRaptor drives. For me these have been so good I've never had a single failure.

RAID 0 in itself isn't an issue, but it helps to pair it with enterprise class drives.

Regarding your drive failure Fox, I send a lot of drives back to WD where I work and you often get a different drive back from what you send them. Sometimes bigger than what you had before, it seems to be pot luck. Don't assume you'll get a identical replacement back

iTek · 22 Mar 2011 at 08:33

I had a similar problem the other week using 2x WD Blues in Raid 0 Array, it happened twice, but I just used the WD tool that said my drivers are fine then dismissed the alert using the Matrix Controller Software, needless to say its been fine since but for safety i've backed up some of my files in case one of the drives does develop a mechanical fault.

ubersonic · 22 Mar 2011 at 11:46

It could be an intermittent fault with that drive? sometimes it initializes sometimes it doesn't? if it is WD are usually very good with replacements. It may be an idea to revert your CPU to its stock speeds and see if that makes any difference.

tommytinkle · 23 Mar 2011 at 23:45

[TW]Fox;18719961 said:
I was initially connected to Ports 0 and 1..

Hey fox,

I had the same as you either failed or needed to verify itself. Sent my board back for refund, back to p55 and no problems since!

agw_01 · 24 Mar 2011 at 00:06

paradigm said:
Just FYI, it might not be the drives at all.

I suffered the occasional RAID issue with my old P5K Deluxe. I was using 2 Hitachi 250gb SATA HDDs in RAID0 and every 6 months or so, it'd throw up an error.

Only once did it completely fail to boot though. On other occasions I'd receive a message after POST stating that one of the drives had failed, but once past that it would boot and work absolutely fine. It proceeded to work fine for another 2 months before I got fed up and rebuilt the array anyway.

Both drives are now working faultlessly as single drives in other machines. Are you overclocking at all Fox? Tried to go back to default settings?

ubersonic · 24 Mar 2011 at 08:08

agw_01 said:
Are you overclocking at all Fox? Tried to go back to default settings?

I said that before, as his sig shows a 4.5ghz i5 id assume its either overclocked or some super secret prototype hes got his hands on

[TW]Fox · 4 May 2011 at 08:48

Well, I thought I'd seen the back of this. After getting into Windows some 6 weeks ago and resetting the array status, everything was fine.

This morning I was confronted with a blank screen. Hit reset - and the problem is back. Exactly the same as before - 'Error Occured'. I did manage to almost boot Windows - once - but it hung and then BSOD'd on the splash screen.

I am guessing this is a drive failure rather than a controller issue?

I wonder why it went away for 6 weeks then came back?

CaptainRAVE · 4 May 2011 at 09:01

Sounds like a drive failure to me. That sucks

- always the risk of raid 0 unfortunately.

Edit: If you hold your ear close to the drives, can you hear anything abnormal from either?

Admiral Huddy · 4 May 2011 at 09:10

RAID 0 problems are a curse and I've had problems running WD diag on raid set-ups. Try setting the the disk controller in the BIOS to JBODs rather than RAID so they work independently, then make sure only one drive is physically connected at a time.. Re-try the WD diagnostics tool. Repeat for other disk.

If the error occurs on both HDDs, then try another known working one if you can.. it maybe a faulty drive or RAID controller which I've had a number of RAID machines brought to me.. Personally, RAID offers nothing for for desktop user.

[TW]Fox · 4 May 2011 at 18:36

I've now tested both drives using the WD Quicktest and they both came up as fine. Just before I disabled the array it had started reporting Unknown Error(0) on BOTH drives!

I'm now installing Windows onto a single drive...