New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

8890 Raid Array Rebuild

post #1 of 16
7/31/05 at 2:50pm
Thread Starter 
Ok guys I really need your help on this one. I've read all the threads about the toshiba harddrive failing, but my case is alittle different. I went to turn on my computer yesterday and it was having trouble starting into windows. So eventually it started up and gave me an error message saying that C:windows\..prefetch was corrupted or missing. I figured it was probably a bad sector. So i ran the check disc during start up and it found the error in $I03 in file 263 and try to repair it. It failed saying that there was not enough memory space, then it rebooted. Now when it boots, Fasttrack says there is a problem with the array. I viewed the array and saw that Channel 1 drive was listed as "free" under assignment instead of Array 1. I tried to rebuild the array and it said it was not applicable. If i try to let windows run it saws "No operating system found." I have no idea what to do now and I really need your help. I thought about pulling the hd drives and buying another raid controller and diagnosing the problem on my desktop. I atleast need to get all my files off of it. HELP!!
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 16
7/31/05 at 3:10pm
i have an 8890 with a toshiba drive that just died on me (non raid). when i tried to boot i got the 'operating system not found' message. after a full day of trying various things to get it to work, i tried the hard drive in the freezer trick and it worked long enough for me to retrieve some files. put the drive in an anti-static bag, put that into a ziploc and place in the freezer for a few hours or overnight (i did 4 hours). have the computer ready to accept the drive because you will not have much time before it heats up to a point where it will not work again. i had about 20 minutes to copy files to an external drive before it stopped responding again. i am still pondering sending the drive in for data recovery. i got quotes anywhere from $800 to $3,000 - depending on how much they would have to do to it.

i hope you have better luck than i did at your data recovery. by the way, i installed a seagate 100 gb/5400 rpm drive and am slowly rebuilding everything. i am considering buying another 100 gb drive to replace the 20 gb drive in the secondary location and running a raid 1 configuration.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 16
7/31/05 at 8:30pm
Thread Starter 
The laptop still recongnizes that there is a hard drive there which leads me to believe that it hasn't totally gone out. If I delete the array and add it back, can anyone confirm this will work w/o wiping my data off?
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 16
7/31/05 at 9:47pm
Look for Aussies 8890 review - He has some good advice regarding rebuilding an array for conditions such as described. His review is also excellantly indexed with a table of contents.

Here is the link for you: http://www.notebookforums.com/showth...ht=8890+Review
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 16
8/1/05 at 11:17pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks G-Omaha. I removed the jumper and deleted the arrary and added w/o the quick initialization. So now the array is functioning but windows will not boot. I keep getting "a disk read error". So I tried the windows recovery console with the bootcfg command and found no boot files, fixmbr told me to run chkdsk. I tried chkdsk and after 5 seconds it just said that there were errors on this drive. Sooooo, I need to some how repair or replace my master boot file and check for more errors. Fastbuild (raid prog) recognizes the drives as bootable. This is pretty much were my computer skills runs out. Any help? Would added the array again w/ initialization fix anything?

ps. sorry for the novels
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 16
8/2/05 at 2:52am
Why did you mess with the jumper? I think that all you needed to do was go into the RAID BIOS section and have it rebuild the array for you. You might try "normalizing" the jumper and see what happens.
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 16
8/2/05 at 3:35pm
Thread Starter 
Removing the jumper set the drive in master mode instead of cable select which was known to cause some problems. I tried the rebuild but it was "not applicable". So now i pretty sure i just need to fix the boot sector. Any ideas?
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 16
8/2/05 at 4:38pm
WHich drive are we talking about here?
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 16
8/2/05 at 7:17pm
Thread Starter 
Raid 0 so both? Im not really sure what ur asking. I removed the jumper from the drive thats in the 2nd bay.
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 16
8/2/05 at 8:38pm
Thread Starter 
Ok, now when I boot up it says the WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/CONFIG/SYSTEM file is corrupt and can repaired using windows recovery console... How would i do this? Copy the file from the CD? Sorry but commands woud be helpfully b/c i am TERRIBLE at DOS. Thanks for all the help.
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 16
8/2/05 at 9:58pm
Let's get back to the the HDD question. What is the make and model of the HDD. Like Toshiba XX-YY, 40GB, 4200rpm. Type of thing. I am trying to determine if removing the jumper really "defaults" the drive to MASTER as you indicate.
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 16
8/3/05 at 3:55pm
Bmill, to use the recovery console, you have to put in the windows XP CD and follow along as if you were doinga reinstall. There will be a "repair this installation" option on one of the blue screens. You use that. It might take awhile, because it tends to rebuild all the default windows files while refraining from destroying the other applications on the partition.

-Hal
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 16
8/3/05 at 7:16pm
Follow Halciet's advice.
As long as the fasttrak bios says the disk array is bootable then the windows repair operation should fix the problem.

G-Omaha I discovered that by setting the disk jumpers to cable select of both RAID drives it reduced the number of times the fasttrak driver lost the RAID config. I spent some time with the Promise tech guys testing the fasttrak drivers to discover the problem but to no avail. Basically there are several conditions that cause the array to "free up" one of the disks in the array. Disk formatting is one of the major culprits - particularly if you use Windows ASR (as I do) to clone my laptop.

It would appear that in Bmill's case the array has lost a disk then the system damaged itself trying to reboot. The windows recovery console is his best bet to fix the damaged Windows components.
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 16
8/3/05 at 7:57pm
Aussie, that makes sense (cable selcgt -v- master) by unplugging the jumper.

Glad to see you back,

Gary
Reply
Reply
post #15 of 16
8/4/05 at 12:53am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the advice guys. I tried copying the system file but it wont let me. Im alittle confused on the repair. Once I boot to the windows disk, do I select "r" for the recovery console or the install Windows option and then is there a repair option later?
Reply
Reply
post #16 of 16
8/7/05 at 9:20am
r for recovery console
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home