RAID 'Critical' but no drive error. Hmm...

I'm running a G-SPEEDes 3TB at RAID 5. This weekend I happened to check the status page and the RAID was listed as 'Critical.' No warning, no beeps, no red light next to any of the drives (4x 750GB). When I tried to rebuild the array the log definitely pointed at Drive #3 as not responding, but after a restart there's still no warning about that drive and all of them say 'OK' under status. Media plays back fine under FCP. But Diskwarrior will not rebuild the directory due to 'mechanical error' so clearly something is going South on this thing.

I've already contacted G-Tech and they recommend sending in the whole unit to be looked at rather than send a replacement HD. Problem is I'm in the middle of big project that's due very soon, so I'm scrambling to find something to copy my critical files to (1.5 TB). Do you think I risk major data loss if I wait this out for about 2 weeks? Obviously if one drive finally fails I can replace it and it will rebuild, but do you think I'm risking data loss by waiting?

TIA, JK

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By design, a RAID 5 set is supposed to be "bulletproof" as long as one ONE (1) drive fails in the RAID set. If two drives fail, then Adios to all data. RAID 6, however allows for two failed drives to be recovered.

G-Tech should know better than to relieve you of the entire RAID data while they"check it out".

You paid for a disk system that was not replaceable and RAID 5, should point to the failure and even take it offline, for replacement.

Personally, I wouldn't wait 2 weeks for it to go south, rather have them ship you a replacement drive for that failing slot, and monitor the problem from there. Is that a warranty replacement?

Yes it's under warranty. The tech thought it was best to send in the whole unit but yeah I agree, that seems drastic. Especially because of their move, it's going to take G-Tech a while to fix it which is not going to work for me. I could try to get a hold of someone else and see if they'll just ship me a single drive.

With RAID 5, will I lose data if Drive 3 is actually OK but I pull it anyway? Or will it just rebuild no matter what if I put in a new drive? In either case, I'm thinking of cobbling together a 2TB backup drive for this thing since I can't afford for it to go down right now.

JK

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These are G-Tech questions. I wouldn't attempt to advise on technical gear when their own Tech Support is telling you to send it in. Get your stuff off of there ASAP and send it in. Don't mess with the warranty.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

I seriously doubt that replacing a failing drive is "messing" with the warranty.
So, you wouldn't mind stopping work for a couple of weeks while all you data was gone? I am sure your clients will understand!

Besides, once that array is gone, there is no guarantee you will ever get it back and where can you back up 1.5 TB of data to?

With RAID 5, will I lose data if Drive 3 is actually OK but I pull it anyway? Or will it just rebuild no matter what if I put in a new drive? In either case, I'm thinking of cobbling together a 2TB backup drive for this thing since I can't afford for it to go down right now.

If you can successfully transfer all your data off the array, then do so NOW! In a true RAID controlled setup, if you pulled the suspect drive, the entire RAID would be down. The RAID 5 feature only allows you to rebuild the replaced drive after reinstalling it.

And, experience is a great teacher. Have that 2.0 TB backup just for a copy of the critical data in the future, if this sort of thing will be possible again.

I'm with Joe. I'd be sweating bullets if my RAID came up "critical" and then went back to normal. IMHO, it's worse than losing a drive... it's a problem I can't identify.

I'd cobble together enough spare drives to backup your 2TB, and send in the RAID as soon as you can manage it.

It's these 'problems I can't identify' that drive me nuts too. Even tech support was stumped on this one. I'm building my 2 TB backup device no matter what happens, that way I have some insurance against total failure.

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[But Diskwarrior will not rebuild the directory due to 'mechanical error' so clearly something is going South on this thing. ]

I would also check with Alsoft about DiskWarrior's RAID intelligence or lack thereof.
It may not understand a logical volume and be trying to locate disk directories on constituent drives. I don't know. Somebody ask them?

- Loren
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I was able to run DW on the RAID before with no problem. In fact, it was the only thing that could repair it after a kernel panic screwed up the permissions on the RAID (no write access). Something's definitely changed in the last week or so...

JK

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