1

I decided to try upgrading my graphics card driver today. I believe my previous version was 331.40 for my NVIDIA GeForce 580. I also have a GeForce 9800 for PhysX.

So I started about an hour ago and began by uninstalling NVIDIA PhysX, NVIDIA HD Audio Driver (restarted my computer), NVIDIA GeForce Experience, and finally the NVIDIA GeForce Driver.

I began the installation of 344.11 after the second restart, and everything went fine. When my computer booted up, GeForce Experience sent me a notification to install 344.11. I assumed that this meant it did not complete the installation, and that it needed to finish the installation. I started the installation, and when I restarted my computer, it told me I needed to run a System Restore.

I restarted my computer instead of choosing a System Restore, and received this error from my Intel Storage Manager:

rebuild failed

So I decided to run Display Driver Uninstaller 13.4.0.0. I have used DriverSweeper countless times before, and never encountered a problem with it.

Afterwards, I ran a System Restore on my computer going back to yesterday (thankfully), but when it finished, it gave me a message that the system restore could not be completed. Regardless, I had my graphics card driver installed back on my computer. I tried to rebuild my RAID array again and received the same message as above, followed by this:

reset volume to normal

I did not press Yes. I restarted my computer instead. My motherboard gave me the message:

DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

Now, my RAID array is on my data disks. My hard drive is installed on an SSD, so it makes no sense that I would receive this message.

I restart my computer again. The RAID array reports status Normal and both disks are green... but I didn't tell it to flag my array as normal? My computer has now booted up again with the graphics card driver intact, and I'm about to look into the damage. If anyone has any explanation to what might have caused all of this, any input is appreciated.

UPDATE 10/15: So on Monday night, around 10pm, I started running a Verify and Repair on my RAID array via the Intel interface. When I booted up my computer prior to 10pm, it said the RAID array was completely normal. Now what happened is the display turned off or the computer went to sleep, but then the computer deadlocked. As in, pressing Num Lock on my keyboard didn't turn the num lock light on and off.

So I restarted my computer after a while, and the verification was at 7% and continued running after boot... I guess while the I/O and display were deadlocked, the verification was still running. So based on this observation, I put my computer on high performance and told it to never turn the display off.

Now all I can see on my computer is my desktop background, my mouse locked on the far left-hand side of my monitors, with no desktop items and not start menu. And once again, no keyboard input is registered.

Giacomo1968
  • 58,727
NobleUplift
  • 1,665

3 Answers3

1

There are many possible reasons for this kind of problem, but one of the most likely is a failing disk. These kinds of low cost "soft" RAID systems are often quite poor at detecting faults.

I suggest downloading tools from the drive manufacturer to test the drives. You will need to disconnect them from the RAID array to do that, so ideally use a different computer to avoid changing your configuration. Most manufacturer's offer tools that let you run SMART tests of the drives. Run the extended test, which will read all parts of the disk to check for errors. It will take many hours to complete.

Edit: Your drive is failing, replace immediately. What you are seeing is the result of failed writes or the discovery of previously unknown read errors. The drive "recovers" by remapping the bad blocks, but the data is lost and it can sometimes stall/freeze the RAID controller.

You need to determine which drive is failing and replace it. I'd do a full backup of your data first. The longer you keep messing around trying to repair the RAID array the more likely you are lose everything.

1

There are three simple solutions to this problem:

Solution 1 - Rebuilding the RAID array

  1. Disconnect the failed drive.
  2. Add a new drive, preferably of the same make and model, but definitely of the same size.
  3. In the Intel Rapid Storage Technology window, there should be an option to add the new drive to the RAID array.

Solution 2 - Using the remaining RAID disk as a normal hard drive

  1. Go into the motherboard settings and disable the RAID controller.
  2. Boot up computer, if it asks to run a CHKDSK on the "new" drive, do it.
  3. If it doesn't ask you to run a CHKDSK on it, run one anyway. It will insert a few missing indexes, and voilà! (hopefully) your drive will work like normal.

Solution 3 - Moving data to a new RAID array

If you want to move your data to a new RAID array (it would have cost more money to buy a 1.5 TB than a 2 TB, so there was no way I was going to do a rebuild), do the following:

  1. Remove the orphaned RAID disk from your computer and boot it up. Turn your RAID controller back on, and then in the RAID controller create your new RAID array.
  2. Buy a 3.5" hard drive enclosure and install your old drive in it. You will not be able to use eSATA, because your RAID controller will still pick up your old drive as part of a failed array.
  3. SHIFT+Drag all your files from the old hard drive to the new RAID array, and your files will be on your new drive, metadata and all, just like before.

Tips:

  1. If NVIDIA GeForce Experience tells you to install the exact same graphics card driver that you just installed, don't do it..
  2. If given the chance to backup your data (I had a small window before I ran the Verify and Repair), do it.
  3. Never leave a deadlocked computer on. It's better to turn it off and risk the data loss from that than leaving it on, not knowing what it's doing to your data.
  4. SpinRite is only useful for failing hard drives, not problems with software RAID. Though it may help fix the other hard drive in my RAID array so that I can nuke it.
NobleUplift
  • 1,665
-2

If it works, the above advise is the most desirable path as it leads to the greatest chance of recovery. My own experience with marginal failing hardware and recovery attempts leads me to a different path. Once the rebuild of a RAID array is set in ERROR, the best you can do is place the marginal hard disk drive in a "recovery" computer as 2nd drive and copy the contents that you hope to recover. You might be able to recover more with clonezilla using expert mode and the recovery option.... It will not be a bootable windows C: drive. But you might just recover the files you need for your purposes.

Frank Fitzpatrick
  • 1