Data Failure

[Scorpiоn]

Forgive me if the title is nonsensical, as I've got too much swirling through my head right now.  As luck would have it, my RAID (striped) has failed.  I highly doubt this is a hardware failure, as the array is still detected by XP setup - though I haven't actually done any reinstallation yet.

Long question short: Is there any way to recover data?  I already know the answer, but 'tis a shot in the dark.

[Weather_Man]

If you cannot rebuild the RAID, then no. Bits of a single file are stored on both drives, so you cannot retrieve them without them working together.

If the array is still intact, (it is recognized in BIOS and during OS setup), then you can use the Windows Repair function to reinstall the OS while keeping the files and programs installed. This simply overwrites the existing system files from the disk. If the OS has failed, this method can save your data allowing you to make backups and then reinstall the OS after formatting and rebuilding the array.

[Scorpiоn]

Hmm...  Interesting to say the least.  I haven't really done anything to the master PC since looking at the RAID status yesterday.  Here I go to repair XP, and now the RAID is healthy.  XP never gets past the loading screen, however.  Go figure.

I shall see what can be done.

[congo]

Check your BIOS options, maybe there was a reset.

[NicksFXHouse]

There is RAID data recovery software but it is expensive and with any RAID-0 failure, usually will not provide 100% data recovery. The professional software can inmany cases recover 80%+ data from a damaged RAID-0 array assuming you have not rebuilt the array.

If your data is not worth 300+ USD to try the software, just start over.

For a RAID-0 array to bork with no overclock or power surge involved I would be leary one of the drives is defective.

Also, verify the cables are indeed secure.

[Scorpiоn]

It seems whatever happened affected the most important parts: my D and E partitions.  Oh well.  I'm reformatting so often that this is just one more onto a huge tally.  I gotta thank my lucky stars I had some critical info backed up, or bad things would happen to me.

Going backwards through time, all this happened because of a blue screen that never went away.  The blue screen was reporting a memory dump or something similar.  I got a blue screen because I closed a program (Switch Off).  Why I got a blue screen from that I don't know, however my system had been acting odd.  I would like to attibute it to the RollerCoaster Tycoon (which doesn't co-operate with XP 100% of the time) I had installed a week before or the fact that my parents just restart my system a lot (not through XP either).

Moral of the story?  Bad luck sucks.

I remember when I first set up my RAID, it was very much hit and miss.  I'm getting errors again now that I made a new array.  Of course now I have to consider the fact that I might have a disk error.  But on moth SATAs?  Checking BIOS and RAID setting, but haven't gotten anywhere.

RAID detection always brings an error:

Detecting array ...
0 ERROR NVIDIA STRIPE 465.77G
1 ERROR NVIDIA STRIPE 465.77G

Detecting array ...
0 ERROR NVIDIA STRIPE 465.77G
1 ERROR NVIDIA JBOD 465.77G

Then it really stops.

Verifying DMI Pool Data ............
DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

It nevers stops... Sometimes I wish I would wake up and find everything I ever needed on download.com without some bozo asking $30 for it and everything worked.  But then I realize that the terrorists win.

[NicksFXHouse]

[quote]It seems whatever happened affected the most important parts: my D and E partitions.

[congo]

You partitioned a RAID-0 array??

O M G !

[Scorpiоn]

Everything I have ever read has indicated RAID 0 offers combined space, greater speed whereas RAID 1 offers greater security.  Spanning is kind of pointless.

I have also been pondering whether to format on a RAID 0 again.  It's why I'm here in the first place, but I've also read what happened to me is relatively rare.  I'm kind of leaning more and more towards RAID 1.  Selecting mirroring does nothing to solve the problem though.

On the other note...

I'm now sure it's a RAID setup problem.  It could be the BIOS, but I doubt it.  I whipped out my old IDE drive (same 250GB Hitachi drive, except IDE) installed Windows on that, and I had a myriad of drives because of the three partitions on the IDE and the mess of partitions between the broken RAID (only the WINDOWS directory was intact, which was useless to me), the point being the drives were actually being detected and displayed.  Now that I keep trying to recreate the array, well... I'm not getting anywhere. But at least I can rule out disks gone kaputt.

[Scorpiоn]

Well I suppose it's settled then.  'Twas a hardware failure.  Another blue screen whilst doing lots of nothing in XP.

MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION

Stop: Ox0000009C (0x00000004, 0x8053f0f0, 0x8053f0f0, 0xb2000000, 0x00070f0f)

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=329284

What's the best manner to go isolating and testing the faulty hardware?  I wouldn't be surprised if it was the SATAs, however.

[NicksFXHouse]

[quote]


O M G !

[NicksFXHouse]

1.
After the OS and ALL programs and files are installed, Using the WINDOWS disk defragmenter, run the analyze feature. View the report. In that report you will see listed the AVERAGE FILE SIZE. In my case that is 233kb.

2.
The average file size (in my case 233kb) is divided by the number of drives in the array. So my case 233kb/2 = 116.5kb

That number can be larger than it should be because a few huge movie or ISO files can drive it up. That is why it is ALWAYS best to have a separate drive in your system which is dedicated to storage of ISO

[NicksFXHouse]

[quote]Well I suppose it's settled then.

[congo]

in the future Windows WILL install but will REFUSE to boot on any cluster size other than 4kb.

Thanks for the detailed reply NickN.

By what you said above, do you mean future operating systems only or updates to the current OS's ?

I just copied my IL2 game folder (3gb+) to the same directory on my Raid array, it took 2 mins 40 secs.

I copied the same folder from my raid array to one of my 80gb ata 100 seagate drives in 2mins 50secs.

I copied the same folder from my ata 100 seagate drive to the same directory on that drive and the copy went for 10 minutes or so.

Is there any explanation for that behaviour, because quite frankly, I'm a little baffled ?

[NicksFXHouse]

Thanks for the detailed reply NickN.

By what you said above, do you mean future operating systems only or updates to the current OS's ?

WindowsXP x64, Windows Vista and anything else MS produces will not boot on anything other than 4k clusters.

I just copied my IL2 game folder (3gb+) to the same directory on my Raid array, it took 2 mins 40 secs.

I copied the same folder from my raid array to one of my 80gb ata 100 seagate drives in 2mins 50secs.

I copied the same folder from my ata 100 seagate drive to the same directory on that drive and the copy went for 10 minutes or so.

Is there any explanation for that behaviour, because quite frankly, I'm a little baffled ?

Specifically, what behavior do you mean?

Did you reboot between each pass? If not, some of what you see could be because some of the files remain in PM or page. You must reboot between tests to assure the PM is clear for any type of test to be valid or have merit.

Copy/Paste is different than Cut/Paste. Do not mix tests which copies files to another drive or directory with tests that moves files to another drive or directory. Although they are similar in method, they should have distinctly different properties to their timed results.