Help!!! RAID5 failure (?)

[alexthg]

Hi,

 

Guys, I'm in trouble

My PC data with RAID-5 setup won't boot to windows this morning...

 

the specs are:

- Processor: Athlon64 3700+

- Memory : 2gb

- Motherboard : Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI

- Harddisk : 4 x Seagate 400gb SATA. All set-up in one RAID-5 configuration. Windows is installed in this raid config.

- Raid controller : onboard SATA RAID Sil3114 (i know it's crap, but can't find any better here)

- OS : Windows Server 2003

 

the symptoms:

- When turned on, the PC runs fine through the BIOS POST screen & RAID screen. I can still enter the BIOS & RAID config screen, but it hangs when starting to windows (black blank screen, right after the 'press any key to boot from CD...' )

- When I checked the RAID config screen (by pressing F4 after BIOS POST), it turns out that 1 of my 4 drives is 'invalid drive'.

 

misc notes:

- The system has been running flawlessly for about a year

- I setup the drives in one RAID-5 system (installed windows here too)

- I use UPS, so I don't think power failure causes this

- Windows shut down "correctly" the last time i used the pc

 

my guess:

- one of my drives failed. But somehow RAID5 didn't rebuild the array... thus, windows won't start. Whatever causes it, i don't know... i'm no expert in raid

 

things i've done:

- nothing yet, only replace the SATA cable for the 'invalid' drive... I need to hear any available options first (don't want to risk any data loss)

 

so, if anyone else have any suggestion/idea... pls let me know.. or at least if something goes bad, how can i salvage the data?

 

regards,

Harry

[dbarc]

I feel for you - we had a similar experience about a year ago. It was actually a brand new server - the array failed and didn't rebuild. I don't think the company who supplied the hardware ever got to the bottom of it and ended up replacing the whole array.

 

Maybe the problem's with the RAID controller as it should still boot up with one disk down.

[alexthg]

just made a couple of checks with seatools from seagate, with these results:

- Quick diagnostic (the 90seconds test & smart test) runs fine... done it 4-5 times, no problems at all.

- haven't done the full test yet (should I ?)

- When testing for file structures test (testing NTFS, volumes, directories), it kicks out to DOS ...

 

does it mean that my drives are actually ok, but something is wrong with the Raid controller? supposed the raid controller is faulty, how to deal with this situation?

 

Harry

[Elliot]

Harry

 

Feel sorry for you. Don't do any thing in a rush. It happened to me twice. In both occasions I called Adaptec and I recovered the data.

 

I am sorry I can't give further advise, I was just following their telephone instructions. One of my drive didn't said the word OPTIMAL and we just did a few things to place the drive under the OPTIMAL condition.

 

Regards

Elliot

[alexthg]

Phewwwwww!! I made it! HURRAAAYY!!

 

Repairing windows solved the problem...

I can get to desktop and it's now rebuilding the array... All data are safe!!!

 

but still don't really get what was going on... looks like somehow one of the drives was marked failed by the raid controller, and thus windows won't start, it won't even let me go into safe mode or press F8. Luckily windows setup still recognize the array & partitions...

 

thanks guys for your help and sympathy...

to tell u the truth, i haven't made any backup since 6 MONTHS AGO !!!...

 

now i guess it's time to re-read all those threads about back-up systems

 

regards

Harry

[dbarc]

Glad to hear you solved the problem. Very weird - It should still continue to function with one, even two disks down which shows it's a good idea not to trust in these things too much. Backup is still the best .. backup!