RAID 1 Failure: one drive "error occurred" other "offline member"

[Super_Duty]

I have a home built computer, built on a Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD5 Motherboard. I haven't been on it in at least 6 months. My sons have been using it to play games.
I originally set the computer up with a RAID1 Boot drive, using 2 Hitachi Hard drives. Last night in the middle of a game, the computer rebooted and shows that the RAID status is failed. Port 0 shows "Error Occurred (0)". Port 1 shows "Offline Member".

How can I get this computer to boot?

 

[13thmonkey]

you need to rebuild the array in bios, possibly replacing the disk first.

 

[Solandri]

I don't think that's what's happening. The whole point of RAID is that the system can keep running with one disk failed. It shouldn't reboot because a drive failed.

The error message sounds like you suffered one drive failure long ago ("offline member"). Had you noticed it and replaced/fixed the failed drive at the time, you would be fine right now.

The second drive (only remaining one in the array) has now failed, which is why you're getting the "error occurred" message and the RAID status is "failed". With a single drive failure, the RAID status should show as "degraded" or some similar term. Because both drives failed, that's why your computer rebooted by itself.

Not much you can do except hope it was a SATA connector problem and not an actual drive failure. Fiddle with the connections and hope it starts up. Because one of the drives failed an undetermined time ago, if you get that drive working it may show the PC's state at the time that drive failed, which may have been several months ago. So don't rebuild the array until you're sure you've got the most recent drive up and running. But I would salvage whatever data I can from either drive. Some data recovered is better than none.

Edit: With Intel RST and most other RAID drivers, there's an option to notify or email you if a drive failure occurs. It is crucial to set this up so you don't blissfully keep using the system unaware that a drive has failed. Win 7/8 didn't help matters because the notifications get hidden in the little up-triangle popup box by default. The RAID icon can be flashing an angry red ! and you won't notice it because it's hidden. You need to customize it so that the notification always shows.

 

[13thmonkey]

^+1 good spot.