Intel Matrix (ICH8R) RAID 5

[Guest]

Hi everyone,

I was using RAID 5 on the "Intel Matrix" controller and its work fine until few weeks ago one of the HDD's failed (sometimes system crash and the blue-screens) i didnt replace it yet, my thinks was to backup first all the data.
so i just buy new hdd, did backup about 50% of the data and the PC is failed to boot. (error: "reboot and select proper boot device..")
system drive (HDD with OS) installed on the other controller (JMicron).
any help will be greatly appreciate and please excuse my english.

System (not overclocked):
core: e6600
Asus P5Bdeluxe, 2GB kingstone
3x250GB WD @ RAID 5 (TLER enable)
1x80GB sumsung (win xp pro)

thanks in advance.
Moshic.

 

[aford10]

If a single drive failed, you simply remove it and replace it. The parity drive will act stand in it's place for the time being. You may need to go to the RAID bios and repair the array when the replacement drive arrives.

For the boot problem, you want to make sure the array is still defined and that it's the first device in the boot order.

 

[Translucency]

You should definately not try to copy part of the failed disk to a new disk, and then insert that new disk in your array. This could actually lead to a situation of severe data corruption, since if the metadata configuration is copied as well, the RAID engine might not know something is wrong and now has both corrupt data as well as parity data, because the 'new disk' is now also serving for parity. Should you then write to the array, a full recovery will never be possible even with the original contents of the failed disk.

So the advice i'm giving you is: be very careful with what you try, its not that hard for a user to make a mistake and corrupt his array.

And aford10 is right, just check your boot order/sequence in the system BIOS. Once that problem is gone, turn off the system, remove the failed disk, insert a new one of at least the same capacity (remember a WD 500GB drive may be slightly larger or smaller than a Seagate 500GB drive). Then boot up the system, once the RAID BIOS shows you "hit F2 to enter BIOS setup" or something you press that and look for an option to "rebuild" or "repair" or "heal" your array.

You might want to read the manual about the RAID BIOS setup to make you more familiar, since doing something wrong here might lead to a corrupt or inaccessible array.