New Computer - RAID Issue

[Brassman101]

I just finished assembling this new build:

(See attached PDF for details)

I had the 4x 250gb SATA3.0gb drives in a raid 5 array, picked it up fine first boot, installed XP 32bit Pro, did an automatic install of the motherboard chipset drivers from the CD, it didn't recognize any USB devices afterwards..

No biggy, reinstalled windows a second time and just manually installed the drivers i needed to clear up the hardware list in Computer Management. I installed the NIC (onboard) next, just fine, rebooted no problems. Then i installed the drivers for the Sound Blaster card, rebooted and it was stuck on the screen for recognizing the SATA drives on the motherboard. First time, no big deal, just rebooted figuring a fluke... no fluke. Doesn't recognize the fourth drive (or SATA-03 on the board). Tried putting the fourth drive into different slots for SATA on the motherboard, but that didn't resolve anything. When the fourth drive is installed on to any of the 6 available SATA connection slots the computer is stuck on the SATA Drive detection menu.

So some how after just 45 minutes of being powered on the drive is dead? I dont think thats the case, but i'm out of ideas and i've been having fun putting this together all day and now i'm needing a break. Hopefully someone has encountered this issue before, or can shed some light on the subject.

Thanks in advance,

Chris

[glc]

Disconnect the other 3 drives, connect only the problematic drive and see if you can boot it with a SeaTools CD or floppy. If so, zero it out and run diags. If it tests good, reconnect everything the way it was and see if the array will rebuild.

[Brassman101]

The device isn't even detected by the SATA AHCI BIOS screen which loads immediatly after the splash screen. No matter what option i pick there i cannot bypass this screen. The error reads:

Serial ATA AHCI BIOS, Version iSrc 1.07 08042006
Copyright (c) 2003-2006 Intel Corporation
** This version supports only Hard Disk and CDROM drivers **
Please Wait. This will take a few seconds.

..........
Controller Bus#00, Device#1F, Function#02: 06 Ports, 01 Devices
Port-00: No device Detected
Port-01: No device Detected
_



No matter what port i plug the questionable drive into the bios freezes when going to read it. In that example it's plugged in by itself as you said, and it's in Port-03.

I cant even get to the screen to boot from CD by the way... this screen is hanging the bios and not booting.

[glc]

Sounds like a dead drive to me. Does it at least boot through that with the other 3 drives connected?

[Brassman101]

Yeap... it's quite unusual thou since it came up just fine for the first 2 times i installed XP on the array with all 4 drives in it. Then it just dies after 2 hours of use max? Thats why i figured i'd ask since it's unlikely that it was the case.... but... thats the life of IT...

Glad the warranty is more than 48 hours!

Chris

[glc]

Seagate warranty is 5 years. I've seen hard drives fail within 8 hours. It's so new, RMA it to Newegg, less hassles than dealing with Seagate.

The good news is this - when you replace it, you *should* be able to rebuild the array without starting over.

[Brassman101]

As the saying goes... Kid in a candy store... i just rebuilt the array already as a 500ish GB raid5 with the 3 drives... probably buy 3 more just because if they can fit behind the monstrous video card and make some storage space.

I've never seen a drive go in 2 hours or even remotely close... but those are the breaks i guess.

Thanks for bouncing some ideas around.

[glc]

A 3 drive RAID 5 is not good. There's no room for error and it won't perform well. You need 4 or more. I usually build a RAID 5 with 5 drives - 4 in array and a hotspare. You need to see if your controller supports hotspare before you try that.