Highpoint RAID card suddenly prevents Windows from booting.

[Jeff7]

I've had a Highpoint 2300 RAID card since July of 2010, running 4 Seagate 1TB SATA drives in RAID 5. The latest drivers (several years old now) are installed.

Windows 7 Professional 64-bit is installed on an 80GB Intel SSD that's connected to a 6Gbps SATA port on the motherboard (Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3).

All this has been running with few problems ever since it was set up. The only real "problem" was when one of the drives started to show bad sectors. I got a warranty replacement from Seagate, the controller automatically rebuilt the drive, and all was well.

** Just this past week though, Windows suddenly refused to boot. Even in Safe Mode, it would not boot. The System Repair once again failed to fix it. (I've yet to have Win7's System Repair do anything useful. And the last time it really tried to fix anything useful, it turned back the system by about a month - a month of e-mail, new Internet bookmarks, and documents vanished, even though it says it can't do that *shrug*.)

The bootup was hanging at some avg*.sys file. AVG had caused bootup problems before, so I thought that a new update had screwed things up. I renamed all the avg*.sys files to avg*.bak.
No good: Now it was freezing right at classpnp.sys, which happened after the lights on my mouse would turn on and off several times, as they normally do during bootup.
(Possibly of note though: The hard drive activity light, plugged into the motherboard, flickers periodically while it's in this frozen state. I have no idea what it's doing though.)
The Highpoint card doesn't have any basic LED outputs; it's only got some connectors that are geared for something that's used in servers.


-- After much troubleshooting and online searching, and numerous solutions that didn't work, I finally got the computer to boot by unplugging power to all of the drives on the Highpoint card.
When connected and powered, all drives show up normally in the Highpoint card's BIOS.

It'll even go through a normal Windows boot; I don't even have to do it in Safe Mode. Device Manager still sees the Highpoint card, and reports no problems. But I of course have no access to the data on the hard drives, since they're sitting in there unpowered.


Has anyone encountered this sort of thing before? Did the Highpoint controller throw up on itself? The only Windows Updates I see recently were for Windows Defender, and I'd hope that they wouldn't do anything like this.

My next step is to try Knoppix, and see if it can do anything with the array.

I was expecting it to finish in about 2 hours, but the download speed just abruptly plummeted. Now estimating 24+hrs to completion. :| Oh, TimeWarner Cable, you so crazy. The connection tends to do that if I download a large file, or use virtually any manner of streaming video.
(Edit: Now it's sped up greatly, saying only 35 minutes to completion. )

Some things tried, that I can remember (I went through multiple steps, in fairly rapid succession):
- Setting boot drive to IDE mode instead of AHCI.
- Checking Highpoint card's drivers; someone reported that Windows would try to use the wrong drivers, thinking it was some kind of SCSI card. I removed and reinstalled the Highpoint card's drivers, with no luck.
- Any attempts to boot into Safe Mode with the drives connected results in the lockup.
- scf /scannow
- chkdsk /r on the boot drive

 

[Bubbaleone]

I just looked at the most recent BIOS which is v2.2 dated 6/20/2007. As it supports Vista 32bit and 64bit (and it's been working fine with Windows 7 64bit until now) I'd suspect that either a recent Windows Update or AVG update has broken driver support.

I know you renamed AVG with .bak extension, but I'd try completely uninstalling AVG and create a new restore point and reboot. If it still wouldn't boot with the RAID card then I could be pretty sure that a Windows Update was the culprit. To test that I'd next rollback to a restore point just prior to when the problem started, again uninstall AVG and reboot. If it now booted normally with the RAID card I'd know an AVG update was the problem and if not, I'd suspect that a Windows Update (from the date of that rollback restore point) might still be the problem.

If after unistalling AVG then identifying and uninstalling any suspected Windows Updates, and it was still buggered, I'd download fresh copies of the RocketRAID 2300 BIOS, device drivers, and RAID management utility, then reflash, reinstall, and test it again.


.

 

[Jeff7]

I was wary of doing anything with the RAID controller's BIOS - something odd goes on, and I'd end up losing the entire array, that sort of thing. I don't know how much of a risk that actually is though.

I'll give it a reboot quick to see what version of the BIOS I'm using. Since it was bought in 2010 though, I'd certainly hope that it's using the last version from 2007.

I'll also uninstall AVG and see what happens....well, after doing a system scan, for the heck of it.

I did a Spybot scan too, just in case. It only found a tracking cookie, and nothing else.


Windows Updates: Since those were only Windows Defender Definitions updates, I doubt that they'd be the culprit in this.

A bunch of updates showed up on May 17th, but I'm quite sure this problem hadn't shown up yet.

 

[Jeff7]

Update:
- Uninstalling AVG had no effect. It simply freezes at or after classpnp.sys now, rather than one of the avg*.sys files.
- Knoppix's DVD version couldn't see the RAID array, so either it doesn't have drivers for the Highpoint 2300 by default, or else the array is really screwed up. And, I know nothing about loading drivers for new hardware on Linux, or even how to find Knoppix's analog of Device Manager. Besides that, the drivers I see available at Highpoint's site are: Fedora, RHEL, SLES, Open SuSE, Debian, Ubunto, and Compile-Your-Own.
- The card's BIOS is already the latest version (v2.2).

- I did notice that, when the system froze, it would consistently place eight small green rectangles at the upper-left corner of the screen - like it's just a graphical glitch, and nothing more.
I ran MemtestCL through some test cycles. It does 50 cycles over the course of a few minutes, and it will sometimes, but not always, hit a bump of >900 errors on the Random Blocks test. Most of the time it gives zero errors. I set it up to run overnight, and it still only got the same >900 errors. (Always <1000 though.) Card is a Gigabyte GV-R585OC-1GD Radeon HD 5850. I'll need to investigate that, and make sure it's not some kind of glitch with the memory tester. (The card is running at stock speed.) A quick search shows that some other people are getting Random Block errors with this program, even on reference boards running at stock speeds.
- According to Process Explorer, only about 550MB of video memory get used by this test, even if I use the command line switch to instruct it to use more.
Edit: From more reading, it sounds like this MemtestCL program is suspect, and outdated. :\

I've cleared my bootlog file (well, ntbtlog.txt) and see if I can get it to give me anything useful.
Edit: The bootlog was not helpful. It evidently only logged successful boot attempts. For example, if I would try to boot 4x, three of which resulted in lockups, and one of which was good, the bootlog would only show one boot attempt.
So, after deleting the ntbtlog.txt file entirely and shut down, I plugged in the hard drives and booted. Windows froze partway through. From there, I rebooted into Knoppix, to ensure that the Windows bootlog wouldn't get anything else written to it.
This exercise was not terribly helpful: The resulting Ntbtlog.txt file contained just two bytes: 0xFF 0xFE (these are their hex values)
I repeated the procedure to see if this was a fluke. Nope. It gave me the same two bytes.


I will also entertain the idea of other controllers, once I get the data off of this one. I've seen a fair number of posts with nothing nice to say about Highpoint's RAID 5 cards, and instead recommend 3ware or Adaptec. As long as it's got some hardware acceleration on it for the parity calculations.


Update 2: I figured I'd try installing Windows 7 on another drive. I unplugged my SSD and put in an old 250GB SATA drive. During the Windows install, it bluescreened on me somewhere around 30% through the Expanding Windows files part, STOP 0x34 code. CACHE_MANAGER.
It feels like this system has been quietly falling apart while trying its best to keep me from seeing it.
Edit: I unplugged all USB devices except for the keyboard and mouse, and it progressed through normally. It's now at the "Completing Installation" section.
- This installation is being done with the Highpoint card installed, but with the drives disconnected.



Update 3:
So...did my array just up and hose itself? I've got the fresh install of Windows running normally, and after loading in the drivers for the Highpoint card, it won't finish booting if I do it with the drives connected.
(Though the one step remaining is that I haven't tried new SATA cables. I've seen that suggested already.)

I also found GParted in Knoppix, and it seems that Knoppix is able to do something with the Highpoint card. It sees 4x 1TB hard drives, showing them as Unallocated.


Update 4: I downloaded RAIDTOOL.EXE, Highpoint's utility for this sort of situation. (Which, interestingly, you can't get from their website.)
Loaded that up, and it lists all 4 drives just fine, and shows that they're all happily part of a functioning 3TB RAID 5 setup.

I'm worried about touching too much inside the program though, as this thing looks like it could do some serious damage. (Options like "ZeroBuild" and "Fill Test.")

One of the Test options is "I/O test," which sounds reasonably harmless. The others are "Fill Test Pattern," "Check Test Pattern," and "I2C command." I/O test sounds ok, and I2C command...not sure of. The Fill Test sounds a bit like it would start overwriting things.

 

[Jeff7]

Trouble ticket to Highpoint:

Problem Description
BIOS/Firmware Version: v2.2
Driver version: v2.3
WebGUI version: _______
Serial No: 1010M26006836
Purchase Date: _______
Purchase From: Newegg
Operating System: Win7 Pro 64-bit
Motherboard Model: Gigabyte P55A-UD3
System BIOS version: F11
System memory size: 8GB
HDD Model: Seagate ST3100528AS
HDD Firmware version: _______
RAID Configuration: RAID 5 (3TB usable capacity)

Other configuration information:

Graphics card: Radeon HD5850-based, PCIe x16

Boot drive: 80GB SSD connected to the motherboard. The RAID 5 drives are used simply for additional storage.

***************
***** Problem Description *****
***************
This setup had been working normally for at least 2 years. Very abruptly, it prevented Windows from booting; it could not boot in Safe Mode either. The system begins to boot, but then the process stops partway through, sometime after classpnp.sys loads, though the hard drive status light does periodically flicker. If I power down and disconnect the drives from the RocketRaid card, then the system will boot up properly, and the card does still show up normally in Device Manager.

Up to this time, all drives connected to the RocketRaid card were running normally, all they do still show up properly in the RocketRAID's BIOS, and the Array there shows a status of Normal. All SMART indications appear normal as well.


I have also tried a fresh install of Windows on a different hard drive. With this very clean installation (no other drivers had been added), I installed the v2.3 drivers for the RocketRaid card, and rebooted. That installation exhibited the same symptoms - freezing after classpnp.sys loads.


Thank you,
Jeff

Response from Highpoint: :\

Dear customer, we are able to determine the problem that you are seeing. It may not be related to the HighPoint controller or driver.

Please Google search classpnp.sys and you will see that other users have reported the same issue as you with their system locking up but those users do not have the RocketRAID controller in their system.

I guess they saw "classpnp.sys" in my writeup, and went right to "not our fault" mode.
I've of course been to Google, and part of the reason I'm posting here was that those results were not too useful. They did get me to the point of determining that it was the Highpoint card though: Most of them consisted of "Remove hardware until you find the part that lets it work again."

Plugging hard drives into the Highpoint controller makes the system stop booting. ...Hmm, where oh where to go from there? :hmm:

 

[Bubbaleone]

....Update 4: I downloaded RAIDTOOL.EXE, Highpoint's utility for this sort of situation. (Which, interestingly, you can't get from their website.)
Loaded that up, and it lists all 4 drives just fine, and shows that they're all happily part of a functioning 3TB RAID 5 setup.

I'm worried about touching too much inside the program though, as this thing looks like it could do some serious damage. (Options like "ZeroBuild" and "Fill Test.")

One of the Test options is "I/O test," which sounds reasonably harmless. The others are "Fill Test Pattern," "Check Test Pattern," and "I2C command." I/O test sounds ok, and I2C command...not sure of. The Fill Test sounds a bit like it would start overwriting things.

I've followed your posts and with that info did some investigation. It seems classpnp.sys is responsible for a lot non-RAID Win7 boot failures in both normal and safe boot modes on systems already installed, and during non-RAID Win7 installations as well. The solutions were switching from IDE>AHCI or AHCI>IDE on existing installations, and removing all add-in cards for new installations.

IMHO none of those scenarios address your situation. I can appreciate your hesitancy in using the raidtool so I ran down this 2011 blog article on the Highpoint 2300, that has a download link for Highpoint's newest version of raidtool.exe, and also provides details (and links) about how to properly use the tool to diagnose and repair your array: HighPoint RocketRAID raidtool. At the top of that page click on the bolded title to download "raidtool-091019.zip" (raidtool.exe, 10/19/2009).


.

 

[Jeff7]

I've followed your posts and with that info did some investigation. It seems classpnp.sys is responsible for a lot non-RAID Win7 boot failures in both normal and safe boot modes on systems already installed, and during non-RAID Win7 installations as well. The solutions were switching from IDE>AHCI or AHCI>IDE on existing installations, and removing all add-in cards for new installations.

I tried that as well, in the off chance it would help.
Nope.

IMHO none of those scenarios address your situation. I can appreciate your hesitancy in using the raidtool so I ran down this 2011 blog article on the Highpoint 2300, that has a download link for Highpoint's newest version of raidtool.exe, and also provides details (and links) about how to properly use the tool to diagnose and repair your array: HighPoint RocketRAID raidtool. At the top of that page click on the bolded title to download "raidtool-091019.zip" (raidtool.exe, 10/19/2009).


.

I ran across that one - that's actually where I got raidtool.exe from. (Probably the only place on the web where you can get it.)

It's tied to a [H]ardforum thread, where someone had an 8-disk array that failed in some manner. That poster at least received some failure warnings. Everything I've got, from the card's BIOS to raidtool (including the SMART readouts in raidtool), says that the array is in perfect health. That person's also got access to the array via the Highpoint RAID Management Console, which I also can't do.

I was very hesitant about following that though, particularly the "Delete Array" option, and the various warnings about the ways it could go wrong.
The post there, mirrored in the blog post, also started with "Same thing just happened to me. Hope you have a backup for your data." The latter is usually a bad sign.
But it also continues with something that ends with, "allowing for data retrieval."

So I was hoping for more specific guidance from Highpoint, maybe even an explanation as to why my RAID would suddenly make Windows stop booting, rather than waiting a day to have them tell me, "Google it."

That Delete Array procedure may well be my only option, scary as it sounds.


The post above has been edited to include what I sent them.


I also thought about trying a Windows XP installation, but I'm pretty sure that the array's partitions are GPT, so WinXP wouldn't be able to read them anyway.

 

[Bubbaleone]

I agree about "Delete Array" as a viable solution but it concerns me that you don't have access to the array via the Highpoint RAID Management Console, which suggests there's a problem with the Highpoint BIOS. I'd consider using the raidtool to backup all the array info to USB, rebuild and verify the array, and then backup the rebuilt array info. Disconnect the drives from the card, reflash the BIOS, and reinstall the management console. When you reconnect the drives and boot the card you'll have the rebuilt array configuration data on your raidtool USB stick for backup, in the event the new management console needs that loaded in order to see the array.

 

[Jeff7]

Specifically, I don't have access via Highpoint RAID Management Console, because I don't have access to Windows, at least when the array is hooked in.

It does let me in when I have only the card connected, and no drives. It doesn't tell me a whole lot though, other than what it is, and that it has no drives connected.


Highpoint responded again:

Status: Active -> Awaiting Customer Action

Dear Customer,
Since the booting system is not on this RR2300, you can try to update this quick BIOS to see if it solves the booting problem. This quick BIOS will just disable itself in BIOS so you won't be able to see any RAID configuration page after update.


Regards,

*gulp*

Well...let's hope all this leaves the stuff on the drives intact.

I'll hop into the BIOS there one more time to get all the serial numbers and corresponding channels written down, and save out all the drive information from raidtool.

 

[Bubbaleone]

Sorry, I misunderstood. I thought the Highpoint RAID management console was accessed as a boot ROM option. Here's hoping the computer gods smile upon you gently!

 

[Jeff7]

"No joy on the burn."


Flashed the BIOS of the card, flashing successful...reboot, and Windows still freezes.


Are there any Linux LiveCDs that have native support for this card? (Or did Knoppix already have it, and just couldn't see the RAID partitions?) Google has been unhelpful...most of the responses I've encountered assume I know my way around Linux.
"Download and build the drivers, then once you've done that..."
...oh, ok. Build drivers. Right. (Or sometimes even recompile some pieces of code.)
:\


I'd still love to know what the hard drive is doing during this "frozen" time though - the activity light flickers briefly, and quite consistently, about one flicker every second.


I've also tried the card in another one of the PCIe slots on the computer. No change.

And I just finished swapping through the SATA cables with a spare I had. No change.

 

[Bubbaleone]

"No love on the burn."


Flashed the BIOS of the card, flashing successful...reboot, and Windows still freezes.


Are there any Linux LiveCDs that have native support for this card? Google has been unhelpful...most of the responses I've encountered assume I know my way around Linux.
"Download and build the drivers, then once you've done that..."
...oh, ok. Build drivers. Right. (Or sometimes even recompile some pieces of code.)
:\


I'd still love to know what the hard drive is doing during this "frozen" time though - the activity light flickers briefly, and quite consistently, about one flicker every second.

I agree that the Windows Recovery Environment automatic repair is a joke, but the command prompt would be very useful if it can access your array. Youll have hidden partitions if you're running GPT so try booting the install DVD and get to Advanced repair tools screen. Open the command prompt, then open diskpart, and use it to verify your array system drive letter as seen from the recovery environment. Close diskpart and run this command:

sfc /scannow /offbootdir=X:\ /offwindir=X:\windows  (where X:\ = your array system drive letter)

.

If classpnp.sys and any other system files are haywire, they'll be replaced.


.

 

[Jeff7]

I agree that the Windows Recovery Environment automatic repair is a joke, but the command prompt would be very useful if it can access your array.

I did check around the command line there in the Windows Repair environment. It only sees the boot drive, and the other hard drive that's connected right to the motherboard. It didn't see any other drives.

Youll have hidden partitions if you're running GPT so try booting the install DVD and get to Advanced repair tools screen. Open the command prompt, then open diskpart, and use it to verify your array system drive letter as seen from the recovery environment. Close diskpart and run this command:

sfc /scannow /offbootdir=X:\ /offwindir=X:\windows  (where X:\ = your array system drive letter)

.

If classpnp.sys and any other system files are haywire, they'll be replaced.

.

I shall give this a shot tomorrow, to see if diskpart can see the array.
Though I did already do a sfc /scannow, just from the Windows Repair screen's command line. It never found any problems. (Again though, this wasn't from booting off the DVD, this was just in the Windows Repair environment. I'll give this a try from the DVD.)



I've also seen it suggested that classpnp.sys is not the culprit, but it's whatever Windows tries to load after it...which appears to be cdrom.sys, according to the bootlog. Well, what the heck, I've tried unplugging everything else already. What's one more thing?



Update: As expected, unplugging the CD drive didn't do anything. Oh well. It was (relatively) simple. (This Corsair supply's Molex connectors fit in very snugly.)

However, there is some reasonably good news: I booted off of the Windows DVD, loaded in drivers for the RAID card, and the data is still there!
Both partitions on the array are present, and appear to be fully intact.

(And Windows so helpfully found something I made - when the system initially messed up, I didn't know what was going on, so I did a quick robocopy to a folder on my secondary hard drive. The Repair Environment on the DVD so helpfully found this "missing" Windows installation, and it looks like it's added it as a bootup option.)


So...the array is evidently alive, as the controller card has been reporting...but something is preventing two different Windows installations from seeing it. I ran chkdsk on both partitions (read-only mode), and it found nothing wrong.
Is it still something wrong with the card, or has something elsewhere in the system gone wrong? (Motherboard? :hmm I do have an old motherboard + C2D processor laying around here. Without any RAM. :\
I think I can get some on loan from someone at work though, next week.


Bleh. I wonder what's wrong?

Well, what the heck...I guess I'll run Memtest86. It's not like the computer's doing much else at night.


Update 2:
Presumably, the system repair thing off of the Windows DVD did the job. We're back in business.
Edit: That doesn't make any sense though, otherwise the fresh Windows installation I tried should have worked. Huh.

The Management Console's event log doesn't show any anomalies at all. Its only log entries were when I tried to log in and forgot the username and password, and just all the way back to March, when I replaced one of the drives (bad sectors) and it auto-rebuilt the array. Otherwise...it's got no recollection of any kind of problem.

I think I'd actually feel more comfortable if it did report a problem. Now I'm left with a computer that's working, and is telling me, "What problem? Everything's normal, and always has been normal."

But for now, I'm getting some sleep. Tomorrow I'll be looking into this a bit more.

 

[Jangomech]

I am running into the exact same issue except I have an Adaptec Raid 6405 controller card. Would like to know how you resolved the issue.

So far I have figured out the array is still intact because I was able to boot into the Parted Magic OS and view my files. I was planning on backing up the files and then deleting the array and rebuilding. Painful process!!! Did you figure out an easier way?

 

[Jeff7]

Ah...sorry, I forgot to update this. Though the "solution" is still not really a good one, in my mind. The summarized sequence:

- Windows fails to boot, hanging somewhere at or after classpnp.sys.
- Tried a bunch of different drive configurations and hookups, but no luck.
- Tried Windows' repair utility (without the Windows DVD). No help.
- Unplug the standalone drive with Windows on it, and do a fresh install Windows on another standalone drive on the system. It boots up fine - until I loaded the drivers for the RAID card. Then it couldn't boot.
- Plug the original Windows drive back in, but this time, run the repair utility off of the Windows DVD. Result: Windows boots normally, and has worked fine ever since.


So, in short, a fresh installation failed in the same way as the original, but the original was fixed by doing a repair off of the very same Windows disc.


I have no idea why that process made it work again.

 

[Jangomech]

thanks for the update but unfortunately for me the the automated startup repair from WindowsDVD did not help. When booting from the DVD, both chkdsk and diskpart cant see the array.

When I ran TestDisk off the Parted Magic OS, i got the following message

Both MFT seems OK but they dont match, use chkdsk

which doesnt help me as chkdsk from the windows dvd doesnt even see the array. any suggestions?

 

[LastSilmaril]

that has a download link for Highpoint's newest version of raidtool.exe, and also provides details (and links) about how to properly use the tool to diagnose and repair your array: HighPoint RocketRAID raidtool. At the top of that page click on the bolded title to download "raidtool-091019.zip" (raidtool.exe, 10/19/2009).

I ran across that one - that's actually where I got raidtool.exe from. (Probably the only place on the web where you can get it.)

Hey there - I'm having a problem with an array on one of these old 2300 series cards, and am trying to track down a copy of raidtool.exe. The blog where the tool was kept up before no longer exists, unfortunately, and there is no other link in the hardforum thread or anywhere else. Archive.org has a copy of the site, here, but doesn't preserve binaries. I tried to go through the gegereka site that the blogger said he found it at, but nothing came up and anyway that site looks dodgy enough for me to be wary. So - on the off-chance that either of you still have this tool, can you upload it somewhere? I have also contacted HighPoint support but I'm skeptical they'll help a random guy with a long-since EOLed product like this one.

ED: Thanks to persistent Googling I managed to find an old version of the tool which is nonetheless compatible with the 23xx series here. It is dated 10/23/2007 so it's a bit older, but it may yet serve. If either of you or anybody else still has the newer versions, please post. I will also follow-up on the off-chance HighPoint support actually comes through. If not, I will make sure to mirror this version in a few places.

 

[Jeff7]

Hey there - I'm having a problem with an array on one of these old 2300 series cards, and am trying to track down a copy of raidtool.exe. The blog where the tool was kept up before no longer exists, unfortunately, and there is no other link in the hardforum thread or anywhere else. Archive.org has a copy of the site, here, but doesn't preserve binaries. I tried to go through the gegereka site that the blogger said he found it at, but nothing came up and anyway that site looks dodgy enough for me to be wary. So - on the off-chance that either of you still have this tool, can you upload it somewhere? I have also contacted HighPoint support but I'm skeptical they'll help a random guy with a long-since EOLed product like this one.

ED: Thanks to persistent Googling I managed to find an old version of the tool which is nonetheless compatible with the 23xx series here. It is dated 10/23/2007 so it's a bit older, but it may yet serve. If either of you or anybody else still has the newer versions, please post. I will also follow-up on the off-chance HighPoint support actually comes through. If not, I will make sure to mirror this version in a few places.

Sorry it took a long time to reply. I'm not around these parts as much as I used to be.

I wasn't able to find the file on my computer anymore, nor on my tablet. I checked for any ZIP, RAR, or EXE from that time period, or any "raidtool."

I'm using an Areca ARC-1214-4iRAID card now, though it was discontinued not long after I bought it. Go figure.
It does the job pretty nicely though, and it's got a gigabyte of buffer RAM onboard.

Newegg's got a decent selection of Areca cards, ranging from "affordable mid-range" up to "I need to write 12TB in the next minute. Here's a blank check. Make it happen."

Be prepared for some minor surgery though: Their cards include beepers for signaling alarms, and even though I have set the toggle to disable it, it still would blare out a loud beep every time the PC's turned on. If you've got an iron and are willing to mildly risk damaging your shiny new card, it can be removed. Otherwise, a good dollop of runny hot glue will quiet it down. (A firmware patch would sure be nice though.)

 

[LastSilmaril]

Sorry it took a long time to reply. I'm not around these parts as much as I used to be.

I wasn't able to find the file on my computer anymore, nor on my tablet. I checked for any ZIP, RAR, or EXE from that time period, or any "raidtool."

I'm using an Areca ARC-1214-4iRAID card now, though it was discontinued not long after I bought it. Go figure.
It does the job pretty nicely though, and it's got a gigabyte of buffer RAM onboard.

Newegg's got a decent selection of Areca cards, ranging from "affordable mid-range" up to "I need to write 12TB in the next minute. Here's a blank check. Make it happen."

Be prepared for some minor surgery though: Their cards include beepers for signaling alarms, and even though I have set the toggle to disable it, it still would blare out a loud beep every time the PC's turned on. If you've got an iron and are willing to mildly risk damaging your shiny new card, it can be removed. Otherwise, a good dollop of runny hot glue will quiet it down. (A firmware patch would sure be nice though.)

Thanks for chiming in. As it happens I both found a version of raidtool that works, and got a reply from HighPoint support with another version which also works. Ultimately I didn't have to use it though - I got a new HDD of the same make as the one that failed, did a sector by sector copy with HDD Raw Copy Tool, popped it back into the array, and it worked. There was a good bit of corrupted data I found, but I also found that my backup, which I had made way before this, also had said corruption, so it wasn't as a result of the imaging as much as the card or HDD failing for quite a while beforehand. Most of the stuff that was a lost was replaceable; some precious things not, but all in all I'm mostly glad that it's working, at least for now. I'll be taking a hard look at those Areca cards and some proper HDDs to replace these (e.g. HGST, the Seagate NAS disks, &c) - thanks for the heads-up on those cards.

 

[master_shake_]

ah highpoint.

the reason i have never strayed from LSI except for that one time i did.

seriously, how can a server board (asus z97-ws) not boot with this card installed?