How to get notified of HDD failure in Raid 1?

[Llamasquishy]

Hello,

I've never set up any sort of RAID array before, so I'm looking for a few answers on RAID 1. I've done a bunch of reading, so I know how it works, but I can't seem to find any information regarding how the user gets notified of a HDD failure. I am planning to set up a RAID 1 via the AMD SB950 controller on my ASUS M5A97 R2.0 mobo. Is there any way for the user to be notified in Windows [7] upon failure of one of the hard drive in the RAID 1 array? If that is not possible, is it possible to be notified if you set up the RAID 1 array using Windows RAID (or any other software RAID, for that matter)?

Thanks in advance.

 

[noidea_77]

The raid driver will send you a popup message or the bios will display it, when it happens at startup. Keep in mind, that you need a spare drive of at least the size of the original drive to restore the raid! And re-think about if a raid1 in a desktop makes sense.

 

[tokencode]

RAID 1 can make sense in a desktop depending on its role. Your RAID software should provide the ability to monitor individual drive health.

 

[Nothing_But_NAS]

Basic monitoring will be done by the RAID management tool on the RAID controller or software installed to manage your RAID. These usually give only an onscreen notification of the potential problem. Some mid-tier controllers will have email notification in the management software. High end RAID controllers have email notification built into the device that will operate independent of the OS. There are also controllers to audible notification which beeps endlessly if an error is detected.

You should also research SMART monitoring tools for your OS. SMART can sometimes predict drive failure and notify you before it impacts you RAID array.