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RugenNixie
Weaksauce
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2004
- Messages
- 123
Let me apologize for the long post, but I don't know how to explain this issue without giving the details.
Though far from being a computer expert, I maintain the computers at the local animal shelter. They recently had a hard drive start to fail, and had no back up of any sort. Fortunately, they realized what was going on and I was able to pull 95% of the data off the drive before it failed completely.
I convinced them that a RAID 1 setup would be a cheap and easy way to have a backup of their information. Because the computer that the hard drive failed in doesn't support RAID, I suggested that they swap their 2 computers around. The working computer, which supports RAID, would get the RAID array. The existing hard drive from that computer would be installed in the older computer (the one with the failed hard drive). They bought 2 Western Digital 80GB WD800JD SATA drives. I installed them into the computer alongside of an existing PATA drive. I disconnected the PATA drive, went into the BIOS and enabled a RAID 1 array with the 2 SATA drives. I installed Windows, installed some other software, and then unplugged the SATA drives and plugged up the old PATA drive so that they could continue using the computer until I had time to come back again.
When I came back, my plan was to pull information over from the PATA drive onto the RAID array drives. I plugged in the SATA drives while keeping the PATA drive plugged in. What I intended to do was boot from the RAID array, but I forgot to enter the BIOS to set the boot priority. The computer booted from the PATA drive, and then Windows recognized the SATA drives. I shut down the computer, swapped the boot priority and restarted the computer.
When Windows started to come up, it went through everything on the SATA drives saying that the files had been orphaned and had to be reassociated. I let this run its course not sure what was going on. Afterwards, everything was screwed up. The RAID array was gone, such that the SATA drives were acting independently. I tried to reboot and rebuild the RAID array, but everytime that I tried, the computer would freeze up during POST. After freezing, the only thing that would allow me to even get back to the BIOS was to clear the CMOS.
After trying several things, I decided to start over again, but struggled to do so. Everytime I tried to setup the RAID array, I couldn't boot. I thought that I got things working by erasing the SATA drives, enabling only 1 of the 2 SATA drives as a RAID 0 and setting the other SATA drive as a nonRAID drive. After booting to the Windows CD like this, I was able to go back and set up the drives in a RAID 1 array. I started installing Windows again, but when the computer rebooted during the installation, I got back to the same scenario as before.
I tried scanning each SATA drive for problems, but on their own, they work fine. Together, they screw up. Anybody have any ideas as to what is going on? I've put several hours into this and haven't gotten anywhere. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
The computer setup is:
Chaintech 7NJL6 MB with Athlon XP 2700+
512MB DDR memory
Seagate 80GB PATA HDD
(2) WD 80GB SATA HDDs
Windows XP HE SP2
Thanks.
Though far from being a computer expert, I maintain the computers at the local animal shelter. They recently had a hard drive start to fail, and had no back up of any sort. Fortunately, they realized what was going on and I was able to pull 95% of the data off the drive before it failed completely.
I convinced them that a RAID 1 setup would be a cheap and easy way to have a backup of their information. Because the computer that the hard drive failed in doesn't support RAID, I suggested that they swap their 2 computers around. The working computer, which supports RAID, would get the RAID array. The existing hard drive from that computer would be installed in the older computer (the one with the failed hard drive). They bought 2 Western Digital 80GB WD800JD SATA drives. I installed them into the computer alongside of an existing PATA drive. I disconnected the PATA drive, went into the BIOS and enabled a RAID 1 array with the 2 SATA drives. I installed Windows, installed some other software, and then unplugged the SATA drives and plugged up the old PATA drive so that they could continue using the computer until I had time to come back again.
When I came back, my plan was to pull information over from the PATA drive onto the RAID array drives. I plugged in the SATA drives while keeping the PATA drive plugged in. What I intended to do was boot from the RAID array, but I forgot to enter the BIOS to set the boot priority. The computer booted from the PATA drive, and then Windows recognized the SATA drives. I shut down the computer, swapped the boot priority and restarted the computer.
When Windows started to come up, it went through everything on the SATA drives saying that the files had been orphaned and had to be reassociated. I let this run its course not sure what was going on. Afterwards, everything was screwed up. The RAID array was gone, such that the SATA drives were acting independently. I tried to reboot and rebuild the RAID array, but everytime that I tried, the computer would freeze up during POST. After freezing, the only thing that would allow me to even get back to the BIOS was to clear the CMOS.
After trying several things, I decided to start over again, but struggled to do so. Everytime I tried to setup the RAID array, I couldn't boot. I thought that I got things working by erasing the SATA drives, enabling only 1 of the 2 SATA drives as a RAID 0 and setting the other SATA drive as a nonRAID drive. After booting to the Windows CD like this, I was able to go back and set up the drives in a RAID 1 array. I started installing Windows again, but when the computer rebooted during the installation, I got back to the same scenario as before.
I tried scanning each SATA drive for problems, but on their own, they work fine. Together, they screw up. Anybody have any ideas as to what is going on? I've put several hours into this and haven't gotten anywhere. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
The computer setup is:
Chaintech 7NJL6 MB with Athlon XP 2700+
512MB DDR memory
Seagate 80GB PATA HDD
(2) WD 80GB SATA HDDs
Windows XP HE SP2
Thanks.
