Tech Tools

[Chris Gordon]

I’ll just point out the obvious first — you’ve backed up and made copies of anything on this array, right? Something’s having problems and that could end up with data loss.

Some things to look at or try (maybe you already have):

– Try another cable. If you’re using the same one and constantly plugging and un-plugging it, it could have died
– If you can, just reformat the entire array. Start from scratch and rebuild the RAID and then reformat it. There could be some latent problem this will fix or it may just add some more data points as to what the problem may be.
– Are you getting enough power to the array? Are both of the machines getting enough power? Insufficient power can cause all sorts of odd problems.
– Any error messages (or even interesting info) in the system logs on either/both machines? Easiest way to see is Application -> Utilities -> Console. Look at the “All Messages” when trying to mount, read, write to/from the array.

Since you have two different machines both having problems with the array, I suspect something associated with the array but you could have something wrong with both machines. Here I’d first look at memory and power. The Mac Pro should log memory parity errors in the logs (discussed above) since it has ECC memory. The MacBook doesn’t have that ability — the memory type just doesn’t do that. I can’t vouch for either of those tools specifically, but it’s often good to run several different ones to track down problems like this. Memory errors can take a while to show up, so run the tests overnight (or longer if you can) to see if something turns up.

Hope that helps some. Please post with more info if nothing immediately turns up.

[Bob Cole]

Here is the (temporary) solution! Disk Warrior!

Console is fascinating. I discovered that a small utility program is hassling my MacPro’s CPU more or less constantly (Spyder3 – which allows you to color calibrate your monitor — gonna make sure that isn’t running when I don’t need it!).

I ran memtestosx on both machines overnight. Memory tested perfect.

But Disk Warrior found tons of directory errors on the HDOne drive on the MacPro. (One year ago, I had to back up the HDOne and reformat. This time, Disk Warrior by itself seems to have done the trick.) Now, I can both read and write on the HDOne.

I think the problems I had on the MacBook involved using too many Firewire devices at once. When the dust settles (hah) I’m going to dedicate two bus-powered Firewire drives to making regular, rotating Carbon Copy clones for the MacBook. I’ve already dedicated two 3.5″ drives in external enclosures to CCC for the MacPro, and boy am I glad — when my MacPro’s system drive acted up a few weeks ago, the first CCC didn’t work, but the second did.

Now I’m looking for similar software (similar to CCC and Time Machine) for my PCs.

Thanks for your help. I’m still on the fence about Tech Tools.

Bob C