Re: RAID-1 won't rebuild under Win2K3 SBS SP1

Adaptec says to contact the mfr because it's an OEM issue. Hence, they can't
help.

"Dirk-Thomas Brown" wrote:

You mention its an Adaptec RAID? If so did you install the Windows GUI
software (Array Configuration and or Storage Management Software I think its
called) used for this purpose and downloadable from Adaptec. It will rebuilt
automatically when a drive is replaced or hot-swapped. It also warns of
failure, creates logs and can be made to email as I recall.

Dirk-Thomas

"Tom" <Tom@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:FEC8CC76-BAA5-4C8E-AE07-B9DD17EDAE40@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I think I did a chkdsk under Safe Mode but it's been a couple of weeks. If
you're not referring to the chkdsk /f what are you referring to relative
to
your comment "...do a full disk surface scan/repair?" Is this a
destructive
or non-destructive repair? Are there MS or non-MS utilities to validate
the
drive in a non-destructive manner without being too expensive? (<$50)

I'm like you I had thought that the rebuild of the RAID1 configuration was
BIOS related and not OS.

Also, at this time, I don't intend on reformatting the 'good' drive. I'm
pretty ticked off on the lack of assistance from the mfr since I purchased
the RAID-1 mirroring configuration for the rebuilding capabilities. But,
maybe in the end, this will be 'my' problem and something I did, but as of
now, it doesn't appear to be 'my' problem. I'm just receiving the 'gift'
of
the problem! :-)
TIA for your help!


"CO-DBA-SC-EL" wrote:

I fortunately never had to do this but from my readings on the topic to
be
ready if it ever comes up, it seems that in your RAID1 configuration the
hardware rebuilding is controlled by the BIOS, but will still depend on
the
integrity of the "good" drive. You don't say whether you did an integrity
check. All it takes is one unmarked bad sector on the "good" drive to
prevent mirroring. If you can run with one disk, did you try to do a full
disk surface scan/repair? The full scan takes a very long time, but this
being NTFS it looks like any repair must be done by Windows itself, which
is
why you need to be able to run the drive. If you don't care and you will
reformat anyway, drive manufacturers usually have a utility that you can
download to do the full surface scan and bad sector blocking, starting
from
a diskette or CD.

C_O

"Tom" <Tom@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:7EE0967D-9EA1-4D69-832C-D34BA7DA76AC@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The RAID is a hardware controller on the motherboard and I agree that
the
OS
should have nothing to do with the rebuild. I reinstalled Win2K3 SBS
on
drive C. Essentially all of C was backed up and I restored everything
that I
really needed. I didn't want to go back to a full image backup because
I
didn't know what issues I would put into the new drive c. Drive D is
the
DVD/CD and drive E is essentially my data. Drives C and E are on the
same
physical Maxtor 250GB drive. BOTH RAID drives are identical - same mfr,
model
# and capacity and speed. Still no rebuilding of the RAID. I'm not
having
problems with data recovery. ONLY the rebuilding of the RAID
structure.
Essential, one RAID drive is fine and with data and the other seems
fine
but
the RAID rebuild won't work. It's the rebuilding of the drive that I
need
to
address.
Thanks for your input!!

"ALeghart" wrote:

I'm not sure exactly of the issue. Is this a harware RAID controller?
If so, the operating system should have nothing to do with the
rebuild.
It's up to the card.

Also, are you running two physical volumes? You mentioned
re-installing SBS2003 from scratch If you wiped out the previous
installation of SBS and were using the RAID-1 volume for data, the
data
may not be recoverable due to NTFS and/or encryption credentials that
were lost with the old server installation.

Data corruption would be promptly mirrored in RAID 1. Furthermore, a
corrupt file would be nicely saved (and parity distributed) on a RAID
5
volume. I don't know of any RAID controller that would check all of
my
EOF markers and Microsoft Word formatting data. Corrupted _files_
should not cause an entire volume to be unavailable.

As for the new 250GB not wanting to replace the old...can the drive
manufacturer verify the actual size? If the replacement drive is
smaller, the RAID volume won't rebuild. For instance if you have a
251&249, it won't work. If you have a 249&251, the 251 will be
treated
like a 249, and you lose the leftover space. If the drives are
suitable in size, your "good" drive may have damage beyond file-level
corruption.

If your RAID volume is data-only, the OEM's suggestion is valid. Get
the data off of the questionable drive.

"Talk to legal" is telling you that they have no obligation to protect
your data. They are obliged to provide you with working hardware if
your current hardware fails. It is up to you to test the
configuration
for your purposes and maintain proper backups.

If you are still having trouble with data recovery, labs like OnTrack
are worth every penny. I've spent thousands of dollars on a few jobs
to get important data that would have cost untold hundreds of hours to
replace. Evaluation should run you around $100-250 depending on the
media and drive configuration. We had one disassembled in a clean
room
and raw data streamed off it it. They re-assembled the drive so we
could return it for a warranty replacement.

Hope this helps.
--
Alan







.

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