Raid array in trouble?

I have a stripped RAID array for my SSD's and every now and again the RAID controller makes a high-pitched noise and promptly kills my computer.

The computer then tries to reboot and the RAID array registers as disabled.

Another reboot and all is fine for the next couple of days (about 9-ish days between this one and the last one).

Any ideas?

Notes

This is my first time setting up a raid and first time using ssd's
OS is win7 64-bit
rest of the pc is 4 gb ddr3, i3 @ 4ghz, 1gb 4870 ATI gfx.
Raid Controller is Highpoint - Rocketraid 620

Stuart Blackler

Posted 2011-09-13T20:28:36.710

Reputation: 125

2There are two possibilities that spring immediately to mind: Your RAID controller doesn't like something it's seeing and the "high pitched noise" is an alarm (check the controller logs and see what they say), or the controller itself is flaky and should be replaced. – voretaq7 – 2011-09-13T20:34:25.443

1Stating which RAID controller you are using would be quite helpful. – Massimo – 2011-09-13T20:35:56.073

@massimo, voretaq7 - Added information. Is the controller logs in event viewer as normal? or somewhere else? – Stuart Blackler – 2011-09-13T21:24:41.440

Answers

Don't use striping with SSDs. It won't help performance (the disks are in this case already as fast individual as they are together, because there are no seek times), and you're asking for trouble because as soon as either disk fails, you lose all the data stored on both.

Joel Coehoorn

Posted 2011-09-13T20:28:36.710

Reputation: 26 787

I get the fact that the data maybe lost (so the important stuff is on a backup drive, non-ssd). Any benchmarks you've seen/done to back the rest of your answer up :) – Stuart Blackler – 2011-09-13T21:31:06.640

I agree. Although SSDs in hardware RAID 0 can have improved sequential read/write speeds, TRIM is most likely not supported. This will hurt random read/write performance in the long run. – sblair – 2011-09-13T23:01:23.327

Going to rebuild minus the raid and controller. I would still like to see a benchmark if you know of any – Stuart Blackler – 2011-09-15T13:24:39.323

Google "Highpoint - Rocketraid 620". One poster/review on newegg mentions his experience with the card (drops arrays and screams at you with it's alarm).

Fred

Posted 2011-09-13T20:28:36.710

Reputation: 1