[dba-Tech] RAID 5 repair

John Bartow john at winhaven.net
Thu Apr 28 10:42:09 CDT 2011


Wouldn't be an attorney by chance? I have an office suite with attorneys and
a CPA. You'd think the CPA would be the cheap one but no, she is the one
that understands 
The importance of having quality equipment (and of course the write-off she
can take for it). The attorneys are all so tight they must have squeaking
contests after hours. I once asked of the legal aides as to whether or not
they teach business management in Law school and she laughed out loud and
said "no way!"

BTW, there are free tools available that fix the sort of registry problems
caused by infections. Bing for ComboFix.

-----Original Message-----
From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Steve Erbach
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2011 8:35 AM
To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] RAID 5 repair

Jim,

>> Once you are ready to start just inform the owner of the requirements 
>> and
the estimated costs and ask for the keys. He will either say just go ahead
or say no. <<

Heh!  I've been working with this guy since '91 or '92.  That's why I
facetiously asked in my first message about slapping some sense into his
head.  He waits on EVERYTHING.  In all the time I've known him he has NEVER
considered buying even semi-adequate backup for his servers.
 His "backup" consists of a weekly XCOPY of the contents of his network data
drive to one of the workstations on the network.  That's it.

So getting him to spend $30 or $40 to replace a RAID drive?  Hardly seems
worth it, don't you think?  My God!  I had to virtually beg him to spend $21
on PC Tools Registry Mechanic (which I swear by) to help fix some registry
issues on an infected workstation...and he only did it because I promised to
reimburse him if it didn't fix the issue. (It didn't, by the way, so I
reimbursed him.  Had to find something on-line, a REG file that
re-established the EXE file association on an XP PC that had been attacked.)

Anyway, I feel like buying the drives myself and hiding the charge in my
next invoice just so he doesn't have to take the effort to buy the drives
himself. I suggested that he purchase four right away and then swap them
into the array one by one over successive weekends.  He knows all this...but
he still dithers about spending maybe $120 for four drives.  Gad!

Thank you, Jim.

Steve Erbach
Neenah, WI

On Wed, Apr 27, 2011 at 8:22 PM, Jim Lawrence <accessd at shaw.ca> wrote:
> Most RAIDS have a default process keystroke combination during the 
> bootup sequence like <Ctrl-A>. This either accesses the motherboard 
> ROM or the ROM on the RAID controller. From there it should be a 
> simply selection menu to choose the newly installed drive and run the
format and striping process.
>
> Before you do anything check the web for any oddities or info you need 
> to know on the drives and RAID controller...some have issues that 
> should be addressed like new firm upgrades, incompatibility issues and 
> configuration cautions etc. Some of the older drive sizes and 
> configurations like a type of SCSI or IDE are hard to find today.
>
> Once you have found the right combination and the appropriate 
> equipment note the process times needed to synchronize a new added 
> drive. Sometimes the process can take as much as 12 hours so be aware 
> that the weekend would be the best time to start such a process as in 
> the worse case scenario there is still time to recover from a crashed
drive or something like that.
>
> Once you are ready to start just inform the owner of the requirements 
> and the estimated costs and ask for the keys. He will either say just 
> go ahead or say no.
>
> Also check with Drew as he appears to have had a fair bit of recent 
> experience with setting up a RAID 5 system.
>
> Jim
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
> [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Steve 
> Erbach
> Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2011 3:51 PM
> To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
> Subject: [dba-Tech] RAID 5 repair
>
> Dear Group,
>
> My client that I'm having trouble with the VPN/Remote Desktop also has 
> a dead RAID 5 drive.  It's a four drive array and the three remaining 
> drives are doing what they're supposed to be doing.  I've given drive 
> replacement info to my client (the drives are CHEAP) but he hasn't 
> bought any yet.
>
> My question is (besides how do I slap some sense into his thick
> head!): is there any preparation I need to do with the drive before I 
> slot it in and allow the RAID controller to re-synch the drive array?
> That is, format it or something?  Or does the RAID controller take 
> care of that after I've installed the new drive?
>
> It's an HP server that's about 4-5 years old using drives like the
> following:
>
> COMPAQ BF03664664
> (http://www.serversupply.com/HARD%20DRIVES%20W-TRAY/ULTRA160-SCSI/36GB
> -15000
> RPM/HP-COMPAQ/BF03664664.htm)
>
> Any thoughts or advice? Thanks.
>
> Regards,
>
> Steve Erbach

_______________________________________________
dba-Tech mailing list
dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com
http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech
Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com





More information about the dba-Tech mailing list