2 different hardrives fail in same day

[alanwest09872]

Ok I have 2 different raids.
a. 2 velocraptors 600gb in raid 0
b. 2 different wd 2tb drives in raid 0

One of the velocraptors and one of the wd drives failed at the same time. What could have happened the computer wasnt knocked over or anything. Just both of them came up with failures under intel raipid storage technology software. I was unable to to access both raids. If I reset them to normal then they work fine for a while but then bam back to being broken again. I have to keep reseting them. Now I can understand one hardrive going thats not unusual but 2 going at the same time. Now thats kind of questionable. Is there a virus that can cause this or some software that could cause both hardrives to fail. What can I do to fix this. Do I need to buy 2 new hardrives or is there something else I can try to fix this. Some kind of software I need. Any info would be much appreciated. I dont have experience with failed hardrives. I have never had one die on me. Let alone 2 on the same day at the same time.

Thanks for all your help it is much appreciated.

 

[corkyg]

I am suspicious of your RAID controller. Have you tried these drives NOT in RAID?

 

[Spikesoldier]

describe the disk failures - not detected, or defective sectors, no power, etc

 

[alanwest09872]

describe the disk failures - not detected, or defective sectors, no power, etc

The one said disk failure. I would say its the controller to but I switched out the cables into different sata slots and still the same disk came up with the error

 

[alanwest09872]

When it starts up under raid conferation (ctrl I) it states smart 1 error

 

[ch33zw1z]

run western digitals diags on the drives, see what error codes you get. Compare to this chart:

http://support.wdc.com/techinfo/general/errorcodes.asp

smart errors are not good.

 

[chusteczka]

An electrical power disruption, such as a brownout, can cause multiple hard drives to fail at the same time. Brownouts occur frequently. Computer equipment requires better quality power than the power company is able to reliably provide.

 

[corkyg]

chusteczka brings up a good point. Is there a UPS ahead of the system? That's a good defense against brownouts. I recall years ago, in Central America, having to use a step-up transformer for our HAM radio due to low line voltage.

And, in addition to brownouts, a power surge can also cause simultaneous component damage.

 

[alanwest09872]

yes theres a ups ahead of them it only last 5 mins but it is there.

 

[taltamir]

What is the state of your PSU? even if you have a good UPS a crappy or failing PSU can still do that. Also a mobo defect could damage drives by sending too much or too little voltage via the SATA cables.

You should replace the defective drives, and potentially the PSU and mobo as well. (depending on reoccurance, willingness to risk it, etc)

It is absolutely not a virus and it is extremely unlikely to be a software issue in so far as by software we mean stuff running on windows and not firmware or driver bug. (both firmware and driver are applications written by people and susceptible to bugs)

 

[Puffnstuff]

I'd measure the rails while the system is at idle and under load to make sure the ps isn't the problem.

 

[alanwest09872]

I'd measure the rails while the system is at idle and under load to make sure the ps isn't the problem.

Sorry but how do I do this. How do I measure the rails?

 

[Puffnstuff]

Use a multimeter, preferrably digital, and connect to the different connectors on each rail and see what the output is. I'd start with the one the drives were attached to just to rule out a spike from the ps as the killer of the drives.

 

[Modelworks]

yes theres a ups ahead of them it only last 5 mins but it is there.

A ups that poorly rated for the load could be doing more harm than good. If you have one outage in 24 hours that UPS might be okay. If the power goes out twice in that period you have exceeded the rating of the UPS and the power it outputs could be very dirty compared to the cleaner power it would have gotten without the UPS in place. UPS are great when they are sized correctly, but too small and they are worse than not having one.

The one thing people need to figure into a UPS is not what run time they have on an outage, but what run time they have on multiple outages in a short time. The batteries ability to deliver current is greatly decreased when multiple outages occur and sizing the load so close to the capacity has a negative effect on the UPS circuitry and will decrease battery life.

The general rule is 15 minutes of run time. Less than that and the UPS is undersized for the load.

 

[alanwest09872]

I read up on multimeters and I have one that I can use. But I dont know where to plug the 2 plugs into to test the hardrive

 

[nipplefish]

Find an unused molex plug (the old style 4-pin hard drive plug). Stick the black lead of the multimeter into the socket attached to the black wire on the plug (ground), then stick the multimeter's red lead into the yellow wire socket to measure the +12V rail. The red wire on the molex plug is the +5V rail. You'll want to do this both at idle and load. A gaming benchmark of some sort would be a good load test.