UPDATE!!RAID Data corruption and Slowww boot up.

[orion7144]

I have a Soyo Dragon P4X400 UltraPlatinum with 512 PC2700, 2 WD 80gig JB series set up as RAID 1 (mirroring), TI4200. When I download files and xfer over my network I get data corruption. If I send those same files to another computer they are fine. Am I missing something here? All my drivers are updated including all the VIA patches. Not overclocked. Once my comp gets to past the Windows screen it just sits at a blank screen for around 3-4min before it comes up with the login screen. I am getting ready to get rid of the RAID and go back to IDE. This setup with a diff motherboard and 2 WD 40g HD's worked fine. I have already reformated twice. Any sggestion before I get rid of the RAID would be appreciated.

UPDATE actually had some time so I put my raid config on my Soyo Dragon Ultra Platinum KT333 MB and was able to boot fast and not get any corruption. Next I put everything back in my P4X400 board and still the same so I took the network drive I was copying from and made it slave on IDE2 on this PC and had no corruption but still slow boot. Took the MB and CPU back to Fry's and all they had were one's that had been returned already so I got a Gigabyte 8PE667 Ultra board for $10 cheaper and this thing is flying compared to the Soyo.

 

[igiveup]

Good hardware info, but whats the OS???

Also, what information, if any, is in the System section of the Event log?

 

[jackwhitter]

check your ram. i had a very similar problem and symptoms 2 weeks ago, and it was because i had a bad stick of ram. anything downloaded to my comp was usually corrupted, but if i downloaded it to a shared drive from my computer it was fine. drop in a known good stick of ram and see if that fixes the problem.. or it could be your ram timings are too agressive.

 

[orion7144]

Its XP Pro and the only thing I can see in the Event logs are "Event ID 11 and 9" disk and viadsk errors. The mem has been replaced so I don't think that is it. The mem timings are set to STD in the bios so I haven't messed with them. One thing that I can think of is that when I installed XP Pro I had the P4 2.26 running at 2.46 but I don't think that is the problem since this started happening before I upgraded my MB. This just started happening after I changed my HDD's. I can't remember if it was happening on my previous RAID set up.

 

[orion7144]

Anymore suggestions

 

[Insidious]

This just started happening after I changed my HDD's

When I make a change and then the computer immediately begins to malfunction, I suspect the change I have made.

This setup with a diff motherboard and 2 WD 40g HD's worked fine

That's a pretty major change.... probably not really a good comparison.

this started happening before I upgraded my MB

OK, so now I am really, really confused..... When did this start... what was changed and what was not???

My only real suggestion would be to use the utility disk that came with the new HDs and check their health. (DataLifeguard Tools)

If they are OK, try to run on a single HD... if it works, try the other

If all this works ok, then you either have a bad raid controller or a bad MoBo (actually both the same case...) RMA the MoBo


edit: What did you find when you went to the Soyo site and checked out the support section?

 

[orion7144]

There was nothing on SOYO's support site and I have already run the Data Lifeguard tools with no errors on both drives. I can't really pin point when it started happening but I am begging to think it is one of two things. 1) My MB is bad as you suggest or 2) It is because my DVD drive is master on IDE1 and CDRW is Master on IDE2 (I will not be able to test this theory untill I get home in the morning). I would almost bet that it would work as the master on IDE1 but I like having the RAID set up. The more I think about it, I believe the problem started when I whent to a RAID set up and had no hard drive on IDE1 on my other MB. Before I installed this MB I copied alot of files to a network computer. Those files are all fine on that drive. I have untill Sat. to take this MB back to Fry's w/o having to deal with a RMA.

 

[Insidious]

Hmmm,

For the Raid with 2 HDs, you definitely want each HD on it's own (Raid) channel (One HD on each MoBo Raid connector). set the jumper for CS (cable select) on each HD and use the Master connector (the one on the end) of the each 80 way ribbon to make the connection. (be sure you don't have the cable installed backwards. (blue end goes to the MoBo and black goes to the HD.))

Your CD drives shouldn't matter to the Raid array at all since those E-IDE connectors are on a completely different controller.

Double check latest BIOS and Raid controller drivers.

I suggest using F6 on the XP install and get the right Raid drivers in to start with rather than letting XP install its own and then trying to upgrade them.

Obviously, my expertise is limited here, but this is the best I know to offer. (I am surprised some of the Raid Gurus haven't been here to help)

-Sid

 

[orion7144]

I have each of the HD on there own port but I don't have it set to cable select. Both HD's have the jumper removed. I have updated BIOS and am using the most up to date Highpoint raid drivers.

 

[Panther505]

If I remember correctly the jumper removed makes them slaves... I would make sure that they were jumpered either as CS or as Master... May resolve some of the issue as I have seen systems being very slow to boot with no master HDD. Finally what type of Networking are you doing on boot. Is your IP hardcoded or is it DHCP. If it is DHCP then after a long boot I would suggest bringing up a DOS box and doing an ipconfig. If your ip is a 169.x.x.x then you have a DHCP problem. also.

 

[orion7144]

Its DHCP, I have a Linksys router. All three of my other comps have no problem booting and when this one boots it is fine on the network (well except for the file corruption). Removing the Jumper still keeps is as Master with no slave drive attached. I have tried (without reinstalling) with the master jumper on as well. I have already disabled the onboard network and rebooted and it still took forever.

 

[Abzstrak]

For one, I'd get rid of raid 1 since its slower than crap on those software raid controllers....

next, I'd check and replace the IDE cables, and use the shortest ones you have. IDE should never be longer than 18".

3rd, as suggested run a manufacturers test on each drive and see if they pass (may just be a single drive)

4th, insure that highpoint and via drivers are up to date

5th, slow boot could be due to dhcp, set static IP to test

6th, bad network transfers could be due to a bad cable(likely) or hub/switch (not as likely), replace and test.

 

[orion7144]

Abzstrak, I have already done everything you suggested except for the Network cable. I will try that later.


I ran bootvis and computer booted up in less than 30 sec. The next time I booted it took 3-4 min again. Rebooted again using Bootvis and <30sec again. How and am I supposed to make bootvis work every time I reboot.

This did not fix my corruption problem. Here is a brief description.

I have a bunch a .rar files that I know are good on another HD on my network. After boot I copy them to this machine. While it is copying about 50 14meg files I start and run the SmartPar program (used to verify rar files) All of the files say good up to the ones that have already copied. I then wait till the copying is done then reverify and most off the files are corrupted. If I copy those same files back to the network drive they are corrupted there as well.

Thanks for all of the input so far!

 

[orion7144]

UPDATE actually had some time so I put my raid config on my Soyo Dragon Ultra Platinum KT333 MB and was able to boot fast and not get any corruption. Next I put everything back in my P4X400 board and still the same so I took the network drive I was copying from and made it slave on IDE2 on this PC and had no corruption but still slow boot. Took the MB and CPU back to Fry's and all they had were one's that had been returned already so I got a Gigabyte 8PE667 Ultra board for $10 cheaper and this thing is flying compared to the Soyo.