XPS 420 SATA RAID and drive failing

Well that sounds promising, Rupert.  Let's hope a different hard drive mftr does the trick and they can reload all the system software as it came from the factory.  Keep us posted.

Interesting that Dell seem to have come up with a solution, even if it means replacing both drives. I've had the RAID problem almost every day this last week. I spoke to Dell in the US/Canada earlier this week (as I called quite late at night) and they could offer no solution, nor were they aware that there is such a common problem with this model.

So perhaps I should call them again tomorrow and see if they can arrange for an engineer to swap out my drives. The alternative is to break the RAID into the component disks and re-install Vista.

Both solutions seem to involve some sort of re-installation, but if that means I have a reliable PC, I will be happy.

Unfortunately the engineer installed the drives as RAID 0! So I ended up deleting that array, putting one of the original drives back in (which they have left us with for a few days to make sure all is OK) together with one of the new drives - this was added to the original RAID 1 array, courtesy of the original Samsung drive and the Array rebuilt itself.  I then swapped the original Samsung for the other new Seagate Barracuda and this was added to the array which is currently re-building as I type this, so I have got the original data but on an array with 2 new drives, took a bit of time, but was less painful than re-installing everything again!

 

Be interested to know if other people who have been affected by this also have Samsung drives - which is what Dell claims the problem to be...

Sounds like an interesting solution. Did you just call Dell's XPS support and get the engineer to call? Was it the Indian or US/Canada office that arranged it?

I oroginally logged a cal about 3 weeks ago, but then I contacted Dell support via email saying that the problem was getting worse.  We got a phone call from one of the Dell support teams in India saying that the engineer would call to swap the drives.

 

I don't know if it makes any difference but the machine was bought via my company.

I've tried logging support calls twice via e-mail and they seem to be ignored. Dell did call me last friday and promised a call back from a manager, but nothing! Their support is abysmal for this product.

I supppose I'll have to call them again and arrange something. Think I'll speak to Customer Services at the same time and complain.

I spoke to Dell (India) today and they are sending me 2 new Seagate drives which I will install myself. So I presume it's a case of taking the 2 drives out and replacing them with the new ones, then use the Dell DVD to re-install Vista.

I ended up having to re-install the disks myself as the Dell engineer installed them as RAID 0 (something that I can't understand!) so I ended up deleting that array, then putting one of the original (failing) disks back in the machine on port 0.  The machine booted up found that disk, and hence the original array, but with an unassigned disk (one of the new ones) this I assigned to the array and then booted into Vista from the original disk, so no settings where lost, and let the software get on with rebuilding the array.

 

Then I shut down the machine, took the original disk out, and put the other new one in, and repeated the process, so I ended up with the 2 new disks in the machine but with the original install - so I didn't have to re-install any software.

 

The actual physical installation of the disks is a quick 2 minute job, and the array re-build took about 1 to 2 hours each time - but at least I could walk away and let it get on with it rather than having to re-install and setup everything again.

 

BTW What is happening to your old drives, are Dell going to collect them off you?

 

Hope the above helps.

Thanks for the info, but I don't see how it's possible to re-build the array from a RAID 0 stripe. If it were a mirrored setup, then yes, the software should be able to re-construct the array from the original disk.

For a RAID 0 stripe, data is spread across both disks, so losing one would mean the entire array is lost.

Is your PC stable with the new Seagate drives?

Dell are going to arrange to collect the drives next week when I have tested the new ones.

The new drives have been in the machine for a week now and it has been fine so far, however when the machine first arrived it was OK for a couple of weeks until the drives started failing.

You are, of course, correct about not being able to rebuild a RAID 0 array in the way that I described.

Dell have just delivered the 2 new Seagate drives. I'm going to do a fresh installation on them later today but I am not going to use the RAID 0.

I'd recommend RAID 1, at least then if one of the drives fails again you don't loose the whole array and all your data - that's my thinking anyway!

Yes, a mirror woould be good, but I'm not convinced that it will be reliable under Vista and the Intel Matrix.

I think I already know the answer but thought I'd make sure.

 

My system came equipped with the RAID0 configuration and I would prefer to have RAID1 enabled instead for the added reliability.  Certainly willing to sacrifice the 500GB for the added piece of mind.

 

A couple weekends ago I disabled/broke and then re-enabled the RAID0 in an attempt to resolve the random system shutdowns, etc.  As I was doing that I noticed that there was no option for RAID1, just RAID0.  So I suspect that the Intel Matrix Storage controller card I have installed only supports RAID0?

 

Thanks,

Mike