Hard Drive/Controller Issues

[StraightPipe]

Ok, I recently overhauled my storage. Broke my RAID0 and rebuilt it with new 200GB drives, couldnt get it to work, and eventially just put them both on a promise controller card. I'm still plagued with issues. while I was able to transfer most of my data back to these 200GB drives I'm getting a WINDOWS XP Delayed Write Failure. the strange thing is they both show up as 200GB (186.31GB in Disk Managment), but now they are both down to about 80GB of free space and I cant write to them anymore. Disk Mngr shows them as healthy (active) status, but one drive wont even let me dfrag (says disk defragmenter could not start), but the other drive defrags fine.

something else I just noticed is that disk mngmnt shows the drive that wont fragment as 100%free (empty) but if I explore through my computer I can still see the contents of the drive, and even play videos.

I've tried getting the newest drivers from promise, but windows says the current drivers are better.

any ideas?

 

[StraightPipe]

have I got a failing drive? is something setup wrong? DMA? (how should it be set?)

 

[StraightPipe]

bump.

 

[StraightPipe]

please help!

 

[n0cmonkey]

First, make sure you have current backups. This is always important, and I'm guessing you don't have them.

Then run chkdisk. Maybe try a format. And I've seen the delayed write errors mentioned here before, so doing a search might not hurt.

 

[StraightPipe]

we'll I'm trying to find a 250GB to backup (figured i'd buy from CC, and return it when I'm done) but after searching here and google, i havent gotten any answers. google returned numerous posts, but nobody ever figured it out (always ended up reformating to fix). a few posts actually assumed a connection between ATI graphics cards, butthere were a few Nvidians in there too.

reformat is the next step for me, I'm jsut looking for a big drive. circuit city only had 200Gigers, and they were all SATA.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Buying, using, and returning hardware is kinda mean. And hard drives are definitely not backup material.

 

[JSSheridan]

Download this, and go to Storage / SMART. Smart is a quick diagnostic, and if there is something wrong with a drive, it will probably show up there. HTH. Peace.

 

[StraightPipe]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Buying, using, and returning hardware is kinda mean. And hard drives are definitely not backup material.

How else could I back up almost 300GB of stuff? I've got a DVD burner to install, but I didnt reall wanna mess with it since this rig is on the fritz, and then spend weeks making piles of DVD's that will have to be reloaded individually once I get this all back up.

I'm already borrowing 2 friends rigs, so I could transfer to them using gigabit LAN, but free space is hard to come by, and I can only borrow them for so long. (an they only had a collective 60gigs free)

This type of project is time consuming, it takes 2-4 hours each time I reformat a 200gig, then I have to format my OS, redo updates, rebuild the RAID, and then spend time transfering all my files back.

If you have a solution for backingup data thats quicker/more efficient than HHD I'd love to hear it. I even called local PC shops to see if they would backup, and they offered $50 per 100GB, and they'd only hold it for 3 days at that price.

Maybe now you can see why I'm resorting to such measures.

 

[StraightPipe]

Originally posted by: JSSheridan
Download this, and go to Storage / SMART. Smart is a quick diagnostic, and if there is something wrong with a drive, it will probably show up there. HTH. Peace.

every time it got to the smart benchmark/test, system will lock...

anyway, the evil drive has been removed, and put a 250 in it's place, hopefully I can get the data off the 200's

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: StraightPipe

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Buying, using, and returning hardware is kinda mean. And hard drives are definitely not backup material.

How else could I back up almost 300GB of stuff? I've got a DVD burner to install, but I didnt reall wanna mess with it since this rig is on the fritz, and then spend weeks making piles of DVD's that will have to be reloaded individually once I get this all back up.

I'm already borrowing 2 friends rigs, so I could transfer to them using gigabit LAN, but free space is hard to come by, and I can only borrow them for so long. (an they only had a collective 60gigs free)

This type of project is time consuming, it takes 2-4 hours each time I reformat a 200gig, then I have to format my OS, redo updates, rebuild the RAID, and then spend time transfering all my files back.

If you have a solution for backingup data thats quicker/more efficient than HHD I'd love to hear it. I even called local PC shops to see if they would backup, and they offered $50 per 100GB, and they'd only hold it for 3 days at that price.

Maybe now you can see why I'm resorting to such measures.

It's still messed up. Kinda like fraud. And if you burn them to DVD, why bother putting all that data back on the hard drive? Why not just leave it on the DVD disk and put it in when you need the data?

 

[StraightPipe]

I havent got weeks to burn disks, or dozens of DVD's. i use the 400GB's of drives for storage, so if i was content keeping it all on DVD or CD I wouldnt have half a terabyte in this rig.

oh yeah, it's not fraud. i dont lie, Circuit city will allow a 30 day return for no reason. how about this reason - i dont need this 250GB hard drive after this week, and i wouldnt pay $200 for it if it wasnt returnable/refundable.

i appreciate the moral debate, but i really just need to figure out the problems in the PC, and not my head.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: StraightPipe
I havent got weeks to burn disks, or dozens of DVD's. i use the 400GB's of drives for storage, so if i was content keeping it all on DVD or CD I wouldnt have half a terabyte in this rig.

oh yeah, it's not fraud. i dont lie, Circuit city will allow a 30 day return for no reason. how about this reason - i dont need this 250GB hard drive after this week, and i wouldnt pay $200 for it if it wasnt returnable/refundable.

i appreciate the moral debate, but i really just need to figure out the problems in the PC, and not my head.

Come on. If you asked them if you could borrow it and return it when you were done, what do you think they would say?

And I have posted suggestions and whatnot, so I'm not just a total jackass.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I'm not sure why you have two threads going about your topic. I've just posted in the "other" thread, but after reading this thread, it seems like you may indeed be having hardware problems with the HDs, not just with software/48-bit LBA support in the OS.

(You know, it's much easier to diagnose problems, with more-complete information available. It would seem a better idea, in the future, to post the various problems with the same rig, all in one thread.)

Anyways, if you have difficulty obtaining another HD, you could consider contacting the HD mfg, and ask them for an "advance RMA". You will have to provide a CC number up front, but they will then ship you the (usually refurb) replacement HD. You can then use that HD to backup and otherwise diagnose/repair your system, and then you will have to ship them back the "defective" HD (they will check the serial number), otherwise you will get charged for the RMA replacement HD on your CC.

At least that doesn't "hurt" your local HD retailer, and asking for an RMA is seemingly rather justified, if you can pin down that you *are* having problems (delayed write failure, poor SMART status values, noises, etc) with a particular HD. Assuming for a moment that you do have a hardware problem with one of the HDs, then you would have had to send for an RMA eventually anyways. Why not do it to your advantage now? Just a thought.

 

[StraightPipe]

thats a great idea.

I've already got a 250 for backing it up now.

sorry about the double posting, but this thread had been dead for some time, without much response (i've been working on fixing this for over a month)

i'm jsut now starting to make progress again, so i started a new thread in hopes of keeping it simple, and just dedicating it to the 127GB problem.

 

[StraightPipe]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

Originally posted by: StraightPipe
I havent got weeks to burn disks, or dozens of DVD's. i use the 400GB's of drives for storage, so if i was content keeping it all on DVD or CD I wouldnt have half a terabyte in this rig.

oh yeah, it's not fraud. i dont lie, Circuit city will allow a 30 day return for no reason. how about this reason - i dont need this 250GB hard drive after this week, and i wouldnt pay $200 for it if it wasnt returnable/refundable.

i appreciate the moral debate, but i really just need to figure out the problems in the PC, and not my head.

Come on. If you asked them if you could borrow it and return it when you were done, what do you think they would say?

And I have posted suggestions and whatnot, so I'm not just a total jackass.

sorry man, i'm just really frustrated with this system right now, and desperately looking for a soulution. certainly not calling any names. just having a sh!tty week, and not in the mood for moral debates.