raid 10 intel rapid storage: hardware or software?

[idata]

Got 4 wd greens in raid 10, intel matrix storage manager 8.8 under win7 64bit. Tried the 9.5 driver and had issues so went back to 8.8

Now I've got one drive which repeatedly is reporting as missing or failed. I've rebuilt the array 3 times in the last week, but today every time I mark it as normal its failing again straight away. THe IMSM is so flaky how do i check whether its an actual hardware problem without buying another drive?

Also how do the ports compare to the physical ports so I know which drive to pull out?

Also If I try the 9.5 driver again do I run a risk of losing the existing array (not all data backed up)

Any help appreciated

[idata]

more info:

after 10 mins imsm refreshed drive became "missing hard drive", then go a notification that another hard drive had been connected

could this be a hardware issue? ANyone know how I can check?

[idata]

I'm not aware of any issues like yours with the Intel(R) Matrix Storage Manager 8.8. It seems to me like you have a power issue.

Try connecting your hard drives to different ports on your power supply and look for a power supply calculator online and see if your system is underpowered.

Also, check on the basics, SATA cables, power cables and grounding. Download a test utility from the hard drive manufacturer web site, it can give you an idea if your hard drives are having problems.

And you should not get any problems installing the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology 9.5 once you have the Intel(R) Matrix Storage Manager 8.8.

PV.

[idata]

thanks bigthor

I've got a 750 watt antec earthwatts, the antec power calculator came up with about 370 watts for my system (and my guess is that is at peak demand)

Checekd all the other things - and the drive

what hard drives have you got?

[idata]

Is it always the same hard drive the one that fails?

If it is, try a firmware update.

Try a BIOS update, this will also update the option ROM on the motherboard.

PV.

[idata]

firmware on the hard drive?

its actually the newest drive thats failing - I'll see how stable it is after the rebuild - but yeas bios update good idea - I'm in the middle of rebuilding now I'll do that later thanks

[idata]

Did it worked?

[idata]

The question of RAID systems indicating that drives have failed, when they are in fact OK, comes up time and again in RAID discussions.

The answer to you problem is probably quite simple.

A standard drive has an error recovery routine built into its firmware that is NOT compatible with most RAID setups, and the drives that you have installed in your RAID unfortuately are such standard drives.

Western Digital manufacture RAID-specific hard drives that have inbuilt a firmware routine called "Time Limited Error Recovery".

A standard drive may take several minutes to complete its error recovery routine, whereas RAID controllers will only allow about 7 seconds to complete a drive error recovery - thus a conflict. If a hard drive takes longer than that 7 seconds to complete an error recovery, which a standard hard drive will typically do, then the RAID controller will mark that hard drive as failed - when, in fact, it has not.

The solution is to install hard drives which have each hard drive manufacturer's form of "Time Limited Error Recovery".

For further information I suggest you look up "error recovery" on each manufacturer's web site, and you will find articles explaining this problem and referring you to that manufacturer's RAID-specific hard drives, and their particular form of Western Digital's "Time Limited Error Recovery".

I hope that I have properly understood your problem, and that this contribution helps.