Well we're quickly reached the end of my knowledge of Promise (short trip).
Ghost? Move the data to a storage device and bring it back after a clean install? Linux? Run a dual boot and access the data using the linux partition (assumes windows on the other partition). Muttered oaths and just start again? drew -----Original Message----- From: Furry, Tim [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 11:08 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [wdvltalk] RE: [OT] RAID crash recover drew wrote: Ah. Promise. That's a whole different issue. I don't know if you have their Serial ATA (SATA) or built-in double sets of IDE controllers (wide and gray is IDE, thin and red going to a card is SATA). Tim: It's the IDE version - two ports, two drives per port. They've got a four-port version that's faster but I didn't want to spend that much. 80-wire IDE cables for faster transfers. drew: I do know from someone who has Promise (he's got onboard dual IDE controllers sets)that the order in which the hard drives are plugged is crucial to how the Promise software sees and manipulates the hard drives. He lost his bootability trying to tweak performance by changing the sequence of the drives. He had to restore the original order of the drives to recover. When the tech walked you through restoring the RAID, did he have you replug any of the ribbon cables? If you changed the order, that's probably why you can't boot. Tim: Yes, I was aware of this. The drives were not unplugged at all, or even moved, until after the array rebuild was completed. I finally did unplug them when accessing the drives via RAID was proving unhelpful, and installed one of the striped pairs on the motherboard's second IDE port to use the recovery software. I have kept all the connections labeled so I can reinstall back to the original drives and order if needed. drew: I've no idea if System Commander could be the problem unless SysCom is looking for a drive the letter of which has now been changed. Doesn't SysCom keep backup copies of MBRs? Tim: During the original boot cycle it should have been fine as nothing had changed. Once past the RAID BIOS POST, though, I got an "H0" error and a statement that SysComm couldn't find a valid installation. Doing some minor research on "H0" indicated that the boot sector was very likely messed up, meaning that the SysComm had probably either hosed it or been hosed by it. SysComm is supposed to keep backup copies, but that doesn't do any good if it can't run to restore them. :-) drew: It's also a little troublesome to hear that Promise gave you no warning the RAID was down. Tim: Yeah, agreed. Over the last year or so it's given false warnings, too - occasionally stating that the IDE-0 master drive was critical (once every 2-3 weeks). I used to have it rebuild the drive when it came up with this, which took about 8 hours and of course the PC was unusable during that time. I accidentally found out that these were apparently false warnings when one night I skipped the rebuild and just shut it down...and amazingly the drive was marked "online" the next day. Working with Promise and Western Digital tech support people just ended up in a bunch of fingerpointing and no solutions, until I got ahold of a WD manager and explained the problem. He very kindly sent out two brand new matching WD drives and let me swap them into the IDE-0 port...and two weeks later I had the same error again. The drives had been changed, the cables changed twice; all that's left is the Promise card, which still is under warranty but I really want to get that data off before I start nagging them again. We used Promise IDE controllers for years in a lab I worked in without incident - they're good stuff. I just wish I knew what was going on here. Tim ___________________________ Tim Furry Web Developer Foulston Siefkin LLP ____ * The WDVL Discussion List from WDVL.COM * ____ To Join wdvltalk, Send An Email To: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Send Your Posts To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change subscription settings to the wdvltalk digest version: http://wdvl.internet.com/WDVL/Forum/#sub ________________ http://www.wdvl.com _______________________ You are currently subscribed to wdvltalk as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to %%email.unsub%% ____ � The WDVL Discussion List from WDVL.COM � ____ To Join wdvltalk, Send An Email To: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Send Your Posts To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change subscription settings to the wdvltalk digest version: http://wdvl.internet.com/WDVL/Forum/#sub ________________ http://www.wdvl.com _______________________ You are currently subscribed to wdvltalk as: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
