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RAID hard drive failure

Discussion in 'PC Hardware' started by natcolley, 2009/10/03.

  1. 2009/10/03
    natcolley

    natcolley Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    One of the drives on my Dell T3400 died. It is still under warranty, and a replacement is supposed to arrive by Fedex Monday. HOWEVER, on closer inspection, I now see that everything I did for the last 3 days (even stuff I 'saved') is GONE, including my browser history!. Can someone explain how this could happen? Isn't the whole point of RAID instant mirroring/back up? And if the drive died 3 days ago, why didn't it tell me, or warn me, or something? And, the $64,000 question: Will I be able to salvage any of the work from the last three days from the dead drive? How?

    thx.
     
    natcolley,
    #1
  2. 2009/10/04
    Arie

    Arie Administrator Administrator Staff

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    You should give more information on how you configured RAID & what RAID level you are running.
     
    Arie,
    #2


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  4. 2009/10/04
    natcolley

    natcolley Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    I'd love to. How would I do that, exactly? Is there something I can cut and paste, like under 'my computer -> properties'?
     
    natcolley,
    #3
  5. 2009/10/05
    Arie

    Arie Administrator Administrator Staff

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    No, but if you don't know your hardware setup, there's not much point in having RAID.
     
    Arie,
    #4
  6. 2009/10/05
    natcolley

    natcolley Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    It may be true that having RAID without being intimately familiar with the technical details of the hardware does not make sense, nevertheless, that is where I am, and, in this age of ubiquitous computers, it is where a great many end users are. That is why we have helpful, compassionate boards where experts don't look down on end users for not being experts.

    FYI, this workstation came bundled, and preconfigured, with proprietary software that I needed for my business. That is also why it is still under warranty from Dell. But I did not want to simply plug in a new drive and go on like nothing had happened, I wanted to understand, which is why I came here and asked the question. I hope you will be able to help me do that.

    I went to the event log, and found that there are no entries from Sept 29 to Oct 2, and neither of the two entries on either end of that gap have a red x beside them or say anything about my drives.

    I then went into the system setup. I have an Intel Core(2) Duo cpu wRaid5. Raid ID 0, Level Raid1 Status Degraded. Physical Disk Port 0 disconnected. There was more technical information but since you didn't answer my question about where to look I did not know how much of what I was reading was relevant to you being able to help me.

    I hope that now you will be able to help me and that this problem will not be too complex for your understanding.
     
    natcolley,
    #5
  7. 2009/10/05
    Arie

    Arie Administrator Administrator Staff

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    First you should enter your System Details. It helps us in answering your questions!

    Now, Physical Disk Port 0 disconnected can maybe get us somewhere.... inspect the connections, a connection may have become loose. If that doesn't seem the case, use a new cable to see if that works.

    You should be able to see in your RAID BIOS which hard disk is connected to Port 0.

    Usually when you start your computer you'll get a prompt that allows you access to the RAID BIOS/Setup.
     
    Arie,
    #6

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