Possible failed HDD on a RAID 5

[Duke{CLR}]

My original build PC that the wife uses wont boot into windows. During the post I get two red messages. The first says error then the second says degraded. I then hit F10 to get into the menu when it shows that a drive on port 1.1 has an error. I also notice in this menu that there is an option to rebuild an array.

The last time I had to do this I was able to rebuild it in windows and the problem turned out to be a loose cable. I checked the cables and they appear fine and I can't get windows to boot.

The MB is an EVGA 780i and I'm using the on board RAID controller.

I thought I would replace the HDD and see if I can rebuild the array from the BIOS menu. I this how it works?

I was also wondering if there were some way to get into windows by unplugging that HDD to bypass the error.

I also wonder if there is a way to tes the HDD to see if it is bad or not.

TIA

Duke

[Dead...Again]

I thought with RAID5 you had enough redundancy that you would still be able to boot WIndows if one of the drives went bad.

[Duke{CLR}]

I thought with RAID5 you had enough redundancy that you would still be able to boot WIndows if one of the drives went bad.

Me to. Windows starts then in reboots and this loop will continue until I hit the power button.

[Duke{CLR}]

If I end up replacing this thing can I put any old HDD in it's place? This one has the same capacity but only 8Mb buffer where the other one had 16Mb. Its also a .12 drive instead of a .10

Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3250318AS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

[Zantheus]

I believe you can put the old drive in...however, they do suggest identical drives in a RAID 5. It should work though

[Duke{CLR}]

Well the new ones have 8Mb or 32Mb so they don't have the identical one.

I also am worried that it may not be repairable due to the fact that windows wont even boot with the degraded array. I think I may put the broken drive in my current machine and test it.

[Duke{CLR}]

I think the RAID got completely borked up and I'm going to have to reinstall windows. At this point the RAID says its in rebuild mode but it will not boot into windows and the fact that it would not boot before tells me that it is toast.

To reinstall I have to load XP then Upgrade to Vista then there is a chance the data is gone anyway. I may just install vista without activating it to try to get a restore point that is on an external HDD and try to grab whatever data I can form that. Then install Win7 64n which I have wanted to upgrade this rig to. I OEM version along with a HDD and install that. Heck I think I could use my Win7 disk here and just not activate it until the one I order arrives.

I think I'm done with RAID 5 because the hassle of setting it up isn't worth the time it if it doesn't work.

[Zantheus]

Sorry to hear that Duke....how many drives do you have in the array? If you have only 2 or 3, maybe try a simple RAID 0 or 1 instead of a 5. RAID 5 is really only useful when you have over 3 drives

[Duke{CLR}]

I had 3 drive going and I think one failed but when it went to caused another one to show as failed which I have read can happen. I am installing Vista on a Caviar green drive that I just bought at BB. I will try to rebuild the array to get the pictures that we want then I will install Win7 64 which I have been wanting to get for awhile. Upgrading the upgrade version of Vista 32 is a pITA so I will buy 2 Gb of ram and a OEM copy of Windows 7 64 home premium and my wife will be happy with it.

[mapes]

Ideally you should have been able to power down and replace the faulty drive. Unless two drives went.... You should have notice a performance drop..

[Duke{CLR}]

Ideally you should have been able to power down and replace the faulty drive. Unless two drives went.... You should have notice a performance drop..

That is what happened the first time I had an issue and I was able to rebuild the array but this time it would not boot into windows that's why I think I'm out of luck.

I ran diagnostics on the drive that was supposed to have failed and it showed no errors so I tried to rebuild it with that drive but at some point during the rebuilding the screen goes black and the computer locks up. I may still try to buy another drive to see if it can be rebuilt.

This machine has had problems recovering from the sleep mode and has locked up many times. I had turned off the sleep mode for a long time but turned it on before I left on my last trip because I hate having all the fans running all week. I think that it may have locked up and caused the issue with the RAID.