How Can I Detach a Degraded Drive

[jnanania]

I have a Raid 1 array. One of the drives shows as degraded. How can I detach it, or shut off the Intel software to avoid system errors?

The PC runs Windows XP and the drives appear to be Western Digital 149 gb drives.

 

[wiinippongamer]

Where does it show as "degraded"?

 

[jnanania]

It shows whenever I restart the computer on the initial splash screen. I have the option to hit Control I to try and rebuild the drive, but that doesn't work, so I assume the drive simply failed. I used the setup program to essentially turn the drive off and that worked fine.

However, though the drive is now disconnected, not surprisingly the Intel Rapid Storage Technology software (which loads upon Windows startup) continues to show a degraded array since it can't locate the mirror drive. So my system tray has a constant warning icon showing.

I am tempted to simply erase the raid array, using the configuration utility, but it warns that doing so would erase all the data on the disc. Since the still-functioning disc is the master disc for my PC, I obviously don't want to do that if in fact the data will be deleted. However, since it is Raid 1, and simply a mirroring system, I wonder if it would in fact delete the data.

Unfortunately the Intel Rapid Store Technology software application doesn't offer any options to resolve the issue. It assumes I will replace the disc but given the hassle factor and the fact that I have a good external backup drive, I doubt I'll do that. At this point, perhaps there really isn't a problem other than the nuisance factor, but if you have any further advice I'd appreciate receiving it. Thank you.

 

[lysinger]

It shows whenever I restart the computer on the initial splash screen. I have the option to hit Control I to try and rebuild the drive, but that doesn't work, so I assume the drive simply failed. I used the setup program to essentially turn the drive off and that worked fine.

However, though the drive is now disconnected, not surprisingly the Intel Rapid Storage Technology software (which loads upon Windows startup) continues to show a degraded array since it can't locate the mirror drive. So my system tray has a constant warning icon showing.

I am tempted to simply erase the raid array, using the configuration utility, but it warns that doing so would erase all the data on the disc. Since the still-functioning disc is the master disc for my PC, I obviously don't want to do that if in fact the data will be deleted. However, since it is Raid 1, and simply a mirroring system, I wonder if it would in fact delete the data.

When a RAID system loses a drive, it will show a degraded message until the faulty drive is replaced and the RAID array is rebuilt.

If you erase the RAID array, you *will* erase the drive and all of its contents. I would recommend against doing this.

I recommend running with the annoying message and ignoring it until you want to upgrade to a larger drive as it seems by your posting that redundancy is not a high priority to you.

That being said, RAID has saved you a lot of inconvenience. If you want to continue with RAID get another 160gb drive and if you can get an identical model to the one you are using, you should have no troubles at all. Many raid card will allow different sizes of drives to work together, but you will only get 160gb of space out of the drive.

 

[jnanania]

Thank you. I will live with the error message and my external backup drive.

 

[jnanania]

Best answer selected by jnanania.