Checking RAID drives

[Colonel Blip]

Hello, All!

On a related matter to the discussion underway regarding problems I am
having with a possible imminent drive failure for one of my RAID0 array
drives, question. I need to find out which is acting up. I can boot windows
on a non-RAID drive and see the RAID drive. The two are SATA drives off of a
m/b raid controller. If I simply unhook one of the physical drives should I
expect to be able to see the other one to check it out without destroying
data on it? My system is WinXP Pro.

Thanks,
Colonel Blip.
E-mail: (e-mail address removed)

 

[Peter]

Hello, All!

On a related matter to the discussion underway regarding problems I am
having with a possible imminent drive failure for one of my RAID0 array
drives, question. I need to find out which is acting up. I can boot windows
on a non-RAID drive and see the RAID drive. The two are SATA drives off of a
m/b raid controller. If I simply unhook one of the physical drives should I
expect to be able to see the other one to check it out without destroying
data on it? My system is WinXP Pro.

First backup your data, then do whatever you want with RAID.
That is my advise.

 

[Arno Wagner]

Hello, All!

On a related matter to the discussion underway regarding problems I am
having with a possible imminent drive failure for one of my RAID0 array
drives, question. I need to find out which is acting up. I can boot windows
on a non-RAID drive and see the RAID drive. The two are SATA drives off of a
m/b raid controller. If I simply unhook one of the physical drives should I
expect to be able to see the other one to check it out without destroying
data on it? My system is WinXP Pro.

Actually you should check the disks with a regular IDE controller.
It is quite possible that the RAID controller screws up the SMART
readings.

My advice would be to use a Knoppix CD to boot and to have only
one of the disks in the system (connected to the regular IDE) while
doing that. Knoppix is careful to not write anything to disk unless
the user first does a r/w remount.

I am not sure what XP does if it finds a disk it thinks it can access.

And and the first response posting sais, I agree that doing a backup
beforehand is a very good idea.

Arno

 

[Colonel Blip]

Hello, Arno!
You wrote on 25 Feb 2006 06:37:23 GMT:

??>> Hello, All!
AW> Actually you should check the disks with a regular IDE controller.
AW> It is quite possible that the RAID controller screws up the SMART
AW> readings.

This is the part I can't do with IDE - these are SATA drives, so the
connectors won't mate with IDE.

Thanks,

Colonel Blip.
E-mail: (e-mail address removed)

 

[Arno Wagner]

Hello, Arno!
You wrote on 25 Feb 2006 06:37:23 GMT:

??>> Hello, All!
AW> Actually you should check the disks with a regular IDE controller.
AW> It is quite possible that the RAID controller screws up the SMART
AW> readings.

This is the part I can't do with IDE - these are SATA drives, so the
connectors won't mate with IDE.

Ooops, sorry. Try it with a regular SATA controller then.

Knoppix will likely not work, since Linux supports SMART
for SATA only since Kernel 2.6.15, which is pretty
recent. The latest Knoppix only runs 2.6.12, I think.

If you have backup, you should be able to get the SMART data
with XP. XP may write to your disk though, even if only some
bits.

Arno

 

[Colonel Blip]

Hello, Arno!
You wrote on 25 Feb 2006 16:43:24 GMT:

I just bit the bullet and disconnected one drive and rebooted. Bios message
gave me 3 choices; power down and fix the drive; destroy the array; or
contiue booting. I chose the latter. However, one can not see the drive when
that choice is made.

As it turns out there is a Via Raid tool that comes with the motherboard so
I installed and ran it. It shows one drive in danger of losing data and
which drive in the array so I least I know the culprit in this case.

Since I keep good backups and may just let it run to failure and then go to
warranty repair if it lasts less than warranty time.

Thanks,

Colonel Blip.
E-mail: (e-mail address removed)

??>> Hello, Arno!
AW> Ooops, sorry. Try it with a regular SATA controller then.

AW> Knoppix will likely not work, since Linux supports SMART
AW> for SATA only since Kernel 2.6.15, which is pretty
AW> recent. The latest Knoppix only runs 2.6.12, I think.

AW> If you have backup, you should be able to get the SMART data
AW> with XP. XP may write to your disk though, even if only some
AW> bits.

AW> Arno

 

[Arno Wagner]

Hello, Arno!
You wrote on 25 Feb 2006 16:43:24 GMT:

I just bit the bullet and disconnected one drive and rebooted. Bios message
gave me 3 choices; power down and fix the drive; destroy the array; or
contiue booting. I chose the latter. However, one can not see the drive when
that choice is made.

Urgh! That sort of removes the main reason to run RAID: Uptime.

As it turns out there is a Via Raid tool that comes with the motherboard so
I installed and ran it. It shows one drive in danger of losing data and
which drive in the array so I least I know the culprit in this case.
Good.

Since I keep good backups and may just let it run to failure and then go to
warranty repair if it lasts less than warranty time.

With good backups that certainly is an option.

Thanks,

No problem.

Arno

Colonel Blip.
E-mail: (e-mail address removed)

??>> Hello, Arno!
AW> Ooops, sorry. Try it with a regular SATA controller then.

AW> Knoppix will likely not work, since Linux supports SMART
AW> for SATA only since Kernel 2.6.15, which is pretty
AW> recent. The latest Knoppix only runs 2.6.12, I think.