RAID 1 "Degraded" Error, Only One Drive Recognized?

[btvarner]

I am on Windows 7 Professional 64 bit. 8 GB RAM. I am having problems with a RAID 1 setup. Had a shop install the RAID system less than a year ago. For a while it worked fine. Now when I reboot, the start-up is extremely slow + during the boot-up sequence it now says that the RAID system is “Degraded”. Before anyone asks the obvious, the people who installed it are no longer in business. I had used them successfully for over 10 years, now they are gone.

So far I have:
< Been unable to find any indication of a RAID system or 2 hard drives in Win 7 Disk Management.
<Intel Matrix Storage Manager Option ROM v8.6.0.1007 also seems to only show a single drive:
-----ID = SATARAID, RAID 1, 931.5GB, Degraded, Bootable Yes
-----Physical Disks = ST1000DM003-9YN1, S1D2Q061, 931.5GB, Member Disk (0)

Need help with:
· Why do I not see any indication of 2 drives in Windows or in Bios, only one?
· Need to be able to validate/ensure that the computer sees 2 hard drives.
· Need to validate/ensure that Windows 7 sees 2 hard drives.
· Need to know how to check both of the RAID hard drives to ensure one is not bad.
· Need to know how to correct the “degraded” warning I get at boot-up.
· Is there any quick method of ongoing monitoring a RAID system while in Windows 7?

Thanks!

 

[pbcopter]

Hi,

Welcome to the forum.

What model dell computer do you have?

To answer your questions.


You will not see 2 drives in Windows just one (which is the RAID) but you should see 2 in the Matrix Manager, now called RST (Rapid Storage Technology) and the Intel RAID BIOS (CTRL +I).

RST does a good job of monitoring the RAID status.


It appears that one of the drives may have failed.
If one has failed, it should be replaced and the RAID 1 will rebuild itself.

By the way, why are you using RAID? It is not a good backup strategy, only for hardware (drive) failure protection.

 

[btvarner]

Hi pbcopter,
Do not know what model the Dell is. I am sure it is in the paperwork stored somewhere, but I cannot lay my hands on it.

Right, I do not see the second drive in Matrix Manager (Control+I). Will boot up with each drive disconnected in turn & let you know how it responds. By-the-way should the software say Rapid Storage Technology on it somewhere? All I see is Matrix Manager.

I am sure that Matrix Manager does a good job of monitoring but I was hoping for a method to see status without booting into Matrix Manager……….

I thought I had heard that sometimes a reconnect on the drive not being seen can put the system back in order. Yes/no? If I do have to install a new drive, is it as simple as turning it on with the new matching drive installed and the new drive will be recognized and configure itself or is there more to it?

I use RAID not for backup but rather so I do not have to spend the hours and hours it takes to reload OS and reinstall all apps if a hard drive fails (Like now???)

Thanks!

 

[btvarner]

Ok,
I conducted the test. With one drive only:

Bottom Racked Drive:
Computer came up to the Matrix Manager only with no data and would not go any further.

Top Racked Drive:
Computer quickly came up to the Matrix Manager and listed the single drive I had seen there before. Then went on to ask if I wanted to load Windows 7 or “some other operating system”.

I was afraid to go any further as I did not know if loading Windows with only the single drive attached would foul things up.

Reconnected both drives and booted up molasses slow again all the way into Windows.

So, I guess that drive is bad? I did not go into the normal BIOS to see if it recognized the drive there….. Do I need to? Can I take out the bad drive and continue to work with the single drive in the machine until the replacement arrives? Or, should I leave the bad drive in until the time to do the exchange?

Hope I can find an exact replacement drive. They are Seagate Barracuda’s.

Thanks!

 

[pbcopter]

Yes you can operate with just one drive.

If you install a new drive, it will rebuild the RAID from the original drive.