Raid 1 'mirroring degraded;

[Harryo]

I had a freeze on my system and when I restarted there was a nVidia
raid bios message during boot-up saying that 'Mirroring was degraded'
although I could boot into Windows XP.

On checking the 'NV Raid Manager' in Windows it says that both my
250Gb hard-drives are healthy, although once again it states
'mirroring - degraded' for both drives.

My nephew set this machine up for me and it uses Raid 1 mirroring.

What do I have to do to return Raid 1 to its normal operation and
eliminate the 'mirroring degraded' problem?

Or could someone point me to a website that has step-by-step
instructions.

This happened once before and my nephew sorted it in no time, but he
never got around to telling this old fella how he did it!


Aitcho

 

[DL]

If the raid is degraded, there should be an option in the raid utility to
rebuild the mirror.
I dont use Nvidea raid but it maybe that you have to enter a key combo on
reboot to access the raid utility, if the rebuild option is unavilable with
the Raid Manager
Read the mobo manual for a deffinative answer

 

[Harryo]

Thank you for responding.

In the NV Raid Manager in Windows when I highlight either Mirroring or
the Maxtor hard drive entries the only options I have are:-

Hot Plug Array
Convert Array
Delete Array

From what I have read selecting any of the above launches a Wizard,
there is no entry to rebuild the mirror.

In all honesty I would much prefer to reinstate the raid mirroring via
the NV Raid bios when the machine is booting, with my motherboard
Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-9 I can get into the raid bios by using the F10 key
on my motherboard. Although I have no idea how to proceed in
rebuilding the mirror.

Unfortunately my motherboard only goes into detail on how to create a
'new raid array' and there is no information on how to reactivate a
'degraded mirror array'.

Cheers - Aitcho

 

[DL]

Using NVidea Raid bios, F10 on boot, you should get an Array list;
Array List
This should show you the array and its status (presumably degraded)
<Enter> for detail
Array Detail Screen
<R> to rebuild
Ctrl + X to Exit or Enter to go back

Above data from GA-K8N Ultra9 manual

 

[Harryo]

I had no problem progressing through the NVidia Raid bios settings.

In the Array List it showed the disks as ID 1 and ID 2 with ID 1 set
at Boot - YES; status for both was degraded.

Highlighted disk entry for ID 1 and hit Enter to access
Array Detail screen hit 'R' to rebuild which automatically returned me
to the Array List screen where I chose CTRL-X to exit, whereupon my
system continued booting into Windows.

Once in Windows there was no disk building activity, it would appear
that the rebuild function in the NVidia Raid bios setup does not work.

I recall trying this sometime in the past with the same result, before
my nephew sorted it, possibly he deleted the existing array and
recreated a new one whilst retaining the disk data.

Thanks once again for the suggestions will keep on checking websites
to see if I can glean any further info, although the obvious answer is
to try to get hold of my nephew!

Aitcho

 

[DL]

Often whilst the array is being rebuilt you will see no apparent disk
activity.
When I used onboard raid it was Silicon Image and when the array was being
rebuilt the only indication of this was in the raid bios screen, via a
'spinning curser' I had to continue in this screen until the rebuild had
been completed, I was then able to exit to win.
When you select the rebuild option does the detail satus change in any way?
ie is there any indication that the rebuild is in progress?
Depending on your disk size a rebuild could take up to 1 hour.

I currently use a raid card and if the raid is being rebuilt this is done in
the background and I can continue in win
without any apparent degredation/indication that it is rebuilding. (Though
my raid utility shows rebuild progress)

 

[Harryo]

Well I tried the NVidia Raid Utility program again to see if it would
rebuild the raid array without any success.

From the Array Detail screen I opted for (R) rebuild which then
automatically transferred me back to the Array List screen.

I left this screen open for well over two hours but there was no
apparent activity and at the end of it the status was still showing
'degraded'.

If this function was working I would have thought it would have
rebuilt my 236.88Gb disk within the time period I allowed.

Back to the drawing board!

Aitcho

 

[DL]

Perhaps try posting to a Gigabyte or Asus mobo ng. - I dont think the make
of your mobo is relevent, just the chipset, maybe someone their has
experience with Nvidea raid

 

[Harryo]

Hello DL,

The problem with my Raid Array has been sorted and everything is back
to normal.

After hours of searching websites I came across a forum on which a
forum member had listed a detailed sequence of how to correct a
'degraded mirror' using the program nVidia Raid Manager.


http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=564437#564437



It was only a few mouse clicks before the rebuilding commenced and in
Windows it works in the background although I did not run any programs
whilst it rebuilt the array, in all it took approximately 2hours
43minutes to complete.

Thanks again for your endeavours in assisting me.

Cheers - Aitcho

 

[DL]

Glad its OK
You have found one of the 'problems' with onboard raid
1) No facility to auto rebuild
2) No indication as to which disk is causing the problem
3) A somewhat poor err reporting facility
I'm glad to say a dedicated Raid card doesnt have such poor utilities

 

[John R Weiss]

Glad its OK
You have found one of the 'problems' with onboard raid
1) No facility to auto rebuild
2) No indication as to which disk is causing the problem
3) A somewhat poor err reporting facility
I'm glad to say a dedicated Raid card doesnt have such poor utilities

My onboard RAID controller has (1) and (2).