Pc specs are as follows:

DFI LANParty P35-T2R motherboard
Intel Q6600 quad core @ 3.5GHz
2x2GB G.skill 1066 RAM
Samsung 20x dvd burner SATA
2x74GB WD Raptors in RAID 0
56x cd rom on IDE
52x burner on IDE
Floppy
GeForce 8800GTS 512 video card
X-fi platinum sound card.

The other night I was having problems so I hit my reset button and when I did, it did its post, and the next screen (intel RAID screen) said one of my drives was a non-raid disk and the other was a member-disk, and the status of the array was failed and the bootable status was "no". This has happened once before but it was still bootable so I just went into windows and downloaded intel storage matrix manager and was able to go in there and select the drive and fix it. Now I can't even get into windows. It gets to "verifying dmi pool data" and says "a disk read error has occured. Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to restart". I tried to boot to the windows cd but it won't read the cd on boot for some reason. I downloaded a program for dos that had "readntfs.exe" in it for reading ntfs drives in dos, and it said the drive had an error at sector # 0 or the BOOT sector is invalid" or something along those lines. I don't THINK the hard drive has failed because the computer still recognizes it in the raid screen. It is to my belief that the mbr may be screwed, but I booted to a WIN98SE boot disk and tried fdisk /mbr but of course it wouldn't read the ntfs drive. Any suggestions?

That's what you get for running RAID-0

We have used raid arrays for years and years. It is the only way to run servers.

Might try the XP cd instead of the win98. May have to have drivers. Might try a Vista DVD to access it and fix it. Might have to make a barts or ubcd4win cd to access it and fix it. A knoppix disk or other live cd might be able to access the disk and copy off informantion.

If the drive is in fact bad you can't fix that.

The last issue is how the raid bios sees the array. You may not be able to ever fix it if it can't be returned to the original state. Some raids are really soft arrays and many linux distro's see through them. Try a ubuntu disk maybe too.

I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you peanut.

"We have used raid arrays for years and years. It is the only way to run servers".

jefro, when running RAID 0 don't you also have some type of redundancy too?

"It is the only way to run servers"

But I doubt you use RAID 0.

Back to the topic at hand:

This is a simple problem to fix (assuming the drive is, in fact, still good). Just destroy the RAID array within the BIOS menus and then recreate the array. Once that is done you should have a new RAID array that is empty. Then just restore your backup.

Michael J

Assuming there is a backup....

I don't make the purchasing rules. Some programs are spec'd at a contractor's design and others are our spec's. On the systems that use raid 0 the data is only about an 8 hour limit. Each day the sytem is cleared. We ghost back the OS in a few minutes.

Sure, most systems that use raid are either fail-over or raid 5 or above using raid enclosures.

I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you peanut.

Assuming there is a backup....

That was my attempt at subtle sarcasm.

My belief, as I believe your is, is that RAID-0 is one of the biggest mistakes perpetrated by poor marketing. Many of the high-end gaming systems today are built with a RAID-0 setup and much of the information about RAID-0 on the internet is (at worst) factually wrong or (at best) fails to point out the flaws.

RAID-0 has it's uses. However, almost none of those uses involve a "home/gaming" PC. The performance benefit is nowhere near what most people think it would be and in some cases reduces performance. A "good" implementation for RAID-0 in a home environment would be for intensive read/write operations for very large files. The most common scenario I can think of would be for a scratch disc for a video editing application. And, even in that case I would still maintain a copoy of the original files on a non-RAID disc.

Discalimer: this post reflects the opinions of the author and in no way constitutes a "this is the only way" statement.

Michael J

After years of looking at perfomance reports, I can say that each system is different. One brands computer with one setup would act much better than another system.

The only true way to tell is to config your system and use some real world test that is close to how you use the system.

As in a few other topics, well trained people have varied opinions. Some topics are more contested than others. I think the raid is a hot topic always.

I do respect all the good people who offer polite opinions. I think that maybe as high as 99% of the people are offering good advice. Heck, it is hard to diag a system from a keyboard.

I guess we will never know what happened to the OP. :)

I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you peanut.