XP and RAID 1

[Neal McEwen]

Hello,
I built a new computer a three weeks ago. The motherboard supports
hardware raid with the silicon image chips and driver. I set up two
drives in a RAID 1 configuration. I have the raid set partitioned as C:
and D:.
Everything has run smooth, fast and very quite. I could never hear
the drives until last night.
Then I could hear a drive or drives rumbling, the boot time was
longer and applications were jerky.
I am guessing that one of the drives is failing. My question is
how do I determine which drive?
Should I break the mirror and look at each drive separately?
What will XP see when I break the mirror. Will it see drive C:, D:, E:
and F:?
Can I use some sort of disk performance utility to tell me which
drive is failing.
If I can replace the failing drive. I can use the good drive
for the 'source' to build a new mirror,... I think
Any ideas? I'm I barking up the right tree?
Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Guest]

There is no such facility within XP.

Your hard drive manufacturer may have a file that is available for you to
download that tests the Hard Drives in the 'RAID' configuration.

 

[Neal McEwen]

My real question is:

What will XP see when I break the mirror. Will it see drive C:, D:, E:
and F:?

 

[Guest]

If you break the set,you'll corrupt xp.What brand are you useing,maxtor
scsi drives make a ton of noise,ecspecially if youre use to a basic IDE.Leave
all alone,its 99.99% normal.Thier are DOS utilitys from the mfgs,but i'd bet
they both come back clean,just get use to it and enjoy..

 

[John R Weiss]

Go to the Drive mfgr's web site for HD utilities. WD, for example, has them
available, and they will check the HDs independently, regardless of the state of
the array.

Then read your RAID controller's documentation. Most likely, if you find a bad
drive in a RAID 1 array, you can rebuild it by replacing the drive and
rebuilding from the remaining drive using the RAID controller BIOS.

XP need not be involved in any of this. The HD utilities are run from floppy,
and the RAID array is rebuilt in the controller BIOS. XP should be happy once
the RAID array is rebuilt, assuming you replace the failing HD with an identical
drive.

 

[Neal McEwen]

I have two Seagate SATA drives. I never heard them at all till two days
ago. And now applications are jerky. I'll see what utils I can find

 

[Frank]

| Hello,
| I built a new computer a three weeks ago. The motherboard supports
| hardware raid with the silicon image chips and driver. I set up two
| drives in a RAID 1 configuration. I have the raid set partitioned as C:
| and D:.
| Everything has run smooth, fast and very quite. I could never hear
| the drives until last night.
| Then I could hear a drive or drives rumbling, the boot time was
| longer and applications were jerky.
| I am guessing that one of the drives is failing. My question is
| how do I determine which drive?
| Should I break the mirror and look at each drive separately?
| What will XP see when I break the mirror. Will it see drive C:, D:, E:
| and F:?
| Can I use some sort of disk performance utility to tell me which
| drive is failing.
| If I can replace the failing drive. I can use the good drive
| for the 'source' to build a new mirror,... I think
| Any ideas? I'm I barking up the right tree?
| Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

After I read this thread I would like to add that no MSDOS or PCDOS
utility will read a RAID setup, Yet....If the RAID is broken it should
show
up on the boot screen. Also I have never seen it useful to Partition a
RAID
array, especially a RAID 1.
good luck

 

[John R Weiss]

After I read this thread I would like to add that no MSDOS or PCDOS
utility will read a RAID setup, Yet....If the RAID is broken it should
show up on the boot screen. Also I have never seen it useful to Partition a
RAID array, especially a RAID 1.
good luck

Well, my DOS-based, floppy-mounted WD HD utility "read" mine well enough to
determine both HDs were healthy, even after the RAID 0 array was "broken" by XP
SP2. The utility need not read the files, or even the FAT, to do its job.

Also, if you need or want to partition a HD, it doesn't matter whether it's RIAD
0, 1, or 5. The same reasons/needs for partitioning still exist, and the
existence of RAID doesn't affect them (except to the extent that the additional
disk space in a RAID 0 or 5 array may INCREASE the desire/need for
partitioning).

 

[Frank]

| >
| > After I read this thread I would like to add that no MSDOS or PCDOS
| > utility will read a RAID setup, Yet....If the RAID is broken it should
| > show up on the boot screen. Also I have never seen it useful to
Partition a
| > RAID array, especially a RAID 1.
| > good luck
|
| Well, my DOS-based, floppy-mounted WD HD utility "read" mine well enough
to
| determine both HDs were healthy, even after the RAID 0 array was
"broken" by XP
| SP2. The utility need not read the files, or even the FAT, to do its
job.
|
| Also, if you need or want to partition a HD, it doesn't matter whether
it's RIAD
| 0, 1, or 5. The same reasons/needs for partitioning still exist, and
the
| existence of RAID doesn't affect them (except to the extent that the
additional
| disk space in a RAID 0 or 5 array may INCREASE the desire/need for
| partitioning).

If the data life guard utility read the HDD's they were not in a RAID
array.
You are the one with the problems. I have no problems with my RAID
array.