Raid 5 volume check

[fpoitras]

All right. Here is the problem. I have been running Windows XP with a Raid 5 array consisting of three WD disks for a year with no problems.

This morning, WinXP will not boot. The machine shows me the screen with different restart options (boot normally, last good config, etc.), but none of them work and it always comes back to this screen.

I wanted to check the Raid 5 array, so I opened the Intel Matrix Storage Manager Option ROM and all three disks appear as Member Disk (0), but the volume status shows "Verify". Before I try anything else, I would like to check the Raid5 volume status. Is there a DOS application to do this safely?

I would also welcome any advice to help me get out of this problem and, if possible, without any data loss (I do have a backup, but it is two weeks old and I would love to recover the data).

Thanks in advance

FP

 

[xxjudgmentxx]

All right. Here is the problem. I have been running Windows XP with a Raid 5 array consisting of three WD disks for a year with no problems.

This morning, WinXP will not boot. The machine shows me the screen with different restart options (boot normally, last good config, etc.), but none of them work and it always comes back to this screen.

I wanted to check the Raid 5 array, so I opened the Intel Matrix Storage Manager Option ROM and all three disks appear as Member Disk (0), but the volume status shows "Verify". Before I try anything else, I would like to check the Raid5 volume status. Is there a DOS application to do this safely?

I would also welcome any advice to help me get out of this problem and, if possible, without any data loss (I do have a backup, but it is two weeks old and I would love to recover the data).

Thanks in advance

FP

well it says you should verify it....so do that (in the RAID BIOS there should be an option to verify, this is pre-boot of course). it isn't going to erase anything, itll just go over the entire RAID and make sure everything is ok.

 

[fpoitras]

Precisely, there does not seem to be an option for verifying the volume. The RAID Bios options are : Create Raid Volume, Delete Raid Volume, Reset Disks to Non-Raid, and Exit.

 

[rozar]

Normally if you had a RAID problem it would cause a situation where you would not have a disk or volume to boot from. Meaning you would not see the windows screen with safe mode, last known good, etc. If you are seeing this then most likely your RAID volume is intact and not having problems. This sounds more like a software issue. If windows is corrupted you could do a repair install. There are of course other options to get the data back but windows not booting is not likely a RAID problem.

 

[fpoitras]

Thanks for the reply. This is somewhat a relief. I did a few checks within the XP CD Recover Console, and one of the volume came up with "unrecoverable errors". Would the data be safe with a repair install? What would be the other options to get the data back?

 

[xxjudgmentxx]

Thanks for the reply. This is somewhat a relief. I did a few checks within the XP CD Recover Console, and one of the volume came up with "unrecoverable errors". Would the data be safe with a repair install? What would be the other options to get the data back?

if you can get into windows, the Intel Storage Matrix software should also be able to "verify" the RAID. I've verified RAIDs both ways in the past so I'm not really sure why there isn't an option for you to do it in the RAID BIOS options.

 

[chunkymonster]

Normally if you had a RAID problem it would cause a situation where you would not have a disk or volume to boot from. Meaning you would not see the windows screen with safe mode, last known good, etc. If you are seeing this then most likely your RAID volume is intact and not having problems. This sounds more like a software issue. If windows is corrupted you could do a repair install. There are of course other options to get the data back but windows not booting is not likely a RAID problem.

I agree that this is most likely a software issue, even if the array were degraded and one drive went kablooey, windows should still boot off the RAID5. I've run a 3 disk RAID5 array in a degraded state (just 2 good disks) without issues and certainly long enough to copy/back-up data.

Yeah, my guess would be that your issue is more a WinXP/software issue that an actual problem with the array itself.

You could try a repair from the XP install disk...

 

[cyberjock]

I'm with the concensus. With 8x1TB drives on a RAID-5.. I have removed and reinstalled hard drives just to prove to myself the system could recover before I started copying data. I wanted to be absolutely sure before I add 7TB of data to the array. It's probably a windows problem, not a hardware issue.

 

[fpoitras]

No luck with the XP CD Install Repair. It does not recognize any hard disk or RAID volume for the installation.

 

[rozar]

The other options I mentioned are a little more complicated. Such as adding in a drive or possibly even a different controller with drive and installing windows on it and then adding your drives nack to the system so you would boot off 1 disk and then in that version of windows you could see your RAID array and transfer data.

You could also boot from a "boot cd", linux has a few different ones or use bart PE but you would need a driver injected for your RAID controller for it to be able to see the array. (see more complicated)

Or you could just do a repair install with your windows install CD. This works about 95% of the time in my experience.

If you have never done a repair install just google it. Im sure there is a wiki somewhere with a step by step but its not hard at all.



EDIT

No luck with the XP CD Install Repair. It does not recognize any hard disk or RAID volume for the installation.

You did use an "f6" driver right? If not go to your motherboards webpage and download the RAID driver for windows.

 

[fpoitras]

You did use an "f6" driver right? If not go to your motherboards webpage and download the RAID driver for windows.


I had not done that. I did and it made the XP installation program see the Raid volume. From there, I was able to run CHKDSK and repair the boot partition...

THANKS !

François