Multiple SATA HDs

[Hitman]

Here is a RAID Guide I put together some time ago
RAID Guide

[RobH2]

I too have enjoyed the ease of setting up multiple SATA drives. I have a small problem though. At boot S.M.A.R.T. has informed me that my secondary slave is BAD. I have 6 identical SATA drives and the connectors on the MB are only marked 1-6. How do I tell which drive is being called BAD? Disk Manager in Windows XP-Pro shows no problems.

[Reloadron]

How are the drives configured? Meaning are they just drives or are they configured in any sort of RAID arrays? Where is the Operating System?

How is the system running overall? Do all the drives currently show up and seem to work?

Have you looked at the drives in the BIOS? The BIOS should ID the drive as a secondary slave and let you know which port it is on?

Depending on drive configuration have you tried disconnecting any drives and booting? That method could point to a system of elimination.

Welcome to the HL forums!

Ron

[RobH2]

No RAID. I know I can just start unpluging drives and seeing what happens. I was was just hopeing that there was another way to decipher which SATA drive was witch.

Thanks for your comments and welcome...

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by RobH2

No RAID. I know I can just start unpluging drives and seeing what happens. I was was just hopeing that there was another way to decipher which SATA drive was witch.

Thanks for your comments and welcome...

I believe the secondary slave should be the 4th sata port. Normally written on the board as SATA 4 or something such as that.

Some BIOS still use that way to name SATA drives when they are in IDE compatibility mode.
-Primary
Master SATA port 1
Slave 2
-Secondary
Master 3
Slave 4

and so on for as many SATA ports as available.

[halutzparilla]

i was wondering the same thing, its been three nights now when the computer is in idle - one or two or all of my SATA HDD are making this wierd beep/click sound which i have no idea what means. some says it could be a bad indication of dying hdd, but it stops making the same noise when i start using the computer. is there a way to find which one of the HDD is the bad one without going under the hood of the PC.

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by halutzparilla

i was wondering the same thing, its been three nights now when the computer is in idle - one or two or all of my SATA HDD are making this wierd beep/click sound which i have no idea what means. some says it could be a bad indication of dying hdd, but it stops making the same noise when i start using the computer. is there a way to find which one of the HDD is the bad one without going under the hood of the PC.

You could try using one of the drives more than the others to see if it makes more sound, but the easiest way really seems like unplugging all but one, then seeing if you still hear it and then plug another drive and so on.

[halutzparilla]

PB, i just did individually took off the plug and plug it again one by one, it seems the noise is coming from reading each drive, with my TJ09 case all HDD was sideways hence all disk was making noise. its just been more noticeable lately, i installed a fan for the HDD and re-routed all cables, plus mounting it in different order in the HDD cage... it seems that its just heating up and having hard time reading the drives plus i'm just being a worrywart i'm going to buy me a 1T HDD for backup just in case and to upgrade for the new year......

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by halutzparilla

PB, i just did individually took off the plug and plug it again one by one, it seems the noise is coming from reading each drive, with my TJ09 case all HDD was sideways hence all disk was making noise. its just been more noticeable lately, i installed a fan for the HDD and re-routed all cables, plus mounting it in different order in the HDD cage... it seems that its just heating up and having hard time reading the drives plus i'm just being a worrywart i'm going to buy me a 1T HDD for backup just in case and to upgrade for the new year......

It's always a bit hard to judge for these things unless you have a lot of experience with failed/failing drives. Sometimes you mind plays tricks on you. :P

[halutzparilla]

Originally Posted by polobunny

It's always a bit hard to judge for these things unless you have a lot of experience with failed/failing drives. Sometimes you mind plays tricks on you. :P

don't worry my mind is not playing tricks on me, i ask my wife if she hear the noise of beep-click highpitch type of noise from the computer and yes it does do that, and it lessen when it got the fan hooked-up...