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Asus P5E-VM DO Motherboard - Issue setting up RAID array

Re: Asus P5E-VM DO Motherboard Issue

Postby jrcserver1 » Sun Mar 01, 2009 4:16 am

Done...RAID array is broken. In the BIOS, all three drives are recognized. If I set the BIOS to RAID mode and reboot, it freezes before posting and will not let me get to the Ctrl+I screen. The only way to get to it is to disconnect the drive.

It only freezes like this if one of the three drives is connected....I've swapped the SATA cables on the troubled drive and same problem. The drive is recognized in the BIOS. I doubt there is a problem with the drive because it was working fine yesterday.
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Re: Asus P5E-VM DO Motherboard Issue

Postby Grav!ty » Sun Mar 01, 2009 4:45 am

I've had a similar problem before and the way I got it fixed was to zero all my drives. You should find software at your HDD manufacturers site to do that. What make of drive are you using?

It's possible that there's a boot sector issue causing this and it may be possible to fix by running fixmbr followed by fixboot from the XP recovery console.

Also, see if changing the drive positions on the SATA controller helps.
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Re: Asus P5E-VM DO Motherboard Issue

Postby jrcserver1 » Sun Mar 01, 2009 4:32 pm

Woohoo! Seems like you were bang on with the idea of zeroing all of the drives. I did (it took a few hrs to do them all) and I've now setup the RAID and am installing Windows XP as we speak!
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Re: Asus P5E-VM DO Motherboard Issue

Postby Grav!ty » Sun Mar 01, 2009 4:43 pm

Hey that's great news and thanks for letting us know that worked for you ^*^ Breaking a RAID array often leads to the boot sector of the drives going awry :yesnod:

I'm going to slightly modify the title of your thread so others with a similar problem will find the solution easier.
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Re: Asus P5E-VM DO Motherboard - Issue setting up RAID array

Postby jrcserver1 » Sun Mar 01, 2009 5:55 pm

Thx for modifying the thread's subject.

At the moment the XP setup is formatting the RAID... and man, it's taking its time! It's been about an hour or so and its at 66%. Glad to see everything working though! I would've never thought of zeroing the drive as an option.
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Re: Asus P5E-VM DO Motherboard - Issue setting up RAID array

Postby jrcserver1 » Mon Mar 02, 2009 12:16 pm

Gahhhh! The problem is back!!! I installed Windows XP, and unfortunately it selected the wrong drive letter for the C drive. After doing some research, I realized the best way to fix this was to go back and reinstall/repair XP. The re installation was complete and the computer restarted as it should. Now, it won't POST again!! The only way to get it to post is to disconnect ALL hard drives, go into the BIOS, and disable RAID. I've got no further ideas on what's going on....
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Re: Asus P5E-VM DO Motherboard - Issue setting up RAID array

Postby Grav!ty » Mon Mar 02, 2009 2:55 pm

Just to repeat a question that I think was asked by mnemonicj in another thread...why are you using RAID 1?

Check out this info and then I think decide on a more appropriate RAID level: http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf/rai ... Level0.htm
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Re: Asus P5E-VM DO Motherboard - Issue setting up RAID array

Postby jrcserver1 » Mon Mar 02, 2009 3:11 pm

Sorry... it was my mistake.. its not RAID1, its RAID5 that I've been using.

As it stands, if all three drives are connected the PC won't POST, can't setup RAID, etc.. I'm at a loss of ideas!
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Re: Asus P5E-VM DO Motherboard - Issue setting up RAID array

Postby Grav!ty » Mon Mar 02, 2009 3:36 pm

Try first the fixboot C: followed by fixmbr C: commands from the Recovery Console of the XP CD or try one of the first followed by the other after testing if your system will now boot. If that doesn't work then I guess it's back to zeroing :dontgetit

Maybe it's time to scrap your RAID setup and figure out a good backup regimen instead. Is this a mission critical system?
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Re: Asus P5E-VM DO Motherboard - Issue setting up RAID array

Postby JabbaPapa » Mon Mar 02, 2009 4:07 pm

I can't help feeling that this sort of issue, including the failure to assign letter C: that you reported in another thread, would seem to be indicative of hard drive failure issues :(

Of course, PSU failure could easily produce the same symptoms.

I think you would be well advised to perform some fairly in-depth hardware components testing...
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