raid question.. what the hell?

[exodus454]

alrighty guys. i have a cheapo not-even-sure-of-the-manufacturer ITE 8212 based raid card which i was running a raid 0 array on. a few weeks ago, my computer went haywire and now XP wont boot when the card is in the computer.

The card shows its bios start up screen, but once it moves beyond that and starts to load XP, the whole computer just hangs and then freezes. I tried unplugging the drives from the card to see if that was the problem, but still no-go. I then took the card out of the computer and off we went.

What could be the problem here? fried raid adapter? drives themselves? some bios screwup? it was a cheapo $30 ebay card that i wouldnt be surprised if it bit the dust. If it is shot though, would it be possible to move to another adapter thats a bit higher quality (or an integrated when i buy my new mobo) without losing all the data?

thanks!

 

[darkswordsman17]

Well did you try hooking up the drives to your computer without the RAID card and they work? If they did, then it doesn't look like you lost any data. What configuration did you have them in (0, 1, 0+1)?

Well, I guess the drives could still turn on even if they lost their data, so could you check them. Plug them in one at a time if necessary.

 

[exodus454]

its in raid 0, so i thought why even bother plugging it straight into the mobo if i cant access the data. when plugged in you can hear them spin up and the heads move.

somehow i dont think its the drives themselves, because when trying to start the computer with nothing attached to the card, it still wont boot completely.

its not characteristic of any components to just "stop working" is it?

 

[exodus454]

uppity up up

 

[exodus454]

bump before bed.

 

[exodus454]

EDIT: double post.

 

[Jiggz]

Can you boot in safe mode? If you can then try installing the driver for the Raid Card. If you cannot boot in safe mode, then remove the card and then install the driver. Shut down and install the card and try booting again. If this still does not fix the problem, then try a Repair Installtion of XP or even at least to the first screen where you will press F6 to install raid or scsi hardware.

 

[Jiggz]

Can you boot in safe mode? If you can then try installing the driver for the Raid Card. If you cannot boot in safe mode, then remove the card and then install the driver. Shut down and install the card and try booting again. If this still does not fix the problem, then try a Repair Installtion of XP or even at least to the first screen where you will press F6 to install raid or scsi hardware.