A drive in Raid 0 is failing - correct forum?

The Guvnor

Is this the correct place for this?

Brief history:

1. On Tuesday this error message appeared on one of the pc's (dell xps430 - vista-64 - raid 0 (two x 640 samsung hdd's) - Core 2 Quad 2.66)
2. Everything was backed up.
3. I checked the box to mark drive as normal.
4. Just now the computer became unresponsive.
5. Shut it down - then booted it up and programs are all gone.
6. However the net and email is working, screen saver is still there etc.
7. Livetime update - the programs are back.
8. It's the other half's pc (hence the live updates)

Basically it is getting slower despite having 8GB's ddr3 ram.

We have the next day on site with Dell.

Does onsite mean Dell with automatically come out and it will avoid me having to take the pc apart first etc. whilst on the phone to Mumbai.

My only fear is that my clumsy paws inside the machine could infact make things worse etc. and is something I would like to avoid.

Another livetime update:D
It looks like it's back to working fine now but I did read when an array is failing this can happen, intermittent issues.

I also read that this error message could be caused due to a smart error which is IIRC just a timing issue but also something which cannot be checked whilst the drives are in a striped raid 0 set-up.

Is there any diagnostic program we could run to see if the drive(s) are knackered or still ok?

Thanks

Dulchie

Your system is using Raid 0. That is the data is striped across both disks. You have no redundancy capacity. If one of the drives fails then you will be unable to boot you system.

You need to contact Dell and arrange a visit. You have paid for on site service and you will need to use this service.

I do not understand what exactly you mean by "Livetime update" is a backup service ?

I suggest that you use Vista's "Backup your Computer" option to make a complete system backup to an external drive as soon as possible

Cuddlesworth

Dell diagnostics can be put onto a USB key and can test both drives for errors. Its available from the dell site.

The Guvnor

Thanks a lot guys!

Dulchie - what I meant by the livetime update was - she was telling me it's all gone but as I was typing it all came back so the livetime update was basically panic it's all gone to oh wait a minute it's all back etc.:)

I'll get Dell to have a nose first and also get the diagnostics from their site as well.

Thanks lads.

As of now it is working fine but best to err on the side of caution.

coylemj

RAID-0 is asking for trouble, you're almost guaranteed to lose data at some stage because as an earlier poster said, if you lose one disk you're screwed.

If you know anything about probability you wouldn't sleep well at night having your data on a RAID-0 configuration.

The Guvnor

I did read that.
The important stuff is backed up.

Am I right in assuming there is no easy way to go from a raid 0 to a better/safer configuration?

Thanks

old_aussie

OP, where have you got your data backed-up to?

Hopefully another external HDD.

If not, then backup all data to an external HDD, or even better, duplicate backups to two external HDD's.

Can never have enough backups.

old_aussie

The Guvnor wrote: »

I did read that.
The important stuff is backed up.

Am I right in assuming there is no easy way to go from a raid 0 to a better/safer configuration?

Thanks

RAID 1 would be better for redundancy, that is, drive one is duplicated to drive two. A little slower than RAID 0, but a lot safer.

If one of the drives in RAID 1 was to crash, you would have a copy(duplicate) on the other drive.

Then you would replace the crashed drive with a new one of the same size and the RAID system would rebuild itself.

The Guvnor

Thanks Aussie,

The important stuff is on another computer and two external hdd's.

Is it a smooth process to switch from 0 to 1?

Jumpy

Depends on the controller. You will also need to purchase more disks (you will need twice as many as you had in the RAID 0 Array).

old_aussie

Jumpy wrote: »

Depends on the controller. You will also need to purchase more disks (you will need twice as many as you had in the RAID 0 Array).

That's true if you want to run RAID 0 and RAID 1 at the same time.

For RAID 1 you just need two identiclal sized disks, preferably same make and model.

You would have to build the RAID array from scratch. That is, start by installing the OS and then let the array build itself(Vista and Windows 7) and then install the apps.

Jumpy

old_aussie wrote: »

That's true if you want to run RAID 0 and RAID 1 at the same time.

For RAID 1 you just need two identiclal sized disks, preferably same make and model.

You would have to build the RAID array from scratch. That is, start by installing the OS and then let the array build itself(Vista and Windows 7) and then install the apps.

If you want to convert from 0 to 1, some controllers will allow this. You need the disks available to do it though.

I assume you are referring to software RAID.

The Guvnor

Thanks Guys!

A bit of work at the start but far more peace of mind down the line.

old_aussie

Jumpy wrote: »

If you want to convert from 0 to 1, some controllers will allow this. You need the disks available to do it though.

I assume you are referring to software RAID.

Yes, correct Jumpy, software RAID.

OP, the X48 chipset provides a variety of RAID setups.

With a second hard drive added, this provides quicker access to digital photo, video and data files with RAID 0, 5, and 10, and greater data protection against a hard disk drive failure with RAID 1, 5, and 10.

You can also use RAID 5,(a combination of RAID 0 and RAID 1) but as Jumpy said "you'll need 4 HDD's"

The Guvnor

Finally an update.

The computer has worked fine everyday - there was two or three glitches but nothing major.

Anyway the decision was made to finally call Dell on Friday.

Bit of chat on the phone to Bangladore and it turns out there was a raid 0 issue 01442 error code.

Cut to the chase - one of the Teutonics engineers came out and did the necessary.

No major drama.

I did want to keep the old hard drive - see if there was anything on it etc and for paranoia reasons.

Turns out Dell will not allow this - you have to buy it. They wanted €87.00 for a suspect 640gb hd.

Now it transpired that Dell take this back, refurbish them and sell them on again. Find this a little odd - they did however assure me that the drive would be wiped before being refurbished but still...

One final thing the 640gb samsung was replaced with a 750gb western digital. Should both drives be the same?

Just for the record the comp was still working even though the raid was wiped.

Don't buy a cheap 2nd hand 640gb samsung hd anytime soon, please!:D

dilallio

Dell's policy of refurbshing / reusing faulty equipment has always bugged me.

In the past, I have had a graphics card replaced twice - the 1st time they replaced it with a faulty one.

They also sent me out 2 replacement hard drives which were both faulty, and a wireless card which was faulty.

I had a dvd drive on another laptop replaced twice, and the 2nd replacement went faulty 3 weeks after the warranty expired.

I believe based on my experience that they run items which are returned through a basic test and if they pass, they use them as replacements.

The Guvnor

That's pretty bad dilallio.

I would have kept the drive if it was €25 or so but €87 for an internal 640gb is a bit overpriced.

I wanted to keep it more so that I could try and load it via a caddy or suitable adaptor because given it was still booting and operational it was obviously not that bad.

Not that I am overly technically minded but perhaps it was just a bad sector or area of the hdd or even a file and apart from that the rest was fine.

The chaps from Bangladore will be calling tomorrow to assess the service given. I shall commend the technician (good but not great, not a real computer enthusiast imo) but alert them to my displeasure at the old hdd being taken away and perhaps reused etc..

Capt'n Midnight

old_aussie wrote: »

RAID 1 would be better for redundancy, that is, drive one is duplicated to drive two. A little slower than RAID 0, but a lot safer..

slower on write of course

but in theory could be as fast with good drivers that handle the seeks really well as you can read from both drives