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Windows 7 HDD sleep mode VS RAID 0 Volume


Se7enIs6

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Hi,

I have 4 Maxtor HDDs as a RAID 0 volume (system) on a GA EP45-UDP mainboard by using the Intel ICH10R SATA-2 RAID controller. When Windows 7 x64 Pro use the volume by exiting the HDD sleep mode, it causes atapi, cdrom, disk and JRAID errors. Then the computer become extremely slow and I must reboot the system in order to fix :( .

I must set HDD sleep mode to NEVER in the Power Options but Microsoft Fix It Center don't like these settings.

Is there a way to fix it ?

Edited by Se7enIs6
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I do not recommend that you allow a RAID volume to sleep, especially a software RAID. Or in other words, don't let Windows handle that function. Install the Intel Matrix application and if it has that option, set it, otherwise let it always run. Remember, RAID is designed for servers, not workstations or regular desktops. Servers are supposed to run all the time.

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I'm using HDDs in RAID0 with the older ICH9R. I have it set to spin down after 20 mins (Win7 x64 too), and I get no such errors so it should work.

It would be helpful to have more information about your setup (RAID/AHCI/etc settings, driver version, BIOS version, actual error messages, etc)

Chances are that it's the particular drives you're using that aren't very RAID-friendly e.g. take too long to spin up, and the "card" doesn't care for it... There's a LOT of possibilities, and here we have very little to work from.

Edit: I am using driver 8.6.2.1012 seemingly (wow, that's old -- latest is 9.6.0.1014, I'll update ASAP). Also, I don't think it's usually that problematic as my SiI3114-based cards have no problems either.

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I would just like to add that I have a Shuttle SP35P2 with the ICH9R in Matrix RAID, Windows 7 x64, and I use Sleep mode all the time without problems.

I am using the iaStor drivers included with Win7 RTM, that is version 8.9.0.1023 I read reports that other drivers are having problems over here:

http://communities.intel.com/thread/9303?tstart=0

You can check your driver version in Device Management (devmgmt.msc) within Storage controllers.

If you install the Matrix Storage Manager from Intel, it will probably replace the driver version, but I think there is a command switch to install just the console without the drivers.

[edit] I notice CoffeeFiend must have more potent coffee than me :P

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Remember, RAID is designed for servers, not workstations or regular desktops. Servers are supposed to run all the time.

Is it?

You may have different sources than myself:

http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~garth/RAIDpaper/Patterson88.pdf

AFAIK it was designed to meet the growing speed of processors and for cost effectiveness against SLED's, and the fact that they are mainly used in Servers is only because PC's have become so cheap and (most) final users don't care that much about data integrity.

RAID has been also commonly used on gaming rigs or graphical workstations to improve performance, typically in RAID0 stripes of two disks.

jaclaz

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Remember, RAID is designed for servers, not workstations or regular desktops. Servers are supposed to run all the time.

Is it?

You may have different sources than myself:

http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~garth/RAIDpaper/Patterson88.pdf

AFAIK it was designed to meet the growing speed of processors and for cost effectiveness against SLED's, and the fact that they are mainly used in Servers is only because PC's have become so cheap and (most) final users don't care that much about data integrity.

RAID has been also commonly used on gaming rigs or graphical workstations to improve performance, typically in RAID0 stripes of two disks.

jaclaz

I think it just comes down to personal preference. Myself, for example, would never use a RAID0 on a system volume, but people do all the time. It also may deal with how you became aware of RAID. Myself, I first knew RAID as something only in servers, then learned about gaming PCs and whatnot later on. When I was with Sony, they started selling VAIO desktops with RAID on them, so people who bought those machines would first know of RAID being on desktops!

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would never use a RAID0 on a system volume

And I never understood why some people wouldn't (besides cost obviously). It's much faster and plenty reliable for that. I've been using RAID0 only for my system volume since 2001 (on an old Promise FastTrack100 TX4 & 4x WD 40GB striped) and never run into any problem. And if I'm unlucky enough to get a disk failure (like once every 10 years), then I'll just reinstall my OS & apps, no big deal (as long as your actual data is backed up, of course).

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Data is stored on a RAID10 on a separate set of disks, and is also backed up to a remote location as well. Since going SSD with my primary drive I'm no longer running in RAID0, but I've run RAID0 for probably as long as Coffee (and originally on a FasTrak as well) with only one instance of drive death - and I restored from an OS backup and all was well within about an hour or so.

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In fact, the problem was already occured with Windows XP Pro x64 with the same config.

System events are :

Event ID 15

Source CDROM

Type Error

Description The device, \Device\CdRom0, is not ready for access yet.

Event ID 15

Source JRAID

Type Error

Description The device, \Device\Scsi\JRAID1, is not ready for access yet.

Event ID 15

Source Disk

Type Error

Description The device, \Device\Harddisk1\DR1, is not ready for access yet.

Event ID 11

Source Disk

Type Error

Description The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk2\DR2

Event ID 11

Source atapi

Type Error

Description The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePort0.

Edited by Se7enIs6
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Sounds more like a device/firmware issue, or chipset incompatibility. I'll bet it's not OS specific - Linux on the device (assuming hardware RAID and not LVM) will probably repro as well.

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would never use a RAID0 on a system volume

And I never understood why some people wouldn't (besides cost obviously). It's much faster and plenty reliable for that. I've been using RAID0 only for my system volume since 2001 (on an old Promise FastTrack100 TX4 & 4x WD 40GB striped) and never run into any problem. And if I'm unlucky enough to get a disk failure (like once every 10 years), then I'll just reinstall my OS & apps, no big deal (as long as your actual data is backed up, of course).

The only method I am comfortable with is using RAID1 on a system volume, and RAID5 or RAID10 for data. Those are on work computers. I also would never use any software RAID controllers (like ICH, Promise, Adaptec) and can't really afford the 3Ware for home use. Although Intel's new LSI controllers seem to be on par.

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I hate to burst your bubble, but using the new LSIs on some test machines show that they're at least 100MB/sec slower than a 3ware 9xxx overall (and on par with the ICH, speed-wise), and the LSI's data transfers are bursty and somewhat unpredictable, whereas the 3Ware is very stable and steady even in random read/write transfer situations. The LSI chips are a heck of a lot cheaper, but you're getting what you pay for (and not much more, if any, than an ICH, so....).

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