RAID Issues & Questions

[Atomic_Sheep]

I'm having issues with RAID. I have an X58A-UD3R Rev1.0 and I was running 2 Seagate 1Tbs for about 6 months in RAID 0 without any problems. I recently got my 4th hdd (I had the 3rd one plugged in and recognised but not installed to i.e. not used)... anyway... the idea was to go from RAID 0 to RAID 10 (0+1) I think it was. The problem is that I was constantly dropping a drive with this configuration and had to rebuild the array on a daily basis using the intel utility. When I say constantly, I mean almost every single time that I started the computer, 1 of the drives would be red... (so no data was being lost obviously but it was still a nuisance having to rebuild the array so often - sometimes 2ce a day and at 7-10 hours rebuild time, my computer was on pretty much 24/7). Anyway, the issue gets worse... every once in a while, it drops 2 drives which renders the array useless and a system reinstal is required. (well, it always dropped 2 drives from the same group). At first I thought it might be something to do with my HDDs i.e. they may be faulty because it kept dropping the same two drives, but then it started dropping the other 2 so I'm thinking that that can't be the issue. I RMA'd the board for a different reason and just got it back yesterday and today, on my 3rd start of the computer or so, I got my first drive dropping, only this time it was the double drop which means I'm in the process of reinstalling the whole system again.

So that's a bit of background on my situation... now the questions:

1.) Dark Mantis told me that RAID 10 is just a really bad RAID configuraiton on home based computer because the X58 chip or whatever chip controls the RAID configuration is just not up to scratch for us small time users on these home based computers. I did an update to the BIOS to F6 hoping it would somehow solve the stability issues but I can say that the issues have not been solved as I've just mentioned. So, should I just forget about RAID 10? or is their another potential problem elsewhere?

2.) Considering there is a limit of 2TB for my chipset for RAID 5 configuraitons, could limiting the RAID 10 configuration to 2TB solve issue? I know this is a long shot considering the fact that when I create a RAID 5 or 0 configuration with my 4 1TB i.e. 4TB worth of space HDD's, the partition is claimed to be non bootable but when I reduce the allocated space to 2TB, they become bootable however the RAID 10 configuration is bootable at 2.8TB or whatever it allocated for the RAID 10 out of my 4 HDD's.

3.) Would using 4HDD's in RAID 0 configuration stumble me on the same controller problems/issues/inadequacies as those apparently seen with the RAID 10 configuration?

[F5BJR]

*
I use a long time RAID 10 with ICHxx RAID Intel without problem

for your big disks you cannot use if partition are > 2 TO

for me i have 2 virtual disks with some 2To

winxp is installed with the first virtual disk ( 2 TO with 200Go + 1.8To )

and win7 installed with the second virtual disks

i choice at bios startup WIN7 with key F12 ( WINXP is default in BIOS ) !!

Pierre

* for your reconstruction problem that is possible that your power supply is not sufficient
 
 

[Atomic_Sheep]

* for your reconstruction problem that is possible that your power supply is not sufficient

I've asked this question plenty of times... I've got a Seasonic X-Series 750W... 1 GTX 260 SO, the CPU isn't overclocked atm (i7 930), I've got 5 120mm fans and 2 80mm fans, 2 optical drives and 12 gigs of memory... based on various measures and other peoples opinions, it should be fine.

As for the size problem... even though I have 4 1Tb discs, if I create a RAID 10 partition, it shows my partition as 1.8Tb, so it's well under 2TB :S.

As for the chipset, its X58 ICH10

Also... do you guys think that getting a RAID controller card is a viable solution that might solve the problem?

[Atomic_Sheep]

Seems like I've found a solution. I'm going to update my ROM v8.9.0.1023 to v10.something. Question is... how do you do this?

I found this but I'm not sure which one is right for me?

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&ProductFamily=Chipsets&ProductLine=Chipset+Software&ProductProduct=Intel%c2%ae+Rapid+Storage+Technology+(Intel%c2%ae+RST)

I'm using Win7 64 bit. My harddrives are Seagate Baracuda 7200RPM SATA 2. My logic tells me #3 is the one that I want. But #2 is also a very viable option I just don't quite understand the difference?

[F5BJR]

*
As for the size problem... even though I have 4 1Tb discs, if I create a RAID 10 partition, it shows my partition as 1.8Tb, so it's well under 2TB :S.

No,no,no,no ...

Create not a full virtual disk and  partition < 2To but 2 virtual disks with INTEL BIOS MANAGER <2TO

I use with ICHxx a long time without problem ( ASUS P5B WIFI AP , ASUS P5K , ASUS P5EWS PRO , at this time GA-X58A-IUD5
and without problem in RAID 10

Pierre
 
*  for 2TO limit , that is a BIOS / OS limitation

*  for >2 TO requiert a new EFI BIOS with GPT partition

[Atomic_Sheep]

Hi guys, I've been getting new errors since I got my motherboard from RMA... I've been getting corrupt file errors during installation of programs... whether from discs or from the HDD. I've started getting random BSODs... and overall... the gremilins in my computer persist... however in different areas and I think there's more areas where they reside now . I want to try installing a new v10 ROM but I don't see the F6 option during bootup so I don't know how to install it using my motherboard/BIOS. I installed the intel RST utility in Windows 7 and as I said, I've already had 1 HDD drop out. However... since then, I've not been switching off the computer for about a week now. It goes into that power save mode and that's how I've had it switch off for a while to prevent restarting it or switching it off totally which is when usually I get the drops in HDDs - in other words, simply installing the utility in Windows as far as I know has not changed anything. From what I've seen, simply restarting the computer hasn't produced any errors but I can't help but feel like it's just a matter of time before I have to reinstall the whole system again. How would I go about installing the new ROM version? I've currently got v8. something... I've already got the floppy with v10.1.0.1008 or something. I'm hoping it will solve my issues but yer I don't know.

Create not a full virtual disk and  partition < 2To but 2 virtual disks with INTEL BIOS MANAGER <2TO

So I create 2 seperate RAID 0 volumes? Doesn't that simply mean I'll have 2 unconnected RAID 0 volumes? i.e. I'll install windows on 1 but the second one will be empty? That's not exactly RAID 10 as far as I'm aware.

[Dark Mantis]

It might also be worth trying a hard disk drive delay in the BIOS to make sure that the drives have time to initialise.

[Atomic_Sheep]

I think I'll just try going back to RAID 0. Create 2 virtual drives... win 7 on one and win xp on the other - I need XP anyway. Bascially the computer almost never turns off... I press shut down and it goes into usual shut down proceedure... windows shuts down... monitor switches off but the computer remains on for some time for a reason which is a mystery to me. After a while... it used to just switch off... however now... almost always, it just restarts and the errors in the RAID array pop up. Getting very tired of it. Sigh.

[Dark Mantis]

It sounds as if there is a TSR or some other program refusing to shut down and Windows is still waiting for it.

[F5BJR]

*
You can use DOS command :

shutdown -r -t1 ( restart ,  t1 = 1 second )

shutdown - s -t 1 ( stop , t1 = 1 second )

Pierre