SATA RAID-5

[Scarecrow Man]

A disk read error has occurred.

Press ctrl+alt+del to restart

This computer is set up with 4 600GB SATA HD's in RAID-5 (don't ask why, I think it's not needed, but that is the way it was done) and it was working for almost 6 months no problem.

I was called by a friend to take a look, and when I got there he said he shut it down one night, came in the next morning to use it and this is the error he gets.

This happens before windows begins loading, and after the promise card bios loads the RAID configuration. The RAID is operational and active, and all disks are loading correctly.

I assume this is a windows error because the RAID controller is loading properly, and reporting no errors.

I booted into the recovery console and tried chkdsk, fixboot, fixmbr, as well as my own user guide on recovering a crashed system, but nothing seemed to work.

I am starting to think this is a hardware related issue, but I have no way of testing the RAID or drives in any other computers.

Does anyone have any ideas?

[spikeychris]

Does the system file in eventvwr not flag up anything?

[Scarecrow Man]

If I could boot Windows to see the event viewer, that would be the first thing I would check ;)

I was able to boot into a PE (Pre-installed environment) and see the files, so this is not a hardware issue. I may be using this PE to backup all files via network and format the drives.

[spikeychris]

ahh sorry - I have just re - read that Windows isnt loading. As you will know raid works lovely...until it doesnt. I know of one solution - it always works as well.

Open the back of the machine - turn the machine on - wait to see if it boots - if it doesnt release one of the retaining screws...then hit the drives as hard as you can with a hammer. Always works.