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Need help with my HDDs and RAID

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Whenever I restart my computer, the Intel Matrix Storage Console pops up and says my RAID 0 is failing. I have a Sony Vaio that came with two Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST3160023AS 160GB Hard Drives. One of them is on RAID 1 and the other is on RAID 0 (not sure of the order if that matters). I haven't noticed any loss of data, but my computer does freak out sometimes (weird errors messages, applications restart). I want to know if I need a new hard drive (I kinda want one), what kind I should get, if I can save my files from the failing raid, and how I can make the new hard drive raid 0. Any feedback is helpful. Thank you.

Message edited by omyjosh on 09-13-2007 at 06:48:46 PM

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What drives show in My Computer, what size? Download and run Seatools.

Mike.

Reply to mike99

The only drive is C and it says 291 gb total. That's how it's been since I got it. I dled Seatools but it doesn't work. Whenever I try a test, it says "Unhandled exception has occured in your application." then says some more about clicking continue or quitting and when I continue, Seatools doesn't do anything.

Reply to omyjosh

i guess i dont understand
do you have two hard drives, one in raid 1 and 1 in raid 0?
that doesn't make any sense if that is the case
two hard drives would either be in one raid 1 or one raid 0 configuration.

if i were you and didn't have anything important on the computer i would reinstall windows and put the two drives in a raid 0 or raid 1

Reply to raptorxt

Actually it makes perfect sense.
This is a feature of the Intel Raid Controller.

Example -
The 1st half of each drive could be set to RAID-0.
The 2nd half of each drive could be set to RAID-1.

This way you OS and Programs are on RAID-0 for speed.
Your Data is on RAID-1 for safety.
So if One drive goes, you still have your data but the OS is gone.

Strange but true.
Never used this setup IRL, just what I have read.

Reply to zenmaster

back your files up onto a disk/cd/dvd or another computer via lan connection and reinstall windows

-when you are putting the drives into a raid 0 make sure the hard drive configuration in the BIOS is on raid and not sata
-while booting you should come to a screen that shows the option to go into the RAID BIOS maybe ctrl-f, ctrl-m
-while in the raid bios creat a new array.(the BIOS should have already found the drives) determine wheter you want a raid 0 or raid 1. select one of them and choose your strip size (probably 64) , then hit enter to create the raid array.
-once windows installer comes up press f6 to install the raid drivers which are on a floppy disk. install drivers and continue with installation and you should be good to go.

I would buy two brand new hard drives because SATA drives are extremely inexpensive now. if you do make sure they are the same drives if you are going to put in raid 0.

Message edited by raptorxt on 09-14-2007 at 05:31:52 AM

Reply to raptorxt

@zenmaster

i didn't know that you could do that, but what i am saying is that he has one letter for a drive (C: ) that is showing 290gb
if you did it the way you stated wouldn't you have a C: and/or D: drive
which are both half the total of 290?.

Message edited by raptorxt on 09-13-2007 at 08:56:50 PM

Reply to raptorxt

so if I get new ones, they have to be the same? any suggestions on what they should be? Mine are 7200 rpm now so I want at least that, and I'm going to need more space (320-500gb each?)

Reply to omyjosh

yes they need to be the same

if i was still in sata
i would get 2 x 320gb seagate 7200.10 or 2 x 500gb if you need a lot of space

Message edited by raptorxt on 09-13-2007 at 09:48:51 PM

Reply to raptorxt

you don't have sata anymore? what do you have now?

how do you make an windows install disc?

my computer came with stuff for reconfiguring raid. do i really need to completely reinstall windows?

edit: any ideas for the seatools thing? (doesn't work).

Message edited by omyjosh on 09-14-2007 at 03:13:02 AM

Reply to omyjosh

use your windows cd it's not a disk
the original cd you used to install windows

and if you don't want to reinstall windows your going to need someone that knows how to configure raids after windows is installed and that's not me.

i suggest backing up your data and reinstalling windows
so you have a clean install and a brand new raid array.

i have seagates and i have no idea what seatools even is. so i can't help you with that

I have two 147gb seagate 15.5k SAS drives in a raid 0

Message edited by raptorxt on 09-14-2007 at 05:33:34 AM

Reply to raptorxt

Ok, I'll reinstall. My computer came with XP MC in it though. Isn't there a way to create an install cd using the I386 folder?

Message edited by omyjosh on 09-15-2007 at 05:15:26 AM

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