IS7-G SATA RAID Keeps Breaking

[Paul Landregan]

This has been going on for months now, has anyone come across a solution. When I use RAID 0 it breaks, a simple reboot and recreate the RAID solves it but that's not the point, it shouldn't keep breaking. Its not the same disk every time neither, it varies between port 0 and port 1 that fails.

I then tried RAID 1, same results.

2 x Maxtor 120GB drives. On the Intel controller in RAID 1 currently.

I have the latest BIOS version and the latest Intel 3.5 drivers to cope with RAID 1 on the Intel controller.

 

[TomG]

Paul,

I have seen some of the same messages about a broken raid 0 on an IC7-G SATA (ICH5-R) raid array. If XP has a hiccup or blue screens for any reason, which thankfully has been rare, that is when I'll see the problem. like you mention, all I have to do is go into the raid bios and tell it that, yes, those two drives are members of this raid and all is well. scared the beJesus out of me the first time I saw it even though I do maintain current backups.

I am running two Maxtor SATA 120 gig drives on Intel controller and running newest bios and drivers and IAA-R application.

 

[Paul Landregan]

I have had some severe broken files on the drives as a result, chkdsk went berserk trying to fix them, I had to recover from a saved image. I currently run RAID 1 mirroring, however this is proving to be really problematic, on average the RAID will break 3 times a week. Seems worst after defragging the drive.

I have version 3.5.0.2568 of the RAID BIOS is this the latest?

"TomG" wrote:

Paul,

I have seen some of the same messages about a broken raid 0 on an IC7-G

SATA

(ICH5-R) raid array. If XP has a hiccup or blue screens for any reason, which thankfully has been rare, that is when I'll see the problem. like you mention, all I have to do is go into the raid bios and tell it that, yes, those two drives are members of this raid and all is well. scared the beJesus out of me the first time I saw it even though I do maintain current backups.

I am running two Maxtor SATA 120 gig drives on Intel controller and running newest bios and drivers and IAA-R application.

--

Thomas Geery
Network+ certified

ftp://geerynet.d2g.com
ftp://68.98.180.8 Abit Mirror <----- Cable modem IP
This IP is dynamic so it *could* change!...
over 118,000 FTP users served!
^^^^^^^
...

solution.

When I use RAID 0 it breaks, a simple reboot and recreate the RAID solves it
but that's not the point, it shouldn't keep breaking.
Its not the same disk every time neither, it varies between port 0 and port
1 that fails.

I then tried RAID 1, same results.

2 x Maxtor 120GB drives. On the Intel controller in RAID 1 currently.

I have the latest BIOS version and the latest Intel 3.5 drivers to cope with ...

 

[TomG]

I'll have to look at my raid bios screen and see what the version is that I am running. I do know I am running 1.7 mainboard bios which is the newest for the IC7 series and 1.6 would be the comparable mainboard bios for the IS7. as for the driver version, I'm running 3.5.0.2568 and the IAA-R is
3.5.0.2653.

luckily, I have nothing other than the normal chkdsk operation that I would expect to see after a windows crash and nothing but maybe the security descriptors or a lost cluster...

 

[Paul Landregan]

same versions as me. Very odd, maybe a design fault of the controllers.

"TomG" wrote:

I'll have to look at my raid bios screen and see what the version is that I am running. I do know I am running 1.7 mainboard bios which is the newest for the IC7 series and 1.6 would be the comparable mainboard bios for the IS7. as for the driver version, I'm running 3.5.0.2568 and the IAA-R is 3.5.0.2653.

luckily, I have nothing other than the normal chkdsk operation that I would expect to see after a windows crash and nothing but maybe the security descriptors or a lost cluster...

--

Thomas Geery
Network+ certified

ftp://geerynet.d2g.com
ftp://68.98.180.8 Abit Mirror <----- Cable modem IP
This IP is dynamic so it *could* change!...
over 118,000 FTP users served!
... went berserk trying to fix them, I had to recover from a saved image. I currently run RAID 1 mirroring, however this is proving to be really problematic, on average the RAID will break 3 times a week. Seems worst after defragging the drive.

I have version 3.5.0.2568 of the RAID BIOS is this the latest?

"TomG" wrote:

Paul,

I have seen some of the same messages about a broken raid 0 on an

IC7-G

SATA
(ICH5-R) raid array. If XP has a hiccup or blue screens for any reason, which thankfully has been rare, that is when I'll see the problem. like you
mention, all I have to do is go into the raid bios and tell it that, yes, those two drives are members of this raid and all is well. scared the beJesus out of me the first time I saw it even though I do maintain current
backups.

I am running two Maxtor SATA 120 gig drives on Intel controller and running
newest bios and drivers and IAA-R application.

... and port
1 that fails.

I then tried RAID 1, same results.

2 x Maxtor 120GB drives. On the Intel controller in RAID 1

currently.

I have the latest BIOS version and the latest Intel 3.5 drivers to cope with
RAID 1 on the Intel controller.

 

[TomG]

we can hope that it is an issue with the current ICH5-R bios that is embedded in the mainboard bios or the drivers, or both. I prefer to believe that as opposed to a hardware "design" issue with the controller itself.

 

[Paul Landregan]

Lest hope so, and they get it fixed soon, Its driving me nuts. Thank god for good backup procedures. But that is in bred from my job. Miss a backup and my job could be on the line should the worst happen, and it has.

"TomG" wrote:

we can hope that it is an issue with the current ICH5-R bios that is embedded in the mainboard bios or the drivers, or both. I prefer to believe that as opposed to a hardware "design" issue with the controller itself.

--

Thomas Geery
Network+ certified

ftp://geerynet.d2g.com
ftp://68.98.180.8 Abit Mirror <----- Cable modem IP
This IP is dynamic so it *could* change!...
over 118,000 FTP users served!
^^^^^^^
... is 3.5.0.2653.

luckily, I have nothing other than the normal chkdsk operation that I would
expect to see after a windows crash and nothing but maybe the security descriptors or a lost cluster...

--

Thomas Geery
Network+ certified

... chkdsk went
berserk trying to fix them, I had to recover from a saved image. I currently
run RAID 1 mirroring, however this is proving to be really problematic, on
average the RAID will break 3 times a week. Seems worst after defragging the
drive.

I have version 3.5.0.2568 of the RAID BIOS is this the latest? ... that, yes,
those two drives are members of this raid and all is well. scared the beJesus out of me the first time I saw it even though I do maintain current
backups.

I am running two Maxtor SATA 120 gig drives on Intel controller and running
newest bios and drivers and IAA-R application.

--

Thomas Geery
Network+ certified

ftp://geerynet.d2g.com
ftp://68.98.180.8 Abit Mirror <----- Cable modem IP
This IP is dynamic so it *could* change!...
over 118,000 FTP users served!
... RAID solves
it
but that's not the point, it shouldn't keep breaking.
Its not the same disk every time neither, it varies between port 0 and
port
1 that fails.

I then tried RAID 1, same results.

2 x Maxtor 120GB drives. On the Intel controller in RAID 1 currently.

I have the latest BIOS version and the latest Intel 3.5 drivers to cope
with
RAID 1 on the Intel controller.

...

 

[TomG]

just out of curiosity, does this issue present itself to you if you leave the system up all the time? In my case, if I use suspend and pretty much leave the system on other than that, I have the issue at a minimum.

 

[Paul Landregan]

It has only showed up once when the system was left on, it showed as a complete system hang requiring a reset. On rebooting one of the drives were missing. Re boot again and its back.

This was a one off, the rest of the times it has been on a switch on in the morning.

"TomG" wrote:

just out of curiosity, does this issue present itself to you if you leave the system up all the time? In my case, if I use suspend and pretty much leave the system on other than that, I have the issue at a minimum.

--

Thomas Geery
Network+ certified

ftp://geerynet.d2g.com
ftp://68.98.180.8 Abit Mirror <----- Cable modem IP This IP is dynamic so it *could* change!...
... and my job could be on the line should the worst happen, and it has.

"TomG" wrote:

we can hope that it is an issue with the current ICH5-R bios that is embedded in the mainboard bios or the drivers, or both. I prefer to believe
that as opposed to a hardware "design" issue with the controller

itself.

--

Thomas Geery
Network+ certified

ftp://geerynet.d2g.com
ftp://68.98.180.8 Abit Mirror <----- Cable modem IP This IP is dynamic so it *could* change!...
over 118,000 FTP users served!
^^^^^^^

... is that
I
am running. I do know I am running 1.7 mainboard bios which is the newest
for the IC7 series and 1.6 would be the comparable mainboard bios for the
IS7. as for the driver version, I'm running 3.5.0.2568 and the IAA-R is
3.5.0.2653.

luckily, I have nothing other than the normal chkdsk operation

that

I
would
expect to see after a windows crash and nothing but maybe the security descriptors or a lost cluster...

--

Thomas Geery
Network+ certified

ftp://geerynet.d2g.com
... I currently
run RAID 1 mirroring, however this is proving to be really problematic,
on
average the RAID will break 3 times a week. Seems worst after defragging
the
drive.

I have version 3.5.0.2568 of the RAID BIOS is this the latest?

"TomG" wrote:
... any reason,
which thankfully has been rare, that is when I'll see the problem. like
you
mention, all I have to do is go into the raid bios and tell it that,
yes,
those two drives are members of this raid and all is well. scared the
beJesus out of me the first time I saw it even though I do ... controller and
running
newest bios and drivers and IAA-R application.

--

Thomas Geery
Network+ certified

ftp://geerynet.d2g.com
ftp://68.98.180.8 Abit Mirror <----- Cable modem IP This IP is dynamic so it *could* change!... ... across a
solution.
When I use RAID 0 it breaks, a simple reboot and recreate

the

RAID
solves
it
but that's not the point, it shouldn't keep breaking. Its not the same disk every time neither, it varies between port 0
and
port
1 that fails.

I then tried RAID 1, same results.
...

 

[TomG]

very similar to my situation, which I have found that using standby (suspend) helps to mitigate somewhat. I guess another workaround would be to leave the system up but I realize that is not an acceptable solution in all situations.

 

[New Question]

Does anyone mind explaining the differences between the following kinds of RAID on ABIT motherboards?

SB SATA:
AI7: 2 SATA RAID 0/1.
IC7-Max3: 2 SATA RAID 0/1
IS7-G: 2 SATA RAID 0/1

PCI SATA RAID:
AI7: None
IC7-Max3: 4 SATA RAID 0/1
IS7-G: 2 SATA RAID 0/1

Does the IC7-Max3 have more RAID capabilities than the AI7?

 

[TomG]

the SB SATA is not on the PCI bus so it sort of has its own bandwidth channel and does not have to share that with the devices using bandwidth on the PCI bus. The PCI SATA controller is the Silicon Image controller in the case of the boards mentioned below and that is a device on the PCI bus like any other add-in card on the PCI bus even though this is a permanently mounted chip on the mobo itself. The SI controller shares bandwidth with other devices on the PCI bus.

The above is true regardless of whether you are using the SATA controllers in raid mode or in non-raid mode as just another hard drive controller. as you may or may not be aware, raid 0 is striping where two (in the case of these SATA controllers, only two) drives are striped together to, in essence, but not quite double the bandwidth available for reading and writing data from or to the drives. the data stream is split into two streams and half the data goes to one drive and half goes to the other drive and this comes close to doubling the speed over a single drive.

raid 1 is mirroring where two (still only two with these controllers) drives are linked together and the mirror drive has an exact duplicate of the data of the "host" drive written to it for data security. raid 0 theoretically has more than double the chance, statistically, of failure because your data is split over two drives and raid 1 is supposed to be more secure since your data is copied to a second drive.

one thing to keep in mind though is that if the data is bad on the host drive, it will likely be just as bad on the mirror drive. where raid one is more secure is in the event of a hard drive failure and in that case, you have a backup copy of the data on the mirror drive.

 

[New Question]

"TomG" wrote:

"New Question" wrote:

<snip RAID explanation>

SB SATA:
AI7: 2 SATA RAID 0/1.
IC7-Max3: 2 SATA RAID 0/1
IS7-G: 2 SATA RAID 0/1

PCI SATA RAID:
AI7: None
IC7-Max3: 4 SATA RAID 0/1
IS7-G: 2 SATA RAID 0/1

Does the IC7-Max3 have more RAID capabilities than the AI7?

So the data above means the AI7 can RAID two drives on a dedicated channel in a RAID 0 or RAID 1 configuration, but the IC7-Max3 can RAID two drives on a dedicated channel in a RAID 0 or RAID 1 configuration and RAID four drives on the PCI bus in a RAID 0 or RAID 1 configuration. Thus, the IC7-Max3 could have up to six drives on two separate channels, while the AI7-Max3 could only have two drives on one channel?

 

[TomG]

I'll be quite honest and say that I am not as familiar with the IC7 MAX3 board as some others. If you visit the Abit website and the features listed prove to match the list we were discussing, then I would have to agree. I have not looked up the features of that board...