[SOLVED] Can't rebuild my RAID array!

[watha]

I built my own NAS using FreeNAS version 0.7 and an old computer. It filled up, I copied the files to a standard external hard drive, and got to work wiping the NAS for further use. But on booting, my old computer said that my hardware RAID setup was "critical." I guess that means one or both of the drives have gone bad. (I have 2 of them, and they were set for RAID 1 mirroring.) But how do I tell which drive is messed up? I wanted to upgrade to FreeNAS 9 anyway and don't mind starting over. But the readout from my computers BIOS utility didn't tell me which of the two drives needs replacing. I don't get a serial number, just a model number. Since they're both the same model of drive, that's no help.

In a bid to fix the problem, I went into the BIOS and told it to delete the array. I then changed the BIOS setting to boot the machine as if it had just two plain hard drives. That worked. In this mode, I booted Ubuntu Linux from a thumb drive. It recognized the drives as working. The drives passed a SMART test. I formatted them as ext4 then dragged and dropped files onto them. They worked just fine. I honestly think there's nothing wrong with them. But my hardware RAID BIOS says that one of them has failed. I just want to wipe them and start over. Why can't I do this with two (apparently) perfectly good hard drives? Help!

[b0ssman]

post the smart values of the drives.

and you dont want to use hardware raid.

use zfs

[watha]

will post SMART later. Decided to run Darik's Boot and Nuke on both drives, and they won't be done till tomorrow morning! I did run SMART tests on the drives after shutting off hardware RAID and booting them in Ubuntu Linux. Both drives passed. I also formatted them as ext4 drives and tried copying files to them under Linux. They worked just fine. I wonder if there's something wrong with my hardware RAID BIOS that's causing the problem. How can I set up a software RAID? Do I just boot into NAS4Free with the hardware RAID turned off, or what? Thanks much!

[raulfg3]

put your hardware Raid card in IT mode ( or bypass mode), so your disk are detected by BSD as individual disk.

Once done, go to ZFS and create a raid-Z1 pool , but better if read something about ZFS: http://forums.freenas.org/threads/slide ... oobs.7775/

[watha]

Sounds like a plan. I went with hardware RAID formatted as UFS before; it worked fine till just now, and I figured hardware would give faster performance. But I have read that ZFS is superior, and that software RAID works as fast as hardware for a small RAID 1 setup. So I'll give it a try as soon as I've finished nuking my disks.

[watha]

It looks like things are coming together. I ran Darik's Boot & Nuke and completely wiped my two drives. It took exactly one day, three minutes and 35 seconds. Then I ran ZFS volume manager and tried to create a volume. It worked. Just like that. I guess even after reformatting the disks, they contained some polluted files from the previous RAID setup. Now I just have to learn how to set up a ZFS software RAID. BTW, is software RAID as good as hardware? Just asking...

[raulfg3]

is software RAID as good as hardware? Just asking...

Yes, It's better.

If in the future, your Hardware raid is broken, in ZFS soft Raid, is not a problem, you can connect disk to other Raid controller or other SATA in other board, and your ZFS pool is possible to import and work , this can't be possible on a hardware raid.

[watha]

Good to know. I've got ZFS software RAID up and running. So far, so good. Thanks.