Raid 5 build keeps failing

[BusyDoingNothing]

I'm in the process of building an Ubuntu-based server with a RAID 1 of 2x WD 500GB Green drives and a RAID 5 of 3x Hitachi Deskstar 1TB (HD31000 IDK/7K) drives. I'm using an Adaptec 2610SA (Dell CERC SATA 1.5/6ch) hardware RAID card.

The RAID 0 created a week back and looks fine. I've been trying to create the RAID 5 in Adaptec Storage Manager and it gets less than 20% of the way through and gives me an error "Build/Verify failed: controller 1, port 5." It has failed three times so far, and I can say with certainty that 2/3 failures were port 5. Does it sound like I have a bad drive? This is my first experience with RAIDs so I'm not sure what to do exactly...

 

[EarthwormJim]

Try eliminating the easy things first. Try out different cables.

I had a RAID array that needed constant rebuilding every week. I swapped out the cables for a different brand and the array never needed to be rebuilt again.

 

[RebateMonger]

Have you tested all three of the Hitachi disks individually with Hitachi's Drive Fitness Test?

 

[Emulex]

you need the E edition of hitachi desktop

 

[BusyDoingNothing]

Ok, so I tested each drive individually using Hitachi's Drive Fitness Test. I ended up having to take them off the RAID controller and plug them into the mobo because the app didn't recognize the RAID controller. They all passed the Advanced Test without issue. I replaced the cables, plugged them back into the card, and the verify process on them is failing.

Is the card the culprit? It's currently hosting a RAID 1 with 2x WD 500GB Green drives without a problem. Is there a setting on the drive itself that I need to change?

 

[BusyDoingNothing]

Ugh...doing some more research, it looks like this Dell CERC 1.5/6 card doesn't handle 1TB or larger drives well/at all. Crap. Back to eBay it goes.

 

[jtisgeek]

Ugh...doing some more research, it looks like this Dell CERC 1.5/6 card doesn't handle 1TB or larger drives well/at all. Crap. Back to eBay it goes.

That's what I was going to say a lot of raid cards only handle certain size drives. You can also run in to issues with having more than 2 logical drives created most cheaper raid cards don't have the memory to handle it.

 

[EarthwormJim]

Have you tried taking the RAID 1 array off the card and leaving only the RAID 5 array on the Dell card?

RAID 1 doesn't really have a whole lot of overhead, your P5W could handle that with no problem.