Raid0 imminent failure

[Ken]

During boot, instead of the 2 Raid drives reading 'member disk' in green,
one read 'Error Occurred in red. Windows loaded normally but a new icon
appeared in the tray reading:
RAID volume errors
Some data requests to a hard drive in a RAID0 volume failed but a backup may
be possible. please try to back up data immediately'.

I've spent the last couple of hours backing up everything in sight. But the
strange thing to my mind is that both drives are whisper quiet. The only
drive I've ever had fail in the past screeched and rattled quite a bit
before finally packing in but these two sound fine.

Is the message I've had always a warning of imminent drive failure or might
it be a failure of the RAID array of some sort? Can arrays ever become
corrupted? Do drives usually protest loudly before going or is the lack of
any noise common?

Regards,

Ken

 

[Shenan Stanley]

During boot, instead of the 2 Raid drives reading 'member disk' in
green, one read 'Error Occurred in red. Windows loaded normally
but a new icon appeared in the tray reading:
RAID volume errors
Some data requests to a hard drive in a RAID0 volume failed but a
backup may be possible. please try to back up data immediately'.

I've spent the last couple of hours backing up everything in sight.
But the strange thing to my mind is that both drives are whisper
quiet. The only drive I've ever had fail in the past screeched and
rattled quite a bit before finally packing in but these two sound
fine.
Is the message I've had always a warning of imminent drive failure
or might it be a failure of the RAID array of some sort? Can
arrays ever become corrupted? Do drives usually protest loudly
before going or is the lack of any noise common?

Drive failures do not occur just because the moving parts fail (albeit more
common.) In your case - you have a few suspects that would never make a
sound (unless they 'blew up in a puff of smoke' or you have REALLY good
hearing.)

- The hard disk drive circuit board.
- The hard disk drive controller arm motor could be intermittently failing
to move.
- The RAID controller card you utilize could be failing.
- The cables connecting the drives could be failing.
- The power supply for the computer/etc could be failing.

So - you are doing the wise thing by doing an extra backup (hopefully it is
extra and you have a schedule you follow usually for backups - especially
while using RAID 0 - a non-redundant array.) After that - download and
utilize the hard disk drive manufacturer's diagnostics utilities to
thoroughly test the hard disk drives. If everything passes - I suggest a
low-level format followed by a rebuilding of the array and then putting data
back on it - and then upping the schedule of your backups.

 

[Paul]

During boot, instead of the 2 Raid drives reading 'member disk' in green,
one read 'Error Occurred in red. Windows loaded normally but a new icon
appeared in the tray reading:
RAID volume errors
Some data requests to a hard drive in a RAID0 volume failed but a backup may
be possible. please try to back up data immediately'.

I've spent the last couple of hours backing up everything in sight. But the
strange thing to my mind is that both drives are whisper quiet. The only
drive I've ever had fail in the past screeched and rattled quite a bit
before finally packing in but these two sound fine.

Is the message I've had always a warning of imminent drive failure or might
it be a failure of the RAID array of some sort? Can arrays ever become
corrupted? Do drives usually protest loudly before going or is the lack of
any noise common?

Regards,

Ken

You can download a diagnostic program from the drive manufacturer's site.
It won't go into details as to what is broken, but the program is free.

Drives have SMART parameters, which is a way of tracking the performance
aspects of a disk. SMART was invented with the idea of aiding in the
prediction of failing drives. But in your case, it sounds like an
actual attempted operation failed to work 100%, as otherwise the
software might have mentioned SMART, if that is what it used to detect
a problem.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Monitoring,_Analysis,_and_Reporting_Technology
http://labs.google.com/papers/disk_failures.pdf (Google study on drive failures)

Drives can fail silently, and without warning. One failure mechanism
I've read of, involves a data structure overflow in the firmware
of the drive controller, which prevents further operation of the
firmware. Another popular one, was the motor IC burning out on the
controller board, because the motor IC never functioned correctly.
An improved IC apparently operated at a lower temperature. So
the failures don't have to be inside the HDA, to kill the drive.

Paul

 

[DL]

A drive can fail at anytime, including being DOA
Noise whilst being a common indicator, is not a prerequisite for failure.
A raid controler can fail & a raid array can, for want of a better word,
become corrupted, particularly using onboard or low end raid cards.
A iffy psu can cause hd / raid problems
A high end raid card costs $300us +

 

[Andrew E.]

Actually a hd testing utility "will" tell you just about all info,the trick
is
to use the MS-DOS utility,not windows utility,plus get from hd mfg only..
However,in youre case,check the hd connections (99% its the cause),try
diffrent
cables or switch them,SATA cables are usually junk unless the have mfg
name printed on them.Also,on pc start,tap the keyboard key to enter RAID
configuration utility,see whats going on.....

 

[Ken]

download and utilize the hard disk drive manufacturer's diagnostics
utilities to
thoroughly test the hard disk drives.

Did that - in Dos, choosing both basic and advanced tests - and both were
run successfully on both drives. Presumably any errors would have been
reported and identified in detail?

It is an onboard controller.

Strangely, although the boot warning shows every time, the tray icon
disappeared for several boots a day or so ago. It's back there now.

Have switched all the cables around. They all have 'name' brands stamped
all over them.

I'm having a bit of difficulty getting into the configuration screen.
Clicking Ctrl and I isn't having any effect. Could it be linked?
Ken

 

[DL]

If you mean you are having difficulty entering the raid bios / config
screen, then possibly that is linked
As its an onboard controler you might check as to whether there are any mobo
bios updates, and also raid controler updates.
I hope you have data backups just in case.