Computer Nerd help needed

[GH85Carrera]

OK, I need a nerd, geek or guru's help. I am stumped.

I built a computer for my MIL back in 2015 that was assembled from a box of parts I ordered from various sources.

I set it up from the beginning using the motherboard's on board BIOS based Intel RAID and set up two hard drives as a RAID-1 or mirror. All was fine until last month.

That motherboard just died. No video at all, not even a BIOS screen. I added a video card, and still nothing. My only choice was replace the MB. That motherboard is out of production and the guys that have them in stock or as used for sale want over $800 and up for them. Ain't gonna happen.

So I ordered a similar motherboard. Everything else is the same. Same drive, CPU, memory and so on. When I go to the Intel RAID setup screen (Control i) I get this:




Using Option 4, I can chose to boot from either the master or the recovery drive, but not both together as a RAID. Obviously both drives are working fine. The third can be ignored as unimportant, as I can unplug it and get it out of the way.

So my question, how can I get the RAID to use both drives as one, in a mirror again. It is pointless to have two drives and not have them mirrored. I have replaced failed drives in the past and had no issues. It would see the new drive and recover the mirror.



You can see that the RAID "need updating" and it says Recovery (onReq) which I assume means on request.

After I booted the first time, Windows wanted to be activated again, and that made sense since it found a new motherboard. I can boot from either the recovery drive or the master and it is now activated. I did some Windows updates, and it seems to update both drives. It makes me think it is working as a RAID 1, but what has me confused is why does the RAID BOIS say it needs updating? How do I get it to update?

Any other computer geeks on the board building their own computers and using the Intel RAID that is part of the motherboard?

[id10t]

I don't do hardware RAID unless it is enterprise level stuff with a secondary controller card, etc.

That said, with software RAID on my linux desktops when moving to a new OS install I do need to re-assemble the RAID array.

In your case, I'd backup both drives externally and off-system if possible and then re-create the RAID array. What shows up at #5 as a non-RAID disk needs to be re-added to the array, and then you'll have your 2 disk array. Then set what is showing as the offline disk to be your hot spare. Or possibly reverse those two.

[GH85Carrera]

Yea, number 5 is just a drive I added temporarily to see if I could get it to mirror one of the other drives, after I cloned it with a hardware clone device outside of Windows. It did not work. So I can ignore that drive.

I just did a test. I updated a piece of software, and then rebooted, changed from recovery drive to master drive, and the software needed an update. So even though the Windows 10 installation sees just one drive, it is not mirrored as I figured.

So I need to do a full backup and make a backup that I can restore to a new drive. Then delete the RAID, and re-create the raid, then restore from the backup. Dang, I sure wanted to just get it to re-mirror itself.

[id10t]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

Yea, number 5 is just a drive I added temporarily to see if I could get it to mirror one of the other drives, after I cloned it with a hardware clone device outside of Windows. It did not work. So I can ignore that drive.

I just did a test. I updated a piece of software, and then rebooted, changed from recovery drive to master drive, and the software needed an update. So even though the Windows 10 installation sees just one drive, it is not mirrored as I figured.

So I need to do a full backup and make a backup that I can restore to a new drive. Then delete the RAID, and re-create the raid, then restore from the backup. Dang, I sure wanted to just get it to re-mirror itself.

Removing and re-adding the second/third drive should do that. Don't know if it would be referenced as "manually failing a drive" or similar (that is the term used in the software RAID docs I reference)

This youtube may be of help - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrWMFleU-0w

[GH85Carrera]

Yea, that is how it always worked in the past.

This time, I never see a drive as degraded, just offline. I can't get it back "online" so I will go for plan B, backup and restore using an external drive.

[flipper35]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

Yea, number 5 is just a drive I added temporarily to see if I could get it to mirror one of the other drives, after I cloned it with a hardware clone device outside of Windows. It did not work. So I can ignore that drive.

I just did a test. I updated a piece of software, and then rebooted, changed from recovery drive to master drive, and the software needed an update. So even though the Windows 10 installation sees just one drive, it is not mirrored as I figured.

So I need to do a full backup and make a backup that I can restore to a new drive. Then delete the RAID, and re-create the raid, then restore from the backup. Dang, I sure wanted to just get it to re-mirror itself.

When cloned it probably had the same ID as the other disk which would confuse the system. The old mirror may have had the same effect on the ID numbers since it came off a consumer hardware RAID.

[John Rogers]

It seems to me for a home desktop PC you are trying to make things more complicated than necessary? I did not see what OS you are running, but maybe I missed it somewhere. If it were me I would drop the RAID idea completely and get several 2TB and one 8TB hard drives and have one be a solid state for the OS, maybe Windows? I would use the extra drives with one for business/teaching stuff if necessary, one for just images and one general purpose for downloads, ebook conversions, ETC. The 8TB drive is for backups twice a week minimum of all the other drives. I would make the Windows (or whatever you have) recovery drive(s) on at least 2 large thumb drives. IDE and SSD drives are super cheap at the small computer businesses run here in the San Diego area by Vietnamese or Japanese Chinese families.

While you're at I would buy a new large size case with several cooling fans and the largest power supply possible so it will not have to strain and that can cause device burn out if the voltage drops too low for the internal circuits!

Opps, I read your post again where you mention Windows, sorry.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by John Rogers

It seems to me for a home desktop PC you are trying to make things more complicated than necessary? I did not see what OS you are running, but maybe I missed it somewhere. If it were me I would drop the RAID idea completely and get several 2TB and one 8TB hard drives and have one be a solid state for the OS, maybe Windows? I would use the extra drives with one for business/teaching stuff if necessary, one for just images and one general purpose for downloads, ebook conversions, ETC. The 8TB drive is for backups twice a week minimum of all the other drives. I would make the Windows (or whatever you have) recovery drive(s) on at least 2 large thumb drives. IDE and SSD drives are super cheap at the small computer businesses run here in the San Diego area by Vietnamese or Japanese Chinese families.

While you're at I would buy a new large size case with several cooling fans and the largest power supply possible so it will not have to strain and that can cause device burn out if the voltage drops too low for the internal circuits!

This is my Mother-in-law's computer. It is running Win 10 home. She is as computer literate as most 88 year old ladies, not very. She HATES trying to do much more than writhing an email and saving a backup of her phone, and simple tasks.

I just wanted a stable system the will last with no data loss. The mirror RAID made the most sense. She will never run a backup unless it is just automatic.

I was amazed the motherboard died like it did. In 30+ years of building computers, I have never seen the entire motherboard just fail.

Everything is back working, except the mirrored drives.

I guess the full backup, delete and build a new RAID, and then restore is the only choice to get her back to running.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by John Rogers

It seems to me for a home desktop PC you are trying to make things more complicated than necessary? I did not see what OS you are running, but maybe I missed it somewhere. If it were me I would drop the RAID idea completely and get several 2TB and one 8TB hard drives and have one be a solid state for the OS, maybe Windows? I would use the extra drives with one for business/teaching stuff if necessary, one for just images and one general purpose for downloads, ebook conversions, ETC. The 8TB drive is for backups twice a week minimum of all the other drives. I would make the Windows (or whatever you have) recovery drive(s) on at least 2 large thumb drives. IDE and SSD drives are super cheap at the small computer businesses run here in the San Diego area by Vietnamese or Japanese Chinese families.

While you're at I would buy a new large size case with several cooling fans and the largest power supply possible so it will not have to strain and that can cause device burn out if the voltage drops too low for the internal circuits!

I think the deal is that with a mirrored setup, a drive can fail and no data is lost, which isn't a bad idea, because drives do fail. I've had it happen several times.

[id10t]

Originally Posted by masraum

I think the deal is that with a mirrored setup, a drive can fail and no data is lost, which isn't a bad idea, because drives do fail. I've had it happen several times.

Yup, which is why I use 'em. When I do it I try to use drives from different makers or batches. You can also get some speed up on read operations when multiple programs are trying to read different areas of a disk. Writes are perhaps a hair slower than single disk.

I also do software RAID. When the OS disk for a debian apt mirror I maintain died I was able to move the RAID drives to a new machine, reboot the existing OS, set up the mdadm.conf file, reboot,and the data was accessible and intact.

[John Rogers]

Thanks for the info. With Windows 10 you can setup auto backups either full or incremental. You can setup so if she gets pictures or movies of the grand and great grand kids they can auto save to their own drive. You can set timers so YouTube movies start automatically playing any music she might like so she'll have to do very little.

Since she is elderly, I would invest in a hi end gammer type of video card and a 32 inch flat screen TV like this "Sceptre 32" Class FHD (1080P) LED TV (X325BV-FSR)" at Walmart for $118 and she'll want to do more than she does now!

[nota]

how do you tell a HD to be the one that
''the extra drives with one for business/teaching stuff if necessary, one for just images and one general purpose for downloads, ebook conversions, ETC. ''

my box is w10 home with 3 HD 1 t 2 t and a small SSd

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by John Rogers

Thanks for the info. With Windows 10 you can setup auto backups either full or incremental. You can setup so if she gets pictures or movies of the grand and great grand kids they can auto save to their own drive. You can set timers so YouTube movies start automatically playing any music she might like so she'll have to do very little.

Since she is elderly, I would invest in a hi end gammer type of video card and a 32 inch flat screen TV like this "Sceptre 32" Class FHD (1080P) LED TV (X325BV-FSR)" at Walmart for $118 and she'll want to do more than she does now!

All of that is a great idea. BUT, she never listens to music. Even in the car, by herself, she has never turned on her stereo. Ever.

She has an iPad, and uses it for most of her texting and email. She used the computer about one per week, to write a long email, or a letter, and to do QuickBooks and balance her checking account. No videos, or games. She has a little 15 inch monitor and 1024x678 or some silly low res setting and it is enough.

My goal was to make her a computer that did not crash and lose data. So far the data is safe, I just need to get it back to a mirrored setup.

[GH85Carrera]

And just for the nerds that care at all. I whipped it. Whupped it good.

I was just a total chicken about risking the data. I had the extra 1TB drive in hand, so:

First I booted from a CD that has a full backup program (Acroness) and did a full backup of the boot drive to an external hard drive I have. Then shut down the computer, and unplugged the boot drive and set it aside. That was my 100% rock solid backup. I then rebooted to the Intel BIOS and deleted the old raid, and then built a new mirrored drive from the two 1TB drives. And sure enough, as expected, that deleted all data. I rebooted from the CD, and did a full restore of the system to the new RAID and abracadabra the system is back on two mirrored drives.

I will just let the system run and make sure it is stable, and then reformat the old boot drive and have a spare drive again.

It took two extra hard drives and a backup program but all data going back to 2001 and before is intact, and the MIL will be happy all is back to as it was, and she does not have to do anything different.

[MysticLlama]

That seems way more complicated than getting a tiny Intel NUC with a single SSD for a few hundred bucks, copying the files from the old drive via USB, getting an Office 365 license for $70 a year, a few clicks to set OneDrive to sync Docs/Pictures/Desktop, etc. and calling it good.

(doesn't help you now, but for others that may read this and want an idea)