Asus P7P55D EVO RAID Hard Drive Failures

[smithme08]

This is a heads up and a slight request for any other thoughts regarding this.

System Specs:
ASUS P7P55D EVO
Intel i7 860 @ stock speed
Noctua 120mm heatsink dual fans(too lazy to look up model number)
GSkill F3-12800CL7-2GBRH 2GB x 2 (dual channel setup, default timings (underclocked really))
ATI 5850 1 GB video card
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB drives x2 in RAID 1 (mirroring, SATA ports 0 and 1)

Windows 7x64
Intel Matrix Storage Manager version 8.9

At fairly random times I suffer from 1 drive, usually the port 0 drive, but sometimes the port 1 drive, "failing" and dropping out of the array. At which point, if I boot from CD and run Samsung's test tool (which BTW, won't work using their own boot CD, use Hiren's utility CD instead) the drive checks out 100% fine even with a full surface scan etc. If I remove the drive from the array, add it back in, then it will rebuild the array happily and all seems well. Except that after a few hours, or perhaps as much as 20 hours, one of the drives will "fail" again.

I found here and there others with this problem usually using different motherboards, and even mention of it on the page regarding Intel's RAID driver/software. The recommended solution at this point, which I'm trying successfully so far, is to downgrade the Intel drivers/software to version 8.8, however Intel goes on to say that its not "officially" compatible with Windows 7 (guessing things like Trim etc probably don't work).

I will post back after a few more days if this continues to work for me so hopefully others can benefit without having to search so hard for an answer

Anyone else have any other thoughts regarding this? Reasons why this is a bad fix or something else to try?

 

[grimpr]

I suggest you reconsider your strategy on usage,data and disks and think hard about the so called benefits of a 23 year old tech, RAID. One of the most efficient ways for modern workstation is to put an SSD drive for OS/apps, pair a couple of fast 500gb disks in RAID0 for the scratch/temp storage and build a Windows Home Server box for all your data storage and protection needs. Sure its costly, but in the long run it will prove its worth.

 

[anand_user]

don't forget backup solutions for the WHS box hehe.

 

[Blazer7]

I'm experiencing the same problem with a RAID 10 array on an ASUS P7P55D-PRO board. After much research I've found out that this is a common and well known issue. The problem lies with intel's Matrix Storage Manager 8.9.x.xxxx. Some people had luck with downgrading to MSM 8.8 and a few others reported that the problem was fixed in the new, and still unannounced, intel Rapid Storage Technology ver 9.5.xxxx drivers. From what I could gather around RST is supposed to replace MSM soon.

This morning I upgraded to RST v9.5.4.1001 (WHQL certified) and so far everything seems to work fine. I was able to initialize the array and perform a verification test without any issues.

The machine will work 24/7 so in the next few days I will be able to verify whether this works or not.

For anyone that's interested, here's where I found the latest RST drivers -> http://www.station-drivers.com/page/intel%20raid.htm


HTH

back to testing......

 

[smithme08]

Dropping back to the older drivers was 100% stable and worked just fine. The newest drivers were working fine for a few months as well, before I upgraded to an SSD and stopped using RAID entirely.

Sorry I didn't update this sooner. I forgot about it, to be honest.