Topic: IDE/RAID - what a day!

[Argee]

I'll try to be brief. Win XP Pro SP2 + 2 x 160GB SATA drives (each with 4 partitions) set up as MIRROR RAID. Yesterday, hung during boot. Restart brought up the "Overclocking failed..." message, but I pressed "F2" instead of "F1" and on fire-up I saw that I wasn't in RAID. I did what I could to re-config the BIOS, but started getting beyond my depth with the utilities. In Explorer I could see both hard drives.

After a trip to my "repairer" it failed altogether, so I left it with them. Now, it's working in IDE mode. There were other probs, because the registry was allegedly corrupted and reset to a previous version. I've overcome most of those now (4 hours work), but a couple of things still persist. Firstly, although there are four partitions per hard drive (C: F: G: H: on drive 0 and I: J: K: L: on drive 1), I can't see "L:" at all in Explorer unless I type it into the address bar.

Similarly, I've got a Kingston card reader attached via USB2. It used to show in Explorer and I downloaded a utility that shows which of the slots the card is in (which would be M: N: O: or P:). None of this shows in Explorer - unless I type the drive letter into the address bar.

The second physical drive shows in the Computer Management utility correctly and the first partition (I:) shows as "Active" - I've lost my RAID ability and the "repairer" said he wouldn't risk trying to re-instate it. Apparently, there's a Windows XP software mirror tool that I could use, but I've no experience of it. It apparently uses dynamic drive technology which - once activated - can't be undone. I want to have an efficient back-up strategy (hence the RAID), but it all seems to have gone Pete Tong.

Questions, then are:

Any idea why all the drives don't show in Explorer or in "My Computer"?
Is it worth trying to re-instyate the RAID - or too risky?
Any knowledge of the software mirror and would I need to re-format the second drive first?

TIA!

Ray.

[Simon]

Crikey Ray, you have been having fun!  I think this is one for Sandra, who should be along later to help you.

[Sandra]

I think you can only set RAID back up by reinstalling XP so you would lose whats on your C drive and I am unsure as to which data, if any, you would lose on the mirrored drive, although I assume that it would mirror it I cant be 100% certain and would only try it if everything was already backed up or you werent bothered about saving it.

The partitions and card reader not showing in explorer would appear to be due to them being set as "Hidden" files and folders but if that were the case they shouldnt be visible if you put the drive letter in the address bar 

Any idea what corrupted the registry and are you sure its been fixed fully ?

May be worth running SFC /SCANNOW from Start/Run to see if there are still any damaged files, you will need your XP pro cd in the drive for it to recover any damaged or missing files from.

Sorry that I dont seem to be able to offer much help  :embarassed:

[Argee]

I think you can only set RAID back up by reinstalling XP so you would lose whats on your C drive and I am unsure as to which data, if any, you would lose on the mirrored drive, although I assume that it would mirror it I cant be 100% certain and would only try it if everything was already backed up or you werent bothered about saving it.

I set it up as a Mirror RAID to avoid just such a problem as this, but look where that got me! It seems like the software that makes the RAID function as an array just disappeared or got trashed somehow - I'd have hoped it would have been more robust. All this is taking place courtesy of an ASUS P5GDC-V Deluxe Motherboard, BTW. Once the RAID was set, you have to set the IDE function in the BIOS as "RAID Mode", plus a driver in the "Advanced" functions, also set to RAID (default is "Disabled"). Now, to see the RAID configuration, you hit <Ctrl>+"I" and it shows the hardware components, RAID type, whether bootable, etc. All this info was still there after my fail to start. The only options are Create, Delete, set Disks as Non-RAID and Exit.

Another option, <Ctrl>+"E" or "F" brings up an orange screen with 5 options. Rebuild is one of them, but when you look at the array, using "5", it didn't show any components at all. I reckoned that if I tried a re-build, not being able to see any physical components, I'd trash it anyway.

The partitions and card reader not showing in explorer would appear to be due to them being set as "Hidden" files and folders but if that were the case they shouldnt be visible if you put the drive letter in the address bar 

Any idea what corrupted the registry and are you sure its been fixed fully ?

May be worth running SFC /SCANNOW from Start/Run to see if there are still any damaged files, you will need your XP pro cd in the drive for it to recover any damaged or missing files from.

SFC /SCANNOW produced nowt, which is - in a way - a relief. It's weird that some drives don't show. I read a reply somewhere else that said that XP won't show drives over "G". The workaround was supposed to be to type in one letter above your last drive into a C: prompt box. Tried that - made no difference. I can see them in Explorer only if I type the drive letter into the address bar, at which point it also shows in the left-hand (folders) pane, but it doesn't survive a re-start of Explorer. Drives "L:" to "P:" don't show in My Computer at all, but everything shows in "Computer Management" screens, both in Disk Management and in "Libraries" under "Removable Storage" - weird! It's not a big deal, but as I use the card reader quite a bit and may need to create a back-up plan involving Drive "L:" it's very annoying to say the least.

Any ideas on the "Dynamic Drives" and "Software Mirror Backup" thingy?

Ray.

[Sandra]

The drive or partition letter shouldnt matter as I have often set a second drive or a partition as S for storage for some people, so that it reminds them to save to there instead of to C.
I often change a DVD writers letter to W and the DVD rom to R so they know which is the writer and which is just the reader too.
My computer and windows explorer has always shown everything ok on pcs that I have set up that way.

I havent heard of the Software Mirror program.

The only thing I know about dynamic disks is that XP home cant see them and although you can convert a basic disc to dynamic without losing data you cant go from dynamic back to basic without losing data 

I dont know if we have any members who are RAID experts at the moment, maybe Bob from over the pond may have an idea about your problems.

[Reno]

First off Asus sucks ass. I wrote up a bunch of instructions on what i would do, but then i realized that you have a bunch of data you don't want to play around with.

So heres my advice to you. Call Asus support. If i give you what i would do chances are you would either get stuck or you would lose massive amounts of data trying to fix your problem. So do yourself a favor and call their hardware support.

http://www.asus.com/aboutasus.aspx?show=3

If they tell you your on your own then come back.

[Argee]

Right - I've solved the mystery of why drives > K: don't appear in Explorer - flippin' TweakUI, a legacy of earlier times which didn't affect the fewer number of drives showing when the RAID worked - I really should have spotted this before, sorry! 

Thanks, Bob, for the link to Asus "support." I'll see how I get on. Is "EZBack" an alternative to a RAID array - I've not heard of that before?

Ray.