Help rebuild SATA Mirrored Pair
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From: Dead Dead Money on 9 Jul 2007 09:31 I have an Asus P4G8X motherboard with Silicon Image 3112a Controller and I installed a set of new SATA hard drives a few weeks ago as a mirrored pair - everything worked fine. (Only drives in the system.) Yesterday when booting up I got an error, "incomplete raid set" then before I could react the system booted into Windows XP Pro. I restarted the system and hit ctrl S to get to the RAID Configuration Utility, selected the option to rebuild the mirrored set. Selected the option for offlinerebuild and entered Y to start. Nothing appeared to happen but I let it go for a few hours but nothing happened. Checked around and found that there should be some indication of percentage that was complete via a progress meter but it never even appeared. I updated the RAID utility to what I think is the latest version, dated 2003 and tried again - no difference nothing happened. I updated the BIOS to the latest version I could find - Rev 1006 and tried again - still nothing. I tried the option for onlinerebuild - still nothing. The utility shows Drive 0 Current and Drive 1 Rebuild The computer will boot into Windows and appears to run normally with the exception of the drive. Any help would be greatly appreciated! TIA
From: Arno Wagner on 10 Jul 2007 09:53 Previously Dead Dead Money <DeadDeadMoney(a)nowhere.com> wrote: > I have an Asus P4G8X motherboard with Silicon Image 3112a Controller > and I installed a set of new SATA hard drives a few weeks ago as a > mirrored pair - everything worked fine. (Only drives in the system.) > Yesterday when booting up I got an error, "incomplete raid set" then > before I could react the system booted into Windows XP Pro. > I restarted the system and hit ctrl S to get to the RAID Configuration > Utility, selected the option to rebuild the mirrored set. Selected the > option for offlinerebuild and entered Y to start. Nothing appeared to > happen but I let it go for a few hours but nothing happened. > Checked around and found that there should be some indication of > percentage that was complete via a progress meter but it never even > appeared. > I updated the RAID utility to what I think is the latest version, > dated 2003 and tried again - no difference nothing happened. > I updated the BIOS to the latest version I could find - Rev 1006 and > tried again - still nothing. > I tried the option for onlinerebuild - still nothing. > The utility shows Drive 0 Current and Drive 1 Rebuild > The computer will boot into Windows and appears to run normally with > the exception of the drive. > Any help would be greatly appreciated! Does your RAID BIOS detect both disks? If not, you need to replace the broken disk before rebuilding. Any disk at least the same size (in sectors, one with the same number og GBs meu be a bit smalle) should work. Arno
From: Dead Dead Money on 10 Jul 2007 13:19 On 10 Jul 2007 13:53:17 GMT, Arno Wagner <me(a)privacy.net> wrote: >Previously Dead Dead Money <DeadDeadMoney(a)nowhere.com> wrote: >> I have an Asus P4G8X motherboard with Silicon Image 3112a Controller >> and I installed a set of new SATA hard drives a few weeks ago as a >> mirrored pair - everything worked fine. (Only drives in the system.) > >> Yesterday when booting up I got an error, "incomplete raid set" then >> before I could react the system booted into Windows XP Pro. > >> I restarted the system and hit ctrl S to get to the RAID Configuration >> Utility, selected the option to rebuild the mirrored set. Selected the >> option for offlinerebuild and entered Y to start. Nothing appeared to >> happen but I let it go for a few hours but nothing happened. > >> Checked around and found that there should be some indication of >> percentage that was complete via a progress meter but it never even >> appeared. > >> I updated the RAID utility to what I think is the latest version, >> dated 2003 and tried again - no difference nothing happened. > >> I updated the BIOS to the latest version I could find - Rev 1006 and >> tried again - still nothing. > >> I tried the option for onlinerebuild - still nothing. > >> The utility shows Drive 0 Current and Drive 1 Rebuild > >> The computer will boot into Windows and appears to run normally with >> the exception of the drive. > >> Any help would be greatly appreciated! > >Does your RAID BIOS detect both disks? If not, you need to replace >the broken disk before rebuilding. Any disk at least the same >size (in sectors, one with the same number og GBs meu be a bit smalle) >should work. > >Arno Hi Arno, thanks for the reply. Yes both drives show up when booting and in the RAID Utility (crtl S during bootup) Interestingly while searching the Asus site I found someone with a differently model motherboard who, seemingly, has the same problem - "incomplete raid set" and when attempting to rebuild, no progress meter. (no reply to either of us from Asus LOL) Does the "incomplete raid set" typically mean that the system is not seeing one of the drives? (I'm a total noob on RAID but this is what I suspect your question implied...) Thanks again for your reply!
From: Arno Wagner on 10 Jul 2007 13:37 Previously Dead Dead Money <DeadDeadMoney(a)nowhere.com> wrote: > On 10 Jul 2007 13:53:17 GMT, Arno Wagner <me(a)privacy.net> wrote: >>Previously Dead Dead Money <DeadDeadMoney(a)nowhere.com> wrote: >>> I have an Asus P4G8X motherboard with Silicon Image 3112a Controller >>> and I installed a set of new SATA hard drives a few weeks ago as a >>> mirrored pair - everything worked fine. (Only drives in the system.) >> >>> Yesterday when booting up I got an error, "incomplete raid set" then >>> before I could react the system booted into Windows XP Pro. >> >>> I restarted the system and hit ctrl S to get to the RAID Configuration >>> Utility, selected the option to rebuild the mirrored set. Selected the >>> option for offlinerebuild and entered Y to start. Nothing appeared to >>> happen but I let it go for a few hours but nothing happened. >> >>> Checked around and found that there should be some indication of >>> percentage that was complete via a progress meter but it never even >>> appeared. >> >>> I updated the RAID utility to what I think is the latest version, >>> dated 2003 and tried again - no difference nothing happened. >> >>> I updated the BIOS to the latest version I could find - Rev 1006 and >>> tried again - still nothing. >> >>> I tried the option for onlinerebuild - still nothing. >> >>> The utility shows Drive 0 Current and Drive 1 Rebuild >> >>> The computer will boot into Windows and appears to run normally with >>> the exception of the drive. >> >>> Any help would be greatly appreciated! >> >>Does your RAID BIOS detect both disks? If not, you need to replace >>the broken disk before rebuilding. Any disk at least the same >>size (in sectors, one with the same number og GBs meu be a bit smalle) >>should work. >> >>Arno > Hi Arno, thanks for the reply. > Yes both drives show up when booting and in the RAID Utility (crtl S > during bootup) > Interestingly while searching the Asus site I found someone with a > differently model motherboard who, seemingly, has the same problem - > "incomplete raid set" and when attempting to rebuild, no progress > meter. (no reply to either of us from Asus LOL) > Does the "incomplete raid set" typically mean that the system is not > seeing one of the drives? (I'm a total noob on RAID but this is what > I suspect your question implied...) It implies that one drive is missing from the RAID set. The reason can be that it has been kicked from the set due to it having misbehaved (errors, long answering delay) or it can have failed to be detected. Any decent RAID cpntroller will give you a report on why the drive is missing (although I suspect that these ElCheapo controllers do not). So the next thing you should do is to find out why the drive was removed from the RAID. For this you should first identify which drive forms the (now one disk) RAID1 array and which one is the kicked one. Then you should get the SMART attributes from the kicked one. If it is fine, then you should be able to add it to the existing RAID and rebuild. If it is not fine, you need to replace it before rebuilding. BTW, you are running without redundancy at the moment, I hope your backups are current... Arno
From: Dead Dead Money on 10 Jul 2007 14:43
On 10 Jul 2007 17:37:27 GMT, Arno Wagner <me(a)privacy.net> wrote: >Previously Dead Dead Money <DeadDeadMoney(a)nowhere.com> wrote: >> On 10 Jul 2007 13:53:17 GMT, Arno Wagner <me(a)privacy.net> wrote: > >>>Previously Dead Dead Money <DeadDeadMoney(a)nowhere.com> wrote: >>>> I have an Asus P4G8X motherboard with Silicon Image 3112a Controller >>>> and I installed a set of new SATA hard drives a few weeks ago as a >>>> mirrored pair - everything worked fine. (Only drives in the system.) >>> >>>> Yesterday when booting up I got an error, "incomplete raid set" then >>>> before I could react the system booted into Windows XP Pro. >>> >>>> I restarted the system and hit ctrl S to get to the RAID Configuration >>>> Utility, selected the option to rebuild the mirrored set. Selected the >>>> option for offlinerebuild and entered Y to start. Nothing appeared to >>>> happen but I let it go for a few hours but nothing happened. >>> >>>> Checked around and found that there should be some indication of >>>> percentage that was complete via a progress meter but it never even >>>> appeared. >>> >>>> I updated the RAID utility to what I think is the latest version, >>>> dated 2003 and tried again - no difference nothing happened. >>> >>>> I updated the BIOS to the latest version I could find - Rev 1006 and >>>> tried again - still nothing. >>> >>>> I tried the option for onlinerebuild - still nothing. >>> >>>> The utility shows Drive 0 Current and Drive 1 Rebuild >>> >>>> The computer will boot into Windows and appears to run normally with >>>> the exception of the drive. >>> >>>> Any help would be greatly appreciated! >>> >>>Does your RAID BIOS detect both disks? If not, you need to replace >>>the broken disk before rebuilding. Any disk at least the same >>>size (in sectors, one with the same number og GBs meu be a bit smalle) >>>should work. >>> >>>Arno > > >> Hi Arno, thanks for the reply. > >> Yes both drives show up when booting and in the RAID Utility (crtl S >> during bootup) > >> Interestingly while searching the Asus site I found someone with a >> differently model motherboard who, seemingly, has the same problem - >> "incomplete raid set" and when attempting to rebuild, no progress >> meter. (no reply to either of us from Asus LOL) > >> Does the "incomplete raid set" typically mean that the system is not >> seeing one of the drives? (I'm a total noob on RAID but this is what >> I suspect your question implied...) > >It implies that one drive is missing from the RAID set. The reason >can be that it has been kicked from the set due to it having misbehaved >(errors, long answering delay) or it can have failed to be detected. >Any decent RAID cpntroller will give you a report on why the drive >is missing (although I suspect that these ElCheapo controllers do >not). > >So the next thing you should do is to find out why the drive was >removed from the RAID. For this you should first identify which drive >forms the (now one disk) RAID1 array and which one is the kicked >one. Then you should get the SMART attributes from the kicked one. > >If it is fine, then you should be able to add it to the existing >RAID and rebuild. If it is not fine, you need to replace it >before rebuilding. > >BTW, you are running without redundancy at the moment, I hope your >backups are current... > >Arno Hi Arno, Based on your reply about the drive missing I tried swapping out the data cable on the "missing" drive and it came back up! I guess it is time to search out some QUALITY SATA cables... One last question, hopefully. When the system rebooted without errors after I replaced the cable I checked the RAID configuration utility and it showed the drive back in action. I thought I would go ahead and try to rebuild the array just to make sure the drives were really synced up however it wouldn't let me do it. My question is would the drives "automagically" resync themselves? I didn't purposely change any data files during the time the one drive was dead however I figured some system files (swap file, browser history etc) would have changed just during the times I rebooted and surfed around looking for possible solutions. Thanks for all your help, it is greatly appreciated! |