Still struggling with HPT RAID set-up

[BTInternet News]

WinXP-Pro/BD-7 RAID/Latest BIOS (CR) modded for HPT drivers 2.34.

My previous post here reported a "clunking" noise coming from my RAID discs. This is a BD-7 board with HPT-372 RAID and two Maxtor 160GB/8MB drives striped. It seems the RAID just spontaneously switches off at frequent intervals - sometimes several times in a minute. The data flow stops/freezes at the audible "clunk" and recommences a few seconds later. No data is lost but this clearly is no good for streaming video and editing etc.

I thought it might be the acoustic management but no - have switched this off with no change.

Could it be based upon the fact I have a 2.66GHz/533 processor in this board? and 133 bus. I think the board was originally designed for 2.0GHz/400 processor. Could something be shutting down temporarily? However everything else seems to work fine and stable.

The computer is entirely usable for most non-speed critical tasks including this post.

Any ideas? Thanks John I

 

[Jerry Polyak]

Run some diognostic utilities on your HD's. Sounds like one of them is trying to kick the bucket. A good back up is the first thing I would do, since if the drive fails, all your data will be gone.

"BTInternet News" wrote:

WinXP-Pro/BD-7 RAID/Latest BIOS (CR) modded for HPT drivers 2.34.

My previous post here reported a "clunking" noise coming from my RAID

discs.

This is a BD-7 board with HPT-372 RAID and two Maxtor 160GB/8MB drives striped. It seems the RAID just spontaneously switches off at frequent intervals - sometimes several times in a minute. The data flow stops/freezes at the audible "clunk" and recommences a few seconds later. No data is lost but this clearly is no good for streaming video and editing etc.

I thought it might be the acoustic management but no - have switched this off with no change.

Could it be based upon the fact I have a 2.66GHz/533 processor in this board? and 133 bus. I think the board was originally designed for 2.0GHz/400 processor. Could something be shutting down temporarily? However everything else seems to work fine and stable.

The computer is entirely usable for most non-speed critical tasks including this post.

Any ideas? Thanks John I

 

[Dave Hau]

As Jerry pointed out, be sure to do the backup *before* running the diagnostic tests. If a drive is on the verge of failing, running multiple diagnostic tests often would bring about the failure, and allow you to RMA for hopefully a new drive replacement.

Cheers,
Dave

"Jerry Polyak" wrote:

Run some diognostic utilities on your HD's. Sounds like one of them is trying to kick the bucket. A good back up is the first thing I would do, since if the drive fails, all your data will be gone.

"BTInternet News" wrote:

WinXP-Pro/BD-7 RAID/Latest BIOS (CR) modded for HPT drivers 2.34.

My previous post here reported a "clunking" noise coming from my RAID discs. This is a BD-7 board with HPT-372 RAID and two Maxtor 160GB/8MB drives ... this off with no change.

Could it be based upon the fact I have a 2.66GHz/533 processor in this board? and 133 bus. I think the board was originally designed for 2.0GHz/400
processor. Could something be shutting down temporarily? However everything else seems to work fine and stable.

The computer is entirely usable for most non-speed critical tasks including this post.
...

 

[TomG]

I can't comment on whether it is due to your cpu or not except to say that I doubt it. I have run a PCI bus with the Highpoint on it overclocked a fair amount and never had an issue but the only way to accurately test it would be to set the system up with the cpu underclocked and the FSB at the "normal" setting for the board.

in the past when we have seen posts like this, the death of one of the drives was not far down the road. I would be wondering if one of the drives is having problems.

did you verify that the power pins in the drive power plug are not spread causing an intermittent connection? have you tried different ribbon cables?

 

[BTInternet News]

Thanks Guys - all good stuff. Yes I am running back-ups. Strange thing is that the drive just stops for a few seconds and restarts without any data loss. With the RAID it's difficult to know if just one drive has a problem. I have tried reducing the clock rate and I would say the frequency of the problem reduces but does not disappear. I'm going to do a more careful test of reducing the clock rate right down to 100MHz and see if I can learn more. If the drive is going to die I hope it does so soon before I get too much of my stuff reloaded on this PC following the previous loss of a drive!!

By the way looking at the performance of these drives - it seems that single non-raid drives are getting up to 50MB/s throughput. Do think it will get to the point where for most of us RAID is of limited benefit?

Regards John I

"BTInternet News" wrote:

WinXP-Pro/BD-7 RAID/Latest BIOS (CR) modded for HPT drivers 2.34.

My previous post here reported a "clunking" noise coming from my RAID

discs.

This is a BD-7 board with HPT-372 RAID and two Maxtor 160GB/8MB drives striped. It seems the RAID just spontaneously switches off at frequent intervals - sometimes several times in a minute. The data flow stops/freezes at the audible "clunk" and recommences a few seconds later. No data is lost but this clearly is no good for streaming video and editing etc.

I thought it might be the acoustic management but no - have switched this off with no change.

Could it be based upon the fact I have a 2.66GHz/533 processor in this board? and 133 bus. I think the board was originally designed for 2.0GHz/400 processor. Could something be shutting down temporarily? However everything else seems to work fine and stable.

The computer is entirely usable for most non-speed critical tasks including this post.

Any ideas? Thanks John I

 

[TomG]

I always had around the upper 60's for performance out of my Highpoint based raid 0 array. not a lot higher than the 50's you mention but still faster. however, my SATA raid 0 array is a whole leap higher in performance...