RAID 10 members marked offline in Intel Raid Storage Technology

[the85darkknight]

System Info:
Motherboard: Asus Z170-A
OS: Windows 10 Pro x64
IRST Version: 16.0.2.1086
RAM: 16GB
CPU: Intel i7-6700K

I had an issue before where one drive out of the four was always marked offline as RST kept missing one drive. The RAID was placed into a degraded state. After verifying my connections and replacing a couple of SATA cables, the RAID rebuilt. The RAID went degraded again. I knew it was the same port after swapping hard drives into that slot.

However, all drives are now marked offline, and I am at a loss here of what to do.

Both times, I verified all drives are still visible and powered to the motherboard via CrystalDiskInfo. I am suspecting at this point this is a failure of the RAID controller on the motherboard. However, I wanted to run this by you fine folks first to trouble shoot. If any other information is needed, I will gladly try to provide it. Obviously, I do not want to lose the data on the RAID. I look forward to your responses.

 

[Solandri]

For your sake I hope I'm wrong and someone will chime in with a good suggestion. But I'd agree with your analysis - sounds like a RAID controller failure. The other possibilities which would account for all 4 drives failing together are just as bad or worse (e.g. bad power supply which slowly fried your drives one by one).

Since you were using the motherboard's RAID controller, your options are limited. You basically need to buy or borrow the same motherboard, reconnect your drives (in the same order), and hope the array is recoverable. If you can figure out exactly what RAID controller the motherboard used, you might be able to get this to work with a different motherboard which uses the same RAID controller.

This is why I recommend against using any form of hardware RAID unless you need to boot off RAID. A failure means you're stuck replacing hardware. If all you need is to RAID non-boot drives, then just use software RAID. If your hardware should somehow fail, since the RAID is software RAID, the data on the drives can be recovered using any computer which can run that software RAID.

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-use-storage-spaces-windows-10

Most motherboard RAID controllers are actually just software RAID with a BIOS bootstrap to make the RAID array bootable. Since you say this is Intel RST, you may be able to use any motherboard whose RAID controller uses Intel RST. Heck, if you weren't booting off the array, you may even be able to use Intel RST to recreate the array in software, bypassing the motherboard RAID controller entirely. I've never done a RAID recovery via this method though. So if the data is important and you don't want to risk it, you're going to have to replace the motherboard.

This also emphasizes why you still need a backup even if you're running RAID.

 

[Calvin7]

That is likely caused by your choice of hardware, that is, your choice of hard drives which you haven't listed.

 

[the85darkknight]

I hope I did not confuse anyone. This array is my data storage. My OS is on an SSD. My drives are as follows:

2 x Seagate Desktop HDD ST2000DM001 2TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5"
2 x Seagate BarraCuda ST2000DM006 2TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5"

Both sets of drives are less than 3 years old. The power supply is a new one, and the degraded issue existed prior to the PSU swap. It is definitely providing more power. I went from a 550W PSU to a 850W one. I was able to eliminate that variable. This motherboard is still under warranty. What would be the best way to encourage ASUS to replace the board?

Thank you again for the replies.

 

[Calvin7]

HDD ST2000DM001 - Seagate Barracuda 2TB SATA 3 Internal Hard Drive/HDD ST2000DM001

RAID Support for Barracuda is only 0 and 1. (see second from bottom listing)
https://www.seagate.com/files/docs/pdf/whitepaper/mb538-drive-selection-guide-us.pdf

Second drive you list is also Barracuda which also does not support RAID 10. It is your choice of hardware causing the problem.

 

[USAFRet]

Obviously, I do not want to lose the data on the RAID.

This is why we have backups. Which RAID of any type, is not.


Try the above suggestions regarding a different motherboard with the same IRST.
See what happens.

 

[the85darkknight]

HDD ST2000DM001 - Seagate Barracuda 2TB SATA 3 Internal Hard Drive/HDD ST2000DM001

RAID Support for Barracuda is only 0 and 1. (see second from bottom listing)
https://www.seagate.com/files/docs/pdf/whitepaper/mb538-drive-selection-guide-us.pdf

Second drive you list is also Barracuda which also does not support RAID 10. It is your choice of hardware causing the problem.

That white paper only says JBOD for 2 or less drives. It is marked compatible with RAID 0+1. These drives came highly recommended. That does not explain then why this RAID functioned normally with the same family RAID controller before this motherboard and only the same port went degraded before the whole RAID went down.

Obviously, I do not want to lose the data on the RAID.

This is why we have backups. Which RAID of any type, is not.

Try the above suggestions regarding a different motherboard with the same IRST.
See what happens.

Most definitely. I did not depend on this for back up. It was just for data integrity. I have my back up means. I just am not as up to date on that back up as I would like. I did quite a lot since the last back up.

I still appreciate all suggested approaches.

I have a feeling I have enough here to ask ASUS for a replacement motherboard. This issue showed up not long after I switched to this one. Is there anything specific I should say to them to point them quickly down that path?

 

[mdd1963]

motherboard-supported Intel RAID will likely never be a candidate for replacing true RAID cards of any type other than perhaps the $10 RAID cards...; MB-RAID solutions often leave people wonder what happened to their data....as also often happens with WIndows software RAID....

 

[the85darkknight]

motherboard-supported Intel RAID will likely never be a candidate for replacing true RAID cards of any type other than perhaps the $10 RAID cards...; MB-RAID solutions often leave people wonder what happened to their data....as also often happens with WIndows software RAID....

I am with you there. At this point, I just want to restore it long enough to move the data off and find a dedicated RAID card for my RAID 1+0 application. I am taking suggestions here while I work with ASUS technical support.

 

[the85darkknight]

UPDATE: I know for sure that the motherboard should be replaced. I do have a backplane on the PC as well that might have to be replaced too. I pulled two drives out of the RAID and booted. IRST recognized the RAID, so I went and sequentially powered down to add the other two drives back in. The RAID continued to remain detected, and IRST is rebuilding the RAID. I suspect the port is damaged on the motherboard at this point. It still needs to be replaced, and I will be open to suggestions on migrating to a dedicated RAID card.