Asus A7N8X Deluxe SATA RAID0 Reliability Issues

[EdT]

This mainboard is equipped with two Maxtor 80 Gb drives in a SATA Raid 0
configuration. The mainboard is Rev. 2.0 with BIOS 1007. Running WinXP SP1
and for some reason the disks are checked for Consistency frequently when
the system is rebooted. Seems to suggest read/write errors. Anyone running
hard disks in RAID 0 on this board with success?

 

[Rob]

This mainboard is equipped with two Maxtor 80 Gb drives in a SATA Raid 0
configuration. The mainboard is Rev. 2.0 with BIOS 1007. Running WinXP SP1
and for some reason the disks are checked for Consistency frequently when
the system is rebooted. Seems to suggest read/write errors. Anyone running
hard disks in RAID 0 on this board with success?

Shouldn't be a board issue if XP is properly shutting down. Are the most
current SATARAID drivers installed? I run 2 Seagate 120G SATA drives
with no problems. I use Uber 1007 BIOS, but that shouldn't make a
difference, it uses the same SATA Firmware as the ASUS 1007. I'm using
the .32 RAID drivers from Silicon Image. I've heard there is a .40 out
but I haven't tried it. Some earlier versions didn't work right with
this board and I wouldn't use the driver on the Microsoft Update site .
If the problem is fairly easy to recreate, you might want to try
breaking the RAID0 Set up and try each drive and channel independently
to try isolating the fault.

Rob

 

[Tomg]

I agree with Rob - you should check to make sure you have the .32 version of
the SiI drivers for Win XP. I've been running 2 Maxtor 120 SATA drives in a
raid 0 array with a slightly older version of the raid bios contained in the
Asus A7N8X deluxe R2 bios version 1006 for months now without a problem.
Unfortunately, my memory did not like bios version 1007 so I have dropped
back to v1006 and it is rock solid all around.

Good luck,
Tom

 

[Pierrot]

Hi EdT
could u give me your bios conf ?
i'm trying to make run a barton 2800 on a a7n8x deluxe 512 ddr pc3200
i'm stuck at 1250 at boot, but everything i change in the bios results in a
"memory failed test" and then everything stops
2 days trying different config.. still the same
i have a thread upper..
the mobo is a rev 2.0 bios 1007

 

[Eric Hall]

I am running two SATA Western Digital Raptors in RAID 0, everything has been
rock solid so far ~2 months. Never had any disk checks or any errors
otherwise. knock on wood!

 

[Frank Wijers]

I'm also running a RAID 0 with two WD raptors 36 Gb 10k disks (SATA), and so
far, the only thing I can say about it is WOW. Amazingly fast and solid. No
problems yet whatsoever.
I'm running it on a bit newer board than mentioned in the topic (a K8V
Deluxe), but it's the same family.
Greetings,

Frank Wijers

 

[EdT]

I'm running a Barton 2500+ with two DDR PC 3200 with the following BIOS

configuration:

Under Advanced Chipset Features

CPU External Frequency 166 MHz

CPU Freq. Mult Setting AUTO

System perfomance Optimal

Memory Frequency AUTO

Resulting Frequency AUTO

xMemory Timing Optimal

SDRAM Active Precharge Delay 7

SDRAM RAS to CAS Delay 3

SDRAM RAS precharge Delay 3

SDRAM CAS Latency 2.5T

FSB Spread Spectrum .50%



All other settings are pretty much the Default settings

My system appears to be working properly other than the RAID 0 SATA problem.
I am beginning to suspect that WINXP was not shutting down properly and
corrupting some of the system files in the process.

Currently running the operating system from an IDE drive and using the SATA
RAID0 as a slave. Seems to be working OK.



Good Luck with your system. Let me know how you finally resolve the problem
you are having.

Regards

Ed T

 

[EdT]

I have the most recent version of the Silicon Image driver. (.32) I'm
begining to think there may have been some WinXP shutdown issues resulting
in corrupted operating system files. However I don't know what I can do
about the problem. Many thanks for the replies to my post.

Regards

 

[Tomg]

EdT,

Sounds like your SATA bios and drivers are ok from the info you provided.
Which version of Nvidia chipset drivers are you using? If you are using the
latest 3.13 version, did you install the Nvidia IDE driver? The Nvidia IDE
driver has been know to cause HDD & compatibility issues and lots of us have
had to fall back to the Microsoft standard XP IDE driver.

Also, just to be safe, take a look in the Device Manager and see if there
are any red or yellow items highlighting any of your devices.

Regards,
Tom

 

[Ed T]

I did a low level format of each of the Maxtor 80 Gb using the Silicon Image
untility, then setup the RAID 0 array, reinstalled everything including the
latest drivers and everything seems to be working OK. Data integrity during
read\write operations to the SATA disk seems to be OK.
Thanks for all the help.

Regards