Problems with IDE RAID controller

[smak]

I am having problems with file corruption on large (hundreds of MB) files stored on a HighPoint RAID. Smaller files seem to be ok. Anyone heard of any problems.

TIA

Steve

[Mercutio]

I've heard that almost every onboard RAID controller has its own set of "issues". There is a VIA RAID patch out there somewhere, for those who have RAID + a VIA chipset.
Some other things to try: Move your PCI cards around until your RAID isn't sharing an IRQ with anything. Pull your soundblaster, if you've got one. Install the latest drivers for your motherboard chipset.

I can't find anything online related to Highpoint chips and "large" file corruption, but those generic hints might at least help you troubleshoot.

[Tea]

Wasn't the famous Sound Blaster & VIA bug usually triggered with large files? Or am I misremembering?

[smak]

Thanks for the replies.

I am running an Intel chipset board. Epox 4PEA+. It has onboard network and sound. All the latest drivers are installed. The only card in the system is the video card.

I have tried different RAM, cables, drives, P/S, OS, nothing seems to make a difference.

[Mercutio]

Have you tried moving your drives to another disk controller?

[blakerwry]

what OS/filesystem/Service pack? and how are you measuring this corruption? chkdsk? scandisk? inquiring minds want to know.

[smak]

Thankyou for your interest.

The drives work fine if I connect them to the secondry IDE. I don't have another RAID controller to try them on.
I also connected two different drives to the RAID controller and the corruption was still evident.

At the moment I am running XP Professional SP1. The corruption occurs on both NTFS and FAT32 partitions.
It also occurs with W2000 SP3.

I first noticed the corruption on a couple of Ghost images I had stored.
They would come up with CRC errors when I tried to restore them.
This occured after they had been burned to CD.
At first I blamed the disks, then the software, then the burner etc. Eventually I found that I can verify a Ghost image, copy it to a RAID partition, and it will then fail the verification.
I can do all of this from a clean DOS boot (FAT32 partitions), so I am sure the OS is not at fault.
Even though I have only seen the corruption on large files, I now don't feel comfortable trusting the RAID. After all I only installed it for more data security.

[Cliptin]

You will want to at least reformat the disks after moving them to the RAID controller. Especially with controllers from different manufacturers, each one seems to have a slightly different implementation and the mix-and-match will result in corruption. I would actually go so far as to re-partition as well.

[smak]

The drives have been partitioned and formatted several times.
I have also tried two brand new drives that hadn't been installed before.

[blakerwry]

lemme make sure i have things straight...

Step1:
you create a ghost bootdisk... create a ghost image of a non-RAID drive and put that image on a drive that is also non-RAIDed.

Step2:
You have the image on a non-RAID HDD and check the image for validity and it passes...

Step3:
You then copy this image to a RAIDed drive when booted from DOS bootdisk and Recheck for validity and you recieve CRC errors.


correct?



if that is what you are getting.. you might want to try the command line tool FC... should come with NT/2k/XP.. not sure about DOS or win9x

try copying a file from a drive on the southbridge's IDE controller to a drive on the highpoint controller and run FC

example:

C:\> FC c:\file.zip o:\file.zip
Comparing files C:\FILE.ZIP and O:\FILE.ZIP
FC: no differences encountered


just try this with random large files and see if you notice differences emerging... if you cant make it happen i wouldn't worry about it.

If you can make it happen, I'd recomend checking your RAM (www.memtest86.com)and make sure your sytem timings are not too agressive.

[LiamC]

The important mem setting for this kind of data is Tras

http://www.lostcircuits.com/advice/bios2/7.shtml

Most BIOS' on VIA boards tend to set this fairly aggressively in Turbo mode.

[zx]

I had the same problem a while ago, and after much seaching, it turned out to be a memory problem. The files were ok, but my memory was faulty, so it reported CRC errors in every zip or ISO file i could open.

Try opening those files with another computer to see if the files are really getting corrupted or if it's a memory, controller, etc. malfunction.

Hope it helps...

[Handruin]

I vaguely remember a corruption issue when 3 memory slots are occupied on a motherboard. There was a specific model and type, was it the KT133 chipset?? It was either here or SR that someone had this problem. Could it be related?

[smak]

blakerwry, yes that is correct.
At the moment the RAID is disabled, so I can't try your suggestion. I will set it up again over this weekend and see what happens.
By the way, it isn't just Ghost images that are corrupted.
If I copy a CD and the temp file is written to one of the RAID partitions it fails. If I use a non-RAID partition for the temp file it's ok.
If I copy an ISO image file to a RAID partition then burn it to CD the copy is corrupt.

LiamC. I have an Intel chipset board, but will look at your suggestion when I set up the RAID again.

zx. The files are definitely corrupt, it was when I tried to restore a Ghost image on a different PC that I first noticed the problem.I have checked the RAM with a couple of different diagnostic programs and it is fine. Just to be sure I have duplicated the problem with different RAM.
Another indication that the RAM is not at fault is that I can copy large images several times between non-RAID partitions and the files are fine.
however if I copy just once to a RAID partition the file is corrupt.

Handruin. I have only one stick of 512MB PC2700 DDR RAM.

Thanks to everyone for your input , I really do appreciate it.

[blakerwry]

from what you say I have to think either your controller/drivers or your cables are bad...

I assume you're probably using the same cables so that leads me to think it's the controler/drivers... you said you ahd the latest drivers... do you ahve the latest bios for the card?