RAID set disappears
 

Asus A8N SLI Mobo
1x SATA drive with OS (C drive)
1x SATA drive storage (D drive)
2x Seagate Barracuda drives configured as RAID1 using onboard SIL raid controller (G drive)
XP sp2

Ive just added a couple of drives for the purpose of mirrored storage but I have this bizzare issue of the drive dissapearing in Windows :wonder:

The issue happens randomly but the drives always re-appear after a reboot, sometime the drive can be there for 10 minutes, sometimes for hours. Drive set can always in the SIL raid control set up, yet vanishes in Windows Explorer.

When the raid set disappears the following error shows in event viewer :

The device '%1' (%2) disappeared from the system without first being prepared for removal.

Any ideas?

raid controller driver would be my first port of call. data driver. Bios update.

If its a clean install of Windows, then it must be some sort of driver issue imo.

Disappearing drives tends to be either a) you're using an ECS motherboard, or b) the power supply isn't up to the job.


M

Not a clean build, Im not going thru all that :)

RAID controller updated to latest, sourced from SIL Image
Latest BIOS sourced from Asus

What do you mean by data drive? driver for the psuedo SCSI device?

Well no on the first, ASUS A8N SLI and no on the second, 1000w Coolermaster PSU :thumb:

thanks for help so far, still happening :cry:

A thought: are you using the Windows "stop this device" feature to remove another device, like a pen drive or a plugged in flash media card? Because with certain devices, when you follow that procedure ALL stoppable devices are switched off - and RAID SATA drives count as removable devices.

This sounds like a Windows thing now I re-read your original post.


M

Hi, yes I agree its a windows thing but I dont use many USB devices, certainly not a pen drive etc

Devices attached via USB :

Microsoft digital media keyboard
Microsoft cordless mouse sender

Occasionally an Ipod or Canon EOS but this happens even when those devices havnt been connected for weeks.

Its driving me mad :brickwall :cry:

data = sata after beer :lol1: sorry ;)

If its not a clean build you could either partition the current drive or hook up an old spare. If it works from a clean install then you at least know where you stand.

Just because you have a big PSU from a known brand does not mean that it is not having an issue. If you have the means to test it, or swap it out (who has a spare 1000W PSU :eek:) then it could be worth a shot.

the 1000w one was a result of my early suspiscions and replaced my previous 700w. So yes I have tested another PSU on it. Although without a meter on it I wouldnt really know if both were faulty (unlikely).

(By the way, the PSU is a very nice piece of kit if you're after one, here - Although I do see houses around me dim a little when I switch it on ;)


Actually the RAID is just for data, it was built and formatted to NTFS so technically 'clean' - I was refering to the OS build as non-clean but this resides on a different SATA drive alltogether.

I was referring to the OS too. For the time it takes to install, it may just be worth popping a disk in to test it out. Anyway, good luck :) I am away for a few days. Hopefully it will be fine by the time I return :D

have a good break Luminous, your input has been really appreciated :notworthy :thumb:

thanks :) I quite like it in here, for some reason there are just about the right number of varied tech questions to keep me interested. :D

Any recent updates ? I use a little program called windows update remover to check any updates - its gives the knowledge base no and then check the description against the MS site. Used it a few times to fix various people pc's.
Wondering if there have been a update to the raid controller ?
Windows XP Update Remover - Uninstall or remove Windows Update files

Richard

Your problem could also be related to power management, normally the controller would be set so that windows does not power down the device after a period of time. Check the power management settings on the raid controller in device manager and check the setting that says "allow windows to turn this device off to save power" option is unticked.

ok, it looks like Ive resolved the issue

I took a drive out the set and backed it up

Then I added the drive again and deleted the set within the BIOS tools, booted back into windows - drive not there ( no surprises). Installed the GUI RAID application and created a RAID set using that tool, formatted drive and then copied the data back again.

So far, 36 hours on, all seems well. I copied all the data back to the set last night and soak tested the PC all day without fault.

Its still early days but it does raise the question what was different from the BIOS RAID tools and the GUI windows RAID tools? Im suspecting the windows GUI version may also have installed/updated some device driver(s) maybe :wonder:

I had an issue on one of my RAID arrays where it kept dropping a drive. Since it was RAID 0 and it was one of the boot disks, this meant a shutdown. BIOS showed one drive as faulty. However, when I used the Intel RAID tool in Windows to reset that drive, the problem went away. It appears that transient software events can set a flag on the drive that it is faulty. BIOS picks this up and takes the drive down after a delay (typically about a hour of stressful stuff, or a day or normal stuff). But a software reset (or reloading the drivers) can clear it. It may be that you had something similar.

M