how to isolate raid corruption

At the risk of starting a long thread, I need help troubleshooting my Pc'
raid corruption problem.

apparently my PC with Asus K8n-vm csm gives that hassle of corrupted raid.
I heard it can be BIOS, driver, mainboard, PSU, RAM, even hard drive, ...

I have Kensington DDR, hard drives are Seagate SATA

I suspect the ps is a potential occasional culprit as the chance of
corruption increase with hibernation. But then if I leave the PC
continuously on for a couple of days, I will have raid corruption also


often prior to Raid corruption showing up in the startup post, the shutdown
tends to take considerably longer.

the hard drives themselves only luke warm ( I have cooling fan on them)

oops, I mean Kingston when I said Kensington. Sorry.
"gg" <> wrote in message
news:yffpi.66503$xk5.35215@edtnps82...
> At the risk of starting a long thread, I need help troubleshooting my Pc'
> raid corruption problem.
>
> apparently my PC with Asus K8n-vm csm gives that hassle of corrupted raid.
> I heard it can be BIOS, driver, mainboard, PSU, RAM, even hard drive, ...
>
> I have Kensington DDR, hard drives are Seagate SATA
>
> I suspect the ps is a potential occasional culprit as the chance of
> corruption increase with hibernation. But then if I leave the PC
> continuously on for a couple of days, I will have raid corruption also
>
>
> often prior to Raid corruption showing up in the startup post, the
shutdown
> tends to take considerably longer.
>
> the hard drives themselves only luke warm ( I have cooling fan on them)
>
>

gg wrote:
> At the risk of starting a long thread, I need help troubleshooting my Pc'
> raid corruption problem.
>
> apparently my PC with Asus K8n-vm csm gives that hassle of corrupted raid.
> I heard it can be BIOS, driver, mainboard, PSU, RAM, even hard drive, ...
>
> I have Kensington DDR, hard drives are Seagate SATA
>
> I suspect the ps is a potential occasional culprit as the chance of
> corruption increase with hibernation. But then if I leave the PC
> continuously on for a couple of days, I will have raid corruption also
>
>
> often prior to Raid corruption showing up in the startup post, the shutdown
> tends to take considerably longer.
>
> the hard drives themselves only luke warm ( I have cooling fan on them)
>

What are the characteristics of the corruption ?

Are data files bad when you run md5sum on them (i.e. checksum changed) ?

Is the array broken on next boot ?

What kind of RAID is it, 0, 1, 5 etc ?

I see a thread about corruption in Google, but it was under Linux, and the
root cause was the GART was being used on cachable memory, when it only
supports uncached (non-coherent) chunks of RAM.

Is the motherboard model number A8N-VM CSM ?

Paul

wow scary stuff...hope the data is recoverable...
I would say start with the basics...
make sure the system is stable and then go after the raid.
after all since the raid has some software to process , if the system is
unstable.. then the raid could be what shows it since all data must
eventually end up there.

first overclocking anything? if so turn it off

second run a good burn utility ..sisandra..memtestx86 maybe I'm sure
there are better ones out there

next check the raid driver and software for updates
sometimes that requires a reformat though ....but what is your choice
nvidia had one that was a bear to install on x64 windows


PS is possible,Since you are on Asus ..does any of your voltages look
lowin pc probe?...of course that won't help with Spikes on the PS ,pc
probe won't pick that up.. is it a good brand PS? or a no name? how many
watts and are you doing sli or something that requires a big Power Supply?




gg wrote:
> At the risk of starting a long thread, I need help troubleshooting my Pc'
> raid corruption problem.
>
> apparently my PC with Asus K8n-vm csm gives that hassle of corrupted raid.
> I heard it can be BIOS, driver, mainboard, PSU, RAM, even hard drive, ...
>
> I have Kensington DDR, hard drives are Seagate SATA
>
> I suspect the ps is a potential occasional culprit as the chance of
> corruption increase with hibernation. But then if I leave the PC
> continuously on for a couple of days, I will have raid corruption also
>
>
> often prior to Raid corruption showing up in the startup post, the shutdown
> tends to take considerably longer.
>
> the hard drives themselves only luke warm ( I have cooling fan on them)
>
>

Thx for reply answer in line

"joesmith" <> wrote in message
news:C7mpi.7300$XL4.218@trndny04...
> wow scary stuff...hope the data is recoverable...
> I would say start with the basics...
> make sure the system is stable and then go after the raid.
> after all since the raid has some software to process , if the system is
> unstable.. then the raid could be what shows it since all data must
> eventually end up there.
>
> first overclocking anything? if so turn it off
ok
>
> second run a good burn utility ..sisandra..memtestx86 maybe I'm sure
> there are better ones out there
ok
>
> next check the raid driver and software for updates
from nvidia or Asus? If I remember correctly it was rather confusing and
have to be careful with bios version
currently I have
nvraid.sys version 5.10.2600.622
nvraidco.dll ver. 5.10.2600.359
nvraidar.dll 5.10.2600.621
plus aton of other language dll
nvraidenu 5.10.2600.621

NvRaidMan.exe 5.10.2600.621
nvraidservice.exe 5.10.2600.621
NvRaidSvEnu.dll 5.10.2600.621
NvRaidWizard.dll 5.10.2600.621

AS for the mainboard
Version 0506
GeFirce 6150
2005/11/17 51:52:19
Azalia(swa)
Onboard Lan (wol)
Bos Size 512K , Type ASMI

BIOS Date 2005-11-17 21:52:18 Ver 08.00.12 by AMI
SMBIOSBIOSVersion 0506
SMBSIOMajorVersion 2
SMBSIOMinorVersion 3
VERSION AMI - 11000517


I have had ASUS update trouble for quite a while - connt connect
> sometimes that requires a reformat though ....but what is your choice
> nvidia had one that was a bear to install on x64 windows
>
>
> PS is possible,Since you are on Asus ..does any of your voltages look
> lowin pc probe?...of course that won't help with Spikes on the PS ,pc
I got pc probe II
1.5 - 1.44 mostly 1.49
3.10-3.17 mostly 3.15 3.17
4.99 fairly stable
12.14-12.20 mostly 12.20


DMI and PCI displays nothing on the right paenl.("The Page cannot be
displayed")


> probe won't pick that up.. is it a good brand PS? or a no name? how many
> watts and are you doing sli or something that requires a big Power Supply?
PS is noname Tian power Optimax ATX-450PS
Rating
Volt Amp
+3.3 28
+5 35
+12 22
-5 .5
-12 1
+5Vsb 2


>
> gg wrote:
> > At the risk of starting a long thread, I need help troubleshooting my
Pc'
> > raid corruption problem.
> >
> > apparently my PC with Asus K8n-vm csm gives that hassle of corrupted
raid.
> > I heard it can be BIOS, driver, mainboard, PSU, RAM, even hard drive,
....
> >
> > I have Kensington DDR, hard drives are Seagate SATA
> >
> > I suspect the ps is a potential occasional culprit as the chance of
> > corruption increase with hibernation. But then if I leave the PC
> > continuously on for a couple of days, I will have raid corruption also
> >
> >
> > often prior to Raid corruption showing up in the startup post, the
shutdown
> > tends to take considerably longer.
> >
> > the hard drives themselves only luke warm ( I have cooling fan on them)
> >
> >

thx for replying.
answers inline
"Paul" <> wrote in message news:f847et$a2e$...
> gg wrote:
> > At the risk of starting a long thread, I need help troubleshooting my
Pc'
> > raid corruption problem.
.......................> What are the characteristics of the corruption ?
corrupted array mostly
>
> Are data files bad when you run md5sum on them (i.e. checksum changed) ?
If I missed the warning during the boot, Imay get
volume error, OS prompting to do chkdsk, or even mft$ error or windwsw
dealyed write
>
> Is the array broken on next boot ?
yes in red letter during the raid detection post, I got corrupted array and
had to remove, rebuild...
>
> What kind of RAID is it, 0, 1, 5 etc ?
raid 5 with 3 SATA Seagate drives
>
> I see a thread about corruption in Google, but it was under Linux, and the
> root cause was the GART was being used on cachable memory, when it only
> supports uncached (non-coherent) chunks of RAM.
>
> Is the motherboard model number A8N-VM CSM ?
yes
>
> Paul

Previously gg <> wrote:
> At the risk of starting a long thread, I need help troubleshooting my Pc'
> raid corruption problem.

> apparently my PC with Asus K8n-vm csm gives that hassle of corrupted raid.
> I heard it can be BIOS, driver, mainboard, PSU, RAM, even hard drive, ...

> I have Kensington DDR, hard drives are Seagate SATA

> I suspect the ps is a potential occasional culprit as the chance of
> corruption increase with hibernation. But then if I leave the PC
> continuously on for a couple of days, I will have raid corruption also


> often prior to Raid corruption showing up in the startup post, the shutdown
> tends to take considerably longer.

> the hard drives themselves only luke warm ( I have cooling fan on them)

The first step is to isolate what type of corruption it is exactly.
If it is single bits, then RAM, mainboard and CPU are under suspicion.
For all other types it it necessary to know what type of
RAID this is.

Arno

"Arno Wagner" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Previously gg <> wrote:
> > At the risk of starting a long thread, I need help troubleshooting my
Pc'
> > raid corruption problem.
>
> > apparently my PC with Asus K8n-vm csm gives that hassle of corrupted
raid.
> > I heard it can be BIOS, driver, mainboard, PSU, RAM, even hard drive,
....
>
> > I have Kensington DDR, hard drives are Seagate SATA
>
> > I suspect the ps is a potential occasional culprit as the chance of
> > corruption increase with hibernation. But then if I leave the PC
> > continuously on for a couple of days, I will have raid corruption also
>
>
> > often prior to Raid corruption showing up in the startup post, the
shutdown
> > tends to take considerably longer.
>
> > the hard drives themselves only luke warm ( I have cooling fan on them)
>
> The first step is to isolate what type of corruption it is exactly.
I suspect single bit as I only have to delete the drive, clear it, add it
back to array and rebuild. after that no data loss is found
> If it is single bits, then RAM, mainboard and CPU are under suspicion.
> For all other types it it necessary to know what type of
> RAID this is.
Radi 5 of 3 drives
>
> Arno

I reckon you have a bad drive - try SMART testing them
using Seagate's utility. Have you checked RAM with memtest86?
Bad RAM can cause havoc. Tried swapping the HD cables?
If you can afford it, buy another HD and swap one at a time,
letting the RAID 5 array rebuild each time (after all, that's one
of the best reasons for using RAID 5.) Then use the system as
normal until it (hopefully) works ok, returning the faulty drive
(which will now be sitting on your desk , if still under warranty.
If that doesn't work, you likely have a faulty motherboard, some
kind of problem with the RAID drivers or an obscure hardware
compatibility problem.
Either way, it's not going to be easy to track it down - googling
would be your best bet.
--
Rob


"gg" <> wrote in message
news:zrxpi.47193$Io4.34063@edtnps89...
> thx for replying.
> answers inline
> "Paul" <> wrote in message news:f847et$a2e$...
>> gg wrote:
>> > At the risk of starting a long thread, I need help troubleshooting my
> Pc'
>> > raid corruption problem.
> ......................> What are the characteristics of the corruption ?
> corrupted array mostly
>>
>> Are data files bad when you run md5sum on them (i.e. checksum changed) ?
> If I missed the warning during the boot, Imay get
> volume error, OS prompting to do chkdsk, or even mft$ error or windwsw
> dealyed write
>>
>> Is the array broken on next boot ?
> yes in red letter during the raid detection post, I got corrupted array
> and
> had to remove, rebuild...
>>
>> What kind of RAID is it, 0, 1, 5 etc ?
> raid 5 with 3 SATA Seagate drives
>>
>> I see a thread about corruption in Google, but it was under Linux, and
>> the
>> root cause was the GART was being used on cachable memory, when it only
>> supports uncached (non-coherent) chunks of RAM.
>>
>> Is the motherboard model number A8N-VM CSM ?
> yes
>>
>> Paul
>
>

thx. memtest done
cable swaps tried - but I still think something is wrong with the connection
for a particular drive
I'll be monitoring that drive closely

"Oldish Git" <> wrote in message
news:f8ad6j$el2$1$...
> I reckon you have a bad drive - try SMART testing them
> using Seagate's utility. Have you checked RAM with memtest86?
> Bad RAM can cause havoc. Tried swapping the HD cables?
> If you can afford it, buy another HD and swap one at a time,
> letting the RAID 5 array rebuild each time (after all, that's one
> of the best reasons for using RAID 5.) Then use the system as
> normal until it (hopefully) works ok, returning the faulty drive
> (which will now be sitting on your desk , if still under warranty.
> If that doesn't work, you likely have a faulty motherboard, some
> kind of problem with the RAID drivers or an obscure hardware
> compatibility problem.
> Either way, it's not going to be easy to track it down - googling
> would be your best bet.
> --
> Rob
>
>
> "gg" <> wrote in message
> news:zrxpi.47193$Io4.34063@edtnps89...
> > thx for replying.
> > answers inline
> > "Paul" <> wrote in message
news:f847et$a2e$...
> >> gg wrote:
> >> > At the risk of starting a long thread, I need help troubleshooting my
> > Pc'
> >> > raid corruption problem.
> > ......................> What are the characteristics of the corruption ?
> > corrupted array mostly
> >>
> >> Are data files bad when you run md5sum on them (i.e. checksum changed)
?
> > If I missed the warning during the boot, Imay get
> > volume error, OS prompting to do chkdsk, or even mft$ error or windwsw
> > dealyed write
> >>
> >> Is the array broken on next boot ?
> > yes in red letter during the raid detection post, I got corrupted array
> > and
> > had to remove, rebuild...
> >>
> >> What kind of RAID is it, 0, 1, 5 etc ?
> > raid 5 with 3 SATA Seagate drives
> >>
> >> I see a thread about corruption in Google, but it was under Linux, and
> >> the
> >> root cause was the GART was being used on cachable memory, when it only
> >> supports uncached (non-coherent) chunks of RAM.
> >>
> >> Is the motherboard model number A8N-VM CSM ?
> > yes
> >>
> >> Paul
> >
> >
>
>