OK, so the general consensus is:
(WinXP Software RAID == Bad Idea)
I just ordered a hardware RAID card from NewEgg. BUT...I really want to solve this problem, in case it starts up with my other machines. (I have more than one machine with the RAID-5 solution described originally at Toms Hardware [see Ref 1])
Here is my Q:
I just finished my 3rd machine with an install of the WinXP Software RAID-5. (4 new Seagate IDE 400 GB ST3400632A-RK drives) The RAID-5 array built successfully and life was good. I placed all my data on it and life was still good.
BUT, every time I shutdown/restart the machine the volume is not available in "My Computer" because it failed (As reported by the Local Disk Manager (LDM) in Computer management).
I choose to reactivate the volume, it "regenerates" for several hours, I run a chkdsk (as suggested by Windows) on the volume after it is done regenerating (it completes with no errors), and the volume works great until shutdown/restart. After a shutdown/restart the process starts all over again (with a "failed volume" in LDM).
This is the 3rd machine I built with WinXP Software RAID-5, and have never had this problem before - in fact one of my machines recovered very nicely when one of the HDs went bad...a lot of folks trash this RAID, but I have been running the oldest RAID 5 since FEB 2005 with no problems.
Any Ideas?
MB is ASUS P5K (BIOS v 0603)
All 4 Drives are on a SIIG SC-PE4B12-S4 (V1 Hardware - BIOS 1.20) IDE Controller with the ACard ATP865 Chipset
Ref 1:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/1 [...] index.html
(WinXP Software RAID == Bad Idea)
I just ordered a hardware RAID card from NewEgg. BUT...I really want to solve this problem, in case it starts up with my other machines. (I have more than one machine with the RAID-5 solution described originally at Toms Hardware [see Ref 1])
Here is my Q:
I just finished my 3rd machine with an install of the WinXP Software RAID-5. (4 new Seagate IDE 400 GB ST3400632A-RK drives) The RAID-5 array built successfully and life was good. I placed all my data on it and life was still good.
BUT, every time I shutdown/restart the machine the volume is not available in "My Computer" because it failed (As reported by the Local Disk Manager (LDM) in Computer management).
I choose to reactivate the volume, it "regenerates" for several hours, I run a chkdsk (as suggested by Windows) on the volume after it is done regenerating (it completes with no errors), and the volume works great until shutdown/restart. After a shutdown/restart the process starts all over again (with a "failed volume" in LDM).
This is the 3rd machine I built with WinXP Software RAID-5, and have never had this problem before - in fact one of my machines recovered very nicely when one of the HDs went bad...a lot of folks trash this RAID, but I have been running the oldest RAID 5 since FEB 2005 with no problems.
Any Ideas?
MB is ASUS P5K (BIOS v 0603)
All 4 Drives are on a SIIG SC-PE4B12-S4 (V1 Hardware - BIOS 1.20) IDE Controller with the ACard ATP865 Chipset
Ref 1:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/1 [...] index.html