A8N-SLI Premium RAID Recovery (Silicon Image - RAID 1 failure) - How do I recover?

I configured my AN8-SLI Premium with 1 150Gb SATA "boot" drive
connected to the NVIDIA RAID controller, and with 3x233GB SATA drives
connected to the Silicom Image RAID controller as follows:

0 Maxtor 6B250S) 233GB (RAID1- Set A)
1 Maxtor 6B250S) 233GB (RAID1 - Set A)
2 Maxtor 6B250S) 233GB (RAID0 - ordinary driver)

I configured a RAID1 (Set A) set across drives 0 and 1, and left drive
2 as a standard (RAID 0 or no RAID drive). I got my OS (Windows Vista)
to originally recognise the RAID1 set by loading the Silicon Image
Windows XP driver at install time.

Yesterday I booted my system, and I noted that the RAID1 set was not
shown in the OS. Upon computer boot into the RAID Configuration
Utility (via CTRL-S or F4) the 3 drives are shown but are listed as:

PHYSICAL DRIVE LOGICAL DRIVE
0 Maxtor 6B250S 233GB
1 Maxtor 6B250S 233GB Invalid RAID drive
2 Maxtor 6B250S 233GB Reserved Drives

How can I recover my data from the RAID1 set.

The option "Rebuild Raid1 set" does not work. It simply returns "Raid1
set only. Press any key to return." and when I select "Logical Drive
Info" it first highlights
1 Maxtor 6B250S 233GB Invalid RAID drive

and then when I use the up or down arrow, the following are selected,
and then the utility locks.

PHYSICAL DRIVE LOGICAL DRIVE
0 Maxtor 6B250S 233GB
Invalid RAID drive
2 Maxtor 6B250S 233GB Reserved Drives

I'm hoping I can get my data back. Is this true hardware RAID, and can
I read my data off each of the individual drives, by connecting them to
the a NVIDIA SATA ports, or will this simply not work?

Can anone recommend some things to try so I can get my data back!

Any advice and guidance would be appreciated.

Cheers,

David

 

I'm hoping I can get my data back. Is this true hardware RAID, and can

If you did RAID 1, it will work.

See
http://groups.google.com/group/alt....6?lnk=st&q=edavid3001&rnum=1#af66b773b1861056

where I just went through about the same thing..

Seems the SIL3114R5 controller is pretty worthless.

 

Thanks edavid3001.

I read your referenced thread, and what gives me hope is the following
statement:

I have Windows Vista installed on 1 SATA drive connected to the nVidia
controller, and there are 3 ports spare on that controller. So I plan
for tomorrow is to disconnect my drives from the SIL controller and
(one by one) plug them into a next port on the nVidia controller. If
the data can be read, I'll burn it off to DVD.

Is what I suggest a good way forward? Do I have to do any
configuration on the nVidia controller before doing this, or should it
just recognise the new drives.

This experience has put me off motherboard based RAID. I think I'd
have been better backing up from one 233GB drive to another manually.
The funny thing was I subsribed to Carbonite 3 weeks ago, but backup of
my 180GB of data was only 73GB complete so I'm really hoping for a
result tomorrow.

I'll post how I get on here.

Cheers,

David

 

You have a RAID 1 array with 2 drives? Should be able to plug one of
them into the nVidia controller and see the data on it.

I unplugged all my other drives while doing this. The RAID drive was
the boot drive with all services installed to it.

Yea, motherboard RAID never has worked real well for me. I used it on
a Novell Netware server once and one drive failing caused both to fail.
I have RAID failures all the time on my SCSI grade servers. Some are
on board, but they are SCSI and high quality. It's always a
non-issue. Just hot plug the drive out, put a new one in, and let it
rebuild.

IBM's got nice controllers where you can loose 2 drives in a RAID 5 set
and still recover, if you have enough drives in the set. I've never
seen this on other RAID setups unless you specify a spare. I didn't
believe IBM until I actually had 2 fail at one time (bad drive run -
all eventually failed.)

I might look at going with a 3ware SATA raid controller after this..

 

My guess is if you plug in both of your raid 1 drives into nvidia, you
will have two sets of the drives in windows -- also guessing that your
error indicates the second drive has failed, in which case you would
only have 1 set. But you never know -- both my drives are good.

 

If you had a mirror raid on the Sil controler, and the mirror failed, you
should be able to remove one drive connector and reboot. The data should be
then available. If its not, reconnect origonal and disconect the other.

Personally I gave up on mobo raid after similar problems, and now use a
dedicated raid card ($375) and the manu has immediate phone support
NB A mirror setup is not a replacement for a backup regime

 

and now use a dedicated raid card ($375)

Which kind have you had good luck with?

 

Adaptec 4 port card
I use a mirror, together with a hot swap. Automatically switches
over/rebuilds in the event of failure, and emails my mobile on any error
event.
I have used their phone support, a live, knowledgable helpfull person.
(Didnt pay retail, purchased on EBay sealed box, still with warranty, I had
a minor prob, they sent me new box prior to the rma return)
Been running 24/7 for two years now

 

Be aware that most IDE/RAID cards, just like most motherboard RAID
setups, are really "fakeraid" cards that do all of the RAID management
in the driver/BIOS and not in hardware, with some of the same issues.
You need to get something more expensive, like a 3ware or Areca card, to
actually get true hardware RAID.

 

You need to get something more expensive, like a 3ware or Areca card, to

I have 3ware on 3 of my *nix boxes at work, but haven't gone through a
failure yet to know how well these handle that. The HP (mostly
Adaptec rebranded) seem to handle failure well. Glad to here the 3ware
are thought of well. I went with them because they didn't require
special drivers when setting up *nix (most distro's support the model I
got) and GHOST saw them w/out having to load any special drivers.

I'll have to look at Areca. Never heard of them before.

 

The Adaptec I use has onboard controler/chip, not via software/bios
Adaptec do supply, also, software/bios, raid cards

 

PS The Adaptec price is broadly in line with 3ware (uk)

 

UPDATE

By plugging the first drive from the RAID1 set (originally connected to
the Silicon Image controller) to the NVIDIA controller my Vista OS can
see the drive and read the data.

I have learned my lesson and have a Buffalo Drive Station 500Gb on
order to use as a backup device in future.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Buffalo-DriveStation-500Gb-Serial-External/dp/B000FVVLJS

Thanks for your help once again!