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RAID5 Intel rapid storage failure - help please!

T

ThaSpacePope

Weaksauce
Joined
Jun 7, 2011
Messages
124
I have a 4 drive RAID5 array of 2TB hitachi drives using the onboard ICH10R onboard controller. A recent sequence of events has caused this to go into failure. This sequence is as follows.

I recently changed around video cards which caused my system bios to somehow restore default settings. The default settings is to boot to ACHI instead of RAID. As luck would have it I booted into windows in ACHI mode. I got a few "You must format disk E:\ to use it" (the raid array disk) and cancelled the notifications. Knowing what the issue was I rebooted, went into my bios and set storage to RAID.

Upon reboot the RAID array tells me "RAID FAILURE" but shows me all 4 disks. All 4 disks are showing up but 2 of the 4 are showing as RAID MEMBER and the other 2 are showing as NON-MEMBER DISK. Bad news.

I have my OS on an SSD which is also a non-member (of the raid) disk which is on this controller.

So i'm now in windows and Intel software is again telling me array failure. No bueno. It also shows me the same deal: 2 non-member, 2 member disks.

At this point im stressed. Under windows storage management, windows is seeing 2 basic disks the of 5.5GB (the size of my array) and 1 "UNFORMATTED" disk of 5.5GB. At this point I haven't done any SMART testing or anything, im just freaked and wanting to get this post out to ask if anyone knows how to proceed.

RAID5 allows for 1 disk failure but not 2. Again, everything was good and reading fine prior to the boot into windows in ACHI mode. But i'm sweatin it. I do backups of hte important stuff but they are monthly and there stuff on there going back 17 days :(

I don't even know what or how to evaluate these disks individually without breaking up the raid.

Any help appreciated!

EDIT: Just rebooted and S.M.A.R.T status is showing accessible and "OK" for all 4 disks. Is it possible that when I booted into windows in ACHI somehow windows formatted 2 of my 4 disks? Is there a way to find out??
 
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Well, as always, it is a good idea to make dd image backups of the drives if you have the spares available. Then I would run Raid Reconstructor http://www.runtime.org/raid.htm and let it see if it can find your settings. It will tell you if it can fix your problems and recover your array before you need to purchase anything.
 
mwroobel said:
Well, as always, it is a good idea to make dd image backups of the drives if you have the spares available. Then I would run Raid Reconstructor http://www.runtime.org/raid.htm and let it see if it can find your settings. It will tell you if it can fix your problems and recover your array before you need to purchase anything.
Click to expand...

I installed this and it asked me for my 4 disks, of which windows only sees 3. I wonder why this is. I may try new SATA cables and see if that helps.

If this software doesn't work btw, are there any other solutions?
 
ThaSpacePope said:
I installed this and it asked me for my 4 disks, of which windows only sees 3. I wonder why this is. I may try new SATA cables and see if that helps.

If this software doesn't work btw, are there any other solutions?
Click to expand...

Didn't you say the BIOS saw 4?
 
mwroobel said:
Didn't you say the BIOS saw 4?
Click to expand...

Yes I did. 2 member, 2 non member.

Unfortunately I've spent the last about 4 hours trying ot make the method work posted above with no success. Testdisk finds a partion called "MS Data" but it wont let me write it to the GBT. I think my data is cooked at this point
 
Since the BIOS sees 4 and Windows only sees 3, it is possible that you win install is suspect. I would try using a BartPE boot disk with Raid Reconstructor. Here is a page on its use:

http://www.runtime.org/peb.htm
 
I suggest using crashplan to backup data online.

PS: "and THIS is why you dont use motherboard raid" thread?
 
Yeah, entire raid lost was end result. Real question is, how do I proceed from here. I'm doing formats and scandisks of all 4 disks, hopefully it wont take 2 full days.

I think what happened is got an error in the file system which caused the raid controller to bounce 2 of the 4 drives. Clearly the drives aren't fried. WIth Hitachi 7k2000 disks, I'm kind of not wanting to create any kind of raid because any error that needs correcting for more than 15 seconds is going to cause the controller to bounce it.

So the bottom line is... with consumer class drives, it probably wouldn' tmatter had I been using onboard raid5 or a $300 pci raid card. I'm pretty sure there was a fault in the drives. Who knows, maybe due to my 33% overclock and not raising the voltage on the SB.

To add insult to injury, SMART data can't be evaluated when in RAID. In hindsight its looking like RAID5 with consumer drives is pretty stupid. Anyone got any suggestions?
 
ThaSpacePope said:
So the bottom line is... with consumer class drives, it probably wouldn' tmatter had I been using onboard raid5 or a $300 pci raid card. I'm pretty sure there was a fault in the drives. Who knows, maybe due to my 33% overclock and not raising the voltage on the SB.
Click to expand...
That is not true. I have 12 "consumer class drives" 3TB 5K3000's on an areca 1880i and all is fine.

To add insult to injury, SMART data can't be evaluated when in RAID. In hindsight its looking like RAID5 with consumer drives is pretty stupid. Anyone got any suggestions?
Click to expand...

That is not true at all. Try HD Sentinel (hdsentinel.com) it shows me the drives smart status for my intel raid0, raid1 and areca raid6 drives.
 
mwroobel said:
That is not true. I have 12 "consumer class drives" 3TB 5K3000's on an areca 1880i and all is fine.
Click to expand...

Yes, I ran raid5 with consumer drives for 6 years without a problem too. RAID only protects against total mechanical failure, not hd faults. RAID class drives are designed to stop trying to fix an error after a certain period so the drive isn't dumped from the array by the controller. Consumer class drives are not. This, I suspect, is what happened to me.

That is not true at all. Try HD Sentinel (hdsentinel.com) it shows me the drives smart status for my intel raid0, raid1 and areca raid6 drives.
Click to expand...

smart status isn't reported automatically with intel raid is what I was getting at. Also, smart has been shown to not really be very effective at doing its job. Better than nothing but still very ineffective.

I'm still running long tests on my drives, we'll see what comes out.
 
Well, what everyone needs to (and unfortunately doesn't) understand is RAID is simply a high availability solution, not a high security solution. It exists simply to keep the array up and available even if one (or more, depending on the level) drive fails. It is not a backup solution. It is not a magic solution to losing your data. It is simply there as one part of a balanced data solution. A solution, which should include nightly complete backups. Too many people think of RAID as a magic antidote to the possibility of data loss. Unfortunately, it lulls too many people into a false sense of security as to the safety of their data. Also, far too many people fail to take into account the failure of a non-redundant portion of their RAID.... The controller failing and skewing data to the drive. A single backplane dropping out, 4 drives gone and your raid too. A power supply going blowing and taking your drives with it. Even a 2 drive redundancy with RAID6 will not save you from those. A good backup plan will save your data, not a RAID.
 
I agree. I had backups of the irreplaceable stuff but not of my media.

I did find 2 of my drives now have bad sectors. One was one of the "bad" drives in the array while the other one was reporting good still.

Damn hitachi drives, why did I go with thee?? These drives are all 15 months old with very low usage! But.. time to RMA.
 
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