Broken RAID Stripe, Now getting NTLDR is missing???

[ViperZ]

Help, I was moving large chunks of a data and when I restarted the PC, I got an error message stating that I had a broken RAID Stripe. I selected continue and it then posted "verifiying DMI pool data" "Then NTLDR is Missing" Press CTRL + ALT + DEL to restart. Which I do, but it keeps coming back to this point.

I ran the raidrb.exe to try and and repair the array, however ithat does not seem to fix it, so I then ran option #3 of the raidrb.exe program. Option 3 resumes the original disk information.

Futher compounding the problems is I'm running a dual boot system with Windows ME on the C:\ with Fat 32 formatting. Windows XP Pro is on the D:\ formatted as NTSF. I seldom run Win ME, however I think the boot loader is corrupt and that's way it hangs at NTLDR. The Stripes may be fixed, however the bootloader could be buggered.

What are anyone's thoughts on this?

Am I pooched?

Thanks for any help....


ABIT KT7A-RAID
High Point 370 RAID controller on board
2 Quantum AS 7200 40GB HD in RAID 0 Stripe.

 

[KingCheeba]

Can you repair XP by putting in the cd and (don't format) choosing the repair function? Sorry but I never took that step to XP (still loving Windows 2000). Let me know though.

In regards to the NTLDR.EXE missing, I've had that problem too. I just used the Windows 2000 cd to boot from and did a repair.

Hope something works for ya!


p.s. Why you still using Windows ME? Don't you think that it crashes a lot and hangs? Just wondering

 

[ViperZ]

Hey bOyA, thanks for the support!

I'm at work right now but I will try that Windows Recovery Console. Good Idea.

The ME partion was a throw back to when I was running Windows 2000. W2k would not run a lot of my games and other applications I had. So when I installed XP, I thought I should install ME as well incase applications were not supported under XP. It seems like XP runs everything I need and as such, I really don't need the ME partition any more. Maybe this is just a way of telling me that

I would still like to know why the stripe was broken? This is the second time this has happened to me and I would have to say I'm sworn off RAID for now. I even bought more 40GB HDs for my new PC that I was going to 0 stripe as well, but not now :|

 

[Cuular]

Good idea on not using raid 0 on you rboot disk. It is a fact that raid will cause drives to fail faster than non-raid, because it actually works the drives harder then not using raid. IDE drives MTBF's for home use are usually based on a 5-10% usage. IE it is only being read from or written to 10% of the time. With raid sice the idea is to split the work up between the drives it makes both drives work well beyond the the 5-10% level. But it does give increased performance. However raid0 should only be used on data that you have backups of, and don't really mind losing. Because there is no recovery from a failed raid0 drive. For recovery you either need raid 0 + raid 1 or raid 5. Raid 5 has yet to be implemented on IDE raid solutions.

Anyway I know this wasn't an answer to your problem, but hopefully someone else thinking of using that new raid controller for their bootdisk will stop and think about the implications of what they are doing.

 

[Nothinman]

If the array is broken and the controller can't put it back together you're screwed, that's why noone should trust RAID 0 with important data.

Good idea on not using raid 0 on you rboot disk. It is a fact that raid will cause drives to fail faster than non-raid, because it actually works the drives harder then not using raid

Not really, hard drives have MTBF ratings of many years of continuous use it's just that IDE disks are very fragile compared to SCSI ones and the more of them you have the greater chance of one of them failing, and if you use RAID 0 one failing means all your data is gone.

And if you think about it, a 2 drive RAID 0 array should work each drive half as much, since each read that would be read from 1 drive will now be split across both of them.

Raid 5 has yet to be implemented on IDE raid solutions.

Not true, some of the more expensive ones have RAID 5, but it's not popular because you can't reliably hot swap IDE drives making it nearly pointless.

 

[ViperZ]

Well the windows restore console did not work. I also tried the recovery routine using "sys C:" No dice.

So before I try Norton Disk Doctor and rebuilding the array, I'm installing a fresh OS on a spare Maxtor D740X. From there I'll see if I can restore it with something like Restore Pro 2000.

I will still build a RAID in my new PC seeing as I allready have bought the 2 D740X Maxtor 40Gb drives, however I think I will also buy a Western Digital 1000BB SE just for the OS.

I'll let you know how this all turns out,

Thanks for the support....

 

[ViperZ]

Well Norton DD was able to recover and fix my Fat 32 partion (Whoo-Hoo!) However the NTSF section is not as easy to fix. Some times NTSF really bites :|

So now I guess I will use my new install of XP on the Spare Drive and try to recover data from the broken NTSF stripe/partion that hard way.....

Unless anybody has sugessions?