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1. Re: I'm "rebuilding" my raid -- do I need to "erase" my raid's hard drives
Harm Millaard Oct 5, 2010 5:42 AM (in response to rowby)Rowby,
Great cage. I just wish it was a bit cheaper over here. Currently around € 175 which translates to around $ 235, nearly double the price of what you pay for it.
First step would be IMO, to install this very nice cage and attach all your five drives. Four of these are your regular array (with one known drive giving problems) and the fifth one is the new drive. Assuming your array starts normally and the BIOS is recognized, I would then add the fifth disk as a hot-spare to that current array. If your troublesome disk starts acting up again, you will have a nearly instantaneous rebuild from the hot-spare.
You don't need to erase your array and start from scratch. Just try to reconnect from this Chenbro cage and restart. It should recognize the array as it used to.
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2. Re: I'm "rebuilding" my raid -- do I need to "erase" my raid's hard drives
Rowby Goren Oct 6, 2010 5:50 AM (in response to rowby)I need to buy one more set of breakout cables so I can add the 5th drive.
WHich one on this page is the one I need:
http://www.amazon.com/Sata-0-6-Meter-Breakout-Cable/dp/tech-data/B000HVXCXO/ref=de_a_smtd
Rowby
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3. Re: I'm "rebuilding" my raid -- do I need to "erase" my raid's hard drives
Harm Millaard Oct 6, 2010 7:42 AM (in response to Rowby Goren)The 8087 forward breakout cable. Length is your choice.
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4. Re: I'm "rebuilding" my raid -- do I need to "erase" my raid's hard drives
Rowby Goren Oct 7, 2010 4:21 PM (in response to Harm Millaard)The cable should be arriving within the hour.
One comment I had on another forum suggests I "force" the fail.....
If you have another slot, I'd put in the new drive as a hot spare before anything fails and then leave it. When the system actually fails the drive, then it should automatically start using the new drive. You can try this by actually pulling the "failing" drive while it's running (if you have hot-swap capability) to make it "fail".
Would "forcing" the fail be a good idea-- especially since I now see a sinister "red arrow" next to the "failing" drive. See image capture:
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current-status.jpg 31.8 K
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5. Re: I'm "rebuilding" my raid -- do I need to "erase" my raid's hard drives
rowby Oct 8, 2010 7:30 AM (in response to Rowby Goren)HI My "cage" didn't arrive yet, so I hooked up my 4 drives plus the new drive. I'll add the new cage tomorrow I guess.
I successfully made the new drive a hot spare. I selected "global", I assume that was a good choice (or was it?)
The failing drive has a red arrow pointing at it.
The volume state is "Rebuilding 64.5%"
Here is the current status (see attachment)
Once the Volume state completes its rebuilding (to 100%) what should I do?
(Keep in mind I have a complete external backup of all the data on the raid)
Should I:
1) Pull out the failing raid while still powered up
or should I
2) Expand the raid set?
Or should I do something else?
Also please review the Raid's Areca System Configuration (see attachment). Are they the best settings?
For example:
Background task priority: High 80%
On another forum (2cpu) one suggestion was:
>> One more thing, Samsung drives are listed as having PossibleProblems** in the HDD compatibility chart. So, looks like you must disable the SATA NCQ support. <<<
What are your thoughts on "disabling SATA NCQ support"?
I will wait until the Volume state is back at 100% before I do anything next, of course!
Rowby
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Friday status3.jpg 56.2 K
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6. Re: I'm "rebuilding" my raid -- do I need to "erase" my raid's hard drives
Harm Millaard Oct 8, 2010 7:40 AM (in response to rowby)I have the background priority set to 50%, NCQ enabled and Auto Activate enabled.
Once you array is rebuild, you will likely have the option to add the faulty disk as a hot-spare, since the previous hot-spare was added to the array. Whether that is a clever way to go is doubtful. The failed disk showed problems, so I would try to exchange it under warranty and add the replaced, new drive as a hot-spare.
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7. Re: I'm "rebuilding" my raid -- do I need to "erase" my raid's hard drives
rowby Oct 8, 2010 8:04 AM (in response to Harm Millaard)Thanks Harm,
I have a fifth drive that I ordered sitting on my desk. (Same Samsung model, same capacity)
I will see if I can return the failing drive under warranty.
However, in the meantime, should I put the 5th drive into the system as a hot spare.
Note that my current new drive that I put in (enclosure #2) is already a hot spare. Will it take over the "Job" of the failing drive automatically once the Volume state is at 100% or do I have to do something else to make it "see" the new drive as a part of the raid (such as yanking out the failing drive while the computer is still turned on).
Rowby
P.S. What is the "auto activate" function. (I will look it up in the areca manual, but if you want to explain, please do.)
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8. Re: I'm "rebuilding" my raid -- do I need to "erase" my raid's hard drives
Harm Millaard Oct 8, 2010 8:25 AM (in response to rowby)Look at page 77 of the manual: http://update.sivit.org/files/areca/SAS_Manual.pdf
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9. Re: I'm "rebuilding" my raid -- do I need to "erase" my raid's hard drives
rowby Oct 8, 2010 8:55 AM (in response to Harm Millaard)Thanks. Looked it up. I see it's function.
New update.
I waited until the Volume state was at 100 percent.
Tuned off the machine.
Pulled the bad drive
Turned it on.
The raid has "accepted" my former "hot spare" into the raid set and the volume is now rebuilding.
It's starting at 1.1 and I assume it will keep doing that over the next many hours until all is back to normal.
I have background task right now at 50 percent.
Since I am not actually doing any work on the computer should I put it back to high (80% -- will that speed up the rebuilding process?)
Thanks!
Rowby
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10. Re: I'm "rebuilding" my raid -- do I need to "erase" my raid's hard drives
Harm Millaard Oct 8, 2010 9:27 AM (in response to rowby)Putting it back to 80% will speed up the process, but is it relevant as you will not be using the PC for several hours? I have a kind of natural hesitation to change settings when the PC is doing its work.
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11. Re: I'm "rebuilding" my raid -- do I need to "erase" my raid's hard drives
rowby Oct 8, 2010 9:45 AM (in response to Harm Millaard)Okay I will leave the background task priority as is during the rebuilding.
One more note, as I mentioned in an earlier posting, once I have my raid stabilized, I may want to reinstall windows7, for an unrelated issue.
As (as I recall) you indicated in your reply to my question about reinstalling windows 7 that the raid is independent of the operating system.
Therefore I assume I am correct to assume that after I reinstall windows 7, I wouild only need to go to the Areca DOS-based raid configuration system and "CREATE RAID SET" ??? (Again I have a full backup of all raid data if anything goes wrong.)
Rowby
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12. Re: I'm "rebuilding" my raid -- do I need to "erase" my raid's hard drives
Harm Millaard Oct 8, 2010 10:00 AM (in response to rowby)I can't say I have been in your situation, but logic says that nothing will or has changed on your array, even after a fresh install of Win7 on the OS disk. So if you have the Areca drivers installed, there is no logical assumption that the array will not be properly recognized. It ought to work. It should not be requiring any initialization, formatting or whatever, it should work 'out-of-the-box'.
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13. Re: I'm "rebuilding" my raid -- do I need to "erase" my raid's hard drives
rowby Oct 8, 2010 12:25 PM (in response to Harm Millaard)The fix of the raid is apparently finished. The Volume state is back to NORMAL, reports the Areca Raid Storage manager.
However the raid is showing a capacity of only 3TB
Showed that also after a reboot of computer.
Do I need to do anything to get it to be closer to 4TB (I have 4 1-TB drives.
See attached screen capture. I have 4 drives in the array. Each 1tb.
See attached screen capture.
WIndows explorer is showing the capacity of the raid as 2,999,862,696 bytes.
thanks
rowby
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3tb.jpg 22.3 K
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14. Re: I'm "rebuilding" my raid -- do I need to "erase" my raid's hard drives
Harm Millaard Oct 8, 2010 1:28 PM (in response to rowby)Rowby,
Remember my previous screenshot:
This is with 12 x 1 TB disks (2 x 6) and because of the Raid30 configuration shows as only 5 + 5 TB (remember, one disk is lost for storage and used for parity per raid) so Windows shows it as a meager 9.09 TB (9.999.858.266.112 bytes) volume. That is why my raid, despite being 2 x 6 disks, is shown as 2 x 5 TB. Each raid3 'loses' one disk for parity.
So, to answer your question, yes, this is quite expected and normal.
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15. Re: I'm "rebuilding" my raid -- do I need to "erase" my raid's hard drives
rowby Oct 8, 2010 9:07 PM (in response to Harm Millaard)My raid is rebuilt. I reinstalled windows 7. I see the raid bios installed in dos. But am not seeing my raid in windows. I only see the "C" and DVD drive.
And I don't see the usal raid controller software in windows.
I have the SAS Raud controller CD "MCRAID CD Ver 3.2. I don't recall installing anything from it before, but maybe I forgot.
I will dig through the documentation, but if you have an easy answer to what I need to do to get Windows to see the raid, please let me know.
In any case I have a complete backup of my raid.
I think I just need to install something from the Mcraid cd.
Rowby
P.S. Page 101 of tge SAS Users Manual (Driver Insstallation) saysthat the OS will recognize the raid controller and launch the "found new hardware wizard". But that is not happening.
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new.jpg 69.3 K
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16. Re: I'm "rebuilding" my raid -- do I need to "erase" my raid's hard drives
rowby Oct 8, 2010 10:01 PM (in response to rowby)On page 97 of the manual:"Insert the RAID controller software CD in the CD-ROM drive.
2. Run the setup.exe file that resides at: <CD-ROM>\PACKAGES\
Windows\http\setup.exe on the CD-ROM.:But I do not find such a file on the CD rom.I see an install.exe file, but no setup.exe file.
Printed on the CD:
SAS eStata.Sata II
Raid COntroller
McRaid
CD Ver 3.2Areca-
raid cd.jpg 15.5 K
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17. Re: I'm "rebuilding" my raid -- do I need to "erase" my raid's hard drives
Rowby Goren Oct 9, 2010 5:44 AM (in response to rowby)I should have mentioned that when I click on install.exe, the windows7 screen became unreadable. A windows 7 dialog box popped up saying there was a compatibility problem and and the color scheme was changed to windows basic.
See this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w75-nepyGI
I going to try "installing" it on a second computer so that I can perhaps figure out what "buttons" to push during the installation.
Rowby
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18. Re: I'm "rebuilding" my raid -- do I need to "erase" my raid's hard drives
Harm Millaard Oct 9, 2010 5:54 AM (in response to Rowby Goren)Make sure that you have full administrative rights, preferably only a single user with full rights.
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19. Re: I'm "rebuilding" my raid -- do I need to "erase" my raid's hard drives
rowby Oct 9, 2010 6:01 AM (in response to Harm Millaard)Hi Harm,
I just double checked control panel. I am the only user and I am the administrator.
In the meantime, I went through the install steps on another computer and was able to get past the weird image display -- and have apparently installed the program.
However, as you can see it is not showing any "devices". When I click on Launch Browser I get message "please select controller..."
And there is nothing to select See attached image.
Rowby
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archhttp.jpg 19.5 K
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20. Re: I'm "rebuilding" my raid -- do I need to "erase" my raid's hard drives
rowby Oct 9, 2010 6:15 AM (in response to rowby)Here's what I am seeing using the dos thing (see image)
Note: the controller name is indicated as: ARC-1600
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dos-thing.jpg 85.5 K
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21. Re: I'm "rebuilding" my raid -- do I need to "erase" my raid's hard drives
rowby Oct 9, 2010 6:22 AM (in response to rowby)SInce I have a complete external backup of my data, should I just start from scratch and delete the raid in the dos thingie --- and
start from beginning.
Maybe windows is getting confused.
Rowby
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22. Re: I'm "rebuilding" my raid -- do I need to "erase" my raid's hard drives
Harm Millaard Oct 9, 2010 6:40 AM (in response to rowby)Rowby,
From IE or FF enter the following adress: http://127.0.0.1:81/
You must then enter your user name and password, as instructed in the manual. That will give you access to the McRaid utility.
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23. Re: I'm "rebuilding" my raid -- do I need to "erase" my raid's hard drives
rowby Oct 9, 2010 7:02 AM (in response to Harm Millaard)Hi
I have to run out for awhile. I did the IP thing. IT didn't ask for username and password.
'
I"m on this screen. I'll read the manual while I am out.
But thought you might want to see this screen.
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ok.jpg 10.6 K
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24. Re: I'm "rebuilding" my raid -- do I need to "erase" my raid's hard drives
Bill Gehrke Oct 9, 2010 7:38 AM (in response to rowby)I have reinstalled windows several times trying new OS disks/SSD's. Each time I have gone the route of Computer/Manage/Device Manager and you will see an unknown device. I go to properties and install the Areca driver. ( I cannot remember if at this point it is insantly there or if I have had to reboot) But even without installing McRaid all my old data and settings are there.
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25. Re: I'm "rebuilding" my raid -- do I need to "erase" my raid's hard drives
rowby Oct 9, 2010 10:26 AM (in response to Bill Gehrke)Hi Bill,
That did the trick.
I went into windows device manager.
I saw the raid thing with an exclamation mark. I updated the driver by browsing to the cd's windows 7 folder and did the update.
Now all is fine!
Great to have such a knowledeble team here at the hardware forum!
Thanks Harm and Bill for helping us all!
Rowby





