I have a really serious problem. A system report from RST on the problem system is included at the end of this post.
I have been trying to get this RAID(5) stabilised for weeks now. All the disks are identical, all the cables to the disks have been replaced. The power supply has been tested repeatedly (a 750W Amacrox in a line-conditioned, UPS supported environment). All the specs of the RAID are posted below. I'm going out of my mind trying to figure out what's going on. The latest stable BIOS has been applied to the motherboard. The drives have all been tested individually with absolutely no faults. There is not yet any unique or critical data on these drives as they won't stabilise long enough to me to trust them. The drives have their latest and correct firmware.
I've tried using two of the drives in a RAID1 (mirror) and the same thing happens. The RAID has to rebuild (taking 40+ hours) after the drives have idled.
The only thing I can figure out is that, although all the sleep and 'power-saving' options of the motherboard and operating system that can be disabled have been disabled, the RAID always degrades and starts rebuilding when the drives spin up after the computer has been idle.
Do I need to disable the idle spin-down of the drives (is that even wise)? How is that done?
Why can't RST tell when drives are spinning up?
Can I tell RST to wait longer for spin-up before degrading the RAID?
Please can someone with more RAID experience than myself (in Windows) look at the specs below and tell me what I can do to stabilise this set-up? (I have extensive experience with Apple, UNIX and Linux LVM and MD based RAID setup and configuration. But this system is for a customer using Adobe CS5 which needs to run on Windows). The lack of verbose diagnostic information is killing me.
I appreciate any suggestions,
Kirk R Holz
-------------------------------> System Report Posted Below Here
System Report
System Information
OS name: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
OS version: 6.1.7600 7600
System name: WORKSTATION-PC
System manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
System model: P55-UD3R
Processor: GenuineIntel Intel64 Family 6 Model 30 Stepping 5 2.927 GHz
BIOS: Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG, GBT - 42302e31
Intel® Rapid Storage Technology
Kit installed: 9.6.0.1014
User interface version: 9.6.0.1014
Language: English (United States)
Intel RAID controller: Intel(R) ICH8R/ICH9R/ICH10R/DO/5 Series/3400 Series SATA RAID Controller
Number of SATA ports: 6
RAID option ROM version: 9.5.0.1037
Driver version: 9.6.0.1014
ISDI version: 9.6.0.1014
Device Information
Name: Array_0000
Size: 5,723 GB
Available space: 0 GB
Disk data cache: Enabled
Number of volumes: 1
Volume member: Cherish_1
Number of disks: 3
Array disk: 9XW04ZY0
Array disk: 9XW06E5W
Array disk: 9XW0DC5F
Name: Cherish_1
Status: Rebuilding 3% complete
Type: RAID 5
Size: 3,815 GB
Data strip size: 128 KB
Write-back cache: Enabled
System volume: No
Initialized: Yes
Verification errors found: 0
Blocks with media errors: 0
Physical sector size: 512 Bytes
Logical sector size: 512 Bytes
Parent array: Array_0000
Number of disks: 3
Array disk: 9XW04ZY0
Array disk: 9XW06E5W
Array disk: 9XW0DC5F
Disk on port 0
Port location: Internal
Status: Normal
Usage: Array disk
Size: 1,908 GB
Serial number: 9XW04ZY0
Model: ST32000542AS
Firmware: CC35
System disk: No
Password protected: No
Disk data cache: Enabled
Native command queuing: Yes
SATA transfer mode: Generation 2
Physical sector size: 512 Bytes
Logical sector size: 512 Bytes
Disk on port 1
Port location: Internal
Status: Normal
Usage: Array disk
Size: 1,908 GB
Serial number: 9XW06E5W
Model: ST32000542AS
Firmware: CC35
System disk: No
Password protected: No
Disk data cache: Enabled
Native command queuing: Yes
SATA transfer mode: Generation 2
Physical sector size: 512 Bytes
Logical sector size: 512 Bytes
Disk on port 2
Port location: Internal
Status: Normal
Usage: Array disk
Size: 1,908 GB
Serial number: 9XW0DC5F
Model: ST32000542AS
Firmware: CC34
System disk: No
Password protected: No
Disk data cache: Enabled
Native command queuing: Yes
SATA transfer mode: Generation 2
Physical sector size: 512 Bytes
Logical sector size: 512 Bytes
Disk on port 4
Port location: Internal
Status: Normal
Usage: Unknown
Size: 0 GB
Serial number: K1Q98734839
Model: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH22NS50
Firmware: TN02
System disk: No
Password protected: No
Disk data cache: Disabled
Native command queuing: No
SATA transfer mode: Generation 1
Physical sector size: 0 Bytes
Logical sector size: 0 Bytes
Empty port
Port: 3
Port location: Internal
Empty port
Port: 5
Port location: Internal