Qui-Gon John
04-20-07, 07:18 AM
I was helping someone yesterday who had a RAID 1 Mirroring issue. I know a bit about RAID, but am no expert.
A. At first his PC would not boot, said something like please insert a boot device and reboot.
B. I opened it and reseated both HDD's power & SATA cables.
C. Now on boot, we got the RAID Configuration and went into the Configuration Progam, INTEL. It showed the array volume and said it was DEGRADED. It showed 1 HDD as NORMAL and the other with ERRORS. We called the tech who built his computer and setup his RAID. He told us just buy a replacement HDD and then we should be able to repair the array, with the replacement HDD.
D. Got the replacement HDD, installed it. Now in the RAID Configuration Utility it showed the original RAID Volume, 1 HDD as NORMAL the other as MISSING. It also showed a non-RAID HDD, (the new one we put in). HEre's the kicker. There was no menu option available to put this new HDD into the Volume and repair the array. Our choices were:
1. CREATE RAID VOLUME. This was not viable as it was to make an entire new array and said there were not enough disks.
2. DELETE RAID VOLUME. This option said it would destroy all the data on the existing drives, not an option to be taken at this point.
3. REVERT TO NON-RAID DISKS. This option also sais it would destroy all the data on the existing drives.
4. EXIT - just exited the RAID Configuration Utility and we get the unable to boot screen.
There seemed to be no options to repair the array using the new HDD. So it seems to me, the whole point of having RAID 1 Mirroring, for system redundancy was pointless.
Any ideas? I have never seen RAID be an easy way to get your backup data except on a server with RAID-5 and hot-swapple HDD's, where I did see a drive be rebuilt after installing the replacement. But on a 2 drive, mirrored array, it doesn't seem to work as advertised.
A. At first his PC would not boot, said something like please insert a boot device and reboot.
B. I opened it and reseated both HDD's power & SATA cables.
C. Now on boot, we got the RAID Configuration and went into the Configuration Progam, INTEL. It showed the array volume and said it was DEGRADED. It showed 1 HDD as NORMAL and the other with ERRORS. We called the tech who built his computer and setup his RAID. He told us just buy a replacement HDD and then we should be able to repair the array, with the replacement HDD.
D. Got the replacement HDD, installed it. Now in the RAID Configuration Utility it showed the original RAID Volume, 1 HDD as NORMAL the other as MISSING. It also showed a non-RAID HDD, (the new one we put in). HEre's the kicker. There was no menu option available to put this new HDD into the Volume and repair the array. Our choices were:
1. CREATE RAID VOLUME. This was not viable as it was to make an entire new array and said there were not enough disks.
2. DELETE RAID VOLUME. This option said it would destroy all the data on the existing drives, not an option to be taken at this point.
3. REVERT TO NON-RAID DISKS. This option also sais it would destroy all the data on the existing drives.
4. EXIT - just exited the RAID Configuration Utility and we get the unable to boot screen.
There seemed to be no options to repair the array using the new HDD. So it seems to me, the whole point of having RAID 1 Mirroring, for system redundancy was pointless.
Any ideas? I have never seen RAID be an easy way to get your backup data except on a server with RAID-5 and hot-swapple HDD's, where I did see a drive be rebuilt after installing the replacement. But on a 2 drive, mirrored array, it doesn't seem to work as advertised.