Hi guys, as above, currently using raid 0 with the 2 WD Caviar Black 500Gb, problem only occurred recently when i experienced frequent blackouts during heavy showers in the area. The system would startup and take quite awhile to actually detect one of the hard disks which happens to be the boot disk too. Would have to repeatedly restart my computer till it actually detects, and i’ve actually noticed that once the desktop actually recognises the raid volume and proceeds to startup, i would not have any problems restarting, as no matter how many times i restart, the boot disk will always be recognised but if i shut down, the storage matrix will have problems detecting the hard disks.
Weird thing is, even on occasions that the hard disk isn’t detected by the storage matrix, somewhere up there in the text, it actually shows 03 devices(which happens to be the correct number of devices connected) which means that the system actually detects the physical presence of the hard disk but not the image? Is that right to say so?
Thanks for taking your time on helping guys! Have actually posted on several other help forums but did not recieve any help, so this is a desperate call for help
Any form of help will be useful! Do not really wish to reformat or reinstall windows… would be greatly appreciated if it could be solved!
Another, i tried to use the data lifeguard diagnostics software from WD but it actually gave this error :11- Cable Test : Read diagnostics sector error!
I’ve read up on the error and tried swapping cables around but it still gave this error, so would anyone be actually kind enough to tell me if its normal? Also, the S.M.A.R.T status for the HDs are unavailable in various 3rd party HD software and also the data lifeguard software too.
Lastly, I also ran chkdsk on the advice on a friend and it proceeded without a hitch! Plus the Hard disks does not seem to be making any weird noises or show signs that it is dying.
Sorry for bothering but i’ve tried searching the net and it seems like my problem is a unique one and there doesn’t seem to be any similar cases. Once again thanks for taking your time to read this guys!
Not yet, but I will go purchase some extra sata cables today to try switching but each time i turn the desktop off it’s worrying as i fear i won’t be able to startup The last time, it took me close to an hour of restarting to startup. Will post back with results!
But the thing is, only 1 hdd seems to be spoilt and the other seems to be perfectly fine, so I actually swapped both cables around and it still didn’t detect so… I highly doubt that its the cables that are giving me problems
Okay, tried with a different sata cable, still didn’t work and i proceeded to delete raid volume and set both disks to non raid, and configured the bios to non raid hoping it would work as i thought it was a software side malfunction. Right now, the post screen of my desktop detects the troublesome hard disk but doesn’t show any description while the other one shows up fine (WD (serial number blah)). On the post screen it simply shows up as IDE channel 0 Master : blank
Trying to burn a bootable lifeguard diagnostics cd to see if the cd recognises the hard disk and i could proceed on to format or set it straight. Any help guys? Any help will be greatly appreciated!
I need to apologize. I was only skimming for violations when I suggested the different cables. Now that I took the time to read your original post, I see some issues.
Caviar Blacks are NOT designed for use in a hardware RAID environment. They will drop out of the array sooner or later. They may work in a software RAID, but we don’t provide support for it.
You can NOT use our DLG Diagnostics on a RAID Volume, it won’t see the drives. It will probably error out like it did.
Did you install the controller drivers before you installed Windows? This may have caused issues with the Windows install.
Can you do the type of RAID you are attempting to do on the motherboard you have? Check with your manual to make sure of that.
Oh dear. I was using windows 7 64 bit, so i was told no controller drivers were required, although to be sure, is this the process of the installation where you press f6 to load the drivers? If so, i did not install any other drivers, i used the default one. Yes, i’ve done a check and my motherboard has an Ich10r controller which is compatible with the intel storage matrix.
Thank you for taking your time to read it! But, right now, i’m stuck as the hard disk appears blank in my post screen meaning : IDE Channel 0 Master : (blank), whereas the other hard disk shows up as IDE Channel 1 Master : WD(Serial number). Tried runing data lifeguard diagnostics via a bootable cd but the faulty disk wasn’t recognised it showed up as non WD disk, while when i tried to install windows, the faulty disk doesn’t show up too.
Oh dear. I was using windows 7 64 bit, so i was told no controller drivers were required, although to be sure, is this the process of the installation where you press f6 to load the drivers? If so, i did not install any other drivers, i used the default one. Yes, i’ve done a check and my motherboard has an Ich10r controller which is compatible with the intel storage matrix.
Thank you for taking your time to read it! But, right now, i’m stuck as the hard disk appears blank in my post screen meaning : IDE Channel 0 Master : (blank), whereas the other hard disk shows up as IDE Channel 1 Master : WD(Serial number). Tried runing data lifeguard diagnostics via a bootable cd but the faulty disk wasn’t recognised it showed up as non WD disk, while when i tried to install windows, the faulty disk doesn’t show up too.
Wait. Are you using an IDE with SATA drives on the same motherboard? You may need to check if your motherboard supports that, and how the BIOS needs to be set up to use EIDE and SATA drives together. There is an order of importance here. Likewise, how do you have the IDE drive jumpered? Are you using a CD Rom with it?
