Loss of NVIDIA Raid 1

[SIW2]

Hi Doc,

Definitely recommend using an imaging program .

Macrium is small and can be made to go fast. You don't get any extra frills with the free version - but it may suit you. Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

Paragon has a lot more functions - it doesn't have a High priority switch - but the normal speed is ok . It has lots of extra functions. Backup & Recovery 10 Free

Best try them and see which you prefer. First thing is run off the boot disc - then boot it and make sure it sees everything.



Your current issue is tricky to pin down - may be caused by some hardware issue - could be a problem with the raid drivers in 7.

The 7b stop error seems to indicate the required RAID drivers aren't in Windows OS, or not functioning.

You could load them if you could get to it - Paragon Adaptive restore/Vitualization manager is made for that kind of thing. See here

Did you try running a bootable partition app. on the Raw drive to see what that turns up?

Free Partition Wizard Bootable CD

Try running the partition recovery first - click the Disk at the top of the main PW window, then Partition Recovery in the Left pane. Do a Quick scan.



If PW doesn't want to do that, , create a small partition 1-2gb on the extreme right of the drive ( don't forget to click Apply ).

Then PW should see that small partition and the rest as Unallocated. Now try the partition Recovery on the unallocated space.

Hope it helps.

 

[docholliday]

Hi SIW2!

Thanks again for your wisdom and insight.

Unfortunately, I was leaning towards the belief that the primary drive was faulty, so I disconnected it and then reinstalled 7 over the Raw partition on the second disk.

The re-install seems to have proceeded without difficulty, and once I had a working system again, I downloaded Western Digital LifeGuard to check the health of the suspect disk. According to lifeguard, the disk is healthy!

So I think you are right about what was causing the Stop error. Interestingly though, at this point in the exercise I had disabled RAID in my BIOS. But perhaps the driver was still active and causing issues?

I am again, having problems setting up the dual boot with XP, and it seems as if Easy BCD is unable to help. Although the boot menu appears and allows me to choose between 7 or XP, and even though XP starts to load when chosen, it hangs foever on the Windows XP logo. The hard disk is doing something, but I have no idea what. I'll let it sit for a while. If there is no progress, I am thinking about just deleting the partition, as I found myself never booting in XP over the course of about 4 months. Yes, I do like 7.

So the question I am deciding upon now: is it worth it to try and rebuild a RAID 1? I already have my data backed up, so that's covered. And if I simply periodically take an image of my drive, I'll be ready-to-go the next time things break-down (as I mentioned earlier, I have had really bad luck with hard disks).

Any thoughts?
What would you do if you were as paranoid as me, and enjoy the fuzzy feeling that only redundancy can provide?

Thanks.

 

[seekermeister]

One thought about backup images...I remember when I first started using Acronis TI, I was strongly advised on their Forum to test an image, even if it were verified by the program. To do this, you would need an empty partition to use as a testing area. I admit that I have not been doing that lately, and what I said was somewhat dated, so it may no longer be necessary, but with your concern, it wouldn't hurt to be doubly sure. While most of the time, I just store the images in a dedicated location on the harddrive (which I never defrag), it would be good to periodically burn one to DVDs, so if the drive containing the images went south, you would still be able to restore the system with them.

 

[docholliday]

Thanks for your thoughts, Seeker.

Say, how long does it take to make an image?

What's your opinion on rebuilding a RAID 1 array? Is it really worth the trouble? Should I just simplify things and forget RAID. Instead, I will make an image once a week or so?

 

[seekermeister]

I'm not really the right person to ask about RAID, because I stopped using it quite some time ago. Not due to reliability or trouble, but because I wanted separate drives to multi-boot from. Obviously, RAID reduces the number of availble drives in half...or more, depending on the RAID configuration chosen. If I were to setup a RAID, it would probably be RAID 0, to increase drive speed. However, instead of that, I'm considering a small SSD, since it's performance would probably exceed that of such an array.

How long it takes me to make an image is probably ~45 minutes, but your experience may vary, depending on the program used, and how familiar that you are with it. Of course, if you burn DVDs, that will add time.