[Denisejm]

Hi,

 

I have a HighPoint RocketRAID 2320 v 1.04 PCI Express x8 controller card.  Lately, it's been working on and off.  Sometimes the drives will show up under My Computer and other times they don't.  This is what's been going on with it and the things I've done:

 

I disconnected all the hard drives connected to it and added one back at a time and they worked for a few days and then one morning when I turned my pc on, they weren't recognized by My Computer again.  This has happened several times.  Another day they were there again and a few days later, they weren't again.  I did a ChkDsk on all the hard drives and no problems were found.  I bought new data cables and swapped them out, connecting one drive at a time and, again they all showed up under My Computer for a few days and then stopped.  I unplugged then reseated the controller card, making sure it was firmly seated and reconnected the hard drives one at a time again.  They showed up under My Computer for a few days and then stopped again.

 

I usually have 5 hard drives connected to my motherboard and 7 connected to the controller card.  The hard drives connected to my motherboard always showed up under My Computer.   I have now disconnected all hard drives except my C/D drive.

 

Could the adapter card be failing?

 

I ran Speccy.

 

http://speccy.pirifo...jureKUW56Zz4xJr

 

Does anybody have any thoughts?

 

 

 

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It might be your primary hard drive.  Speccy shows several reallocated sectors and a high UltraDMA CRC Error count.  The drive is very old so it's probably getting near its end of life.  If you can't afford to clone it to a new drive then at least do a disk check:

 

1. Double-click My Computer, and then right-click the hard disk that you want to check. C:
2. Click Properties, and then click Tools.
3. Under Error-checking, click Check Now. A dialog box that shows the Check disk options is displayed,
4. Check both boxes and then click Start.
You will receive the following message:
The disk check could not be performed because the disk check utility needs exclusive access to some Windows files on the disk. These files can be accessed by restarting Windows. Do you want to schedule the disk check to occur the next time you restart the computer?
Click Yes to schedule the disk check, but don't restart yet.

Start, Run, eventvwr.msc, OK to bring up the Event Viewer.  Right click on System and Clear All Events, No (we don't want to save the old log), OK. Repeat for Application.

Reboot.

The disk check will run and will probably take an hour or more to finish.




1. Please download the Event Viewer Tool by Vino Rosso
http://images.malwar...om/vino/VEW.exe
and save it to your Desktop:
2. Double-click VEW.exe
3. Under 'Select log to query', select:

* System
4. Under 'Select type to list', select:
* Error
* Warning


Then use the 'Number of events' as follows:


1. Click the radio button for 'Number of events'
Type 20 in the 1 to 20 box
Then click the Run button.
Notepad will open with the output log.


Please post the Output log in your next reply then repeat but select Application. (Each time you run VEW it overwrites the log so copy the first one to a Reply or rename it before running it a second time.)

 

Also XP does not automatically defrag so if you haven't done that recently it would be wise.  That might move the driver software to a better spot on the disk and will certainly speed up things.

[RKinner]

It might be your primary hard drive.  Speccy shows several reallocated sectors and a high UltraDMA CRC Error count.  The drive is very old so it's probably getting near its end of life.  If you can't afford to clone it to a new drive then at least do a disk check:

 

1. Double-click My Computer, and then right-click the hard disk that you want to check. C:
2. Click Properties, and then click Tools.
3. Under Error-checking, click Check Now. A dialog box that shows the Check disk options is displayed,
4. Check both boxes and then click Start.
You will receive the following message:
The disk check could not be performed because the disk check utility needs exclusive access to some Windows files on the disk. These files can be accessed by restarting Windows. Do you want to schedule the disk check to occur the next time you restart the computer?
Click Yes to schedule the disk check, but don't restart yet.

Start, Run, eventvwr.msc, OK to bring up the Event Viewer.  Right click on System and Clear All Events, No (we don't want to save the old log), OK. Repeat for Application.

Reboot.

The disk check will run and will probably take an hour or more to finish.




1. Please download the Event Viewer Tool by Vino Rosso
http://images.malwar...om/vino/VEW.exe
and save it to your Desktop:
2. Double-click VEW.exe
3. Under 'Select log to query', select:

* System
4. Under 'Select type to list', select:
* Error
* Warning


Then use the 'Number of events' as follows:


1. Click the radio button for 'Number of events'
Type 20 in the 1 to 20 box
Then click the Run button.
Notepad will open with the output log.


Please post the Output log in your next reply then repeat but select Application. (Each time you run VEW it overwrites the log so copy the first one to a Reply or rename it before running it a second time.)

 

Also XP does not automatically defrag so if you haven't done that recently it would be wise.  That might move the driver software to a better spot on the disk and will certainly speed up things.

[Denisejm]

Hi RKinner.  Thanks very much for responding.

 

I ran eventvwr.msc and cleared all events under System and Application.

 

I ran chkdsk.  When my pc rebooted, a quick message appeared that said that the drive was "clean."  It never said during the chkdsk that it found or was fixing any errors.

 

I ran VEW.exe. 

* System * Error * Warning    20 in the 1 to 20 box

 

The notepad that opened said:

 

Vino's Event Viewer v01c run on Windows 2003 in English
Report run at 16/09/2018 11:23:20 AM

Note: All dates below are in the format dd/mm/yyyy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'System' Log - error Type
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'System' Log - warning Type
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

I then ran VEW.exe with

* Application * Error * Warning    20 in the 1 to 20 box

 

The notepad that opened said:

 

 

Vino's Event Viewer v01c run on Windows 2003 in English
Report run at 16/09/2018 11:24:43 AM

Note: All dates below are in the format dd/mm/yyyy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'Application' Log - error Type
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'Application' Log - warning Type
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 

 

I run CCleaner every day before I turn my pc off and I defrag my C drive once or twice a month.

 

[RKinner]

Odd about the disk check.  It should have run even if the drive was not dirty.  Advice from Answer here:

https://superuser.co...volume-is-clean

is to try again.

[Denisejm]

The chkdsk did run.  I have a small C drive, only about 35G, as I have a D partition on the hard disk.  The chkdsk ran about 5 steps and took about 1/2 hr.  I was just lucky enough to catch the end of it and saw that it said that it was "clean."  I'll redo all the steps that you mentioned in Post #2 and let you know how it went, and I'll post the VEW logs again, too.

[Denisejm]

I followed the steps outline in Post #2. 

 

The 5 steps it took were Verifying 1. files 2. indexes, 3. security descriptors, USN journal, 4. file data, 5. free space.

When the chkdsk finished, it again said "The volume is clean."

 

 

Vino's Event Viewer v01c run on Windows 2003 in English
Report run at 16/09/2018 7:41:32 PM

Note: All dates below are in the format dd/mm/yyyy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'System' Log - error Type
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'System' Log - warning Type
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

 

Vino's Event Viewer v01c run on Windows 2003 in English
Report run at 16/09/2018 7:43:10 PM

Note: All dates below are in the format dd/mm/yyyy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'Application' Log - error Type
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'Application' Log - warning Type
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


 

[RKinner]

If your C is that small you may store your driver files on the D so run the checkdisk on it too.

[Denisejm]

I've backed up C and moved everything off D in case I need to replace the hard drive.  Something's going on with the pc because it crashed 3 times this afternoon even though all but the C/D drive have been disconnected.  No hard drives are connected to the adapter card.  This is unusual.  The last time this happened earlier this year, I had to replace my RAM.  Before that, it just about never crashed and it hasn't since then until today.   It hasn't crashed for about 8 hours now.

 

Do you think the C/D hard drive is causing the problem with the crashes and the hard drives connected to the adapter card not being recognized by My Computer or could it be that the adapter card that is causing the problem?

[RKinner]

You can disconnect the DVD to make sure it's not at fault.  Can you run a new Speccy log.  Perhaps the S.M.A.R.T will show some degradation?

 

When it crashes is there a blue screen or does it just stop working?  Any errors show up in VEW?

[Denisejm]

I'm not sure what you mean by "disconnect the DVD" or S.M.A.R.T.  Do you want me to disconnect the DVD drive?  If you mean the D drive, it's just a partition on the same hard drive as my C drive and it's empty now.  What's S.M.A.R.T. and how do I run it?

 

When it crashed, it turned off, no blue screen, and then it rebooted itself right away.  It didn't stay off.

 

I ran speccy again.

 

http://speccy.pirifo...SnUK4vgjmICeHTS

[RKinner]

Yes the DVD Drive is what you should disconnect if you think it might be causing a problem.

 

Even if the D: is now empty you should still run a disk check on it.

 

The S.M.A.R.T. information is in the Storage section of Speccy. (about 5/6 of the way down if you look at the link you gave me)    It tells you a lot about the condition of the hard drive.  I thought perhaps that one of the reallocation attributes might have changed but no luck.

 

I would download and run Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows on your drive.  The Extended or Long test will tell you if there are any problems with the drive.  It says it still works on XP.
 

 

EXTENDED TEST:
Typically, the Extended Test runs anywhere from 30 minutes to many hours to test
one drive.  Larger drives take longer to test; system performance also affects
the test time.  If a bad sector is detected, this test may stop responding for a
few minutes before it continues.  By default, the Extended Test is non-destructive.
This test is destructive only when you select the repair option after bad sectors
are detected.

The Extended Test scans the entire disk media from LBA #0 to the maximum LBA.  If
a bad sector is detected, you are prompted to repair it.  If you choose to repair
the sector, WinDlg writes zeroes to the bad sector; this causes the drive firmware
to relocate the bad sector and return the sector to a defect-free state.
 

 

 

 

https://support.wdc....i#WD_softwarepc

 

It's a zip file so you have to save it then right click and Extract All, Extract before you can run it.  Make sure you have a good Restore Point just in case it finds a bad sector that has something important on it.

[Denisejm]

I don't think there's anything wrong with my DVD drive.  I only mentioned it because you did.

 

I ran Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows on the hard drive.  It appears to have passed.  I don't know if it found or fixed any bad sectors, it didn't say.

 

Test Option: EXTENDED TEST Model Number: WDC WD1001FALS-00J7B0 Unit Serial Number: WD-*********** Firmware Number: 05.00K05 Capacity: 1000.20 GB SMART Status: PASS Test Result: PASS Test Time: 16:10:36, September 17, 2018

 

 

Is there any test that can be performed to check the adapter card?

[RKinner]

Look at the reallocation attributes in the Storage section of Speccy and see if anything changed.

 

Make sure you have the latest version of the driver for your adapter card.  It appears to be EOL so the maker doesn't bother with it on their site but I did find one at:

 

https://drivers.soft...7702-WHQL.shtml

 

I don't know what version you have or if this is newer.

 

 

Have you shut it down, pulled the card and cleaned the contacts with alcohol?  Can you move it to another slot?

[Denisejm]

The allocation size was 931Gb both before and after I ran Data Lifeguard Diagnostic test.

 

I don't know what driver I have for the controller card.  I went into Device Manager and was able to update the driver for "Highpoint RCM Device" but there was no updated driver for "RocketRaid 2320 SATA Controller" available.  I put the disk that I got with the controller card into my DVD drive but it doesn't list the version of the driver.  It just says <RR232x>.

 

Even though I have 12 hard drives connected, I don't use RAID.  I set it up as JBOD.  I downloaded the Highpoint RocketRaid 2020 Driver 1.7.7.702 that you gave me the link for but if I installed it, would it affect the JBOD configuration?

 

I did pull the adapter card and then reseated it last week but I didn't clean the contacts.  I just made sure that it was firmly/completely connected. 

 

I have no other slots available on my motherboard for the adapter card.

[RKinner]

No I meant the Attribute Reallocation entries:

 

 

05

Attribute name: 

Reallocated Sectors Count

Real value: 

5

Current: 

199

Worst: 

199

Threshold: 

140

Raw Value: 

0000000005

Status: 

Good

 

...

 

C4

Attribute name: 

Reallocation Event Count

Real value: 

1

Current: 

199

Worst: 

199

Threshold: 

0

Raw Value: 

0000000001

Status: 

Good

 

 

 

 

I would think the adapter would be under IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers in Device Manager.  If you right click on it and select Properties then Drivers you should see the version number of the driver.  If not there then click on the Driver Details and look there.