"A disk read error has occurred" ?!

[advntntn]

I have installed two Western Digital Raptor 36GB drives on a test machine. They are connected via Serial ATA cables to an Intel 875PBZ motherboard. Intel RAID is enabled. I have setup a RAID 0 array with 128Kb stripe.

Basically, I go through this sequence:

a) XP boots off the CD drive
b) I press F6 to specify third-party storage drivers
c) XP installs a few files
d) XP asks for the storage drivers, I insert the Intel RAID driver disk
e) I then specify an 8GB drive to install XP on (out of the total of 67GBs available)
f) XP formats the disk, then installs its files
g) XP then wants to reboot

At this point I'm having the trouble. Once the system reboots, the Intel RAID information screen shows then the regular BIOS information is shown, then (without the XP CD in the drive), I get:

"A disk read error has occurred
Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to restart"

?! I'm baffled.

If I destroy the array and go into the BIOS then specify the IDE type as Legacy (instead of Enhanced, then select SATA P0/P1 + PATA Primary (instead of "Intel RAID enabled"), XP will successfully install fine, on the single drive of course.

So installing XP with RAID setup, fails to boot. Installing XP on a single drive, works. This exact same setup worked fine with two Seagate Serial ATA 120GB drives I used to have. So the only difference is the drives, but what in the drives would stop RAID array from working/booting?

I've tried the WD LifeGuard tools and both drives check out fine with no errors. I've tried XP's FIXBOOT and FIXMBR recovery console tools to try and get the array to boot, still no luck. I called WD, they blame Intel (board maker). I paid $25 and called Intel, they have no idea what the problem is.

Any ideas?

 

[Don66]

Are the jumpers still on the drives?
If so, try removing.

 

[advntntn]

I thought of that already. According to Western Digital, just before they started pointing the finger at Intel, they told me two out of the four jumpers aren't used (OPT1, OPT2). The remaining two determine whether Power Management is on or off, and by default, the drives are shipped with it set to off. In any case, out of desperation, I did remove them and the error still occurs.

I really have *no clue* what is causing this. I've never seen this error before, not until I bought the WD Raptors and installed them, then setup the Intel RAID for a RAID 0 array. I am wondering, contrary to what the WD tool states, if the drives are faulty and won't work together in RAID mode. But that is something I've never heard of, a drive's firmware objecting to RAID.

I'm not particularly keen on doing this, I'm *considering* buying an Adaptec 1210SA SATA RAID PCI controller, just to work around this problem. I may give it a few weeks yet, until I get browse around the Internet in search of an answer.

 

[Viper96720]

Here's the how to install from intel's site
Note: After completing these steps and the operating system has been successfully installed, you will still need to install the Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition by running the typical Setup.exe process.

1. Press F6 when prompted in the status line with the 'Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver' message at the beginning of Windows XP setup (during text-mode phase). Note: After pressing F6, setup will temporarily continue loading drivers and then you will be prompted with a screen to load support for mass storage device(s).


2. Press F6 when prompted in the status line with the 'Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver' message at the beginning of Windows XP setup (during text-mode phase).


Note: After pressing F6, setup will temporarily continue loading drivers and then you will be prompted with a screen to load support for mass storage device(s).

3. Press the 'S' key to 'Specify Additional Device'


4. You will be prompted to 'Please insert the disk labeled Manufacturer-supplied hardware support disk into Drive A:' Once prompted, insert the floppy disk containing the following four files: IASTOR.INF, IASTOR.SYS, IASTOR.CAT, and TXTSETUP.OEM and press ENTER.


5. After pressing ENTER, you should be presented with a list of available SCSI Adapters; it should list 'Intel® 82801ER Serial RAID Controller'. Select this entry and press ENTER.


6. The next screen should confirm that you have selected the 'Intel® 82801ER Serial ATA RAID Controller'. Press ENTER again to continue.


7. At this point, you have successfully F6'ed in the Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition driver and Windows XP setup should continue. Leave the floppy disk in the floppy drive until the system reboots itself. Windows* setup will need to copy the files from the floppy again to the Windows installation folders. Once Windows setup has copied these four files again, you should then remove the floppy diskette so that Windows setup can reboot as needed.


8. During Windows setup, create a partition and file system on the RAID 0 volume as you would any physical disk, Notice that the size of the RAID 0 volume is the combined capacity of the two Serial ATA (SATA) disk drives if they are of the same capacity. If they differ in capacity, your RAID 0 volume will be twice the size of the smaller of the two SATA disk drives.

 

[advntntn]

Thanks for the information.

I've tried all that. I successfully got up to step (7) on your list, but when Windows XP would reboot, it came back with:

"A Disk Read Error has Occurred
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to Restart"

The RAID 0 array will not boot the O.S. I've tried a lot to get it to boot. I've noted I do not get this error if I setup XP on a single drive, not part of a RAID 0 array.

Sigh.

 

[Jeff7]

Would you be able to put these drives in another PC and run a full surface scan on them? Maybe something's getting bad sectors?

Ok, I see that you ran the WD utilities. In that case, with the drives connected to a working PC, download a copy of the trusty AIDA32; install it on the PC, and run the program. Under the Storage section is an icon that says "SMART". This reads the drive's own internal diagnostics readouts. Maybe something is starting to go bad, but it's still passing most of the time. I had a drive that would intermittently report read errors - SMART would show nothing sometimes, other times it would fail. Maybe this one's on the brink. Look for high read or write errors, reallocated sectors in the double digits range, ECC errors, things like that. Or just look for anything that's failing. SMART failure usually means that the drive is not long for this world.

 

[Sideswipe001]

Have you updated your motherboard's BIOS?

 

[advntntn]

Unfortunately, I don't have another PC. I sorely wish I did.

I did run a surface scan on them using WD's Life Guard DOS tool. Even although they are Serial ATA drives, I'm surprised their DOS tool found the drives. The DOS tool found them fault-free, they passed the test, both drives. I put them through the extended test which ran about 30 minutes.

But why would they work in non-RAID mode if they were faulty? They work perfectly in non-RAID mode. in XP installed on a single drive, I can copy files, create partitions, all is well.

I'll download the utility you mentioned and report the results.

Thanks.

 

[advntntn]

Yes, I'm on BIOS P16, which as of last night at 3am (yes, been up late every night/morning trying to get this to work), was the latest BIOS for the Intel 875PBZ.

FYI: I called Intel again (after paying my $25) and after being disconnected from their India call center about 20 million times, they gave up. They concluded the board must be faulty. I told them "How can it be when a few months ago I successfully used Seagate drives in RAID 0?".

Ah well. Going to download that tool and look at the SMART diagnostics.

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Viper96720]

You removed the floppy from the drive? Bios set to boot from the RAID array?

 

[advntntn]

JEFF7:

Here are the results from AIDA SMART:

http://advntntn.home.att.net/aida_smart.gif

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VIPER96720:

Yes. When XP wanted to boot, I did this:

a) Removed the floppy
b) Went into the BIOS, set "Intel RaptorRAID" (just a name I gave it) as the first boot device and set the Plextor burner with the XP CD in it as the secondary boot device.

I disabled the third and fourth boot devices, so only the RAID array and the CD drive are mentioned in the boot order.

Thanks.