RAID 1 degraded Help to repair

ThiraThira
edited April 2007 in Hardware
Hi all. Thanks in advance.
My daughter's computer ahs a problem with the RAID.
Her computer:
Asus K8N motherboard
Windows XP Pro
RAID 1 with 2 WD 80 GB SATA HDD.

In the RAID BIOS the HDD originally set to boot now shows "DEGRADED". The second HDD in the RAID says "ERROR".
Am I able to salvage one of the drives? I actually have two identicle WD 80 GB SATA HHD's in my spare parts. I removed the degraded HDD and added one of the extra HDD but when I tried to rebuild the RAID nothing happened. I am kind og a newbie when it comes to rebuilding the RAID array.
If my RAID is dead, can I salvage files from the ariginal HDD's of the RAID array. She has her documents and photos there and they are important to her.
Thank you

Comments

  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited April 2007
    First things first, don't panic! :)

    The machine will still function with one drive missing from a RAID-1 array. This is just the reason/situation why they are so useful. I would suggest putting one of the working drives in as another non RAID hard drive. Backup EVERYTHING that you need to keep safe onto this drive and then take that drive out. Store it somewhere safe, just to be sure :)

    Then you can get into the PC bios to reattempt the RAID rebuild as you did before, safe in the knowledge that if something goes wrong... nothing is lost! :)
  • ThiraThira
    edited April 2007
    Shorty, Thanks for the interest. There are only two SATA connections on this motherboard. Both of these are used by the RAID 1 array which has failed. I do have a third drive for back up on the IDE controller (My kid is 11- she didn't quite understand the purpose) So I have a couple of questions.
    First, which HDD do you think is bad? The one that the RAID BIOS labels "DEGRADED" or the one the RAID BIOS labels as "ERROR".
    Two, if I remove one of the HDD, do I have to change the settings in either the RAID BIOS or the motherboard BIOS or both. The motherboard BIOS has the system booting from the RAID drive right now. Also, the system does not boot into windows as it is.

    And lastly, how do I do this when I have only two SATA connections on this mobo.

    Thanks, I apologize for my newbie knowledge in repairing RAID array. I do appreciate your help.
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited April 2007
    That's fine and everyone has these mind fields at some point :)

    The one labelled "DEGRADED" is the working drive. The one labelled "ERROR" is the faulty one. It must stay booting from the array to be able to boot even from the singular device :)

    The system does not boot into Windows since the drive failure? Do you have definitely have another identical SATA drive to hand that can replace the faulty one?

    The manual provided by ASUS should have instructions on how to rebuild the array but I will see if I can find something on the site to help :)
  • ThiraThira
    edited April 2007
    The system definately does not boot into windows. I do have two identical WD 80 GB SATA HDD's in my spare parts. Tomorrow I will remove the "ERROR drive and see what happens. I do not have the manual. The Internet manual doesn't give a lot of info on how to rebuild the drive.
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited April 2007
    So I have started to discover. The manual I dug out from the internet is absolutely rubbish! :(

    I would suggest taking the faulty disk out and seeing how the machine acts first. The machine should boot as tha idea behind RAID-1 is a drive to fail/removed and it to carry on.
  • ThiraThira
    edited April 2007
    Shorty, Thanks for your help. Believe it or not I have made progress thanks to your help.
    I have found the following:
    In the motherboard BIOS,
    Primary Master as RAID = Diasbled ( It is the IDE DVD burner)
    Primary Slave as RAID = Diasbled ( nothing here)
    Secondary Master as RAID = Diasbled ( It is the IDE backup HDD)
    Secondary Slave as RAID = Diasbled ( nothing here)
    Third Master as RAID = Enabled ( It is SATA 1 of the RAID 1 array-set as boot in RAID BIOS)
    Fourth Master as RAID = Enabled ( It is SATA 2 of the RAID 1 array)

    I disabled the Third and Fourth Master as RAID, then disconnected the SATA 2 or Fourth Master from the motherboard. No Boot into Windows.

    I then left the Third and Fourth Masters disabled as RAID, disconnected SATA 1 (THIRD Master), and reconnected the SATA 2 ( Fourth Master to the motherboard and booted into Windows XP. All of the files are there.

    The drive labeled Error was OK and the Drive labeled Degraded was bad.

    I still need help.
    I plan to back up her data to the IDE HDD in the computer. I have an identical WD 80 GB SATA HDD that I can replace in the SATA 1 slot (Third Master).
    How do I repair the RAID and properly put it back to a mirrored RAID 1 array? Do I replace the Third Master, and open the motherboard BIOS and enable the Third and Fourth Master as RAID? What happens if the replacement SATA drive I wish to use as the Third master has data on it from previous use (don't care about the data on the replacement drive, just want to know if that would cause a problem in repairing the RAID-I do care about the DATA here)?
    If that is correct what next?


    Thanks so much.
    Thira
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited April 2007
    Excellent news! A cool head prevails :D

    First things first, backup everything now! Just to be sure. Really really sure!

    Then you can replace the drive you have confirmed as failed with a working one.

    I don't have an nVidia board around with a RAID-1 setup, so I will struggle to give clear details on how it should be rebuillt (because it should but appears to not be in this case). Now you know which disk is knackered, take it out and put a working one in it's place. Your data is safely backed up, so no harm no foul. If it simply refuses to rebuild....

    In that case I would suggest:

    Making a driver floppy disk of the RAID drivers if not provided with motherboard

    Cecking again you have everything backed up

    Unplug backup drive for the moment

    Delete the array completely in the BIOS and recreating it with working drives

    You can then safely reinstall a clean install of Windows XP onto it (and you have your driver floppy disk at hand for the "Press F6 to load a third party SCSI or RAID controller)

    Once Windows is installed and working, you can power down to install the backup drive you unplugged earlier ;)

    There is nothing like that nice clean Windows install ya know :cool:
  • ThiraThira
    edited April 2007
    I certainly agree on the clean install, but I would like to first give a try at rebuilding the RAID. ANy advice on how to do this?
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited April 2007
    On that one I will struggle because I don't use nVRaid and no reference system to test the theory on :(

    However.. a little bit of internet research dug up this thread on nVidias own support forums:

    http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=33186&pid=185269&st=0&#entry185269

    The last 3-4 posts of that thread have a method that appeared to work for a member with the same problem as you :)
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