Windows 7 x64 Software RAID Read Problems

[antirobot]

Hi. I recently installed an SSD as my boot/programs drive. I have two 250GB drives in a Windows software RAID 0 as my data drive, and a 1TB drive as my backup. I decided to set up the software RAID rather than hardware because I'd read it was the essentially the same speed as hardware but wouldn't be prone to hardware driver issues. Everything was running smoothly for the first several days, and then I started to see the system hang when accessing the RAID. It seemed to happen at random, and it was only for a very short period. The problem has become worse and worse, and I decided there must be a problem with the RAID. I've attempted to start moving all the data to the backup drive so I can reformat the RAID (maybe I'll convert it to a JBOD and use it as my backup drive instead), but the transfer speed is incredibly slow. I've watched the disk activity in the process manager, and it seems to burst for a few seconds every few minutes, then become completely unresponsive. The same pattern continues until the file transfer is complete or until I give up and cancel. If I try to interact with the disk at all when it is not in its short burst, I get the non-responsive dialogue. I'm able to do things that don't involve the RAID, such as run programs that are entirely on the SSD, without any trouble while all this is going on.

Does it sound like there is a problem with the RAID, with the disks in the RAID array, or is there something fundamentally wrong with the way I'm doing things?

Thanks in advance for any help.

-Bill

Specs:
Windows 7 Home Premium x64
Intel i5 750 (stock)
MSI P55-GD80
G.Skill Ripjaws 1600 (2GBx2)
Gigabyte GTX 460 1GB (2x in SLI)
Intel 320 120GB SSD (boot)
WD Caviar Black 250GB 7200 (data, 2x in software RAID)
WD Caviar Black 1TB 7200 (backup)

 

[code65536]

Could be a problem with the drive itself. What do you see in SMART?

The more important question is, why on Earth are you using RAID-0? There are very, very few legitimate uses for RAID-0, and plenty of reasons to avoid it. Usually, people use RAID-0 to speed up boot/app drives. It makes very little sense to use it for data drives...

 

[Old Hippie]

Sounds like a drive going bad.

I'd be installing the newest drivers and the little Intel RST program which should find any faults in the array.

Another option would be to break the array and test each drive with WD's troubleshooting program.