How similar do raid disks need to be?

[Michael C]

I've got a machine with 2 drives in a raid 1 and one of the drives has
failed. I've sent off the drive and got a replacement. The faulty drive was
a maxtor 80gig 7200 rpm sata 150 "plus 9". The replacement was all the same
except it was labeled "plus 10". The system recognises the drive and sets
the raid for recovery but won't boot. When it gets to the bit where it
should say windows XP with the black screen it just has a dos style cursor
flashing in the top left corner. Do I need to get exactly the same drive?
Should I format it before installing it maybe?

Thanks,
Michael

 

[MrGrumpy]

I'm assuming its hw raid.
Does it boot with the single disk?
For raid 1 the disks do not have to be identical, but only the capacity of
the smallest will be used

 

[Michael C]

I'm assuming its hw raid.
Does it boot with the single disk?
For raid 1 the disks do not have to be identical, but only the capacity of
the smallest will be used

Yep, it's a hw raid and it's been running for a couple of weeks on 1 disk.

Michael

 

[kony]

I've got a machine with 2 drives in a raid 1 and one of the drives has
failed.

You didn't even mention what bus interface or drive (raid)
controller. My mistake, you did mention SATA below.

I've sent off the drive and got a replacement. The faulty drive was
a maxtor 80gig 7200 rpm sata 150 "plus 9". The replacement was all the same
except it was labeled "plus 10".

Try moving the original working drive to the SATA plug for
the failed one. Did the system boot to the original drive
(alone) before you added the new one?

The system recognises the drive and sets
the raid for recovery but won't boot.

It would seem obvious that this was a RAID1 array, but
confirmation is nice?

When it gets to the bit where it
should say windows XP with the black screen it just has a dos style cursor
flashing in the top left corner. Do I need to get exactly the same drive?

No. What does the RAID controller bios show? Have you set
it to be the 2nd member of that array? Reread your raid
controller documentation to be sure you have the settings
correct for rebuilding.

Should I format it before installing it maybe?

No that should not be necessary.
Are you certain the new drive is at least (not even 1 bit
smaller than) the same size? Two 80GB drives may not be
exactly same size, the new one has to be at least the exact
(not merely 80GB, that is too inaccurate) size of the
smaller of the two originals, or it could of course be
larger than either or both originals.

 

[Michael C]

Try moving the original working drive to the SATA plug for
the failed one. Did the system boot to the original drive
(alone) before you added the new one?

The system boots every time if I remove the new drive but fails to boot
every time with it in. The bios says all the right things, it recognises the
drive and says that it's going to "recover" it (I think that was the word).

It would seem obvious that this was a RAID1 array, but
confirmation is nice?

I did say raid 1 in my original post.

No. What does the RAID controller bios show? Have you set
it to be the 2nd member of that array? Reread your raid
controller documentation to be sure you have the settings
correct for rebuilding.

The bios shows the raid array as degraded without the drive. When I added it
the first time it asked if I wanted to add it to the array and I said yes.
It accepted the drive.

No that should not be necessary.
Are you certain the new drive is at least (not even 1 bit
smaller than) the same size? Two 80GB drives may not be
exactly same size, the new one has to be at least the exact
(not merely 80GB, that is too inaccurate) size of the
smaller of the two originals, or it could of course be
larger than either or both originals.

I'll have a look at that, it could be a possibility.

Is it also possible that it just pauses for a long time and I'm being too
impatient? I did leave it for a few minutes.

Michael

 

[Michael C]

No. What does the RAID controller bios show? Have you set
it to be the 2nd member of that array? Reread your raid
controller documentation to be sure you have the settings
correct for rebuilding.

One problem is the raid documentation is extremely limited, it only has a
few pages for the raid and doesn't explain how to rebuild at all.

Michael

 

[kony]

I'll have a look at that, it could be a possibility.

If it is smaller, that is definitely a potential problem.

Is it also possible that it just pauses for a long time and I'm being too
impatient? I did leave it for a few minutes.

Yes, IF the controller was immediately rebuilding the array
on the 2nd drive, it will just sit there for several
minutes- I'd expect it to be done in under an hour. I would
have expected it to inform you that it was (then, beginning
to) rebuild instead of just the blank cursor.

Does it not show drive access with the LED then, and/or at
any other time for the drives on this controller?

 

[kony]

One problem is the raid documentation is extremely limited, it only has a
few pages for the raid and doesn't explain how to rebuild at all.

What controller, as specific as possible?
Odds are there is more documentation available "somewhere",
once it's determined what to look for.

 

[Michael C]

If it is smaller, that is definitely a potential problem.

Although I suspect it would have told me so it might not be the problem.

Yes, IF the controller was immediately rebuilding the array
on the 2nd drive, it will just sit there for several
minutes- I'd expect it to be done in under an hour. I would
have expected it to inform you that it was (then, beginning
to) rebuild instead of just the blank cursor.

Does it not show drive access with the LED then, and/or at
any other time for the drives on this controller?

The raid BIOS says that it will rebuild the array in the OS so I don't think
it's doing a full rebuild but maybe it's just initialising it. I will have
to go back when I don't have so many people hassling me "Is the server
running yet. No. Is the server running yet. No...." (you get the idea

What controller, as specific as possible?
Odds are there is more documentation available "somewhere",
once it's determined what to look for.

Device manager shows it as "Intel(R) 82801FR SATA RAID Controller". The
board is a super micro P8SCi in a super micro case. The manual says the raid
controller is an intel ICH6R.

Regards,
Michael

 

[Alceryes]

Try deleting and 'rebuilding' the array again. (only other thing I could
think of)

 

[kony]

The raid BIOS says that it will rebuild the array in the OS so I don't think
it's doing a full rebuild but maybe it's just initialising it.

Don't know about ICH6R but generally that only takes a
moment to initialize, and whether it can/will rebuild pre-OS
depending on the settings, I don't know- some controllers
will do it either way.

I will have
to go back when I don't have so many people hassling me "Is the server
running yet. No. Is the server running yet. No...." (you get the idea

Since the system boots without the new drive, and stops with
it, I suspect one of the following:

1) BIOS is not set to boot to the other drive first, and/or
has a bug preventing proper operation.
2) Raid controller bios has some settting problem
3) SATA cables not seated well on drive or controller.
4) Incorrect RAID bios setting has mirrored the empty new
drive overtop of the working old one (unknown unless you can
still boot the old drive alone, then if that works obviously
it wasn't the problem).

Device manager shows it as "Intel(R) 82801FR SATA RAID Controller". The
board is a super micro P8SCi in a super micro case. The manual says the raid
controller is an intel ICH6R.

Embedded Server RAID Technology User's Guide [PDF]
ftp://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/ich6r_ide_ug.pdf

These may be applicable, though I didn't read through them.
ftp://download.intel.com/support/chipsets/iaa_raid/iaar_quick_start.pdf
http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/iaa_raid/sb/cs-009333.htm

I dont' know if the following is relevant or not,
http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/iaa_raid/sb/cs-009341.htm

Not applicable to problem, just ICH6R related doc,
performance brief, programmers reference manual, spec update
ftp://download.intel.com/design/chipsets/applnots/30264802.pdf
ftp://download.intel.com/design/chipsets/manuals/30144401.pdf
ftp://download.intel.com/design/chipsets/datashts/30147302.pdf

Maybe more stuff available via searching
http://www.intel.com