RAID5 problem

[Longy]

I've got a Dell Poweredge 830 server thats gone t**s up, seems all three HDD's (RAID5) in it have died! what are the chances of this?

Using a Dell Perc 4/SC Raid card - I can see the drives and they are all online however we kept getting "disc error" on bootup.

I decided to wipe the drives and start again. I've rebuilt the Raid5 via the Perc bios and initailised the discs. All looks good but when I try to install win 2003 it starts the format then dies saying disc is fecked.

I've booted from the Dell diagnostic disk and ran the disk tests and it fails on all drives on confidence tests and buffer tests (390-400 bad blocks on each disc).

Seems odd that all three drives are fecked at the same time? Perc card passes all the tests.

Shall I just stick the drives in the bin? I even tried just using one disk setup but again each disc I use dies.

The server was running off a UPS and surge protected.

 

[McBunny]

they can and do go like that

 

[Magic Johnson]

I was gonna say maybe a power surge...did you have a power cut over the weekend? Could have bollox'd it up, can only run off a UPS for an hour or so.

 

[McBunny]

I was gonna say maybe a power surge...did you have a power cut over the weekend? Could have bollox'd it up, can only run off a UPS for an hour or so.

well depends on the ups


have you not got another machine to try them in ?

 

[Longy]

No powercut, just went pop in the afternoon. Already using my spare server and haven't got a spare scsi raid card lying about to elimate the perc card.

 

[H182]

We had something similar, turned out it was the card at fault. Replaced it and rebuilt using the exsisting drives.

 

[dk]

i very much doubt all 3 hard drives have failed at the same time, the chances of that are less than winning the lottery......

 

[Longy]

i very much doubt all 3 hard drives have failed at the same time, the chances of that are less than winning the lottery......

This is what I thought - unless the card had a fit and blow the HDD's

 

[McBunny]

ive had 3 go in the space of 2 days in the same box

 

[Magic Johnson]

Any way of testing the card without buying a new one?

 

[KDF]

Sounds like the card, you should have tested the drives independently before wiping them would have saved you starting from scratch.

It's common for more than one drive to go within a short period of the others as they tend to be bought/brought online at the same time and are the same brand etc.

I would be inclined to order a new raid card as you can't go wrong with a spare anyway.