RAID array degraded - "missing hard drive"

[markmcd]

Hi guys,

I have an Intel RAID array on my PC with 3 750Gb physical drives. I have
checked all the connections in the box and all seems well.

The error I receive is that the RAID array is degraded ("missing hard drive"
error) on port 1. Ports 0 and 2 are fine representing the other 2 drives.

This happened once before and apparently the cause was iTunes mpeg files
play havoc with RAID arrays so I've deleted anything that uses iTunes
including the application.

No matter what I do I can't get this RAID to rebuild itself. The Intel
software gives me no options to change anything ("No actions availabe").

The PC is constantly churning without any instruction for it to do something
and the performance is woeful despite being a Core 2 Quad processor, 4Gb
memory- would this be due to the degraded array?

Also on a separate note, my D drive has disappeared - this is the DVD
player. I checked the connections on that and they seemed fine also.
Wondering if this is somehow related.

Any ideas - I"m new to arrays

 

[markmcd]

When this problem happened before, I sent the PC back to the vendor for
warranty attention. You may suggest doing this again although I hesitate
because I'm in Melbourne, support given in Sydney, couriers involved etc -
it's not worth the trouble.They fixed it and confirmed that the hard drive
was not faulty and believed them because the RAID volume was fine with all 3
discs identified. Now that it's happened again, I'm just about pulling my
hair out. I've never dealt with RAID technology before and given the grief it
is causing, I fail to see the advantage it offers.

 

[markmcd]

Is there any possibility of it being anything else other than replacing the
hard drive. If I do replace the hard drive, do they all have to be the same
size or can I go more. Thinking of a 1 Tb HDD (Seagate) and have 750Gb HDD x
2. Can this arrangement of 3 drives work in an array.

 

[DL]

You fail to mention the type of raid array, ie mirror, stripped or? which is
kinda important when replacing a drive, ie in some types of array only the
size of the smallest HD is utilised, so adding a larger disk the excess
capacity isnt used/visible to win

Its also possible that a degraded/iffy pwr supply can cause array/hd
problems.
Personnally I have some reservations regarding on board raid, you only have
to check the price for a dedicated hardware raid card and find that they
cost in the order of 3 times as much of a motherboard with onboard raid