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I am having an intermittent problem with my computer where programs start freezing up. What generally happens is that certain programs stop responding entirely, and are impossible to kill via the task manager (almost always iTunes and my backup program). Eventually, I'm forced to reboot. Inevitably, when I reboot, my RAID 1 array goes into a verification scan, finding and repairing errors along the way.
Because the programs that lock up are those that read large parts of the disk and the RAID repair after reboot, I'm inclined to think that one of the drives in the array has errors that develop slowly over time.
Any ideas as to how I might diagnose which drive and whether I need to just replace the drive entirely? Could it be the RAID card instead? Has anyone seen similar problems with a RAID array and iTunes locking up?
EDIT: The raid controller is an Intel ICH8R/ICH9R/ICH10R/DO SATA RAID Controller. I don't think that's the product name, but it's all the info I can glean from the device manager.
Update Since I asked this question, I stopped using the RAID 1 array and upgraded to a new, single drive. I still see the same sort of degradation after a couple weeks of uptime, but now when I reboot, instead of rebuilding the array, the OS forces a check-disk, where it often finds a couple of errors, fixes them with no problem, and then continues booting.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
2Run a short SMART self-test in the BIOS configuration. – Hello71 – 2011-04-26T21:01:28.110
@Hello71 I'll give that a try when I get home tonight. – tghw – 2011-04-26T21:22:26.983
@tghw - When you are 'forced to reboot', how are you rebooting? Does the disk check happen when you do a normal, planned reboot? When things start locking up, is the CPU showing busy in Task Manager? Does your mouse pointer lock up? – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2011-04-26T23:56:47.740
@techie007 I reboot from the start menu, but it never finishes "Logging off" windows, and I have to hard reboot. CPU(s) are not pegged, mouse is active, it's just that a few applications get locked up, and working with the file system gets a lot slower. – tghw – 2011-04-27T12:20:31.433
@tghw - Do you have this shutdown issue during a normal, planned reboot as well? If so, does it reboot properly out of safe mode? – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2011-04-27T12:42:05.553
@techie007 Planned reboots, before it starts acting up, go fine. – tghw – 2011-04-27T15:10:30.803
What RAID controller are you using? – Brian Knoblauch – 2009-10-29T19:43:41.190
Added to the question. – tghw – 2009-11-03T19:35:50.877