SiI RAID 1 Problems: "You can not rebuild"

B

Bands-Online Steve

Hi guys!

I'm having some problems with my RAID configuration, and was
wondering if anyone could help? Here are the details of my setup:

OS: Windows XP Professional
Motherboard: ASUS
RAID Type: RAID 1 (mirroring)
RAID Details: SiI 3112A SATARaid BIOS Version 4.2.27

I have two 120GB Maxtor hard disk drives, of type 6Y120M0.

For about two years now, my computer has been successfully running a
RAID 1 mirroring setup. On a few occasions (especially if I turn my
computer off without shutting down), I've had the usual RAID warning
when I boot up (the one that suggests you press CTRL + S or F4 to enter
the RAID utility) to tell me that my drives are out of synch. I've
always solved this by entering the utility and choosing "Rebuild
Mirrored Set". I then perform an online rebuild (which runs in the
background while I continue to use my PC), and don't see the warning
anymore on boot up.

However, I recently started getting the warning, but when I try to
rebuild the mirrored set, I get "You can not rebuild", but that's
all. I don't get any information as to why this is. The system
appears to still be reporting two SATA hard drives. If I choose
"Resolve Conflicts", I'm told that "No Conflicts exist".
Strange!

I'm guessing that one of the drives might have developed a fault, but
have no idea how to prove this. Is there some kind of diagnostic tool I
can run to learn more about the nature of the problem, and to find out
whether one of my drives is faulty? I've considered deleting the RAID
set and starting again, but have no idea how to go about this (other
than choosing "Delete RAID Set"), and I don't want to lose the
information on my hard drives. (I do have a backup, but using this
should be an absolute last resort.)

Any help as to how I can get my RAID setup working again would be
gratefully received!

Thanks,

Steve.
 
D

DL

If in explorer or Disk Management you see two drives, as apposed to a single
raid drive, then your raid controler has possibly failed.
Maxtor web site has a free hd checking utility.

Also you could simply disconnect A and use B, if all is ok disconnect B,
connect A and check.

The problem with many of these onboard raid controlers is that their utility
may not either report a problem or be able to report which hd has the
problem
 
V

V Green

DL said:
If in explorer or Disk Management you see two drives, as apposed to a single
raid drive, then your raid controler has possibly failed.
Maxtor web site has a free hd checking utility.

Also you could simply disconnect A and use B, if all is ok disconnect B,
connect A and check.

NO, NO, NO! DO NOT DO THIS!!!!!

If you do, you *may* not be able to RAID them again.
The OS will not recognize each individual drive, as they
have been RAID'ed, and *may* try to make
them readable as stand-alone drives, which will make them
unreadable as a RAID array if you put them back that way.
Any data on them will be lost.

#1 thing to do---BACK UP EVERYTHING OFF THE ARRAY.

Then start checking individual drives.
 
D

DL

Disconnecting a mirror works fine on a Sil controler, been there done it,
particularly if it cannot be rebuilt.
and providing the sata drive remains connected to the controler.
 
V

V Green

DL said:
Disconnecting a mirror works fine on a Sil controler, been there done it,
particularly if it cannot be rebuilt.
and providing the sata drive remains connected to the controler.

Exactly.

But the info given could be misinterpreted as:

take off the drives used in the RAID array
and plug them, one at a time, to the single channel
SATA controller.

This might result in the stuff I described.

Good to hear from somebody who has experience
with the hardware involved.

My suggestion that the OP back up all stuff off the
array still stands, however...
 
D

DL

Also experienced with onboard Sil, strange app problems.
Sil utility/bios reported drives in sync - no problems.
Broke the mirror, rebooted with a single sata connected (on the same
connector)
Some apps were missing - in the true sense of the word -
Disconnected that sata, connected other mirror on its origonal connector,
rebooted.
The missing apps were on this drive.
Asus stated that there had been problems with the early version, but they
thought it had been cured by both bios and Sil driver update.
Result: dont used onboard raid controlers any more, use a dedicated raid
card ($390) which also has support I can speak to, in real time.
 
R

Ron Martell

Bands-Online Steve said:
Hi guys!

I'm having some problems with my RAID configuration, and was
wondering if anyone could help? Here are the details of my setup:

OS: Windows XP Professional
Motherboard: ASUS
RAID Type: RAID 1 (mirroring)
RAID Details: SiI 3112A SATARaid BIOS Version 4.2.27

I have two 120GB Maxtor hard disk drives, of type 6Y120M0.

For about two years now, my computer has been successfully running a
RAID 1 mirroring setup. On a few occasions (especially if I turn my
computer off without shutting down), I've had the usual RAID warning
when I boot up (the one that suggests you press CTRL + S or F4 to enter
the RAID utility) to tell me that my drives are out of synch. I've
always solved this by entering the utility and choosing "Rebuild
Mirrored Set". I then perform an online rebuild (which runs in the
background while I continue to use my PC), and don't see the warning
anymore on boot up.

However, I recently started getting the warning, but when I try to
rebuild the mirrored set, I get "You can not rebuild", but that's
all. I don't get any information as to why this is. The system
appears to still be reporting two SATA hard drives. If I choose
"Resolve Conflicts", I'm told that "No Conflicts exist".
Strange!

I'm guessing that one of the drives might have developed a fault, but
have no idea how to prove this. Is there some kind of diagnostic tool I
can run to learn more about the nature of the problem, and to find out
whether one of my drives is faulty? I've considered deleting the RAID
set and starting again, but have no idea how to go about this (other
than choosing "Delete RAID Set"), and I don't want to lose the
information on my hard drives. (I do have a backup, but using this
should be an absolute last resort.)

Any help as to how I can get my RAID setup working again would be
gratefully received!

Thanks,

Steve.

Go to the Maxtor web site and download their free diagnostic utility.
Run that to check out the drives for possible hardware problems.

And check the BIOS setup on your computer. If it supports S.M.A.R.T.
then make sure that this is enabled. Many computers are shipped with
this setting turned off.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."
 
B

Bands-Online Steve

Hi guys!

Thanks very much for your help! I fixed the problem now. For anyone
that's interested, I proceeded as follows:

* Made a complete back up of my system using Windows Back Up. (I
enabled verification just to make sure!)
* Used Maxtor Power Max utility to scan for errors on my hard drives. I
discovered the second disk in the array had a problem. This could not
be fixed using Power Max.
* Rebooted and entered the RAID utility.
* Deleted the mirrored set.
* Create a new mirrored set, choosing manual creation over automatic.
(I got the impression this option was very important!)
* Made a new RAID 1 mirrored set, choosing drive 1 as the source drive.

The rebuilding of the set took a few hours, but all seems fine now.

Thanks very much for your expert opinions! Is there some kind of
Windows UI I can download that will give me better diagnostic
information and more control over my RAID set up? Real time error
reporting would be very useful too!

All the best,

Steve.
 
D

DL

If I read you right;
Power max utility detected a problem on a hd.
But you simply rebuilt the array.
Sounds like a very bad move to me; If the manu hd utility detected a problem
I personnally would immediately dump that hd, or at the very least replace
it and only use it in a non primary capacity
 
B

Bands-Online Steve

Very good point DL! You got me worried there for a second...

I can't actually remember what the error reported by Power Max was. Bad
sector springs to mind, but I'm not certain. To be honest, I was just
relieved that I stopped getting the RAID error on boot up, but you're
right, that's not proof that all is well. So, I ran the full (very
long!) test on both my RAIDed drives, and they both reported a clean
bill of health.

I'm not sure what I have done, but somehow I have fixed it and all
seems fine now. The drives are error free, and the RAID is problem and
conflict free. That's pretty conclusive wouldn't you say?

Thanks for your advice though; I wouldn't have thought to run Power Max
otherwise.

Steve.
 
B

Bands-Online Steve

Very good point DL! You got me worried there for a second...

I can't actually remember what the error reported by Power Max was. Bad
sector springs to mind, but I'm not certain. To be honest, I was just
relieved that I stopped getting the RAID error on boot up, but you're
right, that's not proof that all is well. So, I ran the full (very
long!) test on both my RAIDed drives, and they both reported a clean
bill of health.

I'm not sure what I have done, but somehow I have fixed it and all
seems fine now. The drives are error free, and the RAID is problem and
conflict free. That's pretty conclusive wouldn't you say?

Thanks for your advice though; I wouldn't have thought to run Power Max
otherwise.

Steve.
 

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