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Major problems with RAID-5 Intel ICH8R
Everything worked fine for over a year. I had a new PC with P5B-E mobo and 5*250GB Western Digital SE SATA-disks. One disk was connected to mobo's separate Jmicron SATA-controller and was used as a boot disk (Windows XP). Remaining 4 disks were connected to Intel ICH8R SATA-ports and were configured as 750GB RAID-5 set. Mobo was not overclocked.
Then came the Easter and I went off for holidays. I turned off my PC, nothing unusual there. Three days later I again turned the PC on. It hangs during first logon. No mouse movement, caps lock light not reacting, nothing. Waited for 10 minutes or so, then reseted the machine.
Now during bootup ICH8R BIOS is displaying RAID5 array's status as "Initialize". Boot to windows hangs before logon screen, also in safe mode. If I disconnect all RAID5 disks or configure SATA ports in BIOS "as IDE", windows boots ok. At this point I suspected that the ICH8R controller chip has gone kaboom somehow.
No worries, me thinks, I have a friend who has almost identical setup, P5B-E mobo and such. Took my PC and went for a visit. If I connect my set of RAID5 disks to my friend's PC, it hangs during bootup. If I connect my friend's set of RAID5 disks to my PC, it boots fine. So this kinda proves the point: ICH8R controller chip in fact IS broken. Broken by design, that is.
One more attempt was made to rescue all data in my RAID array: I connected only 3 disks and booted up. BIOS shows array with status "Degraded". Windows boots fine. Hooray, I think, too soon. When trying to access the files in the degraded array, windows hangs. Shutdown, new boot with different 3 disks. Now BIOS shows array with status "Failed". Things start to look very bad. No matter which 3 disks I connect, status remains "Failed".
Now, if I connect all 4 disks, BIOS lets me to recover the array. Status changes to "Rebuild", meaning that array rebuilds within operating system. Yeah right, If only I could boot up to windows. Remember, when all 4 disks are connected, windows hangs during bootup, also in safe mode.
I have updated Intel Matrix Storage software to version 7.0.0.1020. No help there. Any creative suggestions? Is there any other way to rebuild the array? In *nix maybe?
Either way, I'm kinda done with this POS.
Everything worked fine for over a year. I had a new PC with P5B-E mobo and 5*250GB Western Digital SE SATA-disks. One disk was connected to mobo's separate Jmicron SATA-controller and was used as a boot disk (Windows XP). Remaining 4 disks were connected to Intel ICH8R SATA-ports and were configured as 750GB RAID-5 set. Mobo was not overclocked.
Then came the Easter and I went off for holidays. I turned off my PC, nothing unusual there. Three days later I again turned the PC on. It hangs during first logon. No mouse movement, caps lock light not reacting, nothing. Waited for 10 minutes or so, then reseted the machine.
Now during bootup ICH8R BIOS is displaying RAID5 array's status as "Initialize". Boot to windows hangs before logon screen, also in safe mode. If I disconnect all RAID5 disks or configure SATA ports in BIOS "as IDE", windows boots ok. At this point I suspected that the ICH8R controller chip has gone kaboom somehow.
No worries, me thinks, I have a friend who has almost identical setup, P5B-E mobo and such. Took my PC and went for a visit. If I connect my set of RAID5 disks to my friend's PC, it hangs during bootup. If I connect my friend's set of RAID5 disks to my PC, it boots fine. So this kinda proves the point: ICH8R controller chip in fact IS broken. Broken by design, that is.
One more attempt was made to rescue all data in my RAID array: I connected only 3 disks and booted up. BIOS shows array with status "Degraded". Windows boots fine. Hooray, I think, too soon. When trying to access the files in the degraded array, windows hangs. Shutdown, new boot with different 3 disks. Now BIOS shows array with status "Failed". Things start to look very bad. No matter which 3 disks I connect, status remains "Failed".
Now, if I connect all 4 disks, BIOS lets me to recover the array. Status changes to "Rebuild", meaning that array rebuilds within operating system. Yeah right, If only I could boot up to windows. Remember, when all 4 disks are connected, windows hangs during bootup, also in safe mode.
I have updated Intel Matrix Storage software to version 7.0.0.1020. No help there. Any creative suggestions? Is there any other way to rebuild the array? In *nix maybe?
Either way, I'm kinda done with this POS.