Tracking down random data corruption

[Flapjack]

I've been running a 2TB x 5 array via an external eSATA enclosure for almost a year now. I ditched the crappy PCI card that came with the box and put a RocketRAID 2314 in. I had no problems with this setup until I built a new HTPC.

Now, I'm having all sorts of problems extracting files from RAR archives, copying files over to other stores, etc...

I've even had SFV checks pass, but then have problems extracting from a multi-rar archive. If I try to extract again, it may go fine. But then if I copy the files over to another machine on the network, the MD5 will be different.

My first thought was memory... but two days of Memtest86 showed no errors at all.

I'm left with maybe a problem with the motherboard or the RAID controller itself. I'm leaning towards the mobo since it's new, but I'd like to possibly narrow this down a bit before I swap that out.

The event viewer is perfectly clean... no errors. The system never BSODs or reboots... nothing to indicate there is a problem.

Here are the system specs. I'm hoping someone can nudge me in the right direction:

- Biostar A880G+ AM3 motherboard
- AMD Phenom II X2 555
- 4GB DDR3 RAM
- RocketRAID 2314
- Windows 7 x64


Hope someone can help me figure this out.

 

[MrGuvernment]

i will say - rocketraid = crap , compared to other market optionsic?

when you say you have issues, be more specifc?


files wont extract?
they extract slow?

Same drives as before?
Same OS as before?

 

[visionviper]

Have you tried looking at the SMART data of your individual drives yet?

 

[havokator]

what is the best way to look at the SMART data for a drive?

 

[Flapjack]

i will say - rocketraid = crap , compared to other market optionsic?

Yes... I know, RR = crap, but it's many times better than POS that came with the enclosure, yet still in my budget. I looked for better cards, but couldn't afford them. At any rate, it has met my needs pretty well. It worked great until I built a new host PC for it.

when you say you have issues, be more specifc?

files wont extract?

Sometimes. Sometimes the archive was downloaded but was saved with errors and can't extract. In that case, it'd need to be redownloaded. Other times, it was downloaded correctly (sfv or md5 matches), but I'll get errors extracting. If I try again, it'll usually work the second time.

they extract slow?

Speed is normal.

Same drives as before?

Yes. Five Samsung HD204UI drives. In RAID5 (8TB), read ahead enabled, write cache enabled, NCQ enabled, SATA300 transfer mode.

Same OS as before?

Yes.

Have you tried looking at the SMART data of your individual drives yet?

No, but that is a great idea. Is there any way to do that without busting apart the array and putting them in another PC? Obviously, windows reports the entire array as one disk.

 

[Snowknight26]

From my past experience, I want to say it's the RAID controller. In my situation, replacing the controller with a different one while keeping all the other hardware the same fixed the issue, so maybe that'll help you for you too.