Alienware 18 HDD Raid 0 Consistenly Failing

Intel RST raid 0 consistently failing on reboot

Cross posted on Intel Community forums

Hi Everyone,

I am having an issue ever since setting up a raid 0 using Intel RST with 2 Western Digital 750GB Sata 3 7200RPM BLACK hard drives model: WD7500BPKX. Upon reboots or shutdowns I am consistently getting an error in the raid bios stating the volume as FAILED and one of the disk as a non-member. However upon press Ctrl+I to enter the bios the raid volume shows up as normal as it should with both HDD as part of the raid. If I let the system continue to boot into windows I get an error in the Intel RST software stating raid volume inaccessible and given option to reset to normal. When I reset to normal and go into windows disk management the drive comes back online and an able to access it in windows explorer. I have ran Seatools Short generic test on both hard drives when they where not part of the raid and both drives passed, furthermore both drives are new bought off amazon. There is occasions on reboot where the raid array shows normal and boots into windows no problem without having to reset the volume to normal. Any troubleshooting assistance I can get on this would be appreciated, my thoughts so far is pointing to a bad raid controller dont know if I could fix this one without a whole motherboard though and that wouldnt be worth it to me. The problem doesnt appear to be Intel RST drivers in windows seeing how the volume is being show as failed at the bios level.


A little bit about my system:

• Alienware 18 R1 Bios A10 (Latest)
• Windows 7 Home Premium
• Intel RST 13.6.0.1002 software drivers

(Also attempted to use the intel RST drivers directly from dell website 12.0.7.1002)​

• 16gb DDR3 1600mhz 4x4gb
• 64GB Samsung PM831 mSata SSD (OS)
• 2 x 750GB Western Digital BLACK SATA 3 7200RPM Model: WD7500BPKX (STORAGE)
• Nvidia GTX 770M SLI

 

It might just be there is problems with one of the hard drives in the Raid. See if you can use HD tune to scan for any bad sectors.

 

Check bios and jumpers for PM2 setting. Seems like one the drives is sleeping, thereby breaking the array.

 

@yotano21 I am getting the error The device, \device\harddisk0\DR0, has a bad block , maybe I will backup the data, break the array, then run the long test seatools which searches for bad blocks. This error is after the drives come up as failed in intel RST before I reset it.

@t456 Both drives have no physical jumpers present, in HWINFO64 both drives show PUIS as supported, but inactive.

 

One of my drives in the raid 0 array is reporting:
Drive Controller: Serial ATA 6Gb/s @ 3Gb/s

The other drive shows:
Drive Controller: Serial ATA 6Gb/s @ 6Gb/s

I have read Mr. Fox post http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...sata-iii-ssd-upgrade-raid0-discussion.617891/ and he suggested resetting the bios, I have done that and also removed CMOS battery and help power button for 30 second while battery disconnected. Why is one drive only 3Gb/s ?

 

@Mr. Fox Any ideas why port 1 is should 3Gb/s ? I tried to take both drives out of raid 0 config and swapped both drives. Port 1 still showing only 3gb/s

 

There are not many things that can be wrong. In the order of likelihood, I suspect:

• The HDD running at 3GB/s even though it is rated for 6GB/s is defective
• The SATA cable connecting the drives to the motherboard is bad
• The motherboard has problems

Switch the two drives to opposite SATA ports. If the 3GB/s problem follows the drive, RMA the HDD. If the problem stays on the same port after the drives are moved, call 1-800-ALIENWARE and get them to fix it if it is still under warranty.

 

Ok thanks for the reply, I swapped the drives in the caddy and the problem didn't follow the drive. Unfortunately the system isn't under warranty anymore so I will most likely just leave it as is not much performance difference between the two with mechanical hard drives. I havent tried to reinstall the OS yet to see if maybe correct driver issue or something like that.....waiting for windows 10 to be released.

 

You might want to buy that small SATA cable and see if that helps. I doubt it costs very much. The M18xR2 had an issue with SATA 3 ports dropping to 3GB/s and that ribbon cable on the M18xR2 was usually the culprit. Replacing it almost always fixed the problem.

 

@Mr. Fox I am looking for the small dual sata cable but cannot find it anywhere for sale except aliexpress and they want to charge close to $100 for it any ideas?....its all but impossible to find parts for the Alienware 18 that arent upmarked 500% probably from third partys buying them in bulk and selling them for an exuberant amount of money. Why does dell allow this and everytime I call them for a part its "Out of stock" IE they are never getting anymore because its discontinued and they dont give a **** pardon my language.

 

I don't have any ideas other than what I suggested. Dell has no control over how much a third party charges for parts, but having stuff "out of stock" has been a problem off an on for a while. Bear in mind the 18 is end of life, so that might never change. If the seller(s) are aware of that, it may have something to do with them charging obscene prices as well.