Simviation Forums

HD error #2...

I am not pleased.

I go to boot up my computer, and what do I see?  Degraded Array.  I was considering perhaps rebuilding the array, but if one of the drives have failed, again, then what's the point?  I have two Hitachi 250GB SATAs on a mirrored array, by the way.  Are Hitachi/IBM's prone to failure?

PS: Actually, any thoughts at all?

Well, IBM's were known as "Deathstars".
How do the drives test out individually? mabe it's something else ?

Well, IBM's were known as "Deathstars".

Heh.  Clever.

I can boot to XP and all that, though I don't want to stress the system at all, so I'm not running any games or writing, moving or otherwise altering files until this is sorted.  However, when I try to run Hitachi's disc utility, it says this before ever loading the Drive Fitness Test:

Seek error reading drive B
Abort, Retry, Fail?

To think I had seen the last of the ARF prompt.  ::) Abort and retry don't help, and I didn't even bother with fail.

PS: Actually, I think this might be my fault.  I have a tendency to cold restart my computer in lieu a full shut down at times.  I'll bet I've gone and corrupted something important.  Shucks.

[quote]
Heh.

The hard drive guru hath shown his face.  I bow in reverence.

I don't have a RAID utility.  I believe I have one on some obscure driver disc somewhere, however, as far as I know, everything that that thing did was possible though the MoBo RAID config utility.  Alas, I just uninstalled it.

I was about to check all the power and data connections per your advice, but I just came across the fact that I can boot to Windows and use both drives perfectly.  The catch: The array is split in half.  I had two partitions (I know, I know - I just don't feel like re-installing Windows lately), and now I have four.  I could explain, but I think this depicts it more clearly:

• Pre-Muddle
  
  • Array
    
    • C: Master Core (applications, games, temp etc)
    • D: Media Archives (music, photos, documents etc)
• Post-Muddle
  
  • Disc 1
    
    • C: Master Core
    • D: Media Archives
  • Disc 2
    
    • E: Master Core Clone
    • F: Media Archives Clone

Admittedly, there was nothing on my Media Archives, but that's another story.  So far I haven't changed around any files, except back up some save games should full Windows boot up be a temporary affair.  Also, my reason for posting all this is I then copied some files from My Documents (which I can only assume was looking exlusively at the disc 1 C drive) and copied them to drives D and F, and both copies succeeded.  This can only mean both drives are, physically; mechanically; hardware-wise, top notch.  Thus (I guess) cable connections are all 100%.

Strangeness.

Congo is right.. IBM drives were once known for thier awesome ability to shake, rattle and roll apart.

Y'all have a nasty habit of making serious topics humourous!

[quote]The hard drive guru hath shown his face.

Aye, I am radical in my assesment in reformat necessity, and was considering finally getting around to reformatting with no partitions and adjusting optimal cluster size as you once wrote about before.  I'm also attached to my partitions, and it's hard for me to let them go - I had three before. Alas, I reformat so often I've put it on hold indefinitely; I've grown weary of the whole process.

More to the point, I read though the link you provided, and thusly I'm itching to delete the second array and rebuild via NvRaid, is this adviseable?

PS: My MoBo is a MSI K8N Neo (MS-7030)
PPS: Seeing as how partition magic costs a whopping $50, I'll leave that on hold for now.

[quote]Aye, I am radical in my assesment in reformat necessity, and was considering finally getting around to reformatting with no partitions and adjusting optimal cluster size as you once wrote about before.

Stellar!  It worked! It took forever to rebuild, but it didn't bother me none since I cut the grass and went swimming.  Many thanks good Sir Nick (and Congo too )!

Indeed it was a simple thing to fix.  I once heard a fool repeats his mistakes, a smart man learns from his mistakes, and a genius learns from other people's mistakes.  I am most definitely not a genius; I have to really bugger something up before I learn my lesson. So I guess it's proper shut-downs from now on, eh?

[quote]Stellar!

It actually is on my list of things to do.  But jeebus know's it's hard enough to keep things stable and organized, much less try to improve anything.

I'm still keeping my partition on my laptop.  But that isn't RAID and it's not performance oriented, so it doesn't matter.

A spare hard disk is good, cheap insurance  ;)

Another thing on my list to do. Alas, it all comes down to how much money you can spend.