4 of 8 drives going offline…Raid Card?

[Fred Jodry]

Although it is quite tedious I would say that zeroing out the test hard drive freshly each time (Try preparing it with a full zero- out of data the first time, then zero out the first 300 MB and last 100 MB on the drive should be good for each switching places test) and trying it in each place of all 8 drives in the box, even the good ones should be good testing.

[Litzwire]

Great idea. Will report. Thanks!

[Bob Zelin]

So, after doing some troubleshooting and switching the cables all around from both enclosures, and after discussing it with ProAvio through a fairly difficult language barrier, we determined that the eSATA board going to those 4 drives was malfunctioning. Got new board and installed. Worked fine for about a day, and back comes the beep….same four drives offline.

REPLY –
if you are in warrantee, insist that ProAvio replace your drive box. I read that you tried your friends box, but you have already replaced the Highpoint card (you bought a new one, right ? ) – and you changed the cables, so the issue is your box. You don’t have 4 dead drives. Re discuss this with ProAVIO.

Bob Zelin

[Litzwire]

I’m with ya, but the first enclosure, which is the one in question, is about 6 months out of warranty (the other one is still under warranty, but I was honest :P). At the time, their suggestion to replace the eSATA board made a good deal of sense, and it really wasn’t a big deal financially or logistically to replace that card, but after that didn’t work the remedy became much more a puzzle. I’ve disussed it with ProAvio, but their suggestions are somewhat limited to obvious things. And yes, I have bought that replacement 2314 controller card, but I still await its arrival. It’s not readily available anymore, so I had to go through a seller that’s seemingly not as fast as a Newegg. In the meantime, I do have a couple of extra drives that I am going to troubleshoot with. If that doesn’t reveal a culprit, it’s up to the card when it arrives. After that, I will feel like I’ve spent enough time, and will find a service to figure it out. I might have done that a while back, but by nature, and as a builder of my own editing systems, I’m curious about these problems, and if I conquer it (with help), that’s a feather in my knowledge cap.

[Litzwire]

So even though I haven’t received the replacement 2314 card yet, I did get a replacement drive (although discontinued, it has the same specs as originals and I was able to find it on ebay). It MAY be – and I emphasize MAY BE – that I don’t need the controller after all. I put the new drive in the first slot of the 4 drives that were going offline, and even though I have not proven proper operation yet, the other 3 drives in that 4 drive division are at least showing to be online. I’m attempting the rebuild process now, and if it works it will of course take many hours. In the meantime, I’m soliticing affirmations on this opinion: Whereas the other array I have, upon having a failing drive, showed me which drive was failing, allowing me to easily replace and rebuild, this array showed four drives completely offline, making it look like (to me and to ProAvio support) there might be a hardware problem associated with those 4 drives sharing a common eSATA interface board, common power connectors, etc. Since this was Drive #1 in the set of 4 (in an 8-disk array), is it possible that the fact that it’s the first one in a line was causing the HighPoint GUI to tell me that all four in that set were offline, as opposed to the other array, where the failing drive was #2 in a set? I’m assuming now, as the array continues to rebuild, that since the other 3 in that set are now listed in the GUI as looking like the rest of the 8 – i.e., not offline – that adding this one replacement may have done the trick. In other words, this may have been all much ado…. However, I’m not counting the chickens until they’ve not only hatched, but have run around in the heat for a while.

[Fred Jodry]

That`s alright Hop, just give me an email if someone parades by some unwanted good parts like Vistacons and Leddicons. I`m not caught up. Fred Jodry
educationalbroadcasting@hotmail.com