Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (
More info?)
Hi Tim:
I use the red sata cables that comes with asus mobos ( I have few asus
mobo so I also have few sata cables ). It appears in my case that it
was always at the hd end that's coming off. Anyway, I know there is a
more secure version of cable out there like the one below but I've
never tried them yet since I already got bunch of freebie from the
mobo package. Maybe I should get one and see how it works.
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=316604
"Tim" <Tim@NoSpam.com> wrote:
>I'd keep any eye out for bios (and driver) updates for the mobo as the
>symptoms you describe indicate there is work for the Intel people to do in
>getting their firmware to a desireable state - it should give sensible
>feedback and let you know it is rebuilding with an "I'm still alive and
>working" indicator.
>
>This may take a while, but Intel is usually good on this front. The RAID on
>the ICH5R for example is quite mature now and the biggest issue I suspect is
>the SATA cables. My RAID 1 has failed twice now and twice the failing HDD
>has checked 100% - same one. Second time the supplier refused to replace the
>drive stating it had no flaws in any way. I had checked the drive with
>seatools (seagate drive diagnostics) and it was OK, but the SMART indicated
>some "error" records which I assumed would mean something...
>
>Does anyone have a handy hint for better securing SATA connectors? I am
>loathe to use sticky tape, but anything that won't affect the motherboard,
>is detachable and will improve the connection is surely worth looking at.
>Mind you, this is only a suspicion - I wish I had evidence that the
>connectors are intermittent.
>
>- Tim (Mercury on my laptop).
>
>
>"Don" <don_leeNO_aa_SPAM@telus.net> wrote in message
>news:t6l0j1tc2ip2d16sac7lhreud1puli5fkt@4ax.com...
>> First of all, thank you both Paul and Mercury for taking time to
>> respond to my post.
>>
>> I got everything back last night. Learn a whole lot more of this
>> Matrix raid stuff.
>>
>> I can now say in "normal" situration, if you have fire up the OS after
>> one drive disconnected i.e. making your raid1 out of sync, when fire
>> up the OS after you re-connected the cable, the system will appeared
>> as hang and hdd light is on constantly. As it is basically a software
>> raid, the utility is hard at work trying to re-sync the raid1 disk.
>> The confusing part of this process is the screen will stay at the
>> Window XP logo for up to an hour without any message, depends on the
>> size of your raid1. In my case one of the sata cable is loose even
>> after I "re-connected". So at some point during the recovery process
>> the OS thinks that one of hd, although present, is bad. Making it show
>> up on the Disk Management but not "initialized". So what I did is
>> change both sata cables, and let it sit for an hour and finally logon
>> screen appears again and everything is back to "healthy" again.
>>
>> Was trying to save few bucks and use Raid 0 as interim solution for
>> couple of months, never again!!!
>>
>>
>> "Mercury" <me@spam.com> wrote:
>>
>>>Well, I would have just plugged the cable back in.
>>>Sounds like you have to do a restore.
>>>
>>>With 2 HDD, personally I think the config you have was ummmm suicide in
>>>the
>>>first place.
>>>
>>>Logic:
>>>
>>>No one posts about Matrix (1 that I recall) ==> its either perfect, or no
>>>one is using it. Some how I think it is more probable that people are
>>>going
>>>for simple configs rather than using matrix capabilities (IE 1 x raid,
>>>plain
>>>SATA).
>>>
>>>The combination of a RAID 0 volume *and* a RAID 1 volume on only 2 HDD's
>>>increases complexity and so increases probability of s/w or firmware
>>>failures.
>>>
>>>RAID 0 is not recommended as loss of either volume = loss of all that is
>>>on
>>>the RAID volume. There are limited uses for RAID 0 where it actually
>>>benefits the user.
>>>
>>>It is very important when using RAID to know in advance what to do in
>>>failure scenarios. If you have to rebuild and decide to still use RAID 0,
>>>then you can expect only 1 thing with RAID 0 ==> Loss of everything on the
>>>volume if you don't handle the failure correctly (EG plugging the driver
>>>straight back in without doing anything else). So try the failures -
>>>unplug
>>>one or other drive (this is fine for RAID 1) and learn how the rebuild
>>>process actually works.
>>>
>>>I hpe you have a good backup system...
>>>
>>>As is said by many RAID is no substitute for backups.
>>>
>>>HTH
>>>
>>>"Don" <don_leeNO_aa_SPAM@telus.net> wrote in message
>>>news:ljvti1pvp257013e6mu6r365jibaeu8cif@4ax.com...
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> I have a Windows 2003 Server setup on this mobo using 2 Maxtor 300GB
>>>> drives. The drives are partitioned ( using Intel Matrix Raid ) into 2
>>>> volumes, volume 1 is raid 1 and volume 2 is raid 0. OS is on Raid 1
>>>> volume.
>>>>
>>>> I accidentially disconnected one of the sata cable of a matrix raid
>>>> volume when I was swapping case last night. I didn't even know until
>>>> couple boots into W2K3 Server ( I knew something's wrong, just didn't
>>>> realized cable was disconnected ). Reconnect the cable and ctl-I into
>>>> intel matrix raid bios setup, it found the disconnected drive and and
>>>> I answer "Y" to re-add the drive into the array. The status of raid 0
>>>> is Normal and raid1 "needs to be rebuild in OS". I then boot into W2K3
>>>> ( it took like 30min instead of 2 or 3 btw ), and the Raid 0 ( which
>>>> was assigned as drive G ) disappeared !! When looking at Disk
>>>> Management the Raid 0 volume is there, but "not initialized" and the
>>>> disk initialization wizard automatically fires up. At this point I am
>>>> very reluctant to go ahead with the initialization as I am afraid of
>>>> data damage.
>>>>
>>>> Anybody knows what does this "disk initialization wizard" do to the
>>>> volume? Would it wipe out the data on the drive? It almost sounds
>>>> like the couple of boots into the OS when the raid volume is
>>>> disconnected has fool the OS to think that the Volume is gone. Is
>>>> there a way to copy the Raid 0 stuff to somewhere?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks
>>>
>>
>