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bojangles · Aug 31, 2009, 05:06 PM

I just found this thread, but the o.p. obviously never found a solution to his problem—and now I’m having the same one. Here’s the stats:

B&W Power Mac G3
Mac OS X v.10.3.9
two-disk, 1.5TB mirrored RAID (via PCI SATA card)

Disk Utility is reporting the RAID as degraded, but both disks show up just fine. They’re just sitting there in Disk Utility, mocking me with their gray “Degraded” stamp next to each of them.

The RAID still appears on the desktop, so I don’t know if perhaps one of them isn’t really there… but then why would Disk Utility see it and think it’s fine?

Thanks for any help you can give.

reader50 · Aug 31, 2009, 05:14 PM

What disks are you using? 1.5 TB Western Digital Caviar Green WD15EADS?

bojangles · Aug 31, 2009, 07:54 PM

Good question. They’re Seagate ST31500341AS.

Thanks!

reader50 · Aug 31, 2009, 09:05 PM

Pull up the SMART results for each drive. You should be able to access that data from the RAID card's management utility (if the card handles the RAID), or from SmartReporter (if Disk Utility handles the RAID). Post the results here for us to look over. I'm thinking it may be flagged as degraded because one of the drives is throwing an unusually high number of errors.

As to why I asked about WD Caviar Greens ... those drives have a very rapid spindown, which often confuses RAID controllers into thinking a drive has failed. It would have explained your symptoms. Since you are using a different drive, that theory can be crossed off.

bojangles · Aug 31, 2009, 10:49 PM

Hey, reader50. Thanks again. Unfortunately, there’s no SMART Status listed; only RAID Status (which, of course, reads “Degraded,” for both the individual drives and the RAID itself. When I click the (i) Info button, it lists S.M.A.R.T. status as “Not Supported”. I also tried DiskWarrior, which gives a similar response (“This hard drive did not respond to requests for the built-in S.M.A.R.T. diagnostics information.”); and TechTool Pro, which doesn’t bother to list them in the SMART section. Perhaps its my RAID card that’s causing the limitation? (I previously had a 500GB RAID on this card, but I never had any reason to check the SMART status.)

As an aside, since this problem started, I also haven’t been able to see the RAID over the network. What’s even weirder is that, as of today, I can’t see its backup (nor the backup of the system disk) over the network, either—even though they’re all perfectly visible on the B&W’s desktop and have passed every test I’ve thrown at them (Disk Utility, TechTool Pro, and DiskWarrior).

Any other thoughts?

Thanks again!

reader50 · Aug 31, 2009, 11:31 PM

You need the management utility for the RAID card - that is where you can pull up the SMART data for any connected drive. Sometimes that is a web app built into the card or drivers, sometimes it is a separate utility. Check the card owners manual.

In the case of my Highpoint RocketRAID card, you go to https://localhost:7402/ to load the web-based utility. Without knowing what card you have, I can't say any more.

Can't say anything on your backups either, or your network, since you have not given any data on those. If you want us to figure out those problems, you'll need to describe your setup in greater detail.

bojangles · Sep 1, 2009, 09:05 AM

Well, it turns out the network issue was probably unrelated. I rebooted the B&W and all is visible again.

Still wondering about the RAID issue though. The card is a Sonnet, and while I can’t seem to find the model number, System Profiler identifies it as SeriTek/1S2 v. 5.2.5,04/24/07,10:18:20. I’ve taken an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” attitude with the firmware, but perhaps now might be a good time to update…?

Anyway, I really do appreciate your help. If you’ve got any more ideas, I’m listening!

reader50 · Sep 1, 2009, 03:03 PM

That's not a Sonnet. The SeriTek 1S2 is made by FirmTek.

SeriTek 1S2 Product Page ... Downloads Support Page

They don't seem to offer a download of the user manual, so you'll have to read your printed manual to find out how to load the card's management utility.

bojangles · 04:16 PM

Originally Posted by reader50

That's not a Sonnet. The SeriTek 1S2 is made by FirmTek.

Au contraire, my friend. I just cracked the case to confirm, and it’s right there on the side of the card: the big “Sonnet” logo, followed by “Tempo™ Serial-ATA.” (Why the hyphen? No clue, but it’s definitely a Sonnet.)

Thanks for the tip, though. I’ll contact FirmTek, too, and report back.

reader50 · Sep 1, 2009, 08:14 PM

It sounds like you don't have your SATA card manual.

Further research reveals it is a Sonnet Tempo SATA, which is made for them by FirmTek. Unfortunately, that page doesn't offer a download of the manual either. So once again, I can't look up how to access SMART values for drives attached to that card.

If you can't find out how to use the card's management utility, do you have access to a Mac with built-in SATA ports? You could plug the suspect drives in one at a time to check the SMART data.