Issues with External RAID0 Array - How do I Isolate the Problem?

[koberulz]

My video captures are dropping frames, a problem I've isolated to my external USB3 RAID0 array as I can capture just fine to my C:\ drive (which is obviously only feasible as a troubleshooting method).

I have no idea whether it's one of the two 2TB 3.5" drives, or both of them, or the enclosure, or all three, and I'd like to avoid replacing any gear that doesn't need replacing as I've already bought a new laptop thinking that was the issue.

Is there any way I can isolate the problem? I do have important data on the array.

 

[Emerald]

First of all I would back up any important data that is on that RAID since, if you loose one drive, all data will be gone.

The easiest thing to try is to replace the USB cable since they can become flaky after several connects and disconnects.

Is there a utility from the manufacturer to check the health status of the drives?

 

[koberulz]

First of all I would back up any important data that is on that RAID since, if you loose one drive, all data will be gone.

The easiest thing to try is to replace the USB cable since they can become flaky after several connects and disconnects.

Is there a utility from the manufacturer to check the health status of the drives?

Rebooting yesterday finally killed the drive completely, and it threw a 'drive is corrupted and unreadable' error. So the data is gone.

I pulled both drives and put them individually into another enclosure I have. One showed up in Disk Management pretty quickly as a GPT with no option to initialise or format it or anything else. The other took a while to show up, displayed as Unallocated and provided me with an 'initialise' option in the right-click menu.

 

[USAFRet]

Rebooting yesterday finally killed the drive completely, and it threw a 'drive is corrupted and unreadable' error. So the data is gone.

I pulled both drives and put them individually into another enclosure I have. One showed up in Disk Management pretty quickly as a GPT with no option to initialise or format it or anything else. The other took a while to show up, displayed as Unallocated and provided me with an 'initialise' option in the right-click menu.

1 dead drive in a RAID 0 = all data is lost.

 

[koberulz]

Rebooting yesterday finally killed the drive completely, and it threw a 'drive is corrupted and unreadable' error. So the data is gone.

I pulled both drives and put them individually into another enclosure I have. One showed up in Disk Management pretty quickly as a GPT with no option to initialise or format it or anything else. The other took a while to show up, displayed as Unallocated and provided me with an 'initialise' option in the right-click menu.

1 dead drive in a RAID 0 = all data is lost.

I'm aware. Thankfully it was just VHS captures, so it cane be redone, but it's gonna take a while.

My question now is which drive is the issue, and whether the enclosure is perhaps causing problems given I've had two dead drives in the space of about ten months in this thing.

 

[USAFRet]

Which drive?
Plug them in to some external dock individually.
See if you can format, and/or test them. 1 at a time.

The one that gives you the option to Initialize is almost certainly the good one.

 

[koberulz]

Which drive?
Plug them in to some external dock individually.
See if you can format, and/or test them. 1 at a time.

The one that gives you the option to Initialize is almost certainly the good one.

What tests should I run?

The one showing up as GPT has "convert to dynamic disk" or something similar as the only right-click option.

 

[USAFRet]

Which drive?
Plug them in to some external dock individually.
See if you can format, and/or test them. 1 at a time.

The one that gives you the option to Initialize is almost certainly the good one.

What tests should I run?

The one showing up as GPT has "convert to dynamic disk" or something similar as the only right-click option.

Individually, the manufacturers test suite.
Seagate Seatools or WD Data Lifeguard.