Desparation Help w/ RAID

[jgdiver51]

I am not a real hardware techie I am a digital photographer Need lots of storage (18k [email protected] to 17Mb ea.) I bought a new computer with RAID 1. When I reboot after loading software I get "incomplete RAID set! please press <Ctrl S> or F4 to enter raid utility. I have loaded driver for Samsung and programs: Office2000, Adobe Photoshop CS premium, Roto card, Belarc Adviser and the supplier preloaded several others, ICopyDVDs2, InterVideoWinDVD4 and 3DMark2000. The problem only occurred after I booted up, once I loaded software. I did set restore point for each download. This is the second time the process has been started with realoading the OS from scratch. Thank you for any Idea on how to resolve this issue. I live in Denver if you know of any support in the area.
John G

Operating System

System Model
Windows XP Professional Service Pack 1 (build 2600)

No details available
Processor a

Main Circuit Board b
2.15 gigahertz AMD Athlon XP
128 kilobyte primary memory cache
512 kilobyte secondary memory cache

Board: nVidia-nForce
Bus Clock: 166 megahertz
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD 6.00 PG 11/27/2003
Drives

Memory Modules c,d
500.11 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
493.74 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-4521B [CD-ROM drive]
LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-832S [CD-ROM drive]
3.5" format removeable media [Floppy drive]

SiI RAID 1 Set [Hard drive] (250.06 GB) -- drive 1, rev 2.10, SMART Failure
SiI RAID 1 Set [Hard drive] (250.06 GB) -- drive 0, rev 2.10, SMART Failure

1024 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'A0' has 512 MB
Slot 'A1' has 512 MB
Slot 'A2' is Empty

Local Drive Volumes

c: (on drive 0)
250.05 GB
243.83 GB free
d: (on drive 1)
250.06 GB
249.91 GB free



Network Drives


None detected
Users

Printers
local user accounts
last logon
user
8/4/2004 5:12:23 AM
(admin)
local system accounts

Administrator
never
(admin)
Guest
never

HelpAssistant
never

SUPPORT_388945a0
never


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Controllers

Display
Standard floppy disk controller
NVIDIA NForce MCP2 IDE Controller
Primary IDE Channel [Controller]
Secondary IDE Channel [Controller]

RADEON 9800 SE [Display adapter]
RADEON 9800 SE Secondary [Display adapter]
Samsung SyncMaster [Monitor] (17.1"vis, s/n HCHX511025, May 2004)
Bus Adapters

Multimedia
Silicon Image SiI 3114 SATARaid Controller
Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller
Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller
Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller

NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) Audio
NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) Audio Codec Interface
NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) MCP Audio Processing Unit (Dolby(R) Digital)
Communications

Other Devices
1394 Net Adapter
NVIDIA nForce MCP Networking Controller
Network Card MAC Address: 00:01:291:1E:91

OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
1394 Host
IEEE 1394 IP Network Device
Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
PS/2 Compatible Mouse
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub
Patin Couffin engine
Virus Protection

450 watt P/S

Installed Microsoft Hotfixes

[C_deck]

i am a little confused. how many hdd's do you have? just the two on raid? or is the os on another drive. assuming you have the os on another drive:

firstly, you have to go into the raid bios (cntl - S) and set it up as raid 1.
now when you boot to windows you have to install the raid controller drivers. you should see the raid array in windows now.

[jgdiver51]

I am not really setting up the RAID the supplier was supposed to have it completely installed and functional. There are 4-250G HD's 0 mirrored on 1 and 2 mirrored on 3
The C:/ 0-1 is for OS and programs and D:/ 2-3 is for data (photo storage) I hope this clarifies what you are asking. After the first configuration had the same problem which was a single C:/@ 500G mirriored and striped RAID 1+0 the supplier reconfigured the RAID to RAID 1 reinstalled OS XP and checked all hardware and told me it was running perfectly. Let me know if other information would be helpful.
Thanks
John

[C_deck]

since you are getting that prompt, the raid bios (array) has lost the configurement.

i assume that since you can boot to windows, raid 0 is okay and the bios is asking to set up the other raid array (raid 1). it can't hurt to press cntl - s and see what has been setup. maybe all you have to do is to intialize the second array as raid 1 (mirroring).

[jgdiver51]

Well gonna give it a try, should this take a long time? Just did it and don't see anything happening. no info on screen so do I just wait? or should I see a progress screen?

[Rbreb13]

I'd be a little worried about the "SMART failure" at the end of each 250 gig drive too.

[C_deck]

it should take 1 second to come up. i hope you haven't been waiting for 12 hours. it looks like your raid has a conflict with another device or it has crapped out on you. get a hold of the guy you bought it from and ask him to fix it.

[jgdiver51]

The problem is resolved for the time being. I took the machine to the man who built it. It was toast, inadvertently I had reconfigured the raid utility. After reinstall of OS and software. We somewhat determined what caused the RAID to fail was not rebooting system after each and EVERY software installation. (also used system restore) There were a few little odd and end programs I didn't reboot after installation, I had gotten away with this on my other non RAID systems in the past. I don't know this to be an absolute fact but so-far it is working correctly, I hope you can pass this on to other with the same situation and save them some hair. If your interested you can see my photography at www.eyefathom.com. Thank you Both C_deck and Rbreb 13 your help is appreciated.
John

[jenious]

Well as long as it's working I guess...doesn't sound like the correct explanation, but weirder things have happened I'm sure. Glad it worked out for you. Moving this to the problems solved section

[C_deck]

you only have to reboot if the installer for the software states that you have to reboot.

the raid controller failed due to a hardware problem. nothing you could have done would have crapped it out. thx for posting back and letting us know how you made out.