Greg,
I would be like to answer. Fact is I do not know what my rebuild rate is. Old records I have for 2004 show that a rebuild took about 5hrs and change for about 23GB.

[Obs#1]
ATM, I think I now see a complete meltdown. While the bios level SMOR shows me that the 2 old drives are "optimal" and that the new Quantum drive is also "optimal", the bios SMOR command Rebuild does not seem to do anything. (yes, thinking bad A-3200S controller!)

[Obs#2]
The controller, 3200S, does not seem to add the new drive to the current array. Perhaps because it reads the new drive as 'smaller' than the remaining 2 drives of the old array. When Post gets to the I20 portion (raid), I now see what looks suspiciously like 2 separate arrays.............?

Controller: 0xFA000000 IRQ7 3200S FW320P

Drive: 0 (0,5,0) QuantumAtlas10k3_18_SCA  fw=120P
c:2213 h:255 s:63  16.96GB

Drive: 1 (0,6,0) Adaptec COSMO (the name I assigned to the array!) fw=320P
c:4462 h:255 s:63  34.18GB {this equates to the 2x IBM 18.4GB old drives}

If I let POST complete, I now get the black screen w/blinking cursor and msg: Operating System not found. {I read this to confirm that NO Rebuild has taken place in the past 22hrs! And/or the 3200S is truly dead!}

[Obs#3]
I have tried to do a Repair W2KServer install 3 times now. Each fails indicating Repair can not find a hard drive/volume to use.
>>>I accept this as I may be Toast; as you suggested before! No harm, no foul.

[Obs#4]
I have been to the Repair Console. I have tried both FixBoot and FixMbr. While both seem to work and may be trying to do something, I see no improvement. Suspect this is because the array is still not whole/back together?

I am now ready to just spend Saturday afternoon putting my original U160 cable back in, and, using Create to start all over at square one............. :)
unless there may some last test to try.........?

[Obs#5]
......I do have enough new Quantum drives to just replace all the drives and just try and Create/Build a new array to prove this 3200S actually can do this task. If not, it is clear that the 3200S is indeed Toast!

And then, I can lick my wounds, and, plan for a new server case, SATA controller, and, cheaper drives............. :)
Is this a good test?  Time is not an issue; I have lots of time! LOL!

I have confirmed which "data" I will loose. Bummer, but not life-threatening.
Thank you,
Duncan

At 00:49 10/04/2008 -0500, you wrote:
What's your rebuild rate? Most cards I've seen default to 20%, which will
take about 40 billion years to complete.

Even at 80% rebuild rate, my Areca 12x500GB RAID6 array takes about 8 or 9
hours to complete a rebuild. However, during the rebuild, you should be able
to use the drive as normal.

Greg

> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware-
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of DHSinclair
> Sent: Friday, October 03, 2008 7:34 PM
> To: Hardware Group
> Subject: [H] Server died again #5
>
> New drives in hand. One installed in the "failed" position.
> Server booted and "held" at the bios prompt (ctrl+A) for the raid
> array.
> All 3 drives NOW read "optimal."
> In bios, I gave the RAID REBUID command. (at ~1400hrs, my time).
>
> It is now ~2020 my time. All I have witnessed (seen, heard) since is
> that the Activity LEDs (yellow) of all three drives of the RAID array
> blink ON
> every ~10 seconds. It is just a 'blink.'
> I do accept that my raid card only has 32MB of SODIMM RAM. But
> still......
>
> Greg, you may just win this hand!  OK, if I leave this machine alone
> all
> night,
> will I have coffee in the AM with a re-built array, maybe?
>
> I can accept even a RAID controller that is toast! (if so, the next
> question is:
> does anyone have a cheap A-3200S for sale!!!!) LOL!
>
> Sometimes, this hobby is just way too much fun! Yagotztaluvitsometimes!
>
> Pull no punches here, please. I can always just start over.
> I still have the bios-level command of CREATE............ :)
> Thank you,
> Duncan

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