New Aurora - Why no RAID 5 support?

Question

I received a new Aurora at the beginning of this month. I ordered it with a single drive, and swapped that for three drives in a RAID 5 config. A few days later the raid failed and had to rebuild. All the drives were new, the one that came with it and two others I ordered to match. ST3500418AS drives.

I researched and found Seagate was having some issues with the firmware on those drives. I ordered three new Western Digital Enterprise drives. I installed those in RAID 5. A few days later the drives were initializing again. I waited until it finished (5 hours), then one drive failed. I replaced it. Few days go buy and a different drive goes offline.

So I bite the bullet and call support. The word from them? We don't support RAID 5. But I tell them it is listed in the manual, offered as an option when setting up. Tech says yes, it has RAID 5, but we don't support RAID 5.

I have contacted my Dell rep and may be sending this whole thing back. I really want it to work, but I want it in a RAID 5 config.

BTW, I just looked and it's rebuilding the RAID again. This takes over 14 hours to do.

markoxford · Answer

Please excuse my ignonance :o) How are you controlling the RAID? Do you have a seperate RAID controller or is it build into the BIOS? Thks.

DELL-Chris M · Answer

The Sales page Tech Specs tab clearly states what we support - 'Supporting RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 1+0 Storage Configurations'

gwforeman · Answer

It it has built in RAID controller

gwforeman · Answer

'The Sales page Tech Specs tab clearly states what we support - 'Supporting RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 1+0 Storage Configurations' Yet my manual shows you how to set up RAID5.

markoxford · Answer

I am with you on this one - I can find no provision in the online warranties that specifically states that the "Tech Spec" supercedes the "Manual". As you can enable RAID5 and it is shown as an option in the Manual and the hardware was pre-installed by Alienware I believe they are obligated to support it until they change the "Manual" to read otherwise, (in law conflicting statements are a nightmare, but most judges go on intent and expectations - the "Tech Spec" does not say that they do not support RAID5 so the argument is that you could reasonably expect RAID5 support as it is an option in the manual. Saying your intent was different after the fact does not usually go over too well :o))

However, they have a different opinion so you might want to look up the Arbitration clause in the warranty if they don't offer you a refund.

DELL-Chris M · Answer

I can find no provision in the online warranties that specifically states that the "Tech Spec" supercedes the "Manual".
* Nor will you find a provision that states that the "Manual" supercedes the "Tech Spec".

* The manual doesn't say, Here are the RAID levels we support. It just gives brief definitions of all of them.

* Anyway, if the user is that upset about it, he needs to contact the USA Unresolved Issues Team.

markoxford · Answer

Which really goes to provide my point - that there is a discrepancy between the manual and the website in which RAIDS you support. You can interprete it anyway you like, but as you work for Dell you have a conflict. Also the user has a conflict as he is not getting what he feels he brought.

On the other hand I have no dog in the hunt :o) As I see it the best thing for all is Alienware putting a note in the manual reminding users that they only support certain RAIDS, (you can use a insert until you get new manuals printed). The user could use RAID 1-0 which is better than RAID 5 aside from the n-2 issue,(raid 5 is n-1). If it really is a deal breaker from the user, then a refund would keep everyone happy.

ANyhow, as always - just my opinion :o)

DELL-Chris M · Answer

Email sent asking. The only Dell Consumer PC that supported Raid 5 was the XPS 720, 730.

gwforeman · Answer

If nothing else, I would like an explanation WHY RAID 5 does not work.  If the tech had told me the RAID controller has a documented issue with RAID 5 and Windows 7, I would have felt better than 'We do not support it'.  Right now I need to know if my controller is just bad.  But since they don't support RAID 5, they will not even help.

DELL-Chris M · Answer

Me - Is there something in our PCs that would keep Raid 5 from working?
Engineering - No. But we never tested Raid 5 since Dells disposition is to not use it on Consumer PCs.

Bottomline, you can try it but we will not support it if it fails.

gwforeman · Answer

I appreciate you checking. They need to update the manual. It states on Page 6,

RAID Support

Raid 0
Raid 1
Raid 5
Raid 10

It says Support, so I gues you have to define what that means. I downloaded the manuals before I ordered the system, so you see my frustration.

Also, nothing in the manual about the RECOVERY partition and how to use it. It mentions a RESPAWN disc that is not included. It doesn't tell you about the backup program that I just found allows you to create a recovery CD.

Just way to many things wrong with the documentation on this system. They really need to get their act together. All this could have been avoided if the manual was correct.

Just venting a little.

DELL-Chris M · Answer

Hmm, I just opened the PDF file for the manual and the only thing about Raid is page 25, Working with RAID. From where did you download your PDF?

gwforeman · Answer

This is from the Compresensive Specifications guide.  Let me see if I can find the link where I got this.   http://www.gwfweb.com/aurora_comprehensive_specifications.pdf

gwforeman · Answer

My goal was to try and make this Aurora work for my needs. But I keep running into brick walls. The latest issue is when I restore the unit to factory load using the Dell utility, I can run the Windows Experience benchmark one time. If I ever try to re-run this it fails everytime.

This is with the original drive back like it came out of the box, no RAID setup at all. Most of the time it errors when I try to run it, once it froze the computer completely, and one time it made the system reboot.

It seems there is a real system issue going on here. I will talk to my rep tomorrow.

Not sure if I will:

Return the system for a replacement (and get RAID already set up in it so there is no question)
Return and get a Dell Precision workstation (but I don't think they offer a high end graphics card)
Return and get a powerful Notebook and use it as a desktop system (but I lose RAID).

I need the graphics speed because I'm a pilot, and I really like playing with simulators that need high end card.

My son has an MX15 that was pretty fast.

gwforeman · Answer

I thought I would post this final outcome here.

I called Alienware support yesterday to see if we could resolve the issues. I found corrupt OS files even after reloading from the factory image. Determined that the factory restore had problems. I was told to load the OS from the Disk. But of course you lose all the nice Alienware things, like the startup screen, but okay.

What I didn't want to loose was the Dell local backup program. I was told that I cannot download that, and I would just lose it. Not happy.

So I asked the tech why my RAID volumes would constantly go into rebuilding, and initializing even after I switched to the supported RAID 1 config. I even replaced both drives with WD Enterprise drives. Still problems.

I was simply told by the tech that it must be a lot of static electricity here and they don't support that. Well, that was the last straw. The most ludicrous answer I have heard to date.

Dell will pick up the system tomorrow. End of story.

Locked Topics – Alienware General

New Aurora - Why no RAID 5 support?

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